1 Thessalonians 1

{I,} Paul, {write this letter to you,} and Silas and Timothy {are with me}. {I send this letter} to {you,} the group of believers in the city of Thessalonica. God the Father has united you to himself and to the Lord Jesus the Messiah. {May God continue to be} kind to you and {make you} peaceful. \*

We pray for you persistently. {When we do,} we consistently thank God for all of you.

We thank our God and Father for what you do because you trust {in him}. {We thank him} for the way that you help people because you love {them}. {We thank him} for the way that you patiently endure because you confidently expect our Lord Jesus the Messiah {to come again}. \*

{We thank God because} we know that he chose you, fellow believers whom God loves.

{We know that God chose you,} because when we told you the good news, we did not just say words. Rather, the Holy Spirit also powerfully worked {through us}, and we were sure that the good news was true. In the same way, you remember how we acted to help you when we were with you. \*

As for you, you acted as we do and as the Lord {Jesus} did. Specifically, when you believed the good news, you suffered greatly, but the Holy Spirit caused you to rejoice.

Because {you acted in those ways}, all the believers in the provinces of Macedonia and Achaia want to act as you do. \*

In fact, many people {who live} in the provinces of Macedonia and Achaia have heard the message about the Lord {Jesus} because of you. Even more, people in very many places have heard about how you trust in God. As a result, we do not need to tell people anything {about what God has done for you}.

Indeed, those same people tell others about how well it went when we visited you. {They say that} you stopped caring about other gods {and began to focus on} God so that you could worship and obey him, the only real God.

Further, {they say that you focused on God} so that you could eagerly anticipate when God’s Son {will come back} from {where he is in} heaven. God made Jesus alive again, and Jesus is the one who will save us {who believe in him} at the time when God will punish people {for their sins}. \*