1Th 3 | EE | STEP | When we could not wait any longer to know news about you, we decided to stay in Athens city alone. We thought that it was the best thing to do.

1 Thessalonians 3

Timothy has told good news to Paul about the believers at Thessalonica

1 When we could not wait any longer to know news about you, we decided to stay in Athens city alone. We thought that it was the best thing to do. 2 And we sent Timothy to visit you. He is like our brother. He works with us for God, to tell people the good news about Christ. We sent Timothy so that he could help you to believe Christ strongly and to be brave. 3 So then none of you will stop believing because of the troubles and pain that people cause you. You yourselves know that there must be troubles and pain for us. That is part of God’s purpose for us.

4 Even when we were with you, we told you to be ready for future trouble. We told you that people would certainly cause you a lot of trouble and pain. And that did happen. You know that. 5 That is why I had to send Timothy. I could not wait any longer, so I sent him to you. I wanted to know whether you were continuing to believe Christ. I was afraid that Satan had caused you to turn away from Christ. So all our work among you would have no results.

6 But now Timothy has come back to us from you. And he has told us good news about you. He has told us how you are continuing to believe Christ. You are continuing, also, to love God and each other. And you are always happy when you think about us. You want very much to meet us again, as we want to meet you. Timothy has told us these things. 7 So, we have become stronger and braver because of you, who are like brothers and sisters to us. People have caused us very much trouble and pain. But we were very happy to know that you were continuing to believe Christ.

8 Now, because of you, we are like people who have become alive again. You are united to the Lord. And if you continue to believe him strongly, that makes us very happy. 9 Now we can thank God very much for you! We are very, very happy when we talk to God about you. And so we thank him for that. 10 We continue to ask God that we might visit you. We pray like that every day and every night. We want very, very much to visit you. We want to teach things to you that you still need to know. So then you can really believe Christ as you should believe him.

11 We pray this to God himself, who is our Father, and to our Lord Jesus. We pray that they will prepare the way for us to visit you. 12 We pray also that the Lord will cause you to love each other more and more. We love you. And we want you to go on loving all people more and more in the same way. 13 So, the Lord will cause you to become strong inside yourselves. You will be completely good and clean for God, who is our Father. So then nobody can ever say that you have done anything wrong. And you will stand in front of God when our Lord Jesus comes. Jesus will return to this earth, with all those who are his own.