2 Thessalonians 3

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¹And friends, there is one more thing we want to say. Pray for us. Ask God to help us to tell a lot more people about Jesus. We want them to hear that message soon, and we want them to believe it just like you did.

²You know, there are some people that never believe the good news about Jesus, and some very bad people that want to give us trouble. Ask God to keep us safe from them.

³But as for you, friends, remember that Jesus, our leader, always does what he promised to do. He will help you to keep on trusting him strongly. He will keep you safe from that really bad devil, so that he can’t touch you.

⁴You see, God helps us know for sure about you. We reckon that you are doing the things that we told you to do, and we reckon that you will keep on doing them.

⁵We want Jesus Christ, our leader, to help you understand more about God, and to understand that he really loves you. And we want him to help you to keep going strong, just like Jesus Christ kept going strong when he was here on the earth.

⁶Listen, friends. Jesus Christ, our leader, wants us to tell you this. If anyone says they are a Christian, but they sit down and never want to do any work, you have to keep away from that person. Do you remember that time when we were with you? Do you remember what we were like? We didn’t sit around doing nothing. And we told you, “Don’t be lazy.” We want you to copy us, and live the way we lived when we were with you.

⁸We worked very hard, not only in the day time but at night time too, so that we could get enough money to look after ourselves. We always paid for the food you gave us. You didn’t have to find extra money to look after us.

⁹You know, God says that if somebody tells people the good news about Jesus, it is alright for that person to ask for the things he needs. But we didn’t do that. We didn’t ask you for anything. You see, we wanted to show you the right way for a Christian to live.

¹⁰Remember what we told you about people that don’t want to work. We told you not to feed them. We said, “If they will not do any work, don’t feed them anything either.”

¹¹You see, somebody told us that there are some lazy people there with you that never want to do any work. But instead, they go around to other people and mess them up.

¹²So we write this to those lazy people. Our leader, Jesus Christ, wants us to strongly tell them this. They have to change the way they live. They have to be quiet and get a job, so that they can buy their own food to eat.

¹³But to you other Christian friends we say this, keep going strong and don’t give up doing good things.

¹⁴We are writing this letter to tell you the right way to live. If some people will not do what we say in this letter, tell everyone about them and don’t be their close friends. Then they will feel ashamed.

¹⁵But don’t be their enemies. Instead, talk to them like they are your brothers or sisters and try to straighten them out.

¹⁶We will finish this letter now. You know, our leader, Jesus, he is the one that can settle everyone down and help them feel good inside. And we pray that he will do this for you all the time, and that he will be with you all the time.

¹⁷This is me, Paul, writing this bit now. I’m saying hello to you, and I am writing it with my own hand, so everyone can be sure that this letter really is from me. I do this at the end of all my letters.

¹⁸I pray that Jesus Christ, our leader, will keep on being really good to all of you. From Paul