1 To the Thessalonian church in union with God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, from Paul, Silas, and Timothy. May God bless you and give you peace.

2 We always mention you in our prayers and thank God for you all; 3 recalling continually before our God and Father the efforts that have resulted from your faith, the toil prompted by your love, and the patient endurance sustained by your hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. 4 Friends, whom God loves, we know that he has chosen you, 5 because the good news that we brought came home to you, not merely as so many words, but with a power and a fulness of conviction due to the Holy Spirit. For you know the life that we lived among you for your good. 6 And you yourselves began to follow, not only our example, but the Master's also; and, in spite of much suffering, you welcomed the message with a joy inspired by the Holy Spirit, 7 and so became a pattern to all who believed in Christ throughout Macedonia and Greece. 8 For it was from you that the Lord's message resounded throughout Macedonia and Greece; and, more than that, your faith in God has become known far and wide; so that there is no need for us to say another word. 9 Indeed, in speaking about us, the people themselves tell of the reception you gave us, and how, turning to God from your idols, you became servants of the true and living God, 10 and are now awaiting the return from heaven of his Son whom he raised from the dead — Jesus, our deliverer from the coming wrath.