In the following instructions, however, I do not praise you, because your meetings for worship actually do more harm than good.

Don't you have your own homes in which to eat and drink? Or would you rather despise the church of God and put to shame the people who are in need? What do you expect me to say to you about this? Shall I praise you? Of course I don't!

Her children show their appreciation, and her husband praises her.

Charm is deceptive and beauty disappears, but a woman who honors the LORD should be praised.

For this purpose I am sending to you Timothy, who is my own dear and faithful son in the Christian life. He will remind you of the principles which I follow in the new life in union with Christ Jesus and which I teach in all the churches everywhere.

That is the gospel, the message that I preached to you. You are saved by the gospel if you hold firmly to it---unless it was for nothing that you believed.

Each of you should go on living according to the Lord's gift to you, and as you were when God called you. This is the rule I teach in all the churches.

They both lived good lives in God's sight and obeyed fully all the Lord's laws and commands.

Finally, our friends, you learned from us how you should live in order to please God. This is, of course, the way you have been living. And now we beg and urge you in the name of the Lord Jesus to do even more.

For you know the instructions we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus.

So then, our friends, stand firm and hold on to those truths which we taught you, both in our preaching and in our letter.

Our friends, we command you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to keep away from all believers who are living a lazy life and who do not follow the instructions that we gave them.