Patterns In The Bible

  • 1 Thessalonians 1: 1-10

    1 Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy,

    To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:

    Grace to you and peace.

    2 We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, 3 remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

    4 For we know, brothers loved by God, that He has chosen you, 5 because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake.

    6 And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit, 7 so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia.

    8 For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not say anything. 9 For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, 10 and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.

  • 1 Thessalonians 2: 1-16

    1 For you yourselves know, brothers, that our coming to you was not in vain. 2 But though we had already suffered and been shamefully treated at Philippi,

    as you know, we had boldness in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in the midst of much conflict. 3 For our appeal does not spring from error or impurity or any attempt to deceive, 4 but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts. 5 For we never came with words of flattery, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed—God is witness.

    6 Nor did we seek glory from people, whether from you or from others, though we could have made demands as apostles of Christ. 7 But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children.

    8 So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us.

    9 For you remember, brothers, our labor and toil: we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you,

    while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God. 10 You are witnesses, and God also, how holy and righteous and blameless was our conduct toward you believers.

    11 For you know how, like a father with his children, 12 we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.

    13 And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers. 14 For you, brothers, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea.

    For you suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they did from the Jews, 15 who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out, and displease God and oppose all mankind 16 by hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles that they might be saved—so as always to fill up the measure of their sins. But wrath has come upon them at last!

  • 1 Thessalonians 2: 17-3: 13

    2:17 But since we were torn away from you, brothers, for a short time, in person not in heart,

    we endeavored the more eagerly and with great desire to see you face to face, 18 because we wanted to come to you—I, Paul, again and again—but Satan hindered us.

    19 For what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at his coming? Is it not you? 20 For you are our glory and joy.

    […]

    3:9 For what thanksgiving can we return to God for you, for all the joy that we feel for your sake before our God,

    10 as we pray most earnestly night and day that we may see you face to face and supply what is lacking in your faith?

    11 Now may our God and Father Himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you, 12 and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, 13 so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.

  • 1 Thessalonians 3: 1-8

    1 Therefore when we could bear it no longer, we were willing to be left behind at Athens alone,

    2 and we sent Timothy, our brother and God’s coworker in the gospel of Christ,

    to establish and exhort you in your faith,

    3 that no one be moved by these afflictions. For you yourselves know that we are destined for this. 4 For when we were with you, we kept telling you beforehand that we were to suffer affliction, just as it has come to pass, and just as you know.

    5 For this reason, when I could bear it no longer, I sent to learn about your faith, for fear that somehow the tempter had tempted you and our labor would be in vain.

    6 But now that Timothy has come to us from you,

    and has brought us the good news of your faith and love and reported that you always remember us kindly and long to see us, as we long to see you—

    7 for this reason, brothers, in all our distress and affliction we have been comforted about you through your faith. 8 For now we live, if you are standing fast in the Lord.

  • 1 Thessalonians 4: 1-12

    1 Finally, then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more.

    2 For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus.

    3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; 4 that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, 5 not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God;

    6 that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you.

    7 For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness.

    8 Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.

    9 Now concerning brotherly love you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another, 10 for that indeed is what you are doing to all the brothers throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers, to do this more and more, 11 and to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, 12 so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one.

  • 1 Thessalonians 4: 13-18

    13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. 14 For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.

    15 For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord,

    that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.

    16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God.

    And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.

    18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.

  • 1 Thessalonians 4: 18-5: 11

    4:18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.

    5:1 Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you. 2 For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. 3 While people are saying, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.

    4 But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. 5 For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness.

    6 So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober.

    7 For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night.

    8 But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation.

    9 For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, 10 who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him.

    11 Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.

  • Matthew 2: 1-12

    1 Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem,

    2 saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”

    3 When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him; 4 and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born.

    5 They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet:

    6 “‘And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
    are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
    for from you shall come a ruler
    who will shepherd my people Israel.’”

    7 Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star had appeared. 8 And he sent them to Bethlehem, saying,

    “Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, bring me word, that I too may come and worship him.” 9 After listening to the king, they went on their way.

    And behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. 11 And going into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh.

    12 And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way.

  • Ephesians 2: 1-10

    1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked,

    following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—

    3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

    4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us,

    5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—

    by grace you have been saved—

    6 and raised us up with him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,

    7 so that in the coming ages He might show the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

    8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,

    9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works,

    which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

  • Isaiah 22: 1-14

    1 The oracle concerning the valley of vision.

    What do you mean that you have gone up,
    all of you, to the housetops,
    2 you who are full of shoutings,
    tumultuous city, exultant town?
    Your slain are not slain with the sword
    or dead in battle.
    3 All your leaders have fled together;
    without the bow they were captured.
    All of you who were found were captured,
    though they had fled far away.

    4 Therefore I said:
    “Look away from me;
    let me weep bitter tears;
    do not labor to comfort me
    concerning the destruction of the daughter of my people.”

    5 For the Lord God of hosts has a day
    of tumult and trampling and confusion
    in the valley of vision,
    a battering down of walls
    and a shouting to the mountains.
    6 And Elam bore the quiver
    with chariots and horsemen,
    and Kir uncovered the shield.
    7 Your choicest valleys were full of chariots,
    and the horsemen took their stand at the gates.
    8 He has taken away the covering of Judah.

    In that day you looked to the weapons of the House of the Forest, 9 and you saw that the breaches of the city of David were many. You collected the waters of the lower pool, 10 and you counted the houses of Jerusalem, and you broke down the houses to fortify the wall. 11 You made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool. But you did not look to Him who did it, or see Him who planned it long ago.

    12 In that day the Lord God of hosts
    called for weeping and mourning,
    for baldness and wearing sackcloth;

    13 and behold, joy and gladness,
    killing oxen and slaughtering sheep,
    eating flesh and drinking wine.
    “Let us eat and drink,
    for tomorrow we die.”
    14 The Lord of hosts has revealed Himself in my ears:
    “Surely this iniquity will not be atoned for you until you die,”
    says the Lord God of hosts.