Weymouth New Testament in Modern Speech: 1 Thessalonians | Page 2

acted towards every one of you as a father does towards his own children, encouraging and cheering you, 002:012 and imploring you to live lives worthy of fellowship with God who is inviting you to share His own Kingship and glory. 002:013 And for this further reason we render unceasing thanks to God, that when you received God's Message from our lips, it was as no mere message from men that you embraced it, but as-- what it really is--God's Message, which also does its work in the hearts of you who believe. 002:014 For you, brethren, followed the example of the Churches of God in Christ Jesus which are in Judaea; seeing that you endured the same ill-treatment at the hands of your countrymen, as they did at the hands of the Jews. 002:015 Those Jewish persecutors killed both the Lord Jesus and the Prophets, and drove us out of their midst. They are displeasing to God, and are the enemies of all mankind; 002:016 for they still try to prevent our preaching to the Gentiles so that they may find salvation. They thus continually fill up the measure of their own sins, and God's anger in its severest form has overtaken them. 002:017 But we, brethren, having been for a short time separated from you in bodily presence, though not in heart, endeavoured all the more earnestly, with intense longing, to see you face to face. 002:018 On this account we wanted to come to you--at least I Paul wanted again and again to do so--but Satan hindered us. 002:019 For what is our hope or joy, or the crown of which we boast? Is it not you yourselves in the presence of our Lord Jesus at His Coming? 002:020 Yes, you are our glory and our joy. 003:001 So when we could endure it no longer, we decided to remain behind in Athens alone; 003:002 and sent Timothy our brother and God's minister in the service of Christ's Good News, that he might help you spiritually and encourage you in your faith; 003:003 that none of you might be unnerved by your present trials: for you yourselves know that they are our appointed lot. 003:004 For even when we were with you, we forewarned you, saying, "We are soon to suffer affliction;" and this actually happened, as you well know. 003:005 For this reason I also, when I could no longer endure the uncertainty, sent to know the condition of your faith, lest perchance the Tempter might have tempted you and our labour have been lost. 003:006 But now that Timothy has recently come back to us from you, and has brought us the happy tidings of your faith and love, and has told us how you still cherish a constant and affectionate recollection of us, and are longing to see us as we also long to see you-- 003:007 for this reason in our distress and trouble we have been comforted about you, brethren, by your faith. 003:008 For now life is for us life indeed, since you are standing fast in the Lord. 003:009 For what thanksgiving on your behalf can we possibly offer to God in return for all the joy which fills our souls before our God for you, 003:010 while night and day, with intense earnestness, we pray that we may see your faces, and may bring to perfection whatever may be still lacking in your faith? 003:011 But may our God and Father Himself--and our Lord Jesus-- guide us on our way to you; 003:012 and as for you, may the Lord teach you to love one another and all men, with a growing and a glowing love, resembling our love for you. 003:013 Thus He will build up your characters, so that you will be faultlessly holy in the presence of our God and Father at the Coming of our Lord Jesus with all His holy ones. 004:001 Moreover, brethren, as you learnt from our lips the lives which you ought to live, and do live, so as to please God, we beg and exhort you in the name of the Lord Jesus to live them more and more truly. 004:002 For you know the commands which we laid upon you by the authority of the Lord Jesus. 004:003 For this is God's will--your purity of life, that you abstain from fornication; 004:004 that each man among you shall know how to procure a wife who shall be his own in purity and honour; 004:005 that you be not overmastered by lustful cravings, like the Gentiles who have no knowledge of God; 004:006 and that in this matter there be no encroaching on the rights of a brother Christian and no overreaching him. For the Lord is an avenger in