The goal of this command is for people to have love. To have this love people must have a pure heart, they must do what they know is right, and they must have true faith.
Keeping your faith is like running a race. Try as hard as you can to win that race. Be sure you get that life that continues forever. You were called to have that life. And you confessed the great truth \{about Christ\} in a way that many people heard you.
People who want to become rich bring temptations to themselves. They are caught in a trap. They begin to want many foolish things that will hurt them. Those things ruin and destroy people.
They have left the true teaching. They say that the rising from death \{of all people\} has already happened. And those two men are destroying the faith of some people.
An elder must faithfully follow the truth the same as we teach it. An elder must be able to help people by using true and right teaching. And he must be able to show the people who are against the true teaching that they are wrong.
Those enemies of Christ were in our group. But they left us. They did not really belong with us. If they were really part of our group, then they would have stayed with us. But they left. This shows that none of them really belonged with us.
You followed my command to endure patiently. So I will keep you from the time of trouble that will come to the whole world. This trouble will test the people who live on the earth.
So don’t forget what you have received and heard. Obey it. Change your hearts and lives! You must wake up, or I will come to you \{and surprise you\} like a thief. You will not know when I will come.
I know the things you do. I have put an open door before you. No person can close it. I know that you are weak. But you have followed my teaching. You were not afraid to speak my name.