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Pray for Us

¹ Finally, our friends, please pray for us. This will help the message about the Lord to spread quickly, and others will respect it, just as you do. ² Pray that we may be kept safe from worthless and evil people. After all, not everyone has faith. ³ But the Lord can be trusted to make you strong and protect you from harm. ⁴ He has made us sure that you are obeying what we taught you and that you will keep on obeying. ⁵ I pray that the Lord will guide you to be as loving as God and as patient as Christ.

Warnings against Laziness

⁶ My dear friends, in the name of^[a] the Lord Jesus, I beg you not to have anything to do with any of your people who loaf around and refuse to obey the instructions we gave you. ⁷ You surely know that you should follow our example. We didn't waste our time loafing, ⁸ and we didn't accept food from anyone without paying for it. We didn't want to be a burden to any of you, so night and day we worked as hard as we could.

⁹ We had the right not to work, but we wanted to set an example for you. ¹⁰ We also gave you the rule that if you don't work, you don't eat. ¹¹ Now we learn that some of you just loaf around and won't do any work, except the work of a busybody. ¹² So, for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ, we ask and beg these people to settle down and start working for a living. ¹³ Dear friends, you must never become tired of doing right.

¹⁴ Be on your guard against any followers who refuse to obey what we have written in this letter. Put them to shame by not having anything to do with them. ¹⁵ Don't consider them your enemies, but speak kindly to them as you would to any other follower.

Final Prayer

¹⁶ I pray that the Lord, who gives peace, will always bless you with peace. May the Lord be with all of you.

¹⁷ I always sign my letters as I am now doing: PAUL.

¹⁸ I pray that our Lord Jesus Christ will be kind to all of you.