Therefore encourage one another with these words.

in that ¹  our gospel did not come to you merely in words, ²  but in power and in the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction (surely you recall the character we displayed when we came among you to help you). ³ 

For we tell you this by the word of the Lord, ¹  that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will surely not go ahead of those who have fallen asleep.

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.

Do not treat prophecies with contempt.

And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, when you received ¹  the message with joy that comes from the Holy Spirit, despite great affliction.

For we never appeared ¹  with flattering speech, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed – God is our witness –

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.

Consequently the one who rejects this is not rejecting human authority ¹  but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.

because they hinder us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be saved. Thus they constantly fill up their measure of sins, ¹  but wrath ²  has come upon them completely. ³ 

For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a shout of command, with the voice of the archangel, ¹  and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.