2 Thessalonians

Chapter 1

¹ Dear Brothers and Sisters in the faith in the congregation at Thessalonica, that is you who’ve been made one with God our Father and our Lord Christ Jesus.

Greetings from Paul, Silas ^[1] and Timothy.

² My prayer is that God the Father and the Lord Christ Jesus will always be kind to each of you and watch over you so that you live calmly under God’s protection!

Paul comforts the congregation in persecution

³ We always give thanks to God because of you, Brothers and Sisters. And we feel it’s very proper to do that because your faith in Jesus keeps growing and you all love each other more and more. ⁴ So we’re always glad to tell about you to the other churches, that is to those who are chosen by God like you and us. We tell them how you keep enduring and holding on to your faith when you’re persecuted and how you suffer many things.

⁵ The way you endure like that proves that God is always just to man so that you’re considered worthy to enter God’s kingdom. For you’re suffering now, of course, because you’re faithful to His kingdom. ⁶ When God gives a harsh punishment to those who are making you suffer now, He’ll also do it with justice. ⁷ At that time, He’ll also give you who are suffering a feeling of relief, and to us too. This will happen when the Lord Jesus returns from heaven and shows Himself again to this world. At that time, His angels will accompany Him with amazing power. ⁸ And everyone who doesn’t know God and doesn’t want to obey the Good News about our Lord Jesus will be punished by Him with flaming fire. ^{[2] 9} They’ll be punished forever in a place that’s far from the presence of the Lord, and they won’t be able to enjoy the glory of God and all of His power forever. ^{[3] 10} That punishment will happen when the Lord Jesus comes back. At that time, everyone who has been purified by Him, that is everyone who believes in Him, will feel amazed and glorify Him because of His power. You will also certainly join in welcoming His coming because you’ve believed the testimony that we’ve given.

¹¹ For that reason we always pray for you. And we ask God to help you to live in a way that’s proper for people who’ve been called by Him. And we pray that through the power of God, He’ll enable you to complete all the good things that you desire to do, especially the good things that are proper for us who believe in Jesus. ¹² In that way, the name of Jesus our Lord will be glorified through each of your lives. And because you’re one with Him, you’ll also be honored according to the kindness of God the Father and our Lord Christ Jesus.

Chapter 2

Things that will happen before Jesus returns

¹ Brothers and Sisters, we need to tell you about the day when our Lord Christ Jesus returns, when God will gather us to welcome Him. ² Don’t be quickly confused or shocked if you hear people talking about that day like this, “Without our knowing or having an opportunity to meet with other brothers in the faith, the Lord Jesus has already returned.” ^[1] Don’t think like that even if people say, “The Spirit of God told us this.” Also, don’t believe it if people say, “I heard Paul say that the Lord Jesus has already returned.” And if that kind of news comes in a letter, don’t believe that the letter came from us. ³ No matter how people may try to deceive you about that matter, don’t believe it. For the Lord won’t come before the time when many people refuse to follow God. That will happen when they follow a king of wickedness who will just start to take action at that time. He’s the one who’ll be destroyed on the last day. ^{[2] 4} He’ll oppose every being that’s worshiped ^[3] by man, including God Himself. He’ll raise himself above all of those to the point that he enters God’s House and sits in the Holy Place so that everyone acknowledges that he’s God.

⁵ But why have you’ve forgotten that! When I was with you, I repeatedly told you that. ⁶ So you should remember that there’s another Power ^[4] in this world. And now that Power hinders the king of wickedness so that he can’t reveal himself before the time appointed by God comes. ⁷ Now that king has already started working secretly in this world so that people oppose God. But the Power I mentioned will hinder that king until God gives orders to allow that king to work freely. ⁸ Only then will that king work visibly. After that, the Lord Jesus will come down from heaven in full glory and quickly destroy him with just His word.

⁹ When that king reveals himself, he’ll work all kinds of miracles with the power of the devil so that people will think that he’s God. ¹⁰ And he’ll use all kinds of tricks to mislead the people who are following the road to destruction. They’ll be destroyed because they close their hearts to the true teaching that could save them. ¹¹ For that reason, God will blind the eyes of their hearts so that they’ll keep believing false teaching. ¹² God will do that so that everyone who keeps enjoying evil and refuses to believe in true teaching will be punished by Him.

We who believe must endure

¹³ But Brothers and Sisters whom the Lord Jesus loves, we should always give thanks to God, of course, because He has chosen you since the creation of the world. He chose you to be saved through believing in the true teaching and through God’s Spirit who purifies you. ¹⁴ In that way, God used the Good News which we gave in order to call you so that you take part with us in the glory of our Lord Christ Jesus. ¹⁵ For that reason Brothers and Sisters, endure and keep holding onto the teachings that we gave, both spoken and written.

¹⁶ Because of that we pray to our Lord Christ Jesus and to God our Father for you. God the Father really loves us and always encourages our hearts so that we are more certain ^[5] about living forever with the Lord. We have that assurance because Jesus has been very kind to us. ¹⁷ So we pray that the Lord Jesus and God the Father always encourage each of your hearts. That way you'll always do what's best through words and deeds.

Chapter 3

Paul gives a prayer request to the church

¹ Finally, Brothers and Sisters, I ask you to pray for us so that our teaching about the Lord Jesus can spread quickly. Pray that people will receive that teaching and appreciate it, just like what happened among you. ² Pray also that God delivers us from agitators and people who are cruel to us, because everyone doesn’t want to believe our teaching.

³ But the Lord Jesus is always faithful. He’ll strengthen the faith of each of you and protect you from the devil. ⁴ And because you’re also one with the Lord, we’re also confident that you are doing and will keep doing what we taught. ⁵ We pray that Jesus will help you to be more certain that God really loves you and that you can keep on enduring like Christ did when He suffered.

We must work

⁶ Brothers and Sisters, as messengers of our Lord Christ Jesus, we command that you not associate with a brother or sister in the faith who is lazy and who doesn’t want to live according to the teaching you received from us. ⁷ I ask you to always remember our way of life when we were together and to follow our example, because we were never lazy. ⁸ Remember that we never ate other people’s food without paying. We worked hard day and night so that we wouldn’t become a burden to anyone of you. ⁹ Actually, as servants of the Lord we have the right to receive help from you. But we ourselves worked to meet our needs because we wanted to become examples to you. ¹⁰ And when we were still together, we commanded you like this, “Whoever doesn’t want to work can’t eat.”

¹¹ We remind you about that because we hear that there are some people among you who are lazy. They don’t work at all but are just busy meddling in other people’s affairs. ¹² As servants of our Lord Christ Jesus, we give explicit advice that they live orderly and that they have to work to fulfill the basic necessities for themselves. ¹³ And Brothers and Sisters, we urge you all not to get tired of doing good.

¹⁴ If there are people who don’t follow what we teach in this letter, take note of who they are and don’t have close relationships with them. In that way, they’ll become aware and ashamed of their wrongs. ¹⁵ But don’t consider them to be enemies. Keep advising them as brothers and sisters in the faith.

Final words

¹⁶ Finally, we pray for you to the Lord Jesus who always gives us calmness in His protection.

¹⁷ I Paul am the one writing this final greeting with my own hand. Greetings! This is what I usually do as a sign that this letter is really from me.

¹⁸ And I pray that our Lord Christ Jesus will always be kind to all of you.