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.