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You are witnesses with God, how holy, righteously, and blamelessly we behaved ourselves toward you who believe.

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As you know, we exhorted, comforted, and implored every one of you, as a father does his own children,

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to the end that you should walk worthily of God, who calls you into his own Kingdom and glory.

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For this cause we also thank God without ceasing, that, when you received from us the word of the message of God, you accepted it not as the word of men, but, as it is in truth, the word of God, which also works in you who believe.

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For you, brothers, became imitators of the assemblies of God which are in Judea in Christ Jesus; for you also suffered the same things from your own countrymen, even as they did from the Jews;

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who killed both the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and drove us out, and didn’t please God, and are contrary to all men;

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forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they may be saved; to fill up their sins always. But wrath has come on them to the uttermost.

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But we, brothers, being bereaved of you for a short season, in presence, not in heart, tried even harder to see your face with great desire,

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because we wanted to come to you–indeed, I, Paul, once and again–but Satan hindered us.

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For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Isn’t it even you, before our Lord Jesus at his coming?

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For you are our glory and our joy.

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Therefore, when we couldn’t stand it any longer, we thought it good to be left behind at Athens alone,

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and sent Timothy, our brother and God’s servant in the Good News of Christ, to establish you, and to comfort you concerning your faith;

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that no one be moved by these afflictions. For you know that we are appointed to this task.

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For most certainly, when we were with you, we told you beforehand that we are to suffer affliction, even as it happened, and you know.

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For this cause I also, when I couldn’t stand it any longer, sent that I might know your faith, for fear that by any means the tempter had tempted you, and our labor would have been in vain.

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But when Timothy came just now to us from you, and brought us glad news of your faith and love, and that you have good memories of us always, longing to see us, even as we also long to see you;

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for this cause, brothers, we were comforted over you in all our distress and affliction through your faith.

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For now we live, if you stand fast in the Lord.

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For what thanksgiving can we render again to God for you, for all the joy with which we rejoice for your sakes before our God;

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night and day praying exceedingly that we may see your face, and may perfect that which is lacking in your faith?

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Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus Christ, direct our way to you;

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and the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we also do toward you,

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to the end he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.

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Finally then, brothers, we beg and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, that you abound more and more.

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For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus.

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For this is the will of God: your sanctification, that you abstain from sexual immorality,

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that each one of you know how to possess himself of his own vessel in sanctification and honor,

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not in the passion of lust, even as the Gentiles who don’t know God;

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that no one should take advantage of and wrong a brother or sister in this matter; because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as also we forewarned you and testified.

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For God called us not for uncleanness, but in sanctification.

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Therefore he who rejects this doesn’t reject man, but God, who has also given his Holy Spirit to you.

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But concerning brotherly love, you have no need that one write to you. For you yourselves are taught by God to love one another,

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for indeed you do it toward all the brothers who are in all Macedonia. But we exhort you, brothers, that you abound more and more;

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and that you make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, even as we instructed you;

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that you may walk properly toward those who are outside, and may have need of nothing.

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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.

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For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.

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For this we tell you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left to the coming of the Lord, will in no way precede those who have fallen asleep.

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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,

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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.

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Therefore comfort one another with these words.

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But concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need that anything be written to you.

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For you yourselves know well that the day of the Lord comes like a thief in the night.

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For when they are saying, “Peace and safety,” then sudden destruction will come on them, like birth pains on a pregnant woman; and they will in no way escape.

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But you, brothers, aren’t in darkness, that the day should overtake you like a thief.

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You are all children of light, and children of the day. We don’t belong to the night, nor to darkness,

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so then let’s not sleep, as the rest do, but let’s watch and be sober.

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For those who sleep, sleep in the night, and those who are drunk are drunk in the night.

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But let us, since we belong to the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and, for a helmet, the hope of salvation.

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For God didn’t appoint us to wrath, but to the obtaining of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,

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who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.

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Therefore exhort one another, and build each other up, even as you also do.

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But we beg you, brothers, to know those who labor among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you,

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and to respect and honor them in love for their work’s sake. Be at peace among yourselves.

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We exhort you, brothers, admonish the disorderly, encourage the fainthearted, support the weak, be patient toward all.

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See that no one returns evil for evil to anyone, but always follow after that which is good, for one another, and for all.

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Rejoice always.

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Pray without ceasing.

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In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus toward you.

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Don’t quench the Spirit.

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Don’t despise prophesies.

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Test all things, and hold firmly that which is good.

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Abstain from every form of evil.

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May the God of peace himself sanctify you completely. May your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

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He who calls you is faithful, who will also do it.

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Brothers, pray for us.

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Greet all the brothers with a holy kiss.

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I solemnly command you by the Lord that this letter be read to all the holy brothers.

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The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.

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Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, to the assembly of the Thessalonians in God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ:

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Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

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We are bound to always give thanks to God for you, brothers, even as it is appropriate, because your faith grows exceedingly, and the love of each and every one of you towards one another abounds;

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so that we ourselves boast about you in the assemblies of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions which you endure.

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This is an obvious sign of the righteous judgment of God, to the end that you may be counted worthy of the Kingdom of God, for which you also suffer.

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Since it is a righteous thing with God to repay affliction to those who afflict you,

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and to give relief to you who are afflicted with us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire,

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giving vengeance to those who don’t know God, and to those who don’t obey the Good News of our Lord Jesus,

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who will pay the penalty: eternal destruction from the face of the Lord and from the glory of his might,

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when he comes to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired among all those who have believed (because our testimony to you was believed) in that day.

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To this end we also pray always for you, that our God may count you worthy of your calling, and fulfill every desire of goodness and work of faith, with power;

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that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

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Now, brothers, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering together to him, we ask you

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not to be quickly shaken in your mind, nor yet be troubled, either by spirit, or by word, or by letter as from us, saying that the day of Christ had come.

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Let no one deceive you in any way. For it will not be, unless the departure comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of destruction,

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he who 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.

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Don’t you remember that, when I was still with you, I told you these things?

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Now you know what is restraining him, to the end that he may be revealed in his own season.

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For the mystery of lawlessness already works. Only there is one who restrains now, until he is taken out of the way.

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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;

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even he whose coming is according to the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,

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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.

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Because of this, God sends them a working of error, that they should believe a lie;

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that they all might be judged who didn’t believe the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

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But we are bound to always give thanks to God for you, brothers loved by the Lord, because God chose you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief in the truth;

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to which he called you through our Good News, for the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

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So then, brothers, stand firm, and hold the traditions which you were taught by us, whether by word, or by letter.

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Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace,

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comfort your hearts and establish you in every good work and word.

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Finally, brothers, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may spread rapidly and be glorified, even as also with you;