-
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.
-
Therefore, among God’s churches we boast about your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and trials you are enduring.
-
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.
-
God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you
-
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.
-
He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
-
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.
-
The Man of Lawlessness
Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you, brothers and sisters,
-
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.
-
Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction.
-
He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God.
-
And now you know what is holding him back, so that he may be revealed at the proper time.
-
For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way.
-
and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.
-
May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope,
-
And pray that we may be delivered from wicked and evil people, for not everyone has faith.
-
But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen you and protect you from the evil one.
-
Warning Against Idleness
In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we command you, brothers and sisters, to keep away from every believer who is idle and disruptive and does not live according to the teaching you received from us.
-
For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example. We were not idle when we were with you,
-
nor did we eat anyone’s food without paying for it. On the contrary, we worked night and day, laboring and toiling so that we would not be a burden to any of you.
-
We did this, not because we do not have the right to such help, but in order to offer ourselves as a model for you to imitate.
-
For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: “The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat.”
-
We hear that some among you are idle and disruptive. They are not busy; they are busybodies.
-
And as for you, brothers and sisters, never tire of doing what is good.
-
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.
