HelpFinder Bible - Flipbook - Page 1453
1 THESSAL ONIANS 2
page 1083
building up fellow believers and trying to help as many people as possible recognize
Christ when he does come.
Key verses in 1 Thessalonians
3:13 May he, as a result, make
your hearts strong, blameless, and
holy as you stand before God our
Father when our Lord Jesus comes
again with all his holy people.
4:14-17 Since we believe that
Jesus died and was raised to life
again, we also believe that when
Jesus returns, God will bring back
with him the believers who have
died. . . . For the Lord himself will
come down from heaven with
a commanding shout, with the
voice of the archangel, and with
the trumpet call of God. First, the
believers who have died will rise
from their graves. Then, together
with them, we who are still alive
and remain on the earth will be
caught up in the clouds to meet
the Lord in the air. Then we will
be with the Lord forever.
5:2 For you know quite well that
the day of the Lord’s return will
come unexpectedly, like a thief in
the night.
5:15 See that no one pays back
evil for evil, but always try to
do good to each other and to all
people.
5:16-19 Always be joyful. Never
stop praying. Be thankful in all
circumstances, for this is God’s will
for you who belong to Christ Jesus.
Do not stifle the Holy Spirit.
Greetings from Paul
This letter is from Paul, Silas,* and Timothy.
We are writing to the church in Thessalonica, to you who belong to God the Father and
the Lord Jesus Christ.
May God give you grace and peace.
of how you are looking forward to the coming of God’s Son from heaven—Jesus, whom
God raised from the dead. He is the one who
has rescued us from the terrors of the coming
judgment.
The Faith of the Thessalonian Believers
2 We always thank God for all of you and pray for
you constantly. 3 As we pray to our God and Father about you, we think of your faithful work,
your loving deeds, and the enduring hope you
have because of our Lord Jesus Christ.
4 We know, dear brothers and sisters,* that
God loves you and has chosen you to be his
own people. 5 For when we brought you the
Good News, it was not only with words but also
with power, for the Holy Spirit gave you full assurance* that what we said was true. And you
know of our concern for you from the way we
lived when we were with you. 6 So you received
the message with joy from the Holy Spirit in
spite of the severe suffering it brought you. In
this way, you imitated both us and the Lord. 7 As
a result, you have become an example to all the
believers in Greece—throughout both Macedonia and Achaia.*
8 And now the word of the Lord is ringing out
from you to people everywhere, even beyond
Macedonia and Achaia, for wherever we go we
find people telling us about your faith in God.
We don’t need to tell them about it, 9 for they
keep talking about the wonderful welcome you
gave us and how you turned away from idols to
serve the living and true God. 10 And they speak
2
1
1:1 Greek Silvanus, the Greek form of the name. 1:4 Greek
brothers. 1:5 Or with the power of the Holy Spirit, so you can
have full assurance. 1:7 Macedonia and Achaia were the
northern and southern regions of Greece. 2:1 Greek brothers;
also in 2:9, 14, 17.
Paul Remembers His Visit
You yourselves know, dear brothers and
sisters,* that our visit to you was not a failure. 2 You know how badly we had been treated
at Philippi just before we came to you and how
much we suffered there. Yet our God gave us the
courage to declare his Good News to you boldly,
in spite of great opposition. 3 So you can see we
• Witnessing
1 THE S S A LON I A N S 1:5
How can we convince unbelievers to
believe the Good News about Jesus?
It is easy to get frustrated when people
are resistant to our witnessing. Two
helpful perspectives on this frustration
come out of Paul’s description of the
Thessalonians’ openness to the gospel.
(1) Only the Holy Spirit can change
hearts. Ultimately, it was not Paul’s
evangelistic techniques but the Spirit’s
power that converted the Thessalonians.
Our job is to share our faith; God’s job is
to bring people to faith. And sometimes
we must be patient as God works on
his timetable. (2) Our practice must
match our proclamation. The conduct of
Paul’s life confirmed the content of his
preaching. Evangelism is “show and tell.”