I warn you, brothers and sisters, to watch out for those who cause divisions and who trip you up by teaching you things that are the opposite of what you’ve learned. Stay away from them,
Brothers and sisters, we command you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to keep away from every believer who’s lazy and disruptive and who doesn’t follow the teaching you received from us.
Make sure that no one makes you their prisoner through false and deceptive reasoning, through ideas that depend on human teachings and the basic spiritual powers of this world rather than on Christ.
That question came up because some false believers had slipped in among us to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus. They wanted to make us slaves again.
As I told you when I went into Macedonia, I want you to stay there in Ephesus. I need you to command certain people not to teach things that aren’t true and not to spend their time on made-up stories
You’re still following your own wrong desires. If you’re jealous and you’re arguing, aren’t those desires in charge? Aren’t you acting like ordinary human beings?
These enemies left our community of believers, but they didn’t really belong to us. If they had belonged to us, they would have stayed with us. By leaving, they showed that none of them really belonged to us.
If they still refuse to listen, then tell it to the community of believers. And if they refuse to listen even to the community, then treat them the way you would treat an unbeliever or a traitor.