We ought to thank God always for you, brothers and sisters, and rightly so, because your faith flourishes more and more and the love of each one of you all for one another is ever greater.

As a result we ourselves boast about you in the churches of God for your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and afflictions you are enduring.

This is evidence of God's righteous judgment, to make you worthy of the kingdom of God, for which in fact you are suffering.

For it is right for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you,

With flaming fire he will mete out punishment on those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.

And in this regard we pray for you always, that our God will make you worthy of his calling and fulfill by his power your every desire for goodness and every work of faith,

Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not arrive until the rebellion comes and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction.

For the hidden power of lawlessness is already at work. However, the one who holds him back will do so until he is taken out of the way,

and with every kind of evil deception directed against those who are perishing, because they found no place in their hearts for the truth so as to be saved.

But we ought to thank God always for you, brothers and sisters loved by the Lord, because God chose you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth.

Finally, pray for us, brothers and sisters, that the Lord's message may spread quickly and be honored as in fact it was among you,

and that we may be delivered from perverse and evil people. For not all have faith.

For you know yourselves how you must imitate us, because we did not behave without discipline among you,

It was not because we do not have that right, but to give ourselves as an example for you to imitate.

For even when we were with you, we used to give you this command: "If anyone is not willing to work, neither should he eat."

For we hear that some among you are living an undisciplined life, not doing their own work but meddling in the work of others.