1 Thessalonians 3

₁We longed for you so much that we could not wait any longer. So we decided that Silvanus and I would stay in Athens ₂and that Timothy must go to you. We asked Timothy to make your faith strong and to encourage you to keep on believing. You know that he is also a believer who works for God, preaching the Good_News of Christ with us. ₃We sent him because we did not want you to start doubting because you suffered. You know that believers will suffer in this world. ₄When we were with you, we told you that people will persecute us and that we will suffer. We told you before it happened and you know that it has all happened just as we said. ₅I could not wait any longer. I wanted to know how you were, so I told Timothy to go and find out if your faith in Christ was still strong. He had to make sure that Satan had not seduced you to stop believing. If you had stopped believing, then our work among you would have been worthless.

₆Timothy has already come back from you and he has given us the good news that your faith in God is good and your love for each other is strong. He also said that you think of the good things when you remember us and you long to see us just as we long to see you. ₇Friends, we have lots of problems and we suffer a lot, but you encourage us because we know that you keep on believing in Christ. ₈Your faith in the Lord is strong and that makes us feel good and alive. ₉When we think of you, there are many things that make us happy before our God. When we pray, we can not thank Him enough for what He has done for you. ₁₀We pray with all our hearts, every day and night, that we will see you again. We also pray that we can help you understand the other things that are important for your faith to become stronger.

₁₁We pray that our God and Father, Himself, and our Lord Jesus will lead us to you. ₁₂We pray that the Lord will make your love stronger and that you will be full of love for each other and for everyone, as we love you. ₁₃Then you will believe that you completely belong to God, and no one will be able to accuse you when you stand before our God and Father, on that day when our Lord Jesus comes again and all the angels are with Him. Amen.