and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus our deliverer from the coming wrath. ¹ 

For you all are sons of the light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of the darkness.

so that your hearts are strengthened in holiness to be blameless before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints. ¹ 

For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, so also we believe that ¹  God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep as Christians. ² 

For in fact when we were with you, we were telling you in advance that we would suffer affliction, and so it has happened, as you well know. ¹ 

But you, brothers and sisters, ¹  are not in the darkness for the day to overtake you like a thief would.

I call on you solemnly in the Lord ¹  to have this letter read to all the brothers and sisters. ² 

In this matter no one should violate the rights of his brother or take advantage of him, ¹  because the Lord is the avenger in all these cases, ²  as we also told you earlier and warned you solemnly.

Then we who are alive, who are left, ¹  will be suddenly caught up ²  together ³  with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord.

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.

But although we suffered earlier and were mistreated in Philippi, ¹  as you know, we had the courage in our God to declare to you the gospel of God ²  in spite of much opposition.

So ¹  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.

Now we do not want you to be uninformed, ¹  brothers and sisters, ²  about those who are asleep, ³  so that you will not grieve like the rest who have no hope.

But when we were separated from you, brothers and sisters, ¹  for a short time (in presence, not in affection) ²  we became all the more fervent in our great desire ³  to see you in person. ⁴ 

For you became imitators, brothers and sisters, ¹  of God’s churches in Christ Jesus that are in Judea, because you too suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they in fact did from the Jews,

And so ¹  we too constantly thank God that when you received God’s message that you heard from us, ²  you accepted it not as a human message, ³  but as it truly is, God’s message, which is at work among you who believe.

Always rejoice,

As you know, we treated each one of you as a father treats his own children,

Therefore encourage one another with these words.

For this is God’s will: that you become holy, ¹  that you keep away from sexual immorality,