2 Thessalonians 3 International Children’s Bible

Pray for Us

3 And now, brothers, pray for us. Pray that the Lord’s teaching will continue to spread quickly. And pray that people will give honor to that teaching, just as happened with you. ²And pray that we will be protected from bad and evil people. (Not all people believe in the Lord.)

³But the Lord is faithful. He will give you strength and protect you from the Evil One. ⁴The Lord makes us feel sure that you are doing the things we told you. And we know that you will continue to do those things. ⁵We pray that the Lord will lead your hearts into God’s love and Christ’s patience.

The Duty to Work

⁶Brothers, by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ we command you to stay away from any believer who refuses to work. People who refuse to work are not following the teaching that we gave them. ⁷You yourselves know that you should live as we live. We were not lazy when we were with you. ⁸And when we ate another person’s food, we always paid for it. We worked and worked so that we would not be a trouble to any of you. We worked night and day. ⁹We had the right to ask you to help us. But we worked to take care of ourselves so that we would be an example for you to follow. ¹⁰When we were with you, we gave you this rule: “If anyone will not work, he will not eat.”

¹¹We hear that some people in your group refuse to work. They do nothing. And they busy themselves in other people’s lives. ¹²We command those people to work quietly and earn their own food. In the Lord Jesus Christ we beg them to do this. ¹³Brothers, never become tired of doing good.

¹⁴If anyone does not obey what we tell you in this letter, then remember who he is. Do not associate with him. Then maybe he will feel ashamed. ¹⁵But do not treat him as an enemy. Warn him as a brother.