The Daily Audio Bible

The Gospel comes to Thessalonica

1 Paul, Silvanus and Timothy, to the assembly of Thessalonians in God the father and the Lord Jesus, the Messiah. Grace to you and peace.

² We always give thanks to God for all of you, as we make mention of you in our prayers. ³ We constantly remember the accomplishment of your faith, the hard work of your love, and the patience of your hope in our Lord Jesus the Messiah, in the presence of God our father.

⁴ Dear family, beloved by God, we know that God has chosen you, ⁵ because our gospel didn’t come to you in word only, but in power, and in the holy spirit, and in great assurance. You know what sort of people we became for your sake, when we were among you.

The Thessalonians’ faith

⁶ And you learned how to copy us—and the Lord! When you received the word, you had a lot to suffer, but you also had the holy spirit’s joy. ⁷ As a result, you became a model for all the believers in both Macedonia and Achaea. ⁸ For the word of the Lord has resonated out from you, not only in Macedonia and Achaea; your faith in God has gone out to people everywhere. This means that we haven’t had to say anything. ⁹ They themselves tell the story of the kind of welcome we had from you, and how you turned to God from idols, to serve a living and true God, ¹⁰ and to wait for his son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who delivers us from the coming fury.

Paul’s ministry in Thessalonica

2 For you yourselves know, my dear family, that our visit to you didn’t turn out to be empty. ² On the contrary. We had already undergone awful things and been shamefully treated in Philippi, as you know; but we were open and exuberant in our God in declaring to you the gospel of God, despite a good deal of opposition.

³ When we make our appeal, you see, we are not deceiving people. We don’t have any impure motives; we aren’t playing some kind of trick. ⁴ Rather, we speak as people whom God has validated to be entrusted with the gospel; not with a view to pleasing people, but in order to please God, who validates our hearts.

⁵ For we never used flattering words, as you know. Nor were we saying things insincerely, as a cover-up for greed, as God is our witness. ⁶ We weren’t looking for recognition from anybody, either you or anyone else— ⁷ though we could have imposed on you, as the Messiah’s emissaries. But we were gentle among you, like a nurse taking care of her own children. ⁸ We were so devoted to you that we gladly intended to share with you not only the gospel of God but our own lives, because you became so dear to us.