Chapter 1
2 Grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
3 We must always thank God for you, brothers; quite rightly, because your faith is growing so wonderfully and the mutual love that each one of you has for all never stops increasing.
4 Among the churches of God we take special pride in you for your perseverance and faith under all the persecutions and hardships you have to bear.
5 It all shows that God's judgement is just, so that you may be found worthy of the kingdom of God; it is for the sake of this that you are suffering now.
6 For God's justice will surely mean hardship being inflicted on those who are now inflicting hardship on you,
7 and for you who are now suffering hardship, relief with us, when the Lord Jesus appears from heaven with the angels of his power.
8 He will come amid flaming fire; he will impose a penalty on those who do not acknowledge God and refuse to accept the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
9 Their punishment is to be lost eternally, excluded from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his strength
10 on that day when he comes to be glorified among his holy ones and marvelled at by all who believe in him; and you are among those who believed our witness.
11 In view of this we also pray continually that our God will make you worthy of his call, and by his power fulfil all your desires for goodness, and complete all that you have been doing through faith;
12 so that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you and you in him, by the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.