Outline
- The Thanksgiving for the Thessalonians (ch. 1)
The Defense of the Apostolic Actions and Absence (chs. 2-3)The Exhortations to the Thessalonians (4:1;5:22)The Concluding Prayer, Greetings and Benediction (5:23-28)
1 Thessalonians 1 NLT
1 This letter is from Paul, Silas, and
Timothy. We are writing to the church in Thessalonica, to you who belong to God
the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. May God give you grace and peace.
2 We always thank God for all of you
and pray for you constantly.
3 As we pray to our God and Father
about you, we think of your faithful work, your loving deeds, and the enduring
hope you have because of our Lord Jesus Christ.
4 We know, dear brothers and sisters,
that God loves you and has chosen you to be his own people.
5 For when we brought you the Good
News, it was not only with words but also with power, for the Holy Spirit gave
you full assurance that what we said was true. And you know of our concern for
you from the way we lived when we were with you.
6 So you received the message with joy
from the Holy Spirit in spite of the severe suffering it brought you. In this
way, you imitated both us and the Lord.
7 As a result, you have become an
example to all the believers in Greece—throughout both Macedonia and Achaia.
8 And now the word of the Lord is
ringing out from you to people everywhere, even beyond Macedonia and Achaia,
for wherever we go we find people telling us about your faith in God. We don’t
need to tell them about it,
9 for they keep talking about the
wonderful welcome you gave us and how you turned away from idols to serve the
living and true God.
10 And they speak of
how you are looking forward to the coming of God’s Son from heaven—Jesus, whom
God raised from the dead. He is the one who has rescued us from the terrors of
the coming judgment.
