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Paul asked the Christians at Thessalonica to pray for him
1 And, Christian friends, there is one more thing we want to ask you to do. Please pray for us. Ask God to help us 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.
2 You 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.
Jesus will keep you safe
3 But Jesus, our leader, is always good to us, and he 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 one, the boss over the bad spirits, so that he can’t touch you.
4 You 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.
5 We 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.
Don’t be lazy
6-7 Listen, Christian 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. Remember when we were with you. Think about what we were like. We didn’t sit around doing nothing. And we told you, “Don’t be lazy.” We want you to live the way we lived when we were with you.
8 We 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.
No work, no food
9 You know, God says that if somebody tells people the good news about Jesus, it is all right for that person to ask for the things they need. 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.
10 Remember what we told you about people that don’t want to work. We told you not to give them food. We said, “If they will not do any work, don’t give them any food.”
Get a job so you can buy your own food
11 You see, somebody told us that there are some lazy people there with you that never want to do any work. They just go around talking about people in a bad way and messing up other people’s lives.
12 So 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 settle down and get a job, so that they can buy their own food to eat.
13 But to you other Christian friends we say this, keep on doing good things all the time, and always be happy to do them.
Try to straighten out those people that go wrong
14 We 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 shame.
15 But don’t be their enemies. Instead, talk to them like they are your brothers or sisters, and try to straighten them out.
The end of the letter
16 We will finish this letter now. You know, our leader, Jesus, he is the one that can make people feel quiet and happy inside themselves. Well, we pray that he will do that for you all the time, and that he will be with you all the time.
Paul signed this letter
17 This 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 is really from me. I do this at the end of all my letters.
18 I pray that Jesus Christ, our leader, will keep on being really good to all of you.
From Paul