Chapter 3

¹Now, brothers, pray for us, that the Lord’s message may spread rapidly and gloriously as it did among you, ²and that we may be saved from unjust and wicked men; for not everybody has faith.

³But the Lord is to be relied on, and he will give you strength and protect you from the evil one. ⁴We have faith in you through the Lord that you are doing and will keep doing what we direct you to do. ⁵May the Lord guide your hearts into a sense of God’s love and into a steadfastness like Christ’s.

⁶We charge you, brothers, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, to keep away from any brother who lives in idleness, instead of following the teaching you received from us. ⁷For you know yourselves what you must do to follow my example, for I was not idle when I was with you; ⁸I did not eat anybody’s bread without paying for it, but with toil and labor I worked night and day, in order not to be a burden to any of you. ⁹Not that I had not a right to my support, but to give you in my own conduct an example to imitate. ¹⁰When I was with you, I gave you this rule: “If anyone refuses to work, give him nothing to eat!” ¹¹For we hear that some of you are living in idleness, mere busybodies, not doing any work. ¹²Now with the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ we charge and exhort such people to keep quiet and do their work and earn their own living. ¹³But you, brothers, must not get tired of doing right. ¹⁴If anyone refuses to obey what we have said in this letter, mark the man and do not have anything to do with him, to make him feel ashamed. ¹⁵Do not look upon him as an enemy but warn him as a brother. ¹⁶And may the Lord of peace himself always give you peace in every way. The Lord be with you all.

¹⁷This greeting is in my own hand, Paul’s; it is the mark in every letter of mine. This is the way I write. ¹⁸The blessing of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.