⁹ I wrote for this reason: to test you and to know whether you are obedient in everything.^(A)

⁶ We are ready to punish every disobedience when your obedience is complete.^(A)

²² But Timothy’s^[a] worth you know, how like a son with a father he has served with me in the work of the gospel.^(A)

²¹ Confident of your obedience, I am writing to you, knowing that you will do even more than I ask.^(A)

¹⁴ Take note of those who do not obey what we say in this letter; have nothing to do with them, so that they may be ashamed.^(A)

Shining as Lights in the World

¹² Therefore, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed me, not only in my presence but much more now in my absence, work on your own salvation with fear and trembling,^(A)

²⁴ Therefore openly before the churches, show them the proof of your love and of our reason for boasting about you to them.^(A)

¹² So although I wrote to you, it was not on account of the one who did the wrong nor on account of the one who suffered the wrong but in order that your zeal for us might be made known to you before God.^{(A) 13} In this we have found consolation.

In addition to our own consolation, we rejoiced still more at the joy of Titus, because his mind has been set at rest by all of you.^{(B) 14} For if I have been somewhat boastful about you to him, I was not put to shame, but just as everything we said to you was true, so our boasting to Titus has proved true as well.^{(C) 15} And his heart goes out all the more to you, as he remembers the obedience of all of you and how you welcomed him with fear and trembling.^(D)

³ you must not heed the words of those prophets or those who divine by dreams, for the Lord your God is testing you, to know whether you indeed love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul.^(A)

¹⁶ He fed you in the wilderness with manna that your ancestors did not know, to humble you and to test you and in the end to do you good.^(A)