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Finally, our friends, you learned from us how you should live in order to please God. This is, of course, the way you have been living. And now we beg and urge you in the name of the Lord Jesus to do even more.
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For you know the instructions we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus.
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God wants you to be holy and completely free from sexual immorality.
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Each of you should know how to live with your wife in a holy and honorable way,
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not with a lustful desire, like the heathen who do not know God.
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In this matter, then, none of you should do wrong to other Christians or take advantage of them. We have told you this before, and we strongly warned you that the Lord will punish those who do that.
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God did not call us to live in immorality, but in holiness.
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So then, whoever rejects this teaching is not rejecting a human being, but God, who gives you his Holy Spirit.
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There is no need to write you about love for each other. You yourselves have been taught by God how you should love one another.
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And you have, in fact, behaved like this toward all the believers in all of Macedonia. So we beg you, our friends, to do even more.
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Make it your aim to live a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to earn your own living, just as we told you before.
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In this way you will win the respect of those who are not believers, and you will not have to depend on anyone for what you need.
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Our friends, we want you to know the truth about those who have died, so that you will not be sad, as are those who have no hope.
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We believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will take back with Jesus those who have died believing in him.
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W_ hat we are teaching you now is the Lord's teaching: we who are alive on the day the Lord comes will not go ahead of those who have died.
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There will be the shout of command, the archangel's voice, the sound of God's trumpet, and the Lord himself will come down from heaven. Those who have died believing in Christ will rise to life first;
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then we who are living at that time will be gathered up along with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord.
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So then, encourage one another with these words.
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There is no need to write you, friends, about the times and occasions when these things will happen.
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For you yourselves know very well that the Day of the Lord will come as a thief comes at night.
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When people say, "Everything is quiet and safe," then suddenly destruction will hit them! It will come as suddenly as the pains that come upon a woman in labor, and people will not escape.
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But you, friends, are not in the darkness, and the Day should not take you by surprise like a thief.
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All of you are people who belong to the light, who belong to the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness.
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So then, we should not be sleeping like the others; we should be awake and sober.
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It is at night when people sleep; it is at night when they get drunk.
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But we belong to the day, and we should be sober. We must wear faith and love as a breastplate, and our hope of salvation as a helmet.
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God did not choose us to suffer his anger, but to possess salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,
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who died for us in order that we might live together with him, whether we are alive or dead when he comes.
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And so encourage one another and help one another, just as you are now doing.
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We beg you, our friends, to pay proper respect to those who work among you, who guide and instruct you in the Christian life.
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Treat them with the greatest respect and love because of the work they do. Be at peace among yourselves.
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We urge you, our friends, to warn the idle, encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient with everyone.
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See that no one pays back wrong for wrong, but at all times make it your aim to do good to one another and to all people.
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be thankful in all circumstances. This is what God wants from you in your life in union with Christ Jesus.
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Do not restrain the Holy Spirit;
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do not despise inspired messages.
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Put all things to the test: keep what is good
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and avoid every kind of evil.
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May the God who gives us peace make you holy in every way and keep your whole being---spirit, soul, and body---free from every fault at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
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He who calls you will do it, because he is faithful.
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Pray also for us, friends.
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Greet all the believers with the kiss of peace.
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I urge you by the authority of the Lord to read this letter to all the believers.
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The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
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From Paul, Silas, and Timothy--- To the people of the church in Thessalonica, who belong to God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:
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May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace.
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Our friends, we must thank God at all times for you. It is right for us to do so, because your faith is growing so much and the love each of you has for the others is becoming greater.
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That is why we ourselves boast about you in the churches of God. We boast about the way you continue to endure and believe through all the persecutions and sufferings you are experiencing.
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All of this proves that God's judgment is just and as a result you will become worthy of his Kingdom, for which you are suffering.
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God will do what is right: he will bring suffering on those who make you suffer,
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and he will give relief to you who suffer and to us as well. He will do this when the Lord Jesus appears from heaven with his mighty angels,
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with a flaming fire, to punish those who reject God and who do not obey the Good News about our Lord Jesus.
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They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, separated from the presence of the Lord and from his glorious might,
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when he comes on that Day to receive glory from all his people and honor from all who believe. You too will be among them, because you have believed the message that we told you.
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That is why we always pray for you. We ask our God to make you worthy of the life he has called you to live. May he fulfill by his power all your desire for goodness and complete your work of faith.
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In this way the name of our Lord Jesus will receive glory from you, and you from him, by the grace of our God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to be with him: I beg you, my friends,
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not to be so easily confused in your thinking or upset by the claim that the Day of the Lord has come. Perhaps it is thought that we said this while prophesying or preaching, or that we wrote it in a letter.
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Do not let anyone deceive you in any way. For the Day will not come until the final Rebellion takes place and the Wicked One appears, who is destined to hell.
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He will oppose every so-called god or object of worship and will put himself above them all. He will even go in and sit down in God's Temple and claim to be God.
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Don't you remember? I told you all this while I was with you.
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Yet there is something that keeps this from happening now, and you know what it is. At the proper time, then, the Wicked One will appear.
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The Mysterious Wickedness is already at work, but what is going to happen will not happen until the one who holds it back is taken out of the way.
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Then the Wicked One will be revealed, but when the Lord Jesus comes, he will kill him with the breath from his mouth and destroy him with his dazzling presence.
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The Wicked One will come with the power of Satan and perform all kinds of false miracles and wonders,
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and use every kind of wicked deceit on those who will perish. They will perish because they did not welcome and love the truth so as to be saved.
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And so God sends the power of error to work in them so that they believe what is false.
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The result is that all who have not believed the truth, but have taken pleasure in sin, will be condemned.
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We must thank God at all times for you, friends, you whom the Lord loves. For God chose you as the first to be saved by the Spirit's power to make you his holy people and by your faith in the truth.
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God called you to this through the Good News we preached to you; he called you to possess your share of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
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So then, our friends, stand firm and hold on to those truths which we taught you, both in our preaching and in our letter.
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May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and in his grace gave us unfailing courage and a firm hope,
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encourage you and strengthen you to always do and say what is good.
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Finally, our friends, pray for us that the Lord's message may continue to spread rapidly and be received with honor, just as it was among you.
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Pray also that God will rescue us from wicked and evil people; for not everyone believes the message.
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But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen you and keep you safe from the Evil One.
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And the Lord gives us confidence in you, and we are sure that you are doing and will continue to do what we tell you.
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May the Lord lead you into a greater understanding of God's love and the endurance that is given by Christ.
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Our friends, we command you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to keep away from all believers who are living a lazy life and who do not follow the instructions that we gave them.
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You yourselves know very well that you should do just what we did. We were not lazy when we were with you.
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We did not accept anyone's support without paying for it. Instead, we worked and toiled; we kept working day and night so as not to be an expense to any of you.
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We did this, not because we do not have the right to demand our support; we did it to be an example for you to follow.
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While we were with you, we used to tell you, "Whoever refuses to work is not allowed to eat."
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We say this because we hear that there are some people among you who live lazy lives and who do nothing except meddle in other people's business.
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In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ we command these people and warn them to lead orderly lives and work to earn their own living.
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But you, friends, must not become tired of doing good.
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It may be that some there will not obey the message we send you in this letter. If so, take note of them and have nothing to do with them, so that they will be ashamed.
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But do not treat them as enemies; instead, warn them as believers.
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May the Lord himself, who is our source of peace, give you peace at all times and in every way. The Lord be with you all.
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With my own hand I write this: Greetings from Paul.This is the way I sign every letter; this is how I write.
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May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.
