Wives and Husbands

¹In the same way you wives must submit yourselves to your husbands, so that if any of them do not believe God's word, your conduct will win them over to believe. It will not be necessary for you to say a word,

²because they will see how pure and reverent your conduct is.

³You should not use outward aids to make yourselves beautiful, such as the way you fix your hair, or the jewelry you put on, or the dresses you wear.

⁴Instead, your beauty should consist of your true inner self, the ageless beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of the greatest value in God's sight.

⁵For the devout women of the past who placed their hope in God used to make themselves beautiful by submitting themselves to their husbands.

⁶Sarah was like that; she obeyed Abraham and called him her master. You are now her daughters if you do good and are not afraid of anything.

⁷In the same way you husbands must live with your wives with the proper understanding that they are more delicate than you. Treat them with respect, because they also will receive, together with you, God's gift of life. Do this so that nothing will interfere with your prayers.

Suffering for Doing Right

⁸To conclude: you must all have the same attitude and the same feelings; love one another, and be kind and humble with one another.

⁹Do not pay back evil with evil or cursing with cursing; instead, pay back with a blessing, because a blessing is what God promised to give you when he called you.

¹⁰As the scripture says, “If you want to enjoy life and wish to see good times, you must keep from speaking evil and stop telling lies.

¹¹You must turn away from evil and do good; you must strive for peace with all your heart.

¹²For the Lord watches over the righteous and listens to their prayers; but he opposes those who do evil.”

¹³Who will harm you if you are eager to do what is good?

¹⁴But even if you should suffer for doing what is right, how happy you are! Do not be afraid of anyone, and do not worry.

¹⁵But have reverence for Christ in your hearts, and honor him as Lord. Be ready at all times to answer anyone who asks you to explain the hope you have in you,

¹⁶but do it with gentleness and respect. Keep your conscience clear, so that when you are insulted, those who speak evil of your good conduct as followers of Christ will become ashamed of what they say.

¹⁷For it is better to suffer for doing good, if this should be God's will, than for doing evil.

¹⁸For Christ died for sins once and for all, a good man on behalf of sinners, in order to lead you to God. He was put to death physically, but made alive spiritually,

¹⁹and in his spiritual existence he went and preached to the imprisoned spirits.

²⁰These were the spirits of those who had not obeyed God when he waited patiently during the days that Noah was building his boat. The few people in the boat—eight in all—were saved by the water,

²¹which was a symbol pointing to baptism, which now saves you. It is not the washing off of bodily dirt, but the promise made to God from a good conscience. It saves you through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,

²²who has gone to heaven and is at the right side of God, ruling over all angels and heavenly authorities and powers.

Changed Lives

¹Since Christ suffered physically, you too must strengthen yourselves with the same way of thinking that he had; because whoever suffers physically is no longer involved with sin.

²From now on, then, you must live the rest of your earthly lives controlled by God's will and not by human desires.

³You have spent enough time in the past doing what the heathen like to do. Your lives were spent in indecency, lust, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and the disgusting worship of idols.

⁴And now the heathen are surprised when you do not join them in the same wild and reckless living, and so they insult you.

⁵But they will have to give an account of themselves to God, who is ready to judge the living and the dead.

⁶That is why the Good News was preached also to the dead, to those who had been judged in their physical existence as everyone is judged; it was preached to them so that in their spiritual existence they may live as God lives.

Good Managers of God's Gifts

⁷The end of all things is near. You must be self-controlled and alert, to be able to pray.

⁸Above everything, love one another earnestly, because love covers over many sins.

⁹Open your homes to each other without complaining.

¹⁰Each one, as a good manager of God's different gifts, must use for the good of others the special gift he has received from God.

¹¹Those who preach must preach God's messages; those who serve must serve with the strength that God gives them, so that in all things praise may be given to God through Jesus Christ, to whom belong glory and power forever and ever. Amen.

Suffering as a Christian

¹²My dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful test you are suffering, as though something unusual were happening to you.

¹³Rather be glad that you are sharing Christ's sufferings, so that you may be full of joy when his glory is revealed.

¹⁴Happy are you if you are insulted because you are Christ's followers; this means that the glorious Spirit, the Spirit of God, is resting on you.

¹⁵If you suffer, it must not be because you are a murderer or a thief or a criminal or a meddler in other people's affairs.

¹⁶However, if you suffer because you are a Christian, don't be ashamed of it, but thank God that you bear Christ's name.

¹⁷The time has come for judgment to begin, and God's own people are the first to be judged. If it starts with us, how will it end with those who do not believe the Good News from God?

¹⁸As the scripture says, “It is difficult for good people to be saved; what, then, will become of godless sinners?”

¹⁹So then, those who suffer because it is God's will for them, should by their good actions trust themselves completely to their Creator, who always keeps his promise.

The Flock of God

¹I, who am an elder myself, appeal to the church elders among you. I am a witness of Christ's sufferings, and I will share in the glory that will be revealed. I appeal to you

²to be shepherds of the flock that God gave you and to take care of it willingly, as God wants you to, and not unwillingly. Do your work, not for mere pay, but from a real desire to serve.

³Do not try to rule over those who have been put in your care, but be examples to the flock.

⁴And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the glorious crown which will never lose its brightness.

⁵In the same way you younger people must submit yourselves to your elders. And all of you must put on the apron of humility, to serve one another; for the scripture says, “God resists the proud, but shows favor to the humble.”

⁶Humble yourselves, then, under God's mighty hand, so that he will lift you up in his own good time.

⁷Leave all your worries with him, because he cares for you.

⁸Be alert, be on watch! Your enemy, the Devil, roams around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.

⁹Be firm in your faith and resist him, because you know that other believers in all the world are going through the same kind of sufferings.

¹⁰But after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who calls you to share his eternal glory in union with Christ, will himself perfect you and give you firmness, strength, and a sure foundation.

¹¹To him be the power forever! Amen.

Final Greetings

¹²I write you this brief letter with the help of Silas, whom I regard as a faithful Christian. I want to encourage you and give my testimony that this is the true grace of God. Stand firm in it.

¹³Your sister church in Babylon, also chosen by God, sends you greetings, and so does my son Mark.

¹⁴Greet one another with the kiss of Christian love. May peace be with all of you who belong to Christ.

¹From Paul, Silas, and Timothy— To the people of the church in Thessalonica, who belong to God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: May grace and peace be yours.

The Life and Faith of the Thessalonians

²We always thank God for you all and always mention you in our prayers.

³For we remember before our God and Father how you put your faith into practice, how your love made you work so hard, and how your hope in our Lord Jesus Christ is firm.

⁴Our friends, we know that God loves you and has chosen you to be his own.

⁵For we brought the Good News to you, not with words only, but also with power and the Holy Spirit, and with complete conviction of its truth. You know how we lived when we were with you; it was for your own good.

⁶You imitated us and the Lord; and even though you suffered much, you received the message with the joy that comes from the Holy Spirit.

⁷So you became an example to all believers in Macedonia and Achaia.

⁸For not only did the message about the Lord go out from you throughout Macedonia and Achaia, but the news about your faith in God has gone everywhere. There is nothing, then, that we need to say.

⁹All those people speak about how you received us when we visited you, and how you turned away from idols to God, to serve the true and living God

¹⁰and to wait for his Son to come from heaven—his Son Jesus, whom he raised from death and who rescues us from God's anger that is coming.

Paul's Work in Thessalonica

¹Our friends, you yourselves know that our visit to you was not a failure.

²You know how we had already been mistreated and insulted in Philippi before we came to you in Thessalonica. And even though there was much opposition, our God gave us courage to tell you the Good News that comes from him.

³Our appeal to you is not based on error or impure motives, nor do we try to trick anyone.

⁴Instead, we always speak as God wants us to, because he has judged us worthy to be entrusted with the Good News. We do not try to please people, but to please God, who tests our motives.

⁵You know very well that we did not come to you with flattering talk, nor did we use words to cover up greed—God is our witness!

⁶We did not try to get praise from anyone, either from you or from others,

⁷even though as apostles of Christ we could have made demands on you. But we were gentle when we were with you, like a mother taking care of her children.

⁸Because of our love for you we were ready to share with you not only the Good News from God but even our own lives. You were so dear to us!

⁹Surely you remember, our friends, how we worked and toiled! We worked day and night so that we would not be any trouble to you as we preached to you the Good News from God.

¹⁰You are our witnesses, and so is God, that our conduct toward you who believe was pure, right, and without fault.

¹¹You know that we treated each one of you just as parents treat their own children.

¹²We encouraged you, we comforted you, and we kept urging you to live the kind of life that pleases God, who calls you to share in his own Kingdom and glory.

¹³And there is another reason why we always give thanks to God. When we brought you God's message, you heard it and accepted it, not as a message from human beings but as God's message, which indeed it is. For God is at work in you who believe.

¹⁴Our friends, the same things happened to you that happened to the churches of God in Judea, to the people there who belong to Christ Jesus. You suffered the same persecutions from your own people that they suffered from the Jews,

¹⁵who killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and persecuted us. How displeasing they are to God! How hostile they are to everyone!

¹⁶They even tried to stop us from preaching to the Gentiles the message that would bring them salvation. In this way they have brought to completion all the sins they have always committed. And now God's anger has at last come down on them!

Paul's Desire to Visit Them Again

¹⁷As for us, friends, when we were separated from you for a little while—not in our thoughts, of course, but only in body—how we missed you and how hard we tried to see you again!

¹⁸We wanted to return to you. I myself tried to go back more than once, but Satan would not let us.

¹⁹After all, it is you—you, no less than others!—who are our hope, our joy, and our reason for boasting of our victory in the presence of our Lord Jesus when he comes.

²⁰Indeed, you are our pride and our joy!

¹Finally, we could not bear it any longer. So we decided to stay on alone in Athens

²while we sent Timothy, our brother who works with us for God in preaching the Good News about Christ. We sent him to strengthen you and help your faith,

³so that none of you should turn back because of these persecutions. You yourselves know that such persecutions are part of God's will for us.

⁴For while we were still with you, we told you ahead of time that we were going to be persecuted; and as you well know, that is exactly what happened.

⁵That is why I had to send Timothy. I could not bear it any longer, so I sent him to find out about your faith. Surely it could not be that the Devil had tempted you and all our work had been for nothing!

⁶Now Timothy has come back, and he has brought us the welcome news about your faith and love. He has told us that you always think well of us and that you want to see us just as much as we want to see you.

⁷So, in all our trouble and suffering we have been encouraged about you, friends. It was your faith that encouraged us,

⁸because now we really live if you stand firm in your life in union with the Lord.

⁹Now we can give thanks to our God for you. We thank him for the joy we have in his presence because of you.

¹⁰Day and night we ask him with all our heart to let us see you personally and supply what is needed in your faith.

¹¹May our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus prepare the way for us to come to you!

¹²May the Lord make your love for one another and for all people grow more and more and become as great as our love for you.

¹³In this way he will strengthen you, and you will be perfect and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all who belong to him.

¹⁵A leech has two daughters, and both are named “Give me!” There are four things that are never satisfied:

¹⁶the world of the dead, a woman without children, dry ground that needs rain, and a fire burning out of control.