Montgomery - I Thessalonians

Chapter 1

1:1  Paul and Silas and Timothy. To the church of the Thessalonians which is in God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be to you, and peace.

1:2  I am continually thanking God for all, always making mention of you in my prayers,

1:3  as I call to mind your work of faith, and labor of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the presence of our God and Father.

1:4  For I know, O brothers, beloved of God, that he has chosen you;

1:5  for my gospel did not come to you in word only, but in power also, and in the Holy Spirit, and with deep conviction. For you know also the manner in which I behaved myself among you for your sakes.

1:6  Moreover, you began to follow the pattern I set you, and the Lord’s also, receiving the word with joy in the Holy Spirit, although amid severe persecution.

1:7  Thus you became a pattern to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia.

1:8  For the word of the Lord has been sounded forth from you, and its sound has been heard not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place where the tidings of your faith toward God have been spread abroad, so that I have no need to speak of it.

1:9  For others, of their own accord, tell about the welcome I had from you, and how you turned to God from your idols, to be slaved of a true and living God,

1:10  and to await for the coming of his Son from the heavens, the Son whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, our Deliverer from the wrath to come.

Chapter 2

2:1  For you yourselves know, brothers, that my visit to you did not fail of its purpose;

2:2  for you remember that although I had already borne ill-treatment and insult at Philippi, I took courage in my God to tell you the gospel of God, in the face of much opposition.

2:3  For my preaching was not grounded on a delusion, or on impure motives, on in deceit.

2:4  But as my fitness to be entrusted with the gospel has been tested and approved by God, I so speak, not to please men, but to please God, who is testing my motives.

2:5  For as you well know, I never resorted to flattery, nor to any pretext for enriching myself. God is my witness!

2:6  Now was I seeking glory from men, either yourselves or others, although I might have exercised authority as Christ’s apostle.

2:7  On the contrary I showed myself among you as gentle as a mother, when she tenderly nurses her own children.

2:8  So in my fond affection it was my joy to give you, not only the gospel of God, but my very life also, because you had become dear to me.

2:9  You recall, brothers, my labor and toil; how, while working at my trade day and night, so as not to become a burden to any of you, I proclaimed to you the gospel of God.

2:10  You are witnesses - and so is God - how pure and just and blameless was my behavior among you believers.

2:11  You know how I was wont to treat each of you as a father treats his children,

2:12  exhorting and imploring and adjuring each one among you to lead a life worthy of the God who called you into his own kingdom and glory.

2:13  For this reason also I am giving continual thanks to God, because when you heard from me the spoken word of God, you received it not as the word of men, but as the word of God (which in truth it is), who himself is effectually at work in you believe.

2:14  For you, brothers, began to follow the example of the churches of God in Judea, which are in Christ Jesus; and you in your turn suffered at the hands of your fellow citizens persecutions like to those which they endured from the Jews -

2:15  The men who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out - they are displeasing to God, and are the enemies of all mankind.

2:16  They forbid me to speak to the Gentiles with a view to their salvation. They continue always to fill up the measure of their sins; but the wrath of God is come upon them to the full!

2:17  But I, my brothers, although torn from you for a short season (in presence, not in heart), made eager efforts to behold you face to face with strong longing.

2:18  For that reason I would fain have visited you - I, Paul, again and again - but Satan hindered me.

2:19  For what is my hope, or joy? What is the victor’s wreath in which I exult? What but your own selves in the presence of our Lord Jesus, at his coming! For you are my pride and my delight.

Chapter 3

3:1  And so, when I could no longer bear it, I made up my mind to be left behind at Athens, all alone.

3:2  I sent Timothy, my brother and God’s fellow worker in the gospel of Christ, to strengthen you and to hearten you in your faith.

3:3  So that no one should be shaken by these troubles-for you know well that we are appointed to troubles.

3:4  For even when I was with you I used to tell you beforehand that I was to suffer affliction; and so it proved, as you know.

3:5  So, when I could no longer endure it, I sent to find out about your faith, fearing that the tempter had tempted you and that my labor had been in vain.

3:6  But now that Timothy has returned from you to me, and has brought good news of your faith and love, and that you are still holding me in affectionate remembrance, always longing to see me as I also am longing to see you.

3:7  I have been comforted, my brothers, in regard to you, in spite of all my distress and affliction over your faith.

3:8  For now I am really living, if you are standing firm in the Lord.

3:9  For what thanksgiving can I render again to God in your behalf, in return for all the joy which you cause me in the presence of my God?

3:10  Night and day I am praying earnestly that I may see you face to face, and may perfect whatever is yet lacking in your faith.

3:11  Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus Christ, direct my path to you.

3:12  Meanwhile, may the Lord cause you to increase and abound in love toward one another and toward all men, even as I do toward you.

3:13  And so may he establish your hearts unblamable in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus, with all his saints.

Chapter 4

4:1  Finally then, my brothers, I continue to beseech and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that, as you learned of me how to walk so as to please God - and you are actually doing so - that you abound in it yet more and more.

4:2  For you know what charges I laid upon you through the Lord Jesus.

4:3  For this is God’s will, even your sanctification; that you should abstain from sexual vice.

4:4  That each one should learn how to take a wife in purity and honor.

4:5  Not in the passion of lust, like the Gentiles who know not God.

4:6  That no man overreach or take advantage of his brother in such matters, because "the Lord takes vengeance" in all these things, as also I repeatedly forewarned you and testified to you.

4:7  For God has not called us for uncleanness, but in holiness.

4:8  So that he who rejects this is not rejecting man, but the God who gave you his Holy Spirit.

4:9  It is not needed that I should write to you about brotherly love; for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another.

4:10  As indeed you do love all the brothers in Macedonia. But I exhort you, brothers, to abound in this yet more.

4:11  Also, that you endeavor to live quietly and to mind your own business, and to work with your hands (as I charged you).

4:12  So that your conduct may be seemly toward those that are without, and that you may not need help from any man.

4:13  But I would not have you ignorant, brothers, about those who are falling asleep. You must not sorrow like other men, who have no hope.

4:14  For if we really believe that Jesus died and rose again, so even so will God through Jesus bring with him those also who have fallen asleep.

4:15  For this I tell you by the word of the Lord, that we who are living, who survive unto the coming of the Lord, will in no wise precede those who have fallen asleep.

4:16  For the Lord himself with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God will descend from heaven. Then the dead in Christ will rise first.

4:17  And afterwards we who are alive, who remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

4:18  So comfort one another with these words.

Chapter 5

5:1  Now as to the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need that anything be written to you.

5:2  You yourselves know perfectly that the Day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night.

5:3  While men are saying "Peace and safety," then, like birth-pangs upon a woman with child, destruction will come upon them suddenly. In no wise will they escape.

5:4  But you, brothers, are not in darkness, that "the Day" should come upon you like a bandit.

5:5  For you are all sons of light, and sons of day. We are not of night nor of darkness.

5:6  So then let us not be sleeping as do the rest, but let us be watchful and self-controlled.

5:7  For those who are sleeping, sleep in the night, and those who are drunken, are drunken in the night.

5:8  But let us who are of the day be self-controlled, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for a helmet, the hope of salvation.

5:9  For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to win salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.

5:10  He died for us, in order that whether we are keeping vigil in life or sleeping in death we may ever be living together with him.

5:11  So comfort one another, and try to build one another up, as indeed you are doing.

5:12  I entreat you, brothers, to acknowledge those who are toiling among you and are your leaders in the Lord, and give you counsel.

5:13  Esteem them very highly in love for their work’s sake. Live in peace among yourselves.

5:14  And, brothers, we urge you to admonish the disorderly, comfort the faint-hearted, sustain the weak, lose patience with none.

5:15  Take care that none of you ever return evil for evil, but always pursue what is kind to one another and to all.

5:16  Always be joyful.

5:17  Pray without ceasing.

5:18  Give thanks in every circumstance, for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus.

5:19  Quench not the Spirit.

5:20  Do not despise prophesyings.

5:21  But try all, holding fast to the good.

5:22  Hold aloof from every form of evil.

5:23  May the God of peace consecrate you wholly; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept altogether faultless until the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

5:24  He who calls you is faithful; he will fulfil my prayer.

5:25  Brothers, pray for me.

5:26  Greet all the brothers with a holy kiss.

5:27  I adjure you, in the name of the Lord, to have this letter read to all the brothers.

5:28  The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.