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We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.
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For we know, brothers and sisters loved by God, that he has chosen you,
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because our gospel came to you not simply with words but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and deep conviction. You know how we lived among you for your sake.
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The Lord’s message rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia—your faith in God has become known everywhere. Therefore we do not need to say anything about it,
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so we cared for you. Because we loved you so much, we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well.
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For you, brothers and sisters, became imitators of God’s churches in Judea, which are in Christ Jesus: You suffered from your own people the same things those churches suffered from the Jews
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We sent Timothy, who is our brother and co-worker in God’s service in spreading the gospel of Christ, to strengthen and encourage you in your faith,
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For this reason, when I could stand it no longer, I sent to find out about your faith. I was afraid that in some way the tempter had tempted you and that our labors might have been in vain.
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Timothy’s Encouraging Report
But Timothy has just now come to us from you and has brought good news about your faith and love. He has told us that you always have pleasant memories of us and that you long to see us, just as we also long to see you.
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Therefore, brothers and sisters, in all our distress and persecution we were encouraged about you because of your faith.
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Night and day we pray most earnestly that we may see you again and supply what is lacking in your faith.
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May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you.
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May he strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones.
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that each of you should learn to control your own body in a way that is holy and honorable,
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Now about your love for one another we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other.
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And in fact, you do love all of God’s family throughout Macedonia. Yet we urge you, brothers and sisters, to do so more and more,
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and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you,
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so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.
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But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet.
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Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work. Live in peace with each other.
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May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
