Easy English Bible - 1 Thessalonians 2009
Chapter 1 2 3 4 5 2 Thessalonians * 1 2 3
Be Ready for Jesus to Return
About 1 Thessalonians
Thessalonica was a large city in Macedonia. Macedonia included the north part of the country that we call Greece. It included also the south part of the country that we call Yugoslavia. Thessalonica was an important port, and roads from several different directions joined there. So, people could travel easily to Thessalonica. It is still an important city today.
Paul was a great Christian teacher. He went to Thessalonica to teach the people there about Jesus Christ. He stayed there for only a short time, perhaps only a few weeks. Two other men, called Silas and Timothy, went there with him. As a result of what Paul taught them, some Jews at Thessalonica believed Christ. Many other people who were not Jews also believed. But the Jews who refused to believe Christ caused a lot of trouble for Paul and his friends. Paul had to leave the city at night. Paul and his friends went to Berea, which was a city about 50 miles west from Thessalonica. (See Acts 17:1-15.)
Paul taught the people at Berea too. Then he travelled to Athens, a city in the south of Greece. But Silas and Timothy stayed at Berea. Paul waited at Athens for them to come to him there (Acts 17:15-16). Paul was sorry that he had not had enough time at Thessalonica. He wanted to teach the new believers there a lot more about Christ. But he could not go himself (1 Thessalonians 2:17-18). So, he sent Timothy (chapter 3:1-3).
While Timothy went back to Thessalonica, Paul travelled to Corinth (Acts 18:1). The city called Corinth was also in the south part of Greece. After that, Silas and Timothy arrived in Corinth (Acts 18:5). Then Timothy told Paul the news about the Christians at Thessalonica. Paul was very happy to know that they were continuing to believe Christ. He wrote this letter to them from Corinth.
Paul, together with Silas and Timothy, wrote this letter in the year AD 50 or AD 51. That was about 20 years after Jesus died. So, this letter may be the first of Paul’s letters that we have in the Bible. Paul wrote it only a few months after he had first taught the Christian message at Thessalonica. So, he was writing to people who had been Christians for only a short time.
Paul tells them that he always thinks about them. He wants very much to visit them again (chapters 2 and 3). Paul also teaches them about how they should do only good, right things, to make God happy. And in chapters 4 and 5, he teaches them about Jesus’ return to the earth.
Paul thanks God for the believers at Thessalonica
1 This letter is from Paul, Silas and Timothy to the Christians at Thessalonica. You are united to God the Father and to the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that God will continue to be very kind to you. We pray also that he will cause you to be without trouble inside yourselves.
2 We thank God for all of you at all times. Every time that we pray, we always pray for you. 3 We speak about you to God, who is our Father. We remember the good things that you do. You do those things because you believe Christ. You work very much because you love Christ and other people. We remember also how you continue to hope strongly because of our Lord Jesus Christ.
4 You are like brothers and sisters to us, and God loves you. We know that God has chosen you to be his own. 5 We know that, because our good news came to you not only with words. When we told it to you, the power of God’s Spirit was there too. Also, we felt completely brave and strong when we spoke. You know how we lived among you. You know what kind of people we were. We were like good guides for you. 6 And you learned to live as we lived. So you learned also to live like the Lord. People caused you a lot of trouble and pain because you believed the message about Christ. But you did believe it, and God’s Spirit caused you to be very happy. 7 And so you became like a guide to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia.
8 Because of you, people in many places have listened to the message about the Lord. It was not only the people in Macedonia and in Achaia who listened to these things. But people everywhere know how you believe God. So, we do not need to say anything. 9 Those people themselves speak about how you believed our message. They tell how you turned to God. They tell us how you stopped worshipping false gods. They themselves say that you are now God’s servants. God is alive, and only he is really God. 10 Also, you are waiting for God’s Son to come from heaven. God caused his Son, Jesus, to become alive again after he had died. And Jesus saves us so that God will not be angry with us at that future time.
Paul’s work in Thessalonica
1 Our friends, you yourselves know that our visit to you had good results. 2 Before we came to you, the people at Philippi had done bad things to hurt us. And they had spoken very bad words to us. You know that. But our God caused us to be brave so that we could tell you his good news. Many people tried to stop us, but we did tell you God’s message.
3 We were telling you the good news so that you could believe God. We told you only true things. We had no wrong purpose. We did not want you to believe things that are not true. 4 Instead, we say what God wants us to say. He has chosen us to tell his good news. We do not speak so that we can make people happy. But we do want to make God happy. And God discovers what our purposes really are, deep inside ourselves. 5 We never tried to say nice things about you so that you would like us. You know that. We never demanded money or other things from you. We never had a secret purpose like that. God knows this. 6 We did not want people to say great things about us. We did not want you to do that. And we did not want anyone else to do that. We are Christ’s special workers and teachers. So, we could have used our authority over you. We could have caused you to do things for us. We could have caused you to supply things for us.
7 But instead, we were kind when we were with you. We were kind like a mother who looks after her little children. 8 We were very fond of you. So, we wanted very much to tell you the good news from God. Also, we wanted to give ourselves completely to help you. We wanted to do these things because we loved you very much. 9 Our friends, you should certainly remember how we worked so very much. We worked during the day and at night. We worked so that we did not need to ask any of you for anything. So then, we did not cost you anything while we taught you God’s good news.
10 When we were with you believers, we did nothing wrong. We did only what is completely good and right. You know that, and God knows it too. 11-12 You know that we helped each of you. We were like a father who helps his own children. We taught you and we helped you to be brave and strong as believers. And we told you very strongly what you must do. You must do what makes God happy. God has chosen you to belong to his own people, the people that he rules over. He wants you to be with him always, in the beautiful place where he lives.
13 There is also another reason why we continue to thank God always. When we told God’s message to you, you believed it as words from God. You knew that it was not only a human message. You believed it as God’s message, which it certainly is. And God’s words do powerful things in you who believe him.
14 And now, my friends, you have become like the Christians who belong to God’s people in Judea. People in your own country have caused trouble and pain for you. And that is what happened in Judea too to the believers in Christ Jesus there. People in their own country caused trouble and pain for them.
15 The people who caused that trouble even killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets. And they caused trouble for us so that they caused us to leave their country. God is not happy with those people. He is very angry with them. They are very much against people everywhere 16 because they do not want us to speak to people from other nations. They do not want God to save anyone from another nation. Those people always continue until they have done their last sin. But in the end, God has punished them.
Paul wants to visit the believers at Thessalonica again
17 But you are like brothers and sisters to us. We have had to go away from you for a short time. But it was only our bodies that left you. We did not stop thinking about you. We wanted very, very much to see your faces. And we tried very much to visit you again. 18 We wanted to return to you. Certainly, I, Paul, tried again and again to return, but Satan made it impossible. 19 We wanted so much to visit you because you cause us to hope so strongly! You make us sure that God will continue to work in you. You cause us to be very happy! To us, you are like a crown that a winner receives. The crown shows that the winner has done well. You show that our work among you had good results. So, you are our crown that makes us very happy. We will be very happy when we stand in front of our Lord Jesus. That will be when he comes again. 20 Yes, it is because of you that we are so happy. We are happy about the results of our work.
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.
A life that makes God happy
1 Now, friends, we want to say this to you. We taught you how to live so that you make God happy. And certainly, you are living like that. Now we ask you very strongly to continue to live like that more and more. On behalf of the Lord Jesus, we ask you to do this. 2 You know what we told you. We told you what you must do. The Lord Jesus gave us authority to tell you those things.
3 What God wants is this: He wants you to be completely good, and separate from everything that is bad. So you must not have wrong sex. You must not have sex with anyone who is not your own wife or husband. 4 Each of you must learn how to rule his own body. So then you will always do what is right and proper. 5 You should not be like the people who do not know God. They are always wanting very much to have sex. They cannot stop themselves, because they want it so much. But you should not be like those people. 6 No man among you should ever have sex with a woman who is not his own wife. He would be taking something that is another man’s. So, he would be doing a wrong thing to that man, who is like his brother. The Lord will punish everyone who does things like that. We have told you this very seriously before. 7 God did not choose us to do bad and dirty things. He chose us to be completely separate from everything that is bad. 8 So anyone who does not obey this rule is not refusing to obey a human person. Instead, he is refusing to do what God says. And God gives you his Spirit, who is completely good.
9 But I do not need to write to you about how you should love other believers. God himself has taught you to love each other. 10 Certainly, you do love all the believers in all Macedonia. But we ask you strongly, friends, to love each other more and more. 11 Try very much not to cause trouble for anyone. Be busy only with your own things, not with other people’s things. And work with your hands. We told you before that you must do these things. 12 Then, if you do these things, other people will think good things about you. People who do not believe Christ will think good things about you. They will know that you are honest and good. Also, if you do these things, you will not need anyone else to supply anything for you.
Jesus’ return and the believers who have died
13 Friends, we want you to understand properly about the people who have died. So you will not be sad about them, as other people are sad about their dead friends. Those other people are sad because they have nothing to hope for, after death. 14 But we believe that Jesus died. We believe that he became alive again after death. So, we also believe this about the people who have died united to Christ. We believe that God will bring those people back with Jesus.
15 We are now telling you something that the Lord has said. We tell you this about the day when the Lord will come. Those of us who are still alive on that day will not go to meet the Lord first. We will certainly not go before those people who have already died. 16 On that day, God will shout with authority. Also, people will hear the voice of an important angel. They will hear the sound of God’s trumpet. And the Lord himself will come down from heaven. Then those people who have died united to Christ will become alive again. And they will rise first. 17 After that, those of us who are still alive at that time will go up. God will take us up to be together with them in the clouds. He will take us to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord always. 18 So tell these things to each other. So you will not need to continue being sad.
We must be ready for Jesus to return
1 Friends, we do not need to write to you about the dates and times when these things will happen. 2 You know very well about how the day of the Lord’s return will happen. That day will surprise people very much, as when someone comes to rob people at night. 3 At that time, people will say, ‘We are safe and there is no trouble for us.’ But then, when they are not ready for it, a lot of trouble and pain will happen to them. That trouble will happen to them like the pains of a woman who is giving birth to a baby. And it will be impossible for anyone to get free from that trouble.
4 But you people, who are like brothers and sisters to us, you know about these things. So, you are not like people who live in the dark. And so the day when the Lord returns should not surprise you. That day will not surprise you as when someone comes to rob people. 5 All of you are people who are the Lord’s people. So, you belong to the light and to the day. We are not people who belong to the night or to the dark. 6 So, we should not be like other people. We should not be like people who are sleeping. Instead, we should be like people who continue to be awake. We should think clearly about what is happening.
7 It is at night that people sleep. It is at night that people are drunks. 8 But we belong to the day. So we should watch and we should think clearly. We must continue to believe God and to love him. So we will be like soldiers who put on breastplates. Also, we must continue to hope strongly that God will save us. So we will be like soldiers who put on metal hats to keep their heads safe.
9 God did not make us his people so that he could be angry with us. He has not chosen us so that he can punish us. Instead, he has chosen us so that he can save us. He saves us because of what our Lord Jesus Christ has done. 10 Jesus died for us so that we can live together with him. When he comes, we will live with him. Whether we are alive or dead at that time, there will not be any difference. We will all live with him. 11 So, tell these things to each other so that you do not feel sad or weak. Help each other to become stronger as believers, as you are doing already.
Paul’s last words in this letter
12 Now we ask you, our friends, to remember how valuable your leaders are. They work among you and they look after you. They teach you how you should live as the Lord’s people. They tell you when you do wrong things. 13 Show them how valuable they are to you. And love them very much because of the work that they do. Do not quarrel with each other.
14 Tell lazy people that they should work. Speak to those people who are afraid. Help them to be brave. Help those people who are weak. Be patient with everyone. Friends, we ask you strongly to do these things. 15 If a person has done something wrong to you, do not do something wrong back to them. Be careful that none of you does things like that. But always try to do good things to each other and to everyone else.
16 Always be happy. 17 Pray at all times. 18 Whatever things may happen to you, continue to thank God. God wants you to do this, because you are united to Christ Jesus. 19 Do not stop letting God’s Spirit work in you as people might put out a fire. 20 Listen carefully when people speak messages on God’s behalf. Remember that those messages are important. 21 But think carefully about everything, to see if it really is from God. Then be careful to remember and to obey everything that is good. 22 Refuse to have anything to do with any kind of bad or wrong thing.
23 God causes us to be without trouble inside ourselves. And I pray that God himself will make you completely good and clean. I pray that God will look after your spirits, your souls and your bodies. I pray that he will look after you completely. Then you will be completely good and clean when our Lord Jesus Christ returns. 24 God has chosen you to be his people. And he always does what he has promised to do. So, he will do this for you.
25 Our friends, please pray for us. 26 Say ‘hello’ to all the believers. Kiss them as you would kiss your brother.
27 I tell you very seriously, on behalf of the Lord, that you should read this letter to all the believers. 28 I pray that our Lord Jesus Christ will continue to be very kind to you.
Easy English Bible - 2 Thessalonians
Jesus Has Not Returned Yet
About 2 Thessalonians
Thessalonica was a large city in Macedonia. Macedonia included the north part of the country that we call Greece. It also included the south part of the country that we call Yugoslavia. We think that Paul, together with Silas and Timothy, went to Thessalonica about the year AD 50. That was about 20 years after Jesus died. Paul went there for a short time, to tell the people about Jesus Christ. A few months after that, Paul wrote his first letter to the Christians who lived at Thessalonica. Paul wrote that
first letter when he was in Corinth city. Corinth was about 300 kilometres (200 miles) south from Thessalonica.
While Paul was still at Corinth, people told him some news. The news was about the Christians who lived at Thessalonica. So, he wrote this second letter to them, only a short time after he had sent his first letter.
Paul knew that some people were still causing bad trouble for the Christians at Thessalonica. So he wrote to help them to be brave (chapter 1). He says that God knows about their troubles. God has a purpose in everything, and he will punish his people’s enemies in the end.
Also, some people were teaching that Jesus had already returned to the earth. Other people were teaching that he would return very soon. Some of the Christians at Thessalonica may have believed what these people taught. We think that some of the Christians may even have stopped working as a result. So, Paul writes to explain that Jesus will not return yet. Certain things must happen before he returns (chapter 2). Paul also says that nobody should stop working (chapter 3). People should work so that they can get their own food.
Paul starts his letter
1 This letter is from Paul, Silas and Timothy to God’s people who live at Thessalonica. You are united to God our Father, and to the Lord Jesus Christ. 2 We pray that God the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ will continue to be very kind to you. We pray also that they will cause you to be without trouble in your minds.
Paul thanks God because of the believers at Thessalonica
3 You are like brothers and sisters to us, and we ought to thank God because of you always. We should thank him, because you are learning to believe Christ more and more. And each of you is loving each of the other Christians more and more. 4 As a result, we speak about you to God’s other groups of believers. We are so happy to tell them about you. You are showing how God’s people should live. People often cause you bad trouble and pain because you are Christians. But you are continuing to believe Christ. You are continuing to be patient and brave.
5 All this shows us something clearly, about how God decides about people. God decides about people who die. He decides what should happen to those people. And he will always decide what is right for them. People are causing great trouble for you now because God is your king. So it is right that, as a result, you should live always with God and his people. And God will cause this to happen to you.
6 God will do what is right. So he will punish those people who are causing trouble for you. He will cause trouble for them. 7 God will also do what is right for you. You have troubles now. But God will cause you to rest and to be without trouble. You will rest, together with us, when the Lord Jesus will come down from heaven. He will come with his powerful angels. 8 He will come with a very hot fire. And he will punish those people who refuse to know God. He will punish those people who do not obey the good news about our Lord Jesus. 9 To punish them, he will go on destroying them always. He will shut them out from where the Lord is present. So, they will never see how very powerful, great and beautiful he is. 10 All this will happen on that special day when Jesus will come. On that day, Jesus’ own people will show what great things he has done for them. All those people who believe him will say great things about him. And you will be among them, because you believed our message. You believed what we told you.
Paul prays for the believers at Thessalonica
11 So we always pray for you. Our God has chosen you to be his own people. And you must continue to be the kind of people that he wants. So, we pray that he will be happy about you. We pray also that God will work powerfully in you. So then he will make it possible for you to do every good thing that you want to do. You want to do those good things because you believe Christ. 12 We pray this so that other people will say good things about our Lord Jesus because of you. They will see the great things that he has done for you. Also, Jesus will cause people to say good things about you. This will happen because our God and the Lord Jesus Christ are so very kind to you.
Antichrist will come before Jesus returns
1 Our friends, we must explain something now about the time when our Lord Jesus Christ will return. You know that, at that time, he will bring us all together to be with him. But we ask you something very strongly. 2 You must not let yourselves become confused or afraid easily because of false messages about the Lord’s return. Those messages say that the day of the Lord has already happened. Perhaps somebody might say that God’s Spirit has shown him a message like that. Or somebody might report that we said it. Or they might say that we wrote it in a letter.
3 Do not let anyone cause you to believe something false in any way. That day will not happen until certain other things have happened first. Before that day, there will be a time when many people will turn against God completely. Also, before that day, people will see the man who completely refuses to obey God. He is the man that God will certainly kill. 4 This man will be God’s enemy. He will be the enemy of everything that people call God. He will be the enemy of everything that people worship. He will think that he is much greater than any god. As a result, this man will even go into God’s special house and he will sit down there. And he will tell people that he himself is God.
5 I told you these things when I was with you. I am sure that you remember that. 6 This man will come at the time that God has chosen. But something makes it impossible for him to come yet. And you know what it is. 7 Already Satan is working secretly to turn people against God and against God’s rules. But there is someone who is making it impossible for Satan to work like that freely. And that someone will continue to make it impossible, until God takes that someone away. 8 Then people will see the man who completely refuses to obey God. But when the Lord Jesus will come, he will kill that man. Jesus will kill him with the words that Jesus speaks. Jesus will kill him with the very bright, powerful light that shines from Jesus himself.
9 Satan will cause this very bad man to come. Also, Satan will cause this man to be very powerful. So, this very bad man will do all kinds of things that people cannot usually do. Those things will surprise people very much. Those things will cause people to believe this very bad man. They will cause people to believe things that are not true. 10 This very bad man will also do all kinds of bad things. He will cause bad people to believe what is not true. So, God will certainly kill those bad people. Those bad people will believe false things because they refused to love the true message. They refused to love the true message so that God could save them. 11 For this reason, God causes them to believe wrong things very easily and very strongly. So then they will believe what is not true. 12 The result is that God will decide to punish them. They refused to believe what is true. And instead, they enjoyed doing wrong things. So God will punish all of them.
The Christians at Thessalonica must continue to believe what Paul taught them
13 But you are like brothers and sisters to us, and the Lord loves you. We must thank God always because of you, because God has chosen you. God chose you to be among the first people that he would save. He saves you because his Spirit makes you God’s special people. God’s Spirit makes you separate from everything that is bad. God saves you because you believe him. You believe what is true. 14 God asked you strongly to become his special people. You heard him when we told you the good news. He wanted you to become special people who would live always with our Lord Jesus Christ. You will live in the beautiful place with Christ, who is so very great. 15 So, our friends, you must continue to believe Christ strongly. Continue to believe the true things that we taught you. God first taught those things to us. And we taught them to you when we spoke to you. We also taught them to you when we wrote our letter to you.
16 We pray about you to our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and to God, our Father. They have shown how much they love you and us. And they have promised to give good things to us all. So, we can continue to be brave and strong for all time. We can hope strongly for these good things. They will give these things to us because they are so very kind. 17 We pray that our Lord Jesus Christ and God, our Father, will make you brave. We pray that they will continue to make you strong in your minds. So you will always do what is good. And you will always say what is good.
Paul asks the Christians to pray for him and for his friends
1 Now, friends, we ask you to pray for us. Pray that, because of us, more and more people will hear the Lord’s message with pleasure soon. Pray that they will believe his message. So then they will thank God for it. That is what happened among you. 2 Pray also that God will not let very bad people cause bad trouble for us. Pray like that, because not everyone believes the message about our Lord. 3 But the Lord always does what he has promised. So, he will help you, so that you continue to believe him strongly. And he will keep you safe from Satan.
4 Also the Lord makes us sure about you. We told you things that you must do. You are doing those things. And you will continue to do those things. We are sure about that. 5 We pray that the Lord will help you to know him more and more. So then you will continue to understand more about how much God loves you. And he will cause you to be patient and strong, like Christ.
The Christians must not refuse to work
6 Our friends, we tell you this with the authority that the Lord Jesus Christ gives to us. You must stay away from every believer who is living in a lazy way. People like that are refusing to obey the things that we taught you. 7 You yourselves know that you ought to be like us. You ought to do the things that we did. We were not lazy when we were with you. 8 We always paid for all the food that we received from anyone. We worked very much, during the day and at night. We worked so that we did not need to ask any of you for anything. So, you did not have to supply anything for us. 9 We could have told you that you must supply things for us. We have authority to do that. But we wanted to show you ourselves what you should do. So then you could be like us. 10 Even when we were with you, we told you this rule. ‘If anyone refuses to work, you should not let him eat’, we said.
11 We say this because someone has told us news about you. They have told us that some people among you are living in a lazy way. Those people do not work themselves. But they talk very much about other people. They are busy with things that should not matter to them. 12 We speak strongly to those people who are lazy like that. We speak with the authority that the Lord Jesus Christ gives to us. We tell them strongly that it is their duty to work. They should work properly so that they may get their own food to eat.
13 But you other believers must never stop doing what is good. 14 We have written things in this letter to tell you what you should do. If anyone refuses to obey these things, tell everyone about him. And stay away from him, so that he may be ashamed. 15 But do not think about him or speak to him as your enemy. Instead, tell him seriously, like a brother, that he should obey our message.
Paul finishes his letter
16 The Lord causes us to be without trouble in our minds. And I pray that the Lord himself will do that for you at all times and in every way. I pray that the Lord will be with all of you.
17 I, Paul, am writing these words myself to say ‘hello’ to you. I write my name like this at the end of all my letters. This is how I write. 18 I pray that our Lord Jesus Christ will continue to be very kind to all of you.
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© Wycliffe Associates (UK), 1997-2009
This version published July 2009
The translated Bible text has been through Advanced Checking.