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Book 52 1 Thessalonians 001:001 Paul, Silas, and Timothy: To the Church of the Thessalonians which is in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. May grace and peace be granted to you. 001:002 We continually give thanks to God because of you all, while we make mention of you in our prayers. 001:003 For we never fail to remember your works of faith and labours of love and your persistent and unwavering hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the presence of our God and Father; 001:004 knowing as we do, brethren, that you are beloved by God and that He has chosen you. 001:005 The Good News that we brought you did not come to you in words only, but also with power and with the Holy Spirit and with much certainty, for you know the sort of men we became among you, as examples for your sakes. 001:006 And you followed the pattern set you by us and by the Master, after you had received the Message amid severe persecution, and yet with the joy which the Holy Spirit gives, 001:007 so that you became a pattern to all the believers throughout Macedonia and Greece. 001:008 For it was not only from you that the Master's Message sounded forth throughout Macedonia and Greece; but everywhere your faith in God has become known, so that it is unnecessary for us to say anything about it. 001:009 For when others speak of us they report the reception we had from you, and how you turned from your idols to God, to be bondservants of the true and ever living God, 001:010 and to await the return from Heaven of His Son, whom He raised from among the dead even Jesus, our Deliverer from God's coming anger. 002:001 For you yourselves, brethren, know that our visit to you did not fail of its purpose. 002:002 But, as you will remember, after we had already met with suffering and outrage at Philippi, we summoned up boldness, by the help of our God, to tell you God's Good News amid much opposition. 002:003 For our preaching was not grounded on a delusion, nor prompted by mingled motives, nor was there fraud in it. 002:004 But as God tested and approved us before entrusting us with His Good News, so in what we say we are seeking not to please men but to please God, who tests and approves our motives. 002:005 For, as you are well aware, we have never used the language of flattery nor have we found pretexts for enriching ourselves God is our witness; 002:006 nor did we seek glory either from you or from any other mere men, although we might have stood on our dignity as Christ's Apostles. 002:007 On the contrary, in our relations to you we showed ourselves as gentle as a mother is when she tenderly nurses her own children. 002:008 Seeing that we were thus drawn affectionately towards you, it would have been a joy to us to have imparted to you not only God's Good News, but to have given our very lives also, because you had become very dear to us. 002:009 For you remember, brethren, our labour and toil: how, working night and day so as not to become a burden to any one of you, we came and proclaimed among you God's Good News. 002:010 You yourselves are witnesses and God is witness how holy and upright and blameless our dealings with you believers were. 002:011 For you know that we acted towards every one of you as a father does towards his own children, encouraging and cheering you, 002:012 and imploring you to live lives worthy of fellowship with God who is inviting you to share His own Kingship and glory. 002:013 And for this further reason we render unceasing thanks to God, that when you received God's Message from our lips, it was as no mere message from men that you embraced it, but as what it really is God's Message, which also does its work in the hearts of you who believe... Continue reading book >>
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