¹⁷ And if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church. But if he refuses even to hear the church, let him be to you like a ^(A)heathen and a tax collector.

Warning Against Idleness

⁶ But we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, ^(A)that you withdraw ^(B)from every brother who walks ^(C)disorderly and not according to the tradition which ^[a]he received from us.

¹⁴ And if anyone does not obey our word in this ^[a]epistle, note that person and ^(A)do not keep company with him, that he may be ashamed. ^15 (B)Yet do not count him as an enemy, ^(C)but ^[b]admonish him as a brother.

Diotrephes and Demetrius

⁹ I wrote to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to have the preeminence among them, does not receive us. ¹⁰ Therefore, if I come, I will call to mind his deeds which he does, ^(A)prating^[a] against us with malicious words. And not content with that, he himself does not receive the brethren, and forbids those who wish to, putting them out of the church.

^3 (A)For I indeed, as absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged (as though I were present) him who has so done this deed. ⁴ In the ^(B)name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, along with my spirit, ^(C)with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, ^5 (D)deliver such a one to ^(E)Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord ^[a]Jesus.

¹¹ And have ^(A)no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather ^[a]expose them. ^12 (B)For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret.

Immorality Must Be Judged

⁹ I wrote to you in my epistle ^(A)not to ^[a]keep company with sexually immoral people. ¹⁰ Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go ^(B)out of the world. ¹¹ But now I have written to you not to keep company ^(C)with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner—^(D)not even to eat with such a person.

¹² For what have I to do with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside? ¹³ But those who are outside God judges. Therefore ^(E)“put away from yourselves the evil person.”

Do Not Sue the Brethren

6 Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unrighteous, and not before the ^(F)saints? ² Do you not know that ^(G)the saints will judge the world? And if the world will be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters? ³ Do you not know that we shall ^(H)judge angels? How much more, things that pertain to this life? ⁴ If then you have ^[b]judgments concerning things pertaining to this life, do you appoint those who are least esteemed by the church to judge? ⁵ I say this to your shame. Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you, not even one, who will be able to judge between his brethren? ⁶ But brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers!

⁷ Now therefore, it is already an utter failure for you that you go to law against one another. ^(I)Why do you not rather accept wrong? Why do you not rather let yourselves be cheated?

The New Man

¹⁷ This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should ^(A)no longer walk as ^[a]the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, ¹⁸ having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the ^(B)blindness of their heart; ^19 (C)who, being past feeling, ^(D)have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.

⁶ This punishment which was inflicted ^(A)by the majority is sufficient for such a man, ^7 (B)so that, on the contrary, you ought rather to forgive and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one be swallowed up with too much sorrow.