2 Thessalonians 1 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.

From Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy — to the gathered community of God in Thessalonica, who belong to God our Father and the Lord Jesus, The One:

May undeserved kindness and peace be yours from God our Father and the Lord Jesus, The One.

We always have reason to thank God for you, brothers and sisters — and it's only right that we do — because your trust in God is growing tremendously, and the love each of you has for one another keeps increasing.

We actually brag about you to the other gathered communities of God — about how you hold firm in your trust and stay resilient through all the persecution and hardship you're enduring.

All of this points to the fact that God's judgment is just — and through it, you're being proven worthy of God's kingdom, which is exactly what you're suffering for.

After all, God is just — he will pay back trouble to those who are troubling you,

and he will give relief to you who are suffering — and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his powerful angels,

in blazing fire, bringing justice to those who refuse to acknowledge God and who reject the good news of our Lord Jesus.

They will face the consequence of permanent destruction — cut off from the presence of the Lord and from the display of his power.

This will happen on the day he comes to be honored among those he has set apart and to be marveled at by everyone who trusted him — and that includes you, because you believed the testimony we brought you.

With this in mind, we always pray for you — that our God would consider you worthy of his calling, and that by his power he would bring to completion every good desire and every act of trust you undertake.

We pray this so that the name of our Lord Jesus will be honored through you, and you through him — all because of the undeserved kindness of our God and the Lord Jesus, The One.