1 Thessalonians 1:8-9

1:8 For from you the message of the Lord ¹  has echoed forth not just in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place reports of your faith in God have spread, ²  so that we do not need to say anything. 1:9 For people everywhere ³  report how you welcomed us ⁴  and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God

1 Thessalonians 2:9

2:9 For you recall, brothers and sisters, ⁵  our toil and drudgery: By working night and day so as not to impose a burden on any of you, we preached to you the gospel of God.

1 Thessalonians 3:2

3:2 We ⁶  sent Timothy, our brother and fellow worker for God ⁷  in the gospel of Christ, to strengthen you and encourage you about your faith,

1 Thessalonians 3:5

3:5 So ⁸  when I could bear it no longer, I sent to find out about your faith, for fear that the tempter somehow tempted you and our toil had proven useless.

1 Thessalonians 5:23

Conclusion

5:23 Now may the God of peace himself make you completely holy and may your spirit and soul and body be kept entirely blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

[1:8]  ¹ tn Or “the word of the Lord.”

[1:8]  ² tn Grk “your faith in God has gone out.”

[1:9]  ³ tn Grk “they themselves,” referring to people in the places just mentioned.

[1:9]  ⁴ tn Grk “what sort of entrance we had to you” (an idiom for how someone is received).

[2:9]  ⁵ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:4.

[3:2]  ⁷ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[3:2]  ⁸ tc A variety of readings occurs in this verse. Instead of “and fellow worker for God” (καὶ συνεργὸν τοῦ θεοῦ, kai sunergon tou qeou), B has “and fellow worker” (καὶ συνεργόν); א A P Ψ 0278 6 81 629* 1241 1739 1881 2464 lat co read “and servant of God” (καὶ διάκονον τοῦ θεοῦ, kai diakonon tou qeou); D² Ï and a few versional witnesses read “and a servant of God and our fellow worker” (καὶ διάκονον τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ συνεργὸν ἡμῶν); and F G have “servant and fellow worker for God” (διάκονον καὶ συνεργὸν τοῦ θεοῦ). The reading of the text (καὶ συνεργὸν τοῦ θεοῦ) is found in D* 33 b {d m o} Ambst {Pel}. It may be argued that all readings that do not collocate συνεργόν with θεοῦ are secondary, as this is certainly the harder reading. Indeed, in only one other place in the NT are human beings said to be συνεργοὶ θεοῦ (sunergoi qeou; 1 Cor 3:9), and the simplest (though by no means the only) interpretation is that the genitive should be taken associatively (“a fellow worker in association with God”). It is difficult to account for συνεργὸν τοῦ θεοῦ here unless it is authentic because of the theological difficulty that would be easily seen in this wording. A genealogy of the readings suggests that various scribes may have deleted τοῦ θεοῦ or swapped διάκονον for συνεργόν to remove the offense. The readings of the Byzantine text and two Western mss (F G) appear to be conflations of earlier readings, but the reading of F G nevertheless indirectly supports καὶ συνεργὸν τοῦ θεοῦ since it does not remove the offense. Although the witnesses for καὶ συνεργὸν τοῦ θεοῦ are minimal, the internal evidence is quite strong in favor of this reading. With hesitation, it is adopted as authentic.

[3:5]  ⁹ tn Or “for this reason.”