so that we ourselves boast in you in the churches of God about your patient endurance and faith in all your persecutions and the afflictions that you are enduring,

a proof of the righteous judgment of God, so that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, on behalf of which also you are suffering,

who opposes and who exalts himself over every so-called god or object of worship, so that he sits down in the temple of God, proclaiming that he himself is God.

And you know that which restrains [him] now, so that he will be revealed in his own time.

For the mystery of lawlessness is at work already; only the one who now restrains [will do so] until he is out of the way,

and with every unrighteous deception against those who are perishing, in place of which they did not accept the love of the truth, so that they would be saved.

And because of this, God sends them {a powerful delusion} so that they will believe the lie,

So then, brothers, stand firm and hold fast to the traditions which you were taught, whether by [spoken] word or by letter from us.

not that we do not have the right, but so that we may give ourselves [as] an example to you, so that [you] may imitate us.

The greeting [is] by my hand, Paul's, which is {a sign of genuineness} in every letter: {this is how I write}.