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Thanksgiving and Prayer
We ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love all of you have for one another is increasing.
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Therefore, among God’s churches we boast about your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and trials you are enduring.
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All this is evidence that God’s judgment is right, and as a result you will be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are suffering.
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and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels.
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on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed. This includes you, because you believed our testimony to you.
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With this in mind, we constantly pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may bring to fruition your every desire for goodness and your every deed prompted by faith.
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We pray this so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
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not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by the teaching allegedly from us—whether by a prophecy or by word of mouth or by letter—asserting that the day of the Lord has already come.
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Don’t you remember that when I was with you I used to tell you these things?
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And now you know what is holding him back, so that he may be revealed at the proper time.
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The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with how Satan works. He will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders that serve the lie,
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and all the ways that wickedness deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.
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For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie
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and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.
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May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope,
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Request for Prayer
As for other matters, brothers and sisters, pray for us that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly and be honored, just as it was with you.
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And pray that we may be delivered from wicked and evil people, for not everyone has faith.
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We have confidence in the Lord that you are doing and will continue to do the things we command.
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May the Lord direct your hearts into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance.
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Take special note of anyone who does not obey our instruction in this letter. Do not associate with them, in order that they may feel ashamed.
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Yet do not regard them as an enemy, but warn them as you would a fellow believer.
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Final Greetings
Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way. The Lord be with all of you.
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I, Paul, write this greeting in my own hand, which is the distinguishing mark in all my letters. This is how I write.
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The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.
