Paul’s Second Letter to the Thessalonians
An EasyEnglish Semantically Analysed Text (Level B) on the Book of 2 Thessalonians
(A semantically analysed text makes implicit information explicit.)
Leslie Pride
A word list at the end explains words with a *star by them.
Words in italics are not in the Greek text. We believe that they are implicit.
v1 Our names are Paul, Silas and Timothy. We are writing this letter to all of you in Thessalonica city who believe Jesus *Christ. You belong to God our Father, and you also belong to our *Lord Jesus *Christ. v2 We pray to God our Father about you. We are asking him to continue to be kind to you. We are also asking him to help you to live at peace because you believe our *Lord Jesus *Christ.
v3 Dear friends, we often pray to God about you. We thank God because we hear such good things about you. We thank God that you believe the *Lord Jesus more and more. And we thank God that you continue to love other *believers more and more. v4 So we proudly tell all the other groups of *believers about you. We tell them that evil people often make you suffer. We tell them that you have many hard times, and you still believe strongly. We say that you continue to believe the *Lord Jesus, even when you suffer.
v5 You still believe strongly even with so much trouble. So we know that God will be a fair judge for all people. You are suffering because you believe God’s words. So he will say that you are *worthy to be his people. And he will let you live with him in the place where he rules. v6 God knows all those people who cause you to suffer. And he will certainly punish them. It is right that he should punish them. v7 But he knows that you are suffering. And he will help you. *Christ is coming back. Then he will stop the trouble that is causing you to suffer. And he will help us too when we suffer. And it is very right that he stops these troubles. Our *Lord Jesus will come down from *heaven with his powerful *angels. v8 He will come with a great fire that is burning. Then Jesus will punish many people. He will punish those who do not want to know God. And he will punish those who will not obey his good *message. v9 Our *Lord Jesus will really punish those people. He will order them to never come where he is. He will destroy them completely. They will never see the extreme greatness of our *Lord. He can do everything because he is very powerful. v10 So our *Lord Jesus will do this when he comes back. God has already fixed a time for him to return. All his people will praise Jesus then. We will give honour to him because he has done wonderful things for us. Everyone who has believed Jesus’ *message belongs to him. This includes you too. You have believed his *message because we told it to you. So you belong to him too, and all of us will praise him. We will give honour to him then.
v11 That is why we speak to God about you every day. God chose you to be his people. So we pray that God’s great power will help you. We pray that he will say that you are *worthy. You believe God’s *message, and therefore you want to do many good things. May God help you to do all that you hope to do. His power will help you because you believe him. v12 In this way you will praise our *Lord Jesus *Christ as you work for him. And he will give honour to you too, because God is very kind to us. God our Father works together with our *Lord Jesus *Christ.
v1 My *fellow believers, we know that our *Lord Jesus *Christ is coming back. When that day comes, God will gather us all together. He will take us to where Jesus is. v2 Some evil people want to say that our *Lord Jesus *Christ has already come back. Do not let such people disturb you. Do not let them frighten you by what they say. They may say that the *Holy Spirit gave them this message. Or they may say that someone else told them about it. Perhaps they will say that I, Paul, wrote this to them in a letter.
v3a Do not believe the lies that they say!
v3b Some people will fight against God very much before that day when Jesus comes back. Then someone will come to do the *Devil’s work here in the world, but Jesus will destroy him. v4 This evil person will be God’s real enemy. He will say that he is the greatest of all. He will stop people from *worshipping every kind of god. He will go and sit down on the main seat of God’s house, the *Temple. He will say that he himself is God. He will say that people must *worship him. But Jesus will certainly destroy that evil person. v5 I am sure that you will remember all this. I have told you about it before, while I was still there with you in Thessalonica. I told you about this many times.
v6 You also know that this evil person can not appear yet. Someone is stopping him from appearing. It is not yet his time to rule. v7 *Satan is already working secretly. He is causing people to not obey God’s laws. But God will not let the evil person appear yet. Later, God will take away the one who is stopping him. v8 God will let people see this evil person for just a short time. Then our *Lord Jesus will come back. And Jesus will breathe out a hot breath that will destroy this evil person. Jesus will completely destroy him, because Jesus will come with very bright light. And *Satan is not able to look at such light.
v9 But before Jesus destroys him, *Satan will give this evil person very great power. He will be able to do many great things like the things that God can do. People will see these great things and wonder about them. Then they will think that this evil person is God. v10 The evil person will draw people away from *Christ by the many things that he does. People will believe him, because they have refused to believe the true *message. And so the fires of *hell will destroy them. v11 God will make weak the people who do not believe his *message. Then they will accept all the lies that the evil person tells them. v12 God will punish all those foolish people because they chose to do evil things. They did not want to accept the true *message.
v13 *Fellow believers, our *Lord Jesus loves you. When we pray to God, we should always thank him for you. And we do. At the time when the world began, God chose you. He wanted you to believe the true *message now, so that he could rescue you from this evil world. His *Holy Spirit helped you to believe and he has made you special people. v14 We told you God’s good news. And God said that you could be his people. We thank him for that. Later on, you can be with our *Lord Jesus *Christ. You can be with him in the good and great place where he lives in wonderful light. v15 So, *fellow believers, you must continue to believe Jesus all the time. We spoke to you when we were with you. At other times, we sent letters to you. By both these ways we taught you Jesus’ *message. So you must continue to do what that *message says.
v16 God really loves us. That is why he is so kind and good to us. This is what we ask God to do for you. We ask both our *Lord Jesus *Christ and God our Father to help you all the time. As a result, we wait confidently for *Christ to come back. And we can always be at peace deep inside us. v17 We ask God to help you to believe strongly. He will help you to do the right things and to say the right things.
v1 *Fellow believers, please ask God to help us. Then we can teach the *Lord Jesus’ *message to other people. Then more and more people will hear the true *message. And they will believe it, like you believed it. v2 Ask God also that he will keep us safe. Many bad and evil people here want to stop us from speaking. So pray for us, because many people in this world do not believe the true *message.
v3 You can always trust God. He will help you to believe strongly. Other people and the *evil one may hurt you, but God will protect you. v4 We taught you how to behave as *believers. Our *Lord Jesus has made us sure that you still behave like that. And we know that you will continue to behave like that too. v5 We ask God to help you to love other people. You should love them just as God loves all of us. Jesus *Christ was patient when he lived in this world among people. So we ask God to make you patient with people also.
v6 *Fellow believers, we tell you this with the authority of the *Lord Jesus: You must not go about with lazy people. Even some of your *fellow believers do not do any work. They are lazy, so they just stand about. Also, they will not do any of the things that we told you to do. You must not join them or do what they do. v7 We lived with you. So you have seen how we behave. You know that you also should behave like us. We did not just stand about lazily. v8 When anyone gave us food (to eat), we paid them money for it. Sometimes we did some work for them instead. We never ate someone’s food without paying that person somehow. We did not want to make you work harder. So we ourselves worked very hard, in the day and at night, to provide our own food.
v9 Our work for God is very important, so we have the right to accept food. (Sometimes we may not have time to do ordinary work.) But we decided to work hard to provide for ourselves. We wanted you to behave like that too. v10 When we lived in your town, we commanded you several times: ‘If a *fellow believer is lazy and does not do any work, you should not give them any food.’ v11 But now someone has told us that some of your *fellow believers are lazy. They say that those lazy ones do not do any work. They say that those people only do one thing. They are a nuisance to the rest of you who do work. v12 So we give this command to those lazy ones with the authority of the *Lord Jesus *Christ himself: They must settle down and work. They must learn to work and to provide everything that they themselves need.
v13 Now, *fellow believers, we say this to the rest of you who are not lazy: Never be tired of doing whatever is the right thing. v14 Some *believers do not want to obey what we have written in this letter. Notice any such people among you. Let other people see that you do not join them. And let them see that you do not do what those lazy people do. Then those lazy people may become ashamed. v15 However, those lazy people are not your enemies. Do not think of them like that, but be kind to them. So, warn them about behaving badly. Warn them like you would warn any other *believer.
v16 Our *Lord Jesus always helps his people to live with peace deep inside them. So we ask the *Lord to help you like that. Then you will be at peace all the time, wherever you are. You will be at peace whatever you do. We pray like this for all of you. May the *Lord continue to be with you.
v17 So I greet all of you as I end this letter. And I sign my own name, Paul, at the end too. Then you can be sure that this letter comes from me. v18 I pray that our *Lord Jesus *Christ will continue to be kind to all of you.
angels ~ *spirits with God in *heaven. They take messages to people. And they do any work God that tells them to do.
apostle ~ Jesus chose 12 men. They had been with him. They had heard what he said. They had seen what he did. He told them to take his *message to other towns and countries. They should go there after he left this world. They also led the groups of *believers in the early years.
being ~ a person that is alive.
believers ~ people who believe *Christ. They hear and accept Jesus’ *message. They also meet together often to *worship God.
Christ ~ God chose Jesus and sent him. That is what this name means. God sent Jesus to do God’s work in this world. Christ is what Greek people say. Messiah means the same, but Messiah is what Hebrew people say. (Hebrew is the language that the *Jews speak.)
Devil ~ the leader and the worst of the bad *spirits; the worst enemy of God.
evil ~ things or people that are very bad. There is no good in them.
fellow believer ~ another person who also believes what Jesus says.
heaven ~ God’s wonderfully bright place, from where all-of-God rules everything that exists.
hell ~ a terrible fire that never ends; God will destroy the *evil one and all evil people in that fire when the world ends.
Holy Spirit ~ the Holy Spirit is part of God. He is the life and power of God. He is a spirit (a *being that we cannot see). We cannot see him. But we know that he is here. He lives deep inside all people who believe Jesus. He continues the work that Jesus began in this world.
Jew ~ a person who is from the family of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; a person who believes what the Jews believe (Judaism).
Lord ~ the boss or owner of something or of a work. In the Bible, it often means God, as the one who rules and controls everything.
message/true message ~ the good news about Jesus *Christ, called the gospel.
religious ~ something that people do as part of the *worship of God.
Satan ~ another name for the Devil, God’s enemy. He sends all the lies and bad things into the world.
spirit ~ spirits are alive, but we cannot see them. There are good spirits usually called angels. Bad spirits (also called evil spirits, or demons) live in the air round us. *Satan is their leader.
Temple ~ a special house that people built to meet in and to *worship God; a place that people keep ‘clean’ (*religiously) and ready for God to come and meet his people; a place where special things are kept for these purposes.
the evil one ~ someone like the *Devil; or someone who does his work. Sometimes it means Satan (the *Devil) himself.
worship ~ when we think about God. We think about what he is doing. And then we tell him how wonderful he is. We can worship him by ourselves. Or we can meet with other *believers to worship him. Then we all together say or sing about how great God is.
worthy ~ suitable; the right sort of person to receive an honour.
© 1997-2004, Wycliffe Associates (UK)
This publication is written in EasyEnglish Level B (2800 words).
January 2004
Visit our website: www.easyenglish.bible