2 Thessalonians 3  Common English Bible

Prayer request

3 Finally, brothers and sisters, pray for us so that the Lord’s message will spread quickly and be honored, just like it happened with you. ² Pray too that we will be rescued from inappropriate and evil people since everyone that we meet won’t respond with faith. ³ But the Lord is faithful and will give you strength and protect you from the evil one. ⁴ We are confident about you in the Lord—that you are doing and will keep doing what we tell you to do. ⁵ May the Lord lead your hearts to express God’s love and Christ’s endurance.

Discipline for the undisciplined

⁶ Brothers and sisters, we command you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to stay away from every brother or sister who lives an undisciplined life that is not in line with the traditions that you received from us. ⁷ You yourselves know how you need to imitate us because we were not undisciplined when we were with you. ⁸ We didn’t eat anyone’s food without paying for it. Instead, we worked night and day with effort and hard work so that we would not impose on you. ⁹ We did this to give you an example to imitate, not because we didn’t have a right to insist on financial support. ¹⁰ Even when we were with you we were giving you this command: “If anyone doesn’t want to work, they shouldn’t eat.” ¹¹ We hear that some of you are living an undisciplined life. They aren’t working, but they are meddling in other people’s business. ¹² By the Lord Jesus Christ, we command and encourage such people to work quietly and put their own food on the table. ¹³ Brothers and sisters, don’t get discouraged in doing what is right. ¹⁴ Take note of anyone who doesn’t obey what we have said in this letter. Don’t associate with them so they will be ashamed of themselves. ¹⁵ Don’t treat them like enemies, but warn them like you would do for a brother or sister.

Final greeting

¹⁶ May the Lord of peace himself give you peace always in every way. The Lord be with all of you. ¹⁷ I, Paul, am writing this greeting with my own hand. This verifies that the letter is from me, as in every letter of mine. This is how I write. ¹⁸ The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with all of you.