2 Thessalonians 2:1–17

¹However, brothers, respecting the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we request of ​YOU²not to be quickly shaken from ​YOUR​ reason nor to be excited either through an inspired expression or through a verbal message or through a letter as though from us, to the effect that the day of Jehovah is here.

³Let no one seduce ​YOU​ in any manner, because it will not come unless the apostasy comes first and the man of lawlessness gets revealed, the son of destruction.⁴He is set in opposition and lifts himself up over everyone who is called “god” or an object of reverence, so that he sits down in the temple of The God, publicly showing himself to be a god.⁵Do ​YOU​ not remember that, while I was yet with ​YOU, I used to tell ​YOU​ these things?

⁶And so now ​YOU​ know the thing that acts as a restraint, with a view to his being revealed in his own due time.⁷True, the mystery of this lawlessness is already at work; but only till he who is right now acting as a restraint gets to be out of the way.⁸Then, indeed, the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will do away with by the spirit of his mouth and bring to nothing by the manifestation of his presence.⁹But the lawless one’s presence is according to the operation of Satan with every powerful work and lying signs and portents¹⁰and with every unrighteous deception for those who are perishing, as a retribution because they did not accept the love of the truth that they might be saved.¹¹So that is why God lets an operation of error go to them, that they may get to believing the lie,¹²in order that they all may be judged because they did not believe the truth but took pleasure in unrighteousness.

¹³However, we are obligated to thank God always for ​YOU, brothers loved by Jehovah, because God selected ​YOU​ from [the] beginning for salvation by sanctifying ​YOU​ with spirit and by ​YOUR​ faith in the truth.¹⁴To this very destiny he called ​YOU​ through the good news we declare, for the purpose of acquiring the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.¹⁵So, then, brothers, stand firm and maintain ​YOUR​ hold on the traditions that ​YOU​ were taught, whether it was through a verbal message or through a letter of ours.¹⁶Moreover, may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and gave everlasting comfort and good hope by means of undeserved kindness,¹⁷comfort ​YOUR​ hearts and make ​YOU​ firm in every good deed and word.