1. Finally, our friends, please pray for us. This will help the message about the Lord to spread quickly, and others will respect it, just as you do.
2. Pray that we may be kept safe from worthless and evil people. After all, not everyone has faith.
3. But the Lord can be trusted to make you strong and protect you from harm.
4. He has made us sure that you are obeying what we taught you and that you will keep on obeying.
5. I pray that the Lord will guide you to be as loving as God and as patient as Christ.
6. My dear friends, in the name of the Lord Jesus, I beg you not to have anything to do with any of your people who waste their time and refuse to obey the instructions we gave you.
7. You know that you should follow our example. We didn't waste our time being lazy,
8. and we didn't accept food from anyone without paying for it. We didn't want to be a burden to any of you, so night and day we worked as hard as we could.
9. We had the right not to work, but we wanted to set an example for you.
10. We also gave you the rule that if you don't work, you don't eat.
11. Now we learn that some of you waste your time and won't do any work, except the work of a busybody.