Contemporary English Version 1 From Paul, Silas,+ and Timothy. To the church in Thessalonica, the people of God our Father and of the Lord Jesus Christ. 2I pray that God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ will be kind to you and will bless you with peace! When Christ Returns3My dear friends, we always have good reason to thank God for you, because your faith in God and your love for each other keep growing all the time. 4This is why we brag about you to all of God's churches. We tell them how patient you are and how you keep on having faith, even though you are going through a lot of trouble and suffering. 5All this shows that God judges fairly and is making you fit to share in his kingdom for which you are suffering. 6It is only right for God to punish everyone who is causing you trouble, 7but he will give you relief from your troubles. God will do the same for us, when the Lord Jesus comes from heaven with his powerful angels 8and with a flaming fire. Our Lord Jesus will punish anyone who doesn't know God and won't obey his message. 9 Their punishment will be eternal destruction, and they will be kept far from the presence of our Lord and his glorious strength. 10This will happen on the day when the Lord returns to be praised and honored by all who have faith in him and belong to him. This includes you, because you believed what we said. 11God chose you, and we keep praying that God will make you worthy of being his people. We pray for God's power to help you do all the good things you hope to do and your faith makes you want to do. 12Then, because of the undeserved grace of God and our Lord Jesus Christ, you will bring honor to the name of our Lord Jesus, and he will bring honor to you. Footnotes: Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®) © 2006 American Bible Society. All rights reserved. Bible text from the Contemporary English Version 2nd Edition (CEV®) is not to be reproduced in copies or otherwise by any means except as permitted in writing by American Bible Society, 101 North Independence Mall East, Floor 8, Philadelphia, PA 19106-2155 (www.americanbible.org). Learn more at www.cev.bible. Discover .BIBLE resources for your ministry at www.get.bible/cev Bible Hub |