We are bound always to thank God for you, brothers ??it is proper that we should, because your faith grows apace and your mutual love, one and all, is increasing.

So much so, that throughout the churches of God we are proud of you, proud of the stedfastness and faith you display through all the persecutions and the troubles in which you are involved.

when he comes to be glorified in his saints and marvelled at in all believers on that day (for our testimony has found confirmation in your lives).

so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you (and you glorified in him), by the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

not to let your minds get easily unsettled or excited by any spirit of prophecy or any declaration or any letter purporting to come from me, to the effect that the Day of the Lord is already here.

the adversary who vaunts himself above and against every so-called god or object of worship, actually seating himself in the temple of God with the proclamation that he himself is God.

Well, you can recall now what it is that restrains him from being revealed before his appointed time.

Then shall the Lawless One be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will destroy with the breath of his lips and quell by his appearing and arrival ??9 that One whose arrival is due to Satan's activity, with the full power, the miracles and portents, of falsehood,

and with the full deceitfulness of evil for those who are doomed to perish, since they refuse to love the Truth that would save them.

so that all may be doomed who refuse faith in the Truth but delight in evil.

it was for this that he called you by our gospel, to gain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Finally, brothers, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may speed on and triumph, as in your own case,

and that we may be delivered from perverse and evil men ??for the faith is not held by all.

Now, we rely on you in the Lord, confident that you do and will do what we enjoin.

Not that we have no right to such support; it was simply to give you a pattern to copy.

But we are informed that some of your number are loafing, busybodies instead of busy.

Only, if anyone will not obey our orders in this letter, mark that man, do not associate with him ??that will make him feel ashamed!

The salutation is in my own hand, Paul's; that is a mark in every letter of mine. This is how I write.