Chapter 1
1 Paul, Silas and Timothy are greeting the church in Thessalonica which belongs to our God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
2 Receive grace and peace from our God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
3 Brothers, your faith keeps growing more and more. And each of you treats one another with love which is getting stronger and stronger. So we have every reason to always thank God for you.
4 We are happy to tell about you in other churches of God. Now you are going through persecutions and hardships. But during these trials, you exercise patience and show your faith.
5 Now people are persecuting you because of Christ. But the day will come when God judges all people with justice. So your sufferings are not in vain. And God will reward you with entering His Kingdom.
6 God is just. That is why each person will receive from God what he deserves. God will punish those who are persecuting you now.
7 And God will give peace and deliver from all trials those of you who are going through persecutions. It will happen to all of us on the day when the Lord Jesus comes down from heaven along with His mighty angels.
8 In flaming fire God will punish those who refused to understand the truth about who He is. God will punish those who did not want to accept the Good News of our Lord Jesus.
9 Such people will receive punishment and go to eternal destruction. They will never see the face of the Lord, His glory and power.
10 When Jesus comes to the earth, His holy people will glorify Him. On that day all believers will be excited about the Lord. And you also will be among God’s people because you believed in the truth which we preached to you.
11 We always pray for you that our God would help you live according to His calling. May the Lord fill you with the desire to do good. We ask God to give you His power. Then your faith will prompt you to act.
12 By your good works you will glorify the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and you will enter God’s glory. Our God and the Lord Jesus Christ gave you His grace which would help you do good.
Chapter 2
1 Brothers, when our Lord Jesus Christ comes to the earth, He will gather all of us to meet Him.
2 We urge you not to be naive. Do not be afraid if someone tells you that he saw the coming of Christ in the spirit. Do not believe if someone preaches that Christ has already come. And do not trust those who say that we wrote about it in a letter. We have not sent such letters.
3 Never let anyone deceive you in any way. You should know that in the beginning people will rebel against faith in God. Then the man of sin will appear. He will be the son of the devil and will be doomed to destruction. And only after that the day will come when Christ returns to the earth.
4 The son of destruction will be the enemy of everything that people call God or deity. He will put himself above anything that people worship. He will sit in God’s temple as God and declare himself to be God.
5 Don’t you remember that when I was with you, I told you about it?
6 You know that there is something what currently hinders the son of sin, so he cannot appear in this world. But the time will come when he enters the world.
7 The secret forces of lawlessness are already at work to prepare the world for the arrival of the son of destruction. But this plan cannot be fulfilled until the obstacle that prevents the son of sin from coming into the world is removed.
8 When this hindrance is removed, this wicked man will sit in God’s temple and declare himself to be God. After that the Lord Jesus will come to the earth. He will blow on him and kill this wicked man with His breath. The Lord will destroy him with His glorious presence.
9 When this wicked man enters the world, Satan will grant him all his power and will work through him. This wicked man will show false supernatural manifestations and fake miracles.
10 He will do many evil deeds to deceive those who are going to destruction. These are the people who rejected God’s love and did not believe in the truth that could save them.
11 For this reason, God will give them over to the power of complete delusion, and they will believe lies.
12 God will judge all people who did not believe in the truth and who indulged in doing evil deeds.
13 Brothers, the Lord loves you. And we should always thank God for you, because from the very beginning He chose you to be saved. You believed in the truth, and God made you holy by His Spirit.
14 When we told you the Good News about Christ, God called you to Himself, and you received salvation. Now you can enter the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
15 Brothers, follow precisely the teaching you heard while we were preaching to you. And firmly hold on to the truth we wrote to you about.
16 Our God the Father showed us His love and gave us peace that will last forever. And by His grace He filled our hearts with bright hope.
17 May our Lord Jesus Christ make you strong. May He fill all your words with His power. And may the power of Christ be revealed in all your good deeds.
Chapter 3
1 Brothers, pray for us that we could quickly spread the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ. Pray also that others will accept the authority of the Word of God as you have done.
2 Ask God to deliver us from those who pretend to be believers, but who actually live in sins and act like wicked people.
3 Remember that the Lord is faithful to His promises. He will make you strong and protect you from the devil.
4 We are confident that you belong to the Lord. And we know that you live according to what we taught you. We are sure that you will follow our teachings in the future.
5 May the Lord fill your hearts with His love and give you the same patience as Christ has.
6 Brothers, there are some believers among you who are lazy and do not want to work. They do not follow the teaching they heard from us. So in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ we ask you to avoid fellowship with such brothers.
7 When we lived among you, we were not lazy, but earned our own living. And you know that you should follow our example.
8 We did not live at your expense. Instead, we worked hard day and night. And we did not burden any of you with our financial needs.
9 Of course, we had every right to receive financial support from you. But we wanted to show you an example to follow.
10 So when we were among you, we preached, “If someone does not want to work, he should not eat.”
11 But we have heard that there are those among you who do not want to work. They do nothing and annoy others by interfering in other people’s lives.
12 In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ we would like to speak to such brothers. We encourage them to put their lives in order, find a job, and start earning their living.
13 And you, brothers, continue to do good deeds. Do not let tiredness and disappointment overcome you.
14 Pay close attention to the one who does not want to obey what we have written in this letter. Have nothing to do with such a person to make him feel ashamed.
15 But you should not treat him like an enemy. Instead, speak to him about the consequences of his actions as you would speak to your brother.
16 The Lord is the source of peace. May He fill you with His peace at any time and in any situation. And may the Lord be with you all.
17 I, Paul, am greeting you and writing these words with my own hand. I am doing this so that you can know that I am the author of all my letters. And I write in this way:
18 May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.