Chapter 1

¹Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy to the Thessalonian church in union with God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ; ²God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ bless you and give you peace.

³We always have to thank God for you, brothers, as it is right that we should, because your faith is growing so wonderfully and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing. ⁴As a result, we ourselves speak of you with pride in the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith in the face of all the persecutions and troubles you are having to endure. ⁵This is a proof of God’s justice in judging, and it is to prove you worthy of the Kingdom of God, for the sake of which you are suffering, ⁶since God considers it only just to repay with suffering those who are making you suffer ⁷and to give rest to you who are suffering and to us, when our Lord Jesus appears from heaven, with his mighty angels ⁸in a blaze of fire, and takes vengeance on the godless who will not listen to the good news of our Lord Jesus. ⁹They will be punished with eternal ruin and exclusion from the presence of the Lord and his glorious might, ¹⁰when on that Day he comes to be honored in his people, and wondered at in all who believe in him—because our testimony has been confirmed in you.

¹¹To this end we always pray for you too, asking our God to find you worthy of the call he has given you, and by his power to fulfil every desire you may have for goodness, and every effort of your faith, ¹²so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you and you in him, by the blessing of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.