Murdock - I Thessalonians

Chapter 1

1:1  I PAUL and Sylvanus and Timothy, to the church of the Thessalonians, which is in God the Father and in our Lord Jesus the Messiah: Grace be with you, and peace.

1:2  We give thanks to God at all times, on account of you all, and remember you continually in our prayers:

1:3  and we call to mind before God the Father the works of your faith, and the toil of your love, and the patience of your hope in our Lord Jesus the Messiah.

1:4  For we know your election, my brethren, beloved of God.

1:5  For our preaching among you, was not in words only; but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit, and in genuine persuasion. Ye also know, how we were among you for your sakes.

1:6  And ye became imitators of us, and of our Lord, in that ye received the word in great affliction, and with the joy of the Holy Spirit.

1:7  And ye were a pattern for all the believers who are in Macedonia and in Achaia.

1:8  For from you the word of our Lord sounded forth; and not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place, your faith in God is heard of; so that we have no need to say any thing concerning you.

1:9  For they declare, what an ingress we had to you, and how ye turned from the worship of idols unto God, that ye might worship the living and true God;

1:10  while ye wait for his Son from heaven, that Jesus whom he raised from the dead, who delivereth us from the wrath to come.

Chapter 2

2:1  And ye yourselves, my brethren, know our entrance among you, that it was not in vain:

2:2  but we first suffered and were treated with indignity, as ye know, at Philippi; and then, in a great agony, with confidence in our God, we addressed to you the gospel of the Messiah.

2:3  For our exhortation proceeded not from deceit, nor from impurity, nor in guile:

2:4  but as we had been approved of God to be intrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who searcheth our hearts.

2:5  For at no time have we used flattering speech; as ye know; nor a cloak of cupidity, God is witness.

2:6  Neither have we sought glory from men, either from you or from others, when we might have been chargeable as legates of the Messiah.

2:7  But we were lowly among you; and like a nurse, who fondleth her children,

2:8  so we also fondled you, and were desirous to impart to you, not the gospel of God merely, but also our own soul, because ye were dear to us.

2:9  For ye recollect, brethren, that we labored and toiled, working with our own hands, by night and by day, that we might not be chargeable to any one of you.

2:10  Ye are witnesses, and God also, how we preached to you the gospel of God, purely, and uprightly, and were blameless towards all them that believe:

2:11  as yourselves know, we entreated each one of you, as a father his children, and comforted your hearts:

2:12  and we charged you, to walk as it becometh God, who hath called you to his kingdom and his glory.

2:13  Therefore also we give thanks unceasingly to God, that the word of God which ye received from us, ye did not receive as the word of men, but as being truly the word of God, which worketh efficiently in you and in them that believe.

2:14  For ye, my brethren, became assimilated to the churches of God in Judaea, the persons who are in Jesus the Messiah; in that ye so suffered, even ye from your own countrymen, as also they from the Jews,

2:15  the persons who slew our Lord Jesus the Messiah, and persecuted their own prophets and us; and they please not God, and are made hostile to all men;

2:16  and they forbid us to speak to the Gentiles, that they may have life; to fill up their sins at all times. And wrath cometh on them to the uttermost.

2:17  But we, my brethren, have been bereaved of you for a short time, (in visible presence, not in our hearts,) and have the more exerted ourselves, to behold your faces, with great affection.

2:18  And we purposed to come to you, I Paul, once and again; but Satan hindered me.

2:19  For what is our hope, and our joy, and the crown of our glorying; unless it be ye, before our Lord Jesus at his coming?

2:20  For ye are our glory, and our joy.

Chapter 3

3:1  And, because we could no longer endure it, we were willing to be left alone at Athens,

3:2  and to send to you Timothy our brother, a servant of God, and our assistant in the announcement of the Messiah; that he might strengthen you, and inquire of you respecting your faith:

3:3  lest any of you should be disheartened by these afflictions; for ye know, that we are appointed thereto.

3:4  For also when we were with you, we forewarned you, that we were to be afflicted; as ye know did occur.

3:5  Therefore also I could not be quiet, until I sent to learn your faith; lest the Tempter should have tempted you, and our labor have been in vain.

3:6  But now, since Timothy hath come to us from among you, and hath informed us respecting your faith and your love, and that ye have a good remembrance of us at all times, and that ye desire to see us, even as we to see you;

3:7  therefore we are comforted in you, my brethren, amid all our straits and afflictions, on account of your faith.

3:8  And now, we live, if ye stand fast in our Lord.

3:9  For what thanks can we render to God in your behalf, for all the joy with which we are joyful on your account;

3:10  unless it be, that we the more supplicate before God, by night and by day, that we may see your faces, and may perfect what is lacking in your faith?

3:11  And may God our Father, and our Lord Jesus the Messiah, direct our way unto you;

3:12  and increase and enlarge your love towards one another, and towards all men, even as we love you;

3:13  and establish your hearts unblamable in holiness, before God our Father; at the advent of our Lord Jesus the Messiah, with all his saints.

Chapter 4

4:1  Wherefore, my brethren, I entreat you, and beseech you by our Lord Jesus, that, as ye have received from us how ye ought to walk, and to please God, so ye would make progress more and more.

4:2  For ye know what command we gave you in our Lord Jesus the Messiah.

4:3  For this is the pleasure of God, your sanctification; and that ye be separated from all whoredom;

4:4  and that each one of you might know how to possess his vessel, in sanctity and in honor;

4:5  and not in the concupiscence of lust, like the rest of the Gentiles who know not God:

4:6  and that ye dare not to transgress and to overreach any one his brother, in this matter; because our Lord is the avenger of all these, as also we have said and testified to you in time past.

4:7  For God did not call you unto impurity, but to sanctification.

4:8  He therefore who spurneth, spurneth not man but God, who hath given his Holy Spirit in you.

4:9  Now concerning love to the brethren, ye need not that I should write to you; for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another.

4:10  Ye likewise do so, to all the brethren who are in all Macedonia: but I entreat you, my brethren, to be exuberant:

4:11  and that ye strive to be quiet, and to attend to your own affairs; and that ye labor with your own hands; as we directed you;

4:12  and that ye walk becomingly towards those without; and that ye be dependent on no man.

4:13  And, I wish you to know, my brethren, that ye should not mourn over them who have fallen asleep, like other people who have no hope.

4:14  For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them who sleep, will God, by Jesus, bring with him.

4:15  And this we say to you, by the word of our Lord, that we who may survive and be alive, at the coming of our Lord, shall not precede them who have slept.

4:16  Because our Lord will himself descend from heaven, with the mandate, and with the voice of the chief angel, and with the trump of God; and the dead who are in the Messiah, will first arise;

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

4:18  Wherefore, comfort ye one another with these words.

Chapter 5

5:1  But concerning the times and seasons, my brethren, ye need not that I write to you:

5:2  for ye know assuredly, that the day of our Lord so cometh, as a thief by night.

5:3  While they will be saying, Peace and quietness, then suddenly destruction will burst upon them, as distress upon a child-bearer, and they will not escape.

5:4  But ye, my brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.

5:5  For ye are all children of the light, and children of the day; and are not children of the night, and children of darkness.

5:6  Let us not therefore sleep, like others; but let us be vigilant and considerate.

5:7  For they who sleep, sleep in the night; and they who are drunken, are drunken in the night.

5:8  But let us who are children of the day, be wakeful in mind, and put on the breastplate of faith and love, and take the helmet of the hope of life.

5:9  For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to the acquisition of life, by our Lord Jesus the Messiah:

5:10  who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we might live together with him.

5:11  Therefore comfort one another, and edify one another, as also ye have done.

5:12  And we entreat you, my brethren, that ye recognize them who labor among you, and who stand before your faces in our Lord, and instruct you :

5:13  that they may be esteemed by you with abundant love; and, on account of their work, live ye in harmony with them.

5:14  And we entreat you, my brethren, that ye admonish the faulty, and encourage the faint-hearted, and bear the burdens of the weak, and be long suffering towards all men.

5:15  And beware, lest any of you return evil for evil, but always follow good deeds, towards one another, and towards all men.

5:16  And be joyful always.

5:17  And pray without ceasing.

5:18  And in every thing be thankful: For this is the pleasure of God in Jesus the Messiah, concerning you.

5:19  Quench not the Spirit.

5:20  Despise not prophesying.

5:21  Explore every thing, and hold fast the good:

5:22  and fly from every thing evil.

5:23  And may the God of peace sanctify you all, perfectly, and keep blameless your whole spirit, and your soul, and your body, till the coming of our Lord Jesus the Messiah.

5:24  Faithful is he that hath called you, who will do it.

5:25  My brethren, pray for us.

5:26  Salute all our brethren with a holy kiss.

5:27  I conjure you by our Lord, that this epistle be read to all the holy brethren.

5:28  The grace of our Lord Jesus the Messiah be with you. Amen.