2 Thessalonians (2 Th) 1

1 From: Sha’ul, Sila and Timothy

To: The Messianic Community of the Thessalonians, united with God our Father and the Lord Yeshua the Messiah:

2 Grace to you andshalomfrom God the Father and the Lord Yeshua the Messiah.

3 We have to keep thanking God for you always, brothers, as is appropriate; because your trust continues to grow greater, and the love you each have for one another continues to increase.

4 Therefore, we boast about you in the congregations of God because of your perseverance and trust in all the persecutions and troubles you are going through.

5 This is clear evidence that God’s judgment is just; and as a result, you will be counted worthy of the Kingdom of God for which you are suffering.

6 For it is justice for God to pay back trouble to those who are troubling you,

7 and to give rest along with us to you who are being troubled, when the Lord Yeshua is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels

8 in a fiery flame. Then he will punish those who don’t know God, that is, those who don’t listen to the Good News of our Lord Yeshua and obey it.

9 They will suffer the just penalty of eternal destruction, far away from the face of the Lord and the glory of his might.

10 On that Day, when he comes to be glorified by his holy people and admired by all who have trusted, you will be among them, because you trusted our witness to you.

11 With this in view, we always pray for you that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill by his power every good purpose of yours and every action stemming from your trust.

12 In this way, the name of our Lord Yeshua will be glorified in you, and you in him, in accordance with the grace of our God and the Lord Yeshua the Messiah.

2 Thessalonians (2 Th) 2

1 But in connection with the coming of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah and our gathering together to meet him, we ask you, brothers,

2 not to be easily shaken in your thinking or anxious because of a spirit or a spoken message or a letter supposedly from us claiming that the Day of the Lord has already come.

3 Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way.

For the Day will not come until after the Apostasy has come and the man who separates himself fromTorahhas been revealed, the one destined for doom.

4 He will oppose himself to everything that people call a god or make an object of worship; he will put himself above them all, so that he will sit in the Temple of God and proclaim that he himself is God.

5 Don’t you remember that when I was still with you, I used to tell you these things?

6 And now you know what is restraining, so that he may be revealed in his own time.

7 For already this separating fromTorahis at work secretly, but it will be secretly only until he who is restraining is out of the way.

8 Then the one who embodies separation fromTorahwill be revealed, the one whom the Lord Yeshua will slay with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the glory of his coming.

9 When this man who avoidsTorahcomes, the Adversary will give him the power to work all kinds of false miracles, signs and wonders.

10 He will enable him to deceive, in all kinds of wicked ways, those who are headed for destruction because they would not receive the love of the truth that could have saved them.

11 This is why God is causing them to go astray, so that they will believe the Lie.

12 The result will be that all who have not believed the truth, but have taken their pleasure in wickedness, will be condemned.

13 But we have to keep thanking God for you always, brothers whom the Lord loves, because God chose you as firstfruits for deliverance by giving you the holiness that has its origin in the Spirit and the faithfulness that has its origin in the truth.

14 He called you to this through our Good News, so that you could have the glory of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah.

15 Therefore, brothers, stand firm; and hold to the traditions you were taught by us, whether we spoke them or wrote them in a letter.

16 And may our Lord Yeshua the Messiah himself and God our Father, who has loved us and by his grace given us eternal comfort and a good hope,

17 comfort your hearts and strengthen you in every good word and deed.

2 Thessalonians (2 Th) 3

1 Finally, brothers, pray for us that the Lord’s message may spread rapidly and receive honor, just as it did with you;

2 and that we may be rescued from wicked and evil people, for not everyone has trust.

3 But the Lord is worthy of trust; he will make you firm and guard you from the Evil One.

4 Yes, united with the Lord we are confident about you, that you are doing the things we are telling you to do, and that you will keep on doing them.

5 May the Lord direct your hearts into God’s love and the perseverance which the Messiah gives.

6 Now, in the name of the Lord Yeshua the Messiah we command you, brothers, to stay away from any brother who is leading a life of idleness, a life not in keeping with the tradition you received from us.

7 For you yourselves know how you must imitate us, that we were not idle when we were among you.

8 We did not accept anyone’s food without paying; on the contrary, we labored and toiled, day and night, working so as not to be a burden to any of you.

9 It was not that we hadn’t the right to be supported, but so that we could make ourselves an example to imitate.

10 For even when we were with you, we gave you this command: if someone won’t work, he shouldn’t eat!

11 We hear that some of you are leading a life of idleness — not busy working, just busybodies!

12 We command such people — and in union with the Lord Yeshua the Messiah we urge them — to settle down, get to work, and earn their own living.

13 And you brothers who are doing what is good, don’t slack off!

14 Furthermore, if anyone does not obey what we are saying in this letter, take note of him and have nothing to do with him, so that he will be ashamed.

15 But don’t consider him an enemy; on the contrary, confront him as a brother and try to help him change.

16 Now may the Lord ofshalomhimself give youshalomalways in all ways. The Lord be with all of you.

17 The greeting in my own handwriting: From Sha’ul. This is the mark of genuineness in every letter, this is what my handwriting looks like.

18 The grace of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah be with you all.

1 Thessalonians (1 Th) 1

1 From: Sha’ul, Sila and Timothy

To: The Messianic Community of the Thessalonians, united with God the Father and the Lord Yeshua the Messiah:

Grace to you andshalom.

2 We always thank God for all of you, regularly mentioning you in our prayers,

3 calling to mind before God our Father what our Lord Yeshua the Messiah has brought about in you — how your trust produces action, your love hard work, and your hope perseverance.

4 We know, brothers, that God has loved and chosen you;

5 that the Good News we brought did not become for you a matter only of words, but also one of power, theRuach HaKodeshand total conviction — just as you know how we lived for your sakes when we were with you.

6 You, indeed, became imitators of us and of the Lord; so that even though you were going through severe troubles, you received the Word with joy from theRuach HaKodesh.

7 Thus you became a pattern for all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia;

8 for the Lord’s message sounded forth from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but everywhere your trust toward God became known. The result is that we don’t need to say anything;

9 since they themselves keep telling us about the welcome we received from you and how you turned to God from idols, to serve the true God, the one who is alive,

10 and to wait for his Son Yeshua, whom he raised from the dead, to appear from heaven and rescue us from the impending fury of God’s judgment.

1 Thessalonians (1 Th) 2

1 You yourselves know, brothers, that our visit to you was not fruitless.

2 On the contrary, although we had already suffered and been outraged in Philippi, as you know, we had the courage, united with our God, to tell you the Good News even under great pressure.

3 For the appeal we make does not flow from error or from impure motives, neither do we try to trick people.

4 Instead, since God has tested us and found us fit to be entrusted with Good News, this is how we speak: not to win favor with people but with God, who tests our hearts.

5 For, as you know, never did we employ flattering talk, nor did we put on a false front to mask greed — God is witness.

6 Nor did we seek human praise — either from you or from others.

7 As emissaries of the Messiah, we could have made our weight felt; but instead, we were gentle when we were with you, like a mother feeding and caring for her children.

8 We were so devoted to you that we were glad to share with you not only God’s Good News but also our own lives, because you had become very dear to us.

9 For you remember, brothers, our toil and hardship, how we worked night and day not to put a burden on any of you while we were proclaiming God’s Good News to you.

10 You are witnesses, and so is God, of how holy, righteous and blameless our behavior was in the sight of you believers;

11 for you know that we treated each one of you the way a father treats his children —

12 we encouraged you and comforted you and appealed to you to lead lives worthy of God, who calls you into his Kingdom and glory.

13 Another reason we regularly thank God is that when you heard the Word of God from us, you received it not merely as a human word, but as it truly is, God’s Word, which is at work in you believers.

14 For, brothers, you came to be imitators of God’s congregations in Y’hudah that are united with the Messiah Yeshua — you suffered the same things from your countrymen as they did from the Judeans who

15 both killed the Lord Yeshua and the prophets, and chased us out too. They are displeasing God and opposing all mankind

16 by trying to keep us from speaking to the Gentiles, so that they may be delivered. Their object seems to be always to make their sins as bad as possible! But God’s fury will catch up with them in the end.

17 And as for us, brothers, when we were deprived of your company for a short time — in person, but not in thought — we missed you and tried hard to come and see you.

18 We wanted so much to come to you — I, Sha’ul, tried more than once — but the Adversary stopped us.

19 For when our Lord Yeshua returns, what will be our hope, our joy, our crown to boast about? Won’t it be you?

20 Yes, you are our glory and our joy!

1 Thessalonians (1 Th) 3

1 So when we could no longer stand it, we agreed to be left in Athens alone

2 and sent Timothy, our brother and God’s fellow worker for the Good News of the Messiah, to make you solid and encourage you in your trust;

3 so that none of you would let these persecutions unsettle him. For you yourselves know that these are bound to come to us;

4 even when we were with you, we kept telling you in advance that we were about to be persecuted; and indeed it has happened, as you know.

5 That is the reason why, after I could stand it no longer, I sent to find out about your trust. I was afraid that somehow the Tempter had tempted you, and our hard work had been wasted.

6 But now Timothy has come to us from you, bringing good news about your trust and love, and telling us that you remember us well and are always longing to see us, just as we long to see you.

7 Because of this, brothers, in spite of all our trouble and distress, we were comforted over you — because of your trust;

8 so that now we are alive; since you continue to stand fast, united with the Lord.

9 Indeed, how can we thank God enough for you or express to our God all the joy we feel because of you?

10 Night and day we pray as hard as we can that we will be able to see you face to face and supply whatever shortcomings there may be in your trust.

11 May God our Father and our Lord Yeshua direct our way to you.

12 And as for you, may the Lord make you increase and overflow in love toward each other, indeed, toward everyone, just as we do toward you;

13 so that he may give you the inner strength to be blameless, by reason of your holiness, when you stand before God our Father at the coming of our Lord Yeshua with all his angels.

1 Thessalonians (1 Th) 4

1 Therefore, brothers, just as you learned from us how you had to live in order to please God, and just as you are living this way now, we ask you — indeed, united with the Lord Yeshua, we urge you — to keep doing so more and more.

2 For you know what instructions we gave you on the authority of the Lord Yeshua.

3 What God wants is that you be holy, that you keep away from sexual immorality,

4 that each of you know how to manage his sexual impulses in a holy and honorable manner,

5 without giving in to lustful desires, like the pagans who don’t know God.

6 No one should wrong his brother in this matter or take advantage of him, because the Lord punishes all who do such things — as we have explained to you before at length.

7 For God did not call us to live an unclean life but a holy one.

8 Therefore, whoever rejects this teaching is rejecting not a man but God, indeed, the One who gives you theRuach HaKodesh, which is his.

9 Concerning love for the brothers we do not need to write you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other;

10 and you do love all the brothers throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers, to do it even more.

11 Also, make it your ambition to live quietly, to mind your own business and to earn your living by your own efforts — just as we told you.

12 Then your daily life will gain the respect of outsiders, and you will not be dependent on anyone.

13 Now, brothers, we want you to know the truth about those who have died; otherwise, you might become sad the way other people

14 do who have nothing to hope for. For since we believe that Yeshua died and rose again, we also believe that in the same way God, through Yeshua, will take with him those who have died.

15 When we say this, we base it on the Lord’s own word: we who remain alive when the Lord comes will certainly not take precedence over those who have died.

16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a rousing cry, with a call from one of the ruling angels, and with God’sshofar; those who died united with the Messiah will be the first to rise;

17 then we who are left still alive will be caught up with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and thus we will always be with the Lord.

18 So encourage each other with these words.

1 Thessalonians (1 Th) 5

1 But you have no need to have anything written to you, brothers, about the times and dates when this will happen;

2 because you yourselves well know that the Day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.

3 When people are saying, “Everything is so peaceful and secure,” then destruction will suddenly come upon them, the way labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and there is no way they will escape.

4 But you, brothers, are not in the dark, so that the Day should take you by surprise like a thief;

5 for you are all people who belong to the light, who belong to the day. We don’t belong to the night or to darkness,

6 so let’s not be asleep, like the rest are; on the contrary, let us stay alert and sober.

7 People who sleep, sleep at night; and people who get drunk, get drunk at night.

8 But since we belong to the day, let us stay sober, putting on trust and love as a breastplate and the hope of being delivered as a helmet.

9 For God has not intended that we should experience his fury, but that we should gain deliverance through our Lord Yeshua the Messiah,

10 who died on our behalf so that whether we are alive or dead, we may live along with him.

11 Therefore, encourage each other, and build each other up — just as you are doing.

12 We ask you, brothers, to respect those who are working hard among you, those who are guiding you in the Lord and confronting you in order to help you change.

13 Treat them with the highest regard and love because of the work they are doing. Live at peace among yourselves;

14 but we urge you, brothers, to confront those who are lazy, your aim being to help them change, to encourage the timid, to assist the weak, and to be patient with everyone.

15 See that no one repays evil for evil; on the contrary, always try to do good to each other, indeed, to everyone.

16 Always be joyful.

17 Pray regularly.

18 In everything give thanks, for this is what God wants from you who are united with the Messiah Yeshua.

19 Don’t quench the Spirit,

20 don’t despise inspired messages.

21 But do test everything — hold onto what is good,

22 but keep away from every form of evil.

23 May the God ofshalommake you completely holy — may your entire spirit, soul and body be kept blameless for the coming of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah.

24 The one calling you is faithful, and he will do it.

25 Brothers, keep praying for us.

26 Greet all the brothers with a holy kiss.

27 I charge you in the Lord to have this letter read to all the brothers.

28 The grace of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah be with you.

Colossians (Col) 1

1 From: Sha’ul, by God’s will an emissary of the Messiah Yeshua, and brother Timothy

2 To: God’s people in Colosse, faithful brothers in the Messiah:

Grace to you andshalomfrom God our Father.

3 Whenever we pray, we always give thanks for you to God, the Father of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah.

4 For we have heard of your trust in the Messiah Yeshua and of the love you have for all God’s people.

5 Both spring from the confident hope that you will receive what is stored up for you in heaven. You heard of this earlier in the message about the truth. This Good News

6 has made its presence felt among you, just as it is also being fruitful and multiplying throughout the world in the same way as it has among you since the day you heard and understood the grace of God as it really is.

7 You learned it from Epaphras, our dear fellow-slave and a faithful worker for the Messiah on your behalf;

8 and he has told us about the love which the Spirit has given you.

9 Therefore, from the day we heard of it, we have not stopped praying for you, asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will in all the wisdom and understanding which the Spirit gives;

10 so that you may live lives worthy of the Lord and entirely pleasing to him, being fruitful in every good work and multiplying in the full knowledge of God.

11 We pray that you will be continually strengthened with all the power that comes from his glorious might; so that you will be able to persevere and be patient in any situation, joyfully

12 giving thanks to the Father for having made you fit to share in the inheritance of his people in the light.

13 He has rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son.

14 It is through his Son that we have redemption — that is, our sins have been forgiven.

15 He is the visible image of the invisible God. He is supreme over all creation,

16 because in connection with him were created all things — in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones, lordships, rulers or authorities — they have all been created through him and for him.

17 He existed before all things, and he holds everything together.

18 Also he is head of the Body, the Messianic Community — he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might hold first place in everything.

19 For it pleased God to have his full being live in his Son

20 and through his Son to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace through him, through having his Son shed his blood by being executed on a stake.

21 In other words, you, who at one time were separated from God and had a hostile attitude towards him because of your wicked deeds,

22 he has now reconciled in the Son’s physical body through his death; in order to present you holy and without defect or reproach before himself —

23 provided, of course, that you continue in your trusting, grounded and steady, and don’t let yourselves be moved away from the hope offered in the Good News you heard.

This is the Good News that has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven; and I, Sha’ul, have become a servant of it.

24 I rejoice in my present sufferings on your behalf! Yes, I am completing in my own flesh what has been lacking of the Messiah’s afflictions, on behalf of his Body, the Messianic Community.

25 I became a servant of the Good News because God gave me this work to do for your benefit. The work is to make fully known the message from God,

26 the secret hidden for generations, for ages, but now made clear to the people he has set apart for himself.

27 To them God wanted to make known how great among the Gentiles is the glorious richness of this secret. And the secret is this: the Messiah is united with you people! In that rests your hope of glory!

28 We, for our part, proclaim him; we warn, confront and teach everyone in all wisdom; so that we may present everyone as having reached the goal, united with the Messiah.

29 It is for this that I toil, striving with all the energy that he stirs up in me so mightily.

Colossians (Col) 2

1 For I want you to know how hard I work for you, for those in Laodicea, and for the rest of those who have not met me personally.

2 My purpose is that they may be encouraged, that they may be joined together in love, and that they may have all the riches derived from being assured of understanding and fully knowing God’s secret truth, which is — the Messiah!

3 It is in him that all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden.

4 I say this so that no one will fool you with plausible but specious arguments.

5 For although I am away from you physically, I am with you in spirit, rejoicing as I see the disciplined and resolute firmness of your trust in the Messiah.

6 Therefore, just as you received the Messiah Yeshua as Lord, keep living your life united with him.

7 Remain deeply rooted in him; continue being built up in him and confirmed in your trust, the way you were taught, so that you overflow in thanksgiving.

8 Watch out, so that no one will take you captive by means of philosophy and empty deceit, following human tradition which accords with the elemental spirits of the world but does not accord with the Messiah.

9 For in him, bodily, lives the fullness of all that God is.

10 And it is in union with him that you have been made full — he is the head of every rule and authority.

11 Also it was in union with him that you were circumcised with a circumcision not done by human hands, but accomplished by stripping away the old nature’s control over the body. In this circumcision done by the Messiah,

12 you were buried along with him by being immersed; and in union with him, you were also raised up along with him by God’s faithfulness that worked when he raised Yeshua from the dead.

13 You were dead because of your sins, that is, because of your “foreskin,” your old nature. But God made you alive along with the Messiah by forgiving you all your sins.

14 He wiped away the bill of charges against us. Because of the regulations, it stood as a testimony against us; but he removed it by nailing it to the execution-stake.

15 Stripping the rulers and authorities of their power, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by means of the stake.

16 So don’t let anyone pass judgment on you in connection with eating and drinking, or in regard to a Jewish festival orRosh-HodeshorShabbat.

17 These are a shadow of things that are coming, but the body is of the Messiah.

18 Don’t let anyone deny you the prize by insisting that you engage in self-mortification or angel-worship. Such people are always going on about some vision they have had, and they vainly puff themselves up by their worldly outlook.

19 They fail to hold to the Head, from whom the whole Body, receiving supply and being held together by its joints and ligaments, grows as God makes it grow.

20 If, along with the Messiah, you died to the elemental spirits of the world, then why, as if you still belonged to the world, are you letting yourselves be bothered by its rules? —

21 “Don’t touch this!” “Don’t eat that!” “Don’t handle the other!”

22 Such prohibitions are concerned with things meant to perish by being used [not by being avoided!], and they are based on man-made rules and teachings.

23 They do indeed have the outward appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed religious observances, false humility and asceticism; but they have no value at all in restraining people from indulging their old nature.