The Early Church · c. AD 50–51
Chapter 15
Letters to Thessalonica
Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in all ways. The Lord be with you all.
For parents
The first letter tells the believers to keep away from sexual sin (1 Thessalonians 4:3–8). It says that the assemblies in Judea suffered from the Jews who killed the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and that wrath has come on them (2:14–16). The second letter tells of the Lord Jesus revealed from heaven in flaming fire, punishing those who don’t know God and those who don’t obey the Good News. They will pay the penalty of eternal destruction (2 Thessalonians 1:6–9). It also tells of a lawless one whom the Lord will kill (2:8).
, and wrote a letter to the of the , the believers in the city of Thessalonica. As the letter tells it, they had been parted from the Thessalonians for a short time. They had stayed behind in alone and sent Timothy to them, and Timothy had just now come back with good news of their faith and love.
“Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy,” it begins, “to the assembly of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord : Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
“We thank God always for all of you, and we mention you when we pray. We never stop remembering your work of faith, your labor of love, and the endurance of your hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, before our God and Father.
“Brothers and sisters loved by God, we know that you are chosen, and that our Good News came to you not only as words. It came with power too, in the , and with great certainty. You know what kind of men we showed ourselves to be among you, for your sake.
“You followed our example, and the Lord’s. You received the word in the middle of great suffering, with the joy of the Holy Spirit, and so you became an example to all who believe in and in .
“From you the word of the Lord has been made known in Macedonia and Achaia, and not only there: your faith toward God has gone out to every place, so that there is no need for us to say anything. People everywhere tell about us themselves: the kind of welcome we had from you, and how you turned to God from to serve a living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead: Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come.
“You yourselves know, brothers and sisters, that when we came to you, it was not for nothing. Before that, as you know, we had suffered and been shamefully treated at , but we grew bold in our God to tell you the Good News of God in the middle of much conflict.
“When we urge you on, it doesn’t come from error or from impurity, and there is no trick in it. God has approved us and trusted us with the Good News. That is how we speak: not to please people, but God, who tests our hearts.
“As you know, we never used flattering words, and we never used anything as a cover for greed. God is our witness. We didn’t look for glory from people, not from you and not from anyone else, though we could have claimed authority as of Christ. Instead, we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother who holds her own children dear.
“We longed for you with affection, and we were glad to give you not only the Good News of God, but ourselves too, because you had become very dear to us. You remember, brothers and sisters, how hard we worked and toiled. As we preached the Good News of God to you, we worked night and day so we wouldn’t be a burden to any of you.
“You and God are both witnesses of the way we behaved toward you who believe: holy, upright and blameless. As you know, we urged, comforted and pleaded with every one of you, as a father does with his own children, to live in a way worthy of God, the one who calls you into his own Kingdom and glory.
“That is why we also thank God without stopping: when you heard the message of God from us, you didn’t take it as a word from human beings. You took it for what it truly is: God’s word, which also works in you who believe.
“You, brothers and sisters, followed the example of the assemblies of God that are in , in Christ Jesus. You also suffered the same things from your own countrymen, just as they did from the Jews who killed both the Lord Jesus and their own , and drove us out. They don’t please God, and they are against all people. They forbid us to speak to the so that they may be saved, and that way they are always piling up their sins. But wrath has come on them in full.
“But we, brothers and sisters, were parted from you for a short while, apart in body but not in heart, and with great longing we tried all the harder to see your faces. We wanted to come to you. Indeed I, Paul, wanted to come more than once, but stood in our way.
“What is our hope, or our joy, or the crown we rejoice in? Isn’t it you, before our Lord Jesus when he comes? You are our glory and our joy.
“So when we couldn’t stand it any longer, we chose to be left behind in Athens alone. We sent Timothy, our brother and God’s servant in the Good News of Christ, to make you strong and to comfort you in your faith, so that none of you would be shaken by these troubles. You know that we are appointed to this task.
“Indeed, when we were with you, we told you beforehand that we would suffer trouble, and it did happen, as you know. That is why I too, when I couldn’t stand it any longer, sent to learn about your faith. I was afraid the tempter had somehow tempted you, and our work would have been for nothing.
“But Timothy has just now come back to us from you. He has brought us good news of your faith and love: you always remember us fondly, and you long to see us, the way we long to see you. So in all our distress and trouble, brothers and sisters, your faith has comforted us about you. Now we live, as long as you stand firm in the Lord.
“What thanks can we give back to God for you, for all the joy we feel because of you before our God? Night and day we pray as hard as we can to see your faces and to make up what is still missing in your faith.
“Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus Christ, guide our way to you. May the Lord make you grow more and more in love toward one another and toward all people, just as we do toward you. So may he make your hearts firm and blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his .”
“Finally, brothers and sisters,” they went on, “we beg you, and we urge you, in the Lord Jesus: you received from us the way to live and to please God. Grow in it more and more. You know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus.
“This is what God wants: for you to be made holy, and to keep away from sexual sin. Every one of you should know how to keep control of your own body, with holiness and honor, not driven by lust like the Gentiles who don’t know God. And no one should take advantage of a brother or sister in this matter, or wrong them. The Lord avenges all these things, as we warned you before and told you plainly.
“God didn’t call us to be unclean, but to be holy. So whoever rejects this doesn’t reject a human being, but God, who has also given you his Holy Spirit.
“About loving one another as brothers and sisters, you don’t need anyone to write to you. You yourselves have learned from God to love one another. And you really are doing it, toward all the brothers and sisters all over Macedonia. But, brothers and sisters, we urge you to grow in it more and more.
“Be eager to lead a quiet life, to look after your own business, and to work with your own hands the way we instructed you, so that you may live rightly toward outsiders and need nothing.
“But we don’t want you to be ignorant, brothers, concerning those who have fallen asleep, so that you don’t grieve like the rest, who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. For this we tell you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will in no way precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with God’s trumpet. The dead in Christ will rise first, then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. So we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore comfort one another with these words.”
“But, brothers and sisters,” they wrote, “about the times and the seasons, you don’t need anything written to you. You yourselves know well that the day of the Lord comes like a thief in the night. When they are saying, ‘Peace and safety,’ then sudden destruction will come on them, like birth pains on a pregnant woman, and there is no way they will escape.
“But you, brothers and sisters, aren’t in darkness, where the day would catch you like a thief. You are all children of light and children of the day. We don’t belong to the night, or to darkness.
“So let’s not sleep, as the rest do, but let’s keep watch and stay sober. It is at night that sleepers sleep, and at night that drunkards get drunk. But we belong to the day, so let’s stay sober, putting on faith and love like the armor that guards the chest, and putting on the hope of salvation as a helmet.
“God didn’t appoint us to wrath, but to gain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us. He did this so that, awake or asleep, we would live together with him. So urge one another on and build each other up, just as you are doing.
“We beg you, brothers and sisters, to know and value those who labor among you, who are over you in the Lord and correct you. Respect them and honor them in love, for the sake of their work. Keep the peace among yourselves.
“We urge you, brothers and sisters: correct those who are out of line, encourage the faint-hearted, hold up the weak, and be patient toward everyone. See that no one pays anyone back harm for harm, but always go after what is good, both for one another and for everyone.
“Always rejoice. Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks, for this is what God wants of you in Christ Jesus.
“Don’t quench the Spirit. Don’t look down on prophecies. Test everything, and hold on tight to what is good. Keep away from evil in every form.
“May the God of peace himself make you completely holy. May the whole of you, spirit, soul and body, be kept free of blame when our Lord Jesus Christ comes. The one who calls you is faithful, and will also do it.
“Pray for us, brothers and sisters. Greet every brother and sister with a holy kiss. I solemnly command you by the Lord to see that this letter is read to all the holy brothers and sisters.
“The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.”
Another letter to the Thessalonians begins like this: “Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, to the assembly of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
“It is our duty to give thanks to God for you always, brothers and sisters, and it is only right, because your faith is growing beyond measure, and the love of each and every one of you toward one another keeps growing richer. So we ourselves boast about you in the assemblies of God, for your endurance and faith in all your persecutions and in the troubles you are bearing.
“This is a plain sign of God’s righteous judgment, so that you may be counted worthy of God’s Kingdom, which you are also suffering for.
“It is right in God’s sight to give suffering back to those who cause you suffering, and to give relief to you who suffer along with us. That will be when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, punishing those who don’t know God, and those who don’t obey the Good News of our Lord Jesus.
“They will pay the penalty: eternal destruction from the face of the Lord and from the glory of his might. This will be on that day, when he comes to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired among all who have believed, because what we told you was believed.
“That is why we also pray for you always. We pray that our God will count you worthy of your calling, and that with power he will fulfill every desire for what is good and every work of faith. We want the name of our Lord Jesus to be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
“Now, brothers, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to him, we ask you not to be quickly shaken in your mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter as if from us, saying that the day of Christ has already come. Let no one deceive you in any way. For it will not be unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of destruction. He opposes and exalts himself against all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, setting himself up as God. Don’t you remember that when I was still with you, I told you these things?
“Now you know what is restraining him, to the end that he may be revealed in his own season. For the mystery of lawlessness already works. Only there is one who restrains now, until he is taken out of the way. Then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will kill with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the manifestation of his coming; even he whose coming is according to the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deception of wickedness for those who are being lost, because they didn’t receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. Because of this, God sends them a powerful delusion, that they should believe a lie, that they all might be judged who didn’t believe the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
“But it is our duty to give thanks to God for you always, brothers and sisters whom the Lord loves, because God chose you from the beginning for salvation, through the Spirit making you holy and through believing the truth. He called you to this through our Good News, so that you might gain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
“So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm. Hold on to the traditions we taught you, whether by word or by letter.
“May our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and also God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and make you strong in every good work and word.”
“Finally, brothers and sisters,” they wrote, “pray for us, that the word of the Lord may spread quickly and be glorified, just as with you, and that we may be rescued from unreasonable and wicked people, for not all have faith.
“But the Lord is faithful. He will make you firm, and he will guard you from the evil one. In the Lord we are sure of you: you are doing the things we command, and you will keep doing them. May the Lord direct your hearts into God’s love and into the endurance of Christ.
“In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, brothers and sisters, we command you to keep away from every brother or sister who lives in rebellion and not by the tradition they received from us.
“You know how you ought to imitate us. We didn’t live in rebellion among you. We didn’t eat bread from anyone without paying for it, but we worked hard and toiled night and day so we wouldn’t burden any of you. It wasn’t because we don’t have the right. It was to make ourselves an example for you to copy.
“Even when we were with you, we commanded you this: ‘If anyone is not willing to work, don’t let him eat.’
“We hear of some among you who live in rebellion, who don’t work at all, but are busybodies. We command people like that, and we urge them in the Lord Jesus Christ, to work quietly and eat their own bread.
“But you, brothers and sisters, don’t grow tired of doing what is right. If anyone doesn’t obey our word in this letter, take note of that person, and don’t keep company with them, so that they will be ashamed. Don’t count them as an enemy, but correct them as a brother or sister.
“Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times, in all ways. The Lord be with you all.
“I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand, which is the sign in every letter. This is how I write.
“The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.”