Brothers and sisters: You were dead in your transgressions and sins in which you once lived following the age of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the disobedient. All of us once lived among them in the desires of our flesh, following the wishes of the flesh and the impulses, and we were by nature children of wrath, like the rest. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of the great love he had for us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, brought us to life with Christ (by grace you have been saved), raised us up with him, and seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.

Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy to the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: grace to you and peace.

Thus says the Lord to his anointed, Cyrus,/ whose right hand I grasp,/ subduing nations before him,/ and making kings run in his service,/ opening doors before him/ and leaving the gates unbarred:/ For the sake of Jacob, my servant,/ of Israel, my chosen one,/ I have called you by your name,/ giving you a title, though you knew me not./ I am the Lord and there is no other,/ there is no God besides me./ It is I who arm you, though you know me not,/ so that toward the rising and the setting of the sun/ people may know that there is none besides me./ I am the Lord, there is no other.

Brothers and sisters: ­­­­­­­­Hea­r­ing of your faith in the Lord Jesus and of your love for all the holy ones, I do not cease giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation resulting in knowledge of him.