The Living Bible (378 page)

Colossians
4

You slave owners must be just and fair to all your slaves. Always remember that you, too, have a Master in heaven who is closely watching you.

    
²
 Don’t be weary in prayer; keep at it; watch for God’s answers, and remember to be thankful when they come.
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 Don’t forget to pray for us too, that God will give us many chances to preach the Good News of Christ for which I am here in jail.
⁴
 Pray that I will be bold enough to tell it freely and fully and make it plain, as, of course, I should.

    
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 Make the most of your chances to tell others the Good News. Be wise in all your contacts with them.
⁶
 Let your conversation be gracious as well as sensible, for then you will have the right answer for everyone.

    
⁷
 Tychicus, our much-loved brother, will tell you how I am getting along. He is a hard worker and serves the Lord with me.
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 I have sent him on this special trip just to see how you are and to comfort and encourage you.
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 I am also sending Onesimus, a faithful and much-loved brother, one of your own people. He and Tychicus will give you all the latest news.

    
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 Aristarchus, who is with me here as a prisoner, sends you his love, and so does Mark, a relative of Barnabas. And as I said before, give Mark a hearty welcome
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if he comes your way.
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 Jesus Justus also sends his love. These are the only Jewish Christians working with me here, and what a comfort they have been!

    
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 Epaphras, from your city, a servant of Christ Jesus, sends you his love. He is always earnestly praying for you, asking God to make you strong and perfect and to help you know his will in everything you do.
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 I can assure you that he has worked hard for you with his prayers, and also for the Christians in Laodicea and Hierapolis.

    
¹⁴
 Dear Doctor Luke sends his love, and so does Demas.

    
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 Please give my greeting to the Christian friends at Laodicea, and to Nymphas, and to those who meet in his home.
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 By the way, after you have read this letter, will you pass it on to the church at Laodicea? And read the letter I wrote to them.
¹⁷
 And say to Archippus, “Be sure that you do all the Lord has told you to.”

    
¹⁸
 Here is my own greeting in my own handwriting: Remember me here in jail. May God’s blessings surround you.

Sincerely, Paul

1 Thessalonians

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1 Thessalonians
1

From:
Paul, Silas, and Timothy.

    
To:
The church at Thessalonica—to you who belong to God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: May blessing and peace of heart be your rich gifts from God our Father and from Jesus Christ our Lord.

    
²
 We always thank God for you and pray for you constantly.
³
 We never forget your loving deeds as we talk to our God and Father about you, and your strong faith and steady looking forward to the return of our Lord Jesus Christ.

    
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 We know that God has chosen you, dear brothers, much beloved of God.
⁵
 For when we brought you the Good News, it was not just meaningless chatter to you; no, you listened with great interest. What we told you produced a powerful effect upon you, for the Holy Spirit gave you great and full assurance that what we said was true. And you know how our very lives were further proof to you of the truth of our message.
⁶
 So you became our followers and the Lord’s; for you received our message with joy from the Holy Spirit in spite of the trials and sorrows it brought you.

    
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 Then you yourselves became an example to all the other Christians in Greece.
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 And now the Word of the Lord has spread out from you to others everywhere, far beyond your boundaries, for wherever we go we find people telling us about your remarkable faith in God. We don’t need to tell
them
about it,
⁹
 for
they
keep telling
us
about the wonderful welcome you gave us, and how you turned away from your idols to God so that now the living and true God only is your Master.
¹⁰
 And they speak of how you are looking forward to the return of God’s Son from heaven—Jesus, whom God brought back to life—and he is our only Savior from God’s terrible anger against sin.

1 Thessalonians
2

You yourselves know, dear brothers, how worthwhile that visit was.
²
 You know how badly we had been treated at Philippi just before we came to you and how much we suffered there. Yet God gave us the courage to boldly repeat the same message to you, even though we were surrounded by enemies.
³
 So you can see that we were not preaching with any false motives or evil purposes in mind; we were perfectly straightforward and sincere.

    
⁴
 For we speak as messengers from God, trusted by him to tell the truth; we change his message not one bit to suit the taste of those who hear it; for we serve God alone, who examines our hearts’ deepest thoughts.
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 Never once did we try to win you with flattery, as you very well know, and God knows we were not just pretending to be your friends so that you would give us money!
⁶
 As for praise, we have never asked for it from you or anyone else, although as apostles of Christ we certainly had a right to some honor from you.
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 But we were as gentle among you as a mother feeding and caring for her own children.
⁸
 We loved you dearly—so dearly that we gave you not only God’s message, but our own lives too.

    
⁹
 Don’t you remember, dear brothers, how hard we worked among you? Night and day we toiled and sweated to earn enough to live on so that our expenses would not be a burden to anyone there, as we preached God’s Good News among you.
¹⁰
 You yourselves are our witnesses—as is God—that we have been pure and honest and faultless toward every one of you.
¹¹
 We talked to you as a father to his own children—don’t you remember?—pleading with you, encouraging you and even demanding
¹²
 that your daily lives should not embarrass God but bring joy to him who invited you into his Kingdom to share his glory.

    
¹³
 And we will never stop thanking God for this: that when we preached to you, you didn’t think of the words we spoke as being just our own, but you accepted what we said as the very Word of God—which, of course, it was—and it changed your lives when you believed it.

    
¹⁴
 And then, dear brothers, you suffered what the churches in Judea did, persecution from your own countrymen, just as they suffered from their own people, the Jews.
¹⁵
 After they had killed their own prophets, they even executed the Lord Jesus; and now they have brutally persecuted us and driven us out. They are against both God and man,
¹⁶
 trying to keep us from preaching to the Gentiles for fear some might be saved; and so their sins continue to grow. But the anger of God has caught up with them at last.

    
¹⁷
 Dear brothers, after we left you and had been away from you but a very little while (though our hearts never left you), we tried hard to come back to see you once more.
¹⁸
 We wanted very much to come, and I, Paul, tried again and again, but Satan stopped us.
¹⁹
 For what is it we live for, that gives us hope and joy and is our proud reward and crown? It is you! Yes, you will bring us much joy as we stand together before our Lord Jesus Christ when he comes back again.
²⁰
 For you are our trophy and joy.

1 Thessalonians
3

Finally, when I could stand it no longer, I decided to stay alone in Athens
^2-3
 and send Timothy, our brother and fellow worker, God’s minister, to visit you to strengthen your faith and encourage you and to keep you from becoming fainthearted in all the troubles you were going through. (But of course you know that such troubles are a part of God’s plan for us Christians.
⁴
 Even while we were still with you we warned you ahead of time that suffering would soon come—and it did.)

    
⁵
 As I was saying, when I could bear the suspense no longer, I sent Timothy to find out whether your faith was still strong. I was afraid that perhaps Satan had gotten the best of you and that all our work had been useless.
⁶
 And now Timothy has just returned and brings the welcome news that your faith and love are as strong as ever and that you remember our visit with joy and want to see us just as much as we want to see you.
⁷
 So we are greatly comforted, dear brothers, in all of our own crushing troubles and suffering here, now that we know you are standing true to the Lord.
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 We can bear anything as long as we know that you remain strong in him.

    
⁹
 How can we thank God enough for you and for the joy and delight you have given us in our praying for you?
¹⁰
 For night and day we pray on and on for you, asking God to let us see you again, to fill up any little cracks there may yet be in your faith.

    
¹¹
 May God our Father himself and our Lord Jesus send us back to you again.
¹²
 And may the Lord make your love to grow and overflow to each other and to everyone else, just as our love does toward you.
¹³
 This will result in your hearts being made strong, sinless, and holy by God our Father so that you may stand before him guiltless on that day when our Lord Jesus Christ returns with all those who belong to him.
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