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Thanksgiving and Prayer
We ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love all of you have for one another is increasing.
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All this is evidence that God’s judgment is right, and as a result you will be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are suffering.
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God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you
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and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels.
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Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction.
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He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God.
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And now you know what is holding him back, so that he may be revealed at the proper time.
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For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way.
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and all the ways that wickedness deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.
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Stand Firm
But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters loved by the Lord, because God chose you as firstfruits to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth.
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May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope,
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But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen you and protect you from the evil one.
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May the Lord direct your hearts into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance.
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Warning Against Idleness
In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we command you, brothers and sisters, to keep away from every believer who is idle and disruptive and does not live according to the teaching you received from us.
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For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: “The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat.”
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And as for you, brothers and sisters, never tire of doing what is good.
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I, Paul, write this greeting in my own hand, which is the distinguishing mark in all my letters. This is how I write.
