From Paul, Silas, and Timothy--- To the people of the church in Thessalonica, who belong to God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:

May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace.

And so I write to all of you in Rome whom God loves and has called to be his own people: May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace.

May our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus prepare the way for us to come to you!

We must thank God at all times for you, friends, you whom the Lord loves. For God chose you as the first to be saved by the Spirit's power to make you his holy people and by your faith in the truth.

For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not die but have eternal life.

It was now the day before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. He had always loved those in the world who were his own, and he loved them to the very end.

I love you just as the Father loves me; remain in my love.

The greatest love you can have for your friends is to give your life for them.

But God has shown us how much he loves us---it was while we were still sinners that Christ died for us!

But God's mercy is so abundant, and his love for us is so great,

that while we were spiritually dead in our disobedience he brought us to life with Christ. It is by God's grace that you have been saved.

Your life must be controlled by love, just as Christ loved us and gave his life for us as a sweet-smelling offering and sacrifice that pleases God.

Husbands, love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave his life for it.

But when the kindness and love of God our Savior was revealed,

God poured out the Holy Spirit abundantly on us through Jesus Christ our Savior,

This is how we know what love is: Christ gave his life for us. We too, then, ought to give our lives for others!

And God showed his love for us by sending his only Son into the world, so that we might have life through him.

This is what love is: it is not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the means by which our sins are forgiven.

and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the first to be raised from death and who is also the ruler of the kings of the world. He loves us, and by his sacrificial death he has freed us from our sins

Listen! As for that group that belongs to Satan, those liars who claim that they are Jews but are not, I will make them come and bow down at your feet. They will all know that I love you.

But for those who honor the LORD, his love lasts forever, and his goodness endures for all generations

They will reach Jerusalem with gladness, singing and shouting for joy. They will be happy forever, forever free from sorrow and grief.

Those whom you have rescued will reach Jerusalem with gladness, singing and shouting for joy. They will be happy forever, forever free from sorrow and grief.

"No longer will the sun be your light by day Or the moon be your light by night; I, the LORD, will be your eternal light; The light of my glory will shine on you.

Your days of grief will come to an end. I, the LORD, will be your eternal light, More lasting than the sun and moon.

Your shame and disgrace are ended. You will live in your own land, And your wealth will be doubled; Your joy will last forever.

But Abraham said, 'Remember, my son, that in your lifetime you were given all the good things, while Lazarus got all the bad things. But now he is enjoying himself here, while you are in pain.

but those who drink the water that I will give them will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give them will become in them a spring which will provide them with life-giving water and give them eternal life."

I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, who will stay with you forever.

"When I go, you will not be left all alone; I will come back to you.

That is how it is with you: now you are sad, but I will see you again, and your hearts will be filled with gladness, the kind of gladness that no one can take away from you.

And this small and temporary trouble we suffer will bring us a tremendous and eternal glory, much greater than the trouble.

For we fix our attention, not on things that are seen, but on things that are unseen. What can be seen lasts only for a time, but what cannot be seen lasts forever.

There are these two things, then, that cannot change and about which God cannot lie. So we who have found safety with him are greatly encouraged to hold firmly to the hope placed before us.

They are for you, who through faith are kept safe by God's power for the salvation which is ready to be revealed at the end of time.

Their purpose is to prove that your faith is genuine. Even gold, which can be destroyed, is tested by fire; and so your faith, which is much more precious than gold, must also be tested, so that it may endure. Then you will receive praise and glory and honor on the Day when Jesus Christ is revealed.

Never again will they hunger or thirst; neither sun nor any scorching heat will burn them,

because the Lamb, who is in the center of the throne, will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of life-giving water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."

There shall be no more night, and they will not need lamps or sunlight, because the Lord God will be their light, and they will rule as kings forever and ever.

He has brought us by faith into this experience of God's grace, in which we now live. And so we boast of the hope we have of sharing God's glory!

endurance brings God's approval, and his approval creates hope.

For it was by hope that we were saved; but if we see what we hope for, then it is not really hope. For who of us hopes for something we see?

But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

When the true message, the Good News, first came to you, you heard about the hope it offers. So your faith and love are based on what you hope for, which is kept safe for you in heaven.

You must, of course, continue faithful on a firm and sure foundation, and must not allow yourselves to be shaken from the hope you gained when you heard the gospel. It is of this gospel that I, Paul, became a servant---this gospel which has been preached to everybody in the world.

For we remember before our God and Father how you put your faith into practice, how your love made you work so hard, and how your hope in our Lord Jesus Christ is firm.

which is based on the hope for eternal life. God, who does not lie, promised us this life before the beginning of time,

as we wait for the blessed Day we hope for, when the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ will appear.

Our great desire is that each of you keep up your eagerness to the end, so that the things you hope for will come true.

We do not want you to become lazy, but to be like those who believe and are patient, and so receive what God has promised.

We have this hope as an anchor for our lives. It is safe and sure, and goes through the curtain of the heavenly temple into the inner sanctuary.

For the Law of Moses could not make anything perfect. And now a better hope has been provided through which we come near to God.

Let us give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! Because of his great mercy he gave us new life by raising Jesus Christ from death. This fills us with a living hope,

They are for you, who through faith are kept safe by God's power for the salvation which is ready to be revealed at the end of time.

My dear friends, we are now God's children, but it is not yet clear what we shall become. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he really is.

Everyone who has this hope in Christ keeps himself pure, just as Christ is pure.

No! We believe and are saved by the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they are."

Apollos then decided to go to Achaia, so the believers in Ephesus helped him by writing to the believers in Achaia, urging them to welcome him. When he arrived, he was a great help to those who through God's grace had become believers.

A person who works is paid wages, but they are not regarded as a gift; they are something that has been earned.

And so the promise was based on faith, in order that the promise should be guaranteed as God's free gift to all of Abraham's descendants---not just to those who obey the Law, but also to those who believe as Abraham did. For Abraham is the spiritual father of us all;

He has brought us by faith into this experience of God's grace, in which we now live. And so we boast of the hope we have of sharing God's glory!

It is the same way now: there is a small number left of those whom God has chosen because of his grace.

His choice is based on his grace, not on what they have done. For if God's choice were based on what people do, then his grace would not be real grace.