1 Thessalonians 2 - EasyEnglish Bible 2024（EASY）

Chapter 2Paul has served God among the Thessalonian Christians

1Our Christian friends, you yourselves know that our visit to you had good results.

2You know what happened to us before we came to you. The people at Philippi had done bad things to us. They had caused us to suffer. When we came to you, our God helped us to be brave. We were not afraid to tell you his good news. Many people tried to stop us, but we told you God's message.

3When we tell people to obey God's message, we are not saying anything that is not true. We do not have a wrong purpose. We are not trying to deceive anyone.

4Instead, we say what God wants us to say. He has chosen us to tell his good news to people. So we are not trying to please people. God is the one that we want to please. He knows all our thoughts.

5When we came to you, we did not say nice things only to please you. You know that we never did that. We did not try to make you give things to us. We never had a secret purpose like that. God knows that this is true.

6We did not want you, or anyone else, to praise us.

7We could have used our authority over you, because we are Christ's apostles. But instead, we chose to be kind to you and to help you. We took care of you, like a mother takes care of her little children.

8We loved you very much, so we wanted to tell you God's good news. We wanted to share our lives with you too.

9Our Christian friends, remember how we worked so hard when we were with you. We worked during the day and even during the night. We did not want to cause any problems for you. So we taught you God's good news and we did not ask you to give us anything in return.

10You know that we lived in a good way when we were with you. God also knows that. We were completely honest with you believers. Nobody could say that we did anything wrong.

11You know that we helped you, like a father helps his own children.

12We taught you clearly what is true. We helped you to be strong as believers. God has chosen you to be his own people. You belong to his great kingdom, where he rules. So we told you to live in a way that pleases him.

13There is another reason why we always continue to thank God for you. When we told God's message to you, you knew that it was not human ideas. You accepted it as God's own message, and that is what it certainly is. And God continues to use his message to work among you as believers.

14Our Christian friends, you have suffered in the same way that the people in the churches of Judea suffered. People in your own country have caused you to suffer. The people in Judea who believed in Christ Jesus received trouble from their own Jewish people.

15It was people like that who killed the Lord Jesus. They killed God's prophets, too. They also did cruel things to us, so that we had to leave their towns. They make God become angry. They are enemies of all people,

16because they try to stop us speaking to Gentiles. They do not want God to save anyone from another nation. In this way, they continue to do more and more bad things. When their sins become too many, God has to stop them. Now he has become so angry that he will finally punish them.

Paul wants to return to Thessalonica

17Our friends, we have had to go away from you for a short time. But we continue to think about you. We have wanted more and more to see you again.

18Yes, we really wanted to visit you. Certainly, I, Paul, tried many times to come to you, but Satan stopped us.

19You are the people who make us very happy! We know that you will continue to trust God. So, when our Lord Jesus returns, we will be proud of you. You will be like a crown that he gives us when we stand in front of him.

20You show the great results of our work. Yes, it is because of you that we are very happy.