Letters to the Churches

for you know that we treated each one of you the way a father treats his children —

we encouraged you and comforted you and appealed to you to lead lives worthy of God, who calls you into his Kingdom and glory.

Another reason we regularly thank God is that when you heard the Word of God from us, you received it not merely as a human word, but as it truly is, God’s Word, which is at work in you believers.

For, brothers, you came to be imitators of God’s congregations in Y’hudah that are united with the Messiah Yeshua — you suffered the same things from your countrymen as they did from the Judeans who

both killed the Lord Yeshua and the prophets, and chased us out too. They are displeasing God and opposing all mankind

by trying to keep us from speaking to the Gentiles, so that they may be delivered. Their object seems to be always to make their sins as bad as possible! But God’s fury will catch up with them in the end.

And as for us, brothers, when we were deprived of your company for a short time — in person, but not in thought — we missed you and tried hard to come and see you.

We wanted so much to come to you — I, Sha’ul, tried more than once — but the Adversary stopped us.

For when our Lord Yeshua returns, what will be our hope, our joy, our crown to boast about? Won’t it be you?

Yes, you are our glory and our joy!

So when we could no longer stand it, we agreed to be left in Athens alone

and sent Timothy, our brother and God’s fellow worker for the Good News of the Messiah, to make you solid and encourage you in your trust;

so that none of you would let these persecutions unsettle him. For you yourselves know that these are bound to come to us;

even when we were with you, we kept telling you in advance that we were about to be persecuted; and indeed it has happened, as you know.

That is the reason why, after I could stand it no longer, I sent to find out about your trust. I was afraid that somehow the Tempter had tempted you, and our hard work had been wasted.

But now Timothy has come to us from you, bringing good news about your trust and love, and telling us that you remember us well and are always longing to see us, just as we long to see you.

Because of this, brothers, in spite of all our trouble and distress, we were comforted over you — because of your trust;

so that now we are alive; since you continue to stand fast, united with the Lord.

Indeed, how can we thank God enough for you or express to our God all the joy we feel because of you?

Night and day we pray as hard as we can that we will be able to see you face to face and supply whatever shortcomings there may be in your trust.

May God our Father and our Lord Yeshua direct our way to you.

And as for you, may the Lord make you increase and overflow in love toward each other, indeed, toward everyone, just as we do toward you;

so that he may give you the inner strength to be blameless, by reason of your holiness, when you stand before God our Father at the coming of our Lord Yeshua with all his angels.

Therefore, brothers, just as you learned from us how you had to live in order to please God, and just as you are living this way now, we ask you — indeed, united with the Lord Yeshua, we urge you — to keep doing so more and more.

For you know what instructions we gave you on the authority of the Lord Yeshua.