Pray that more and more people will believe the message about our Lord Jesus.

1As for the other matters, our fellow believers, pray for us that more and more people will hear [PRS] our message about our Lord Jesus. Pray that they will believe this message, as you have done.

2Pray also for us that we will be rescued {that God will rescue us} from those very perverse/evil people here who cause us to suffer. Pray like that because they and many others refuse to believe [LIT] this message.

Our Lord Jesus will cause you to continue to be steadfast and he will protect you from the evil one.

3Remember that our Lord Jesus is trustworthy! So we are sure that he will cause you to continue to be steadfast. We are also sure that he will protect you from Satan, the evil one (OR, from evil).

4Because of your close relationship with our Lord Jesus, we are confident that you are obeying what we have commanded you, and we are confident that you will obey what we are commanding you in this letter.

5We pray that our Lord Jesus would enable you to continue knowing that God loves you. We pray also that Christ will cause you to continue being steadfast (OR, being steadfast as he was steadfast).

We command you to disassociate yourselves from every fellow believer who refuses to work.

6Our fellow believers, we command you, with the authority [MTY] that our Lord Jesus Christ has given to us, that you stop associating with every fellow believer who is lazy and refuses to work. That is, you must stay away from those who are not conducting their lives in the manner that we taught you.

7We tell you this because you yourselves know that you should behave like we behaved. We ◄did not just sit around without working/were never lazy► while we were living among you.

8Specifically, we did not eat anyone’s food if we did not pay that person for it. Instead, we worked very hard ◄to support ourselves/to earn the money to buy what we needed►. We worked hard [DOU] during the day and during the night, in order that we would not have to depend on any of you to supply what we needed.

9We have always had the right to depend on you for money, but instead we worked hard in order to make ourselves examples for you, in order that you should behave like we behave.

10Remember that when we were there with you, we kept commanding you that if any fellow believer refuses to work, you should not give him food to eat.

11We are commanding the same thing again now, because someone has told us that some of you are lazy and not working at all, just interfering with what other people are doing!

We command those fellow believers who are not working to support themselves by settling down and working.

12We command those fellow believers who are not working, and urge them by the authority [MTY] of our Lord Jesus Christ, that they settle down and ◄support themselves by working/work to earn money to buy what they need►.

You others, do not stop doing what is right because you are discouraged.

13Fellow believers! Do not ever get tired of doing what is right!

Publicly identify any fellow believer who does not obey what we have written in this letter and do not associate with him.

14If any fellow believer refuses to work and does not obey what I have written in this letter, ◄publicly identify that person/tell the congregation what that person is doing►. Then do not associate with him, in order that he may become ashamed.

15Do not think of him as though he was your enemy; instead, warn him as you would warn your other fellow believers.

I pray that our Lord Jesus himself will give peace to you always and in every situation.

16I pray that our Lord Jesus himself, who gives inner peace to his people, will give inner peace to you always ◄and in every situation/whatever happens►. In closing, I pray that our Lord Jesus will continue to bless you all. I, Paul, am greeting you and I am writing this myself in order that you may know that it is I who have sent this letter. 2 Thessalonians 3:16b-18 I pray that our Lord Jesus will continue to help you all.

17Now, having taken the pen from my scribe, I, Paul, am sending this greeting to you as I write this myself [SYN]. I do this in all my letters in order that you may know that it is truly I who have sent this letter. This is how I always end my letters.

18I pray that our Lord Jesus Christ will continue to act kindly to you all.