For even if you had ten thousand guardians in Christ, you would not have many fathers. For in Christ Jesus I became a father to you through the gospel.
We also give thanks to God without ceasing because, when you received the word of God that you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it truly is, the word of God, which is at work in you who believe.
Finally, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus that, just as you learned from us how you ought to walk and to please God, you do so more and more.
Now we command you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to keep yourselves away from every brother who walks in idleness and does not live according to the teaching we passed on to them.
Through Silvanus, whom I regard as a faithful brother, I have written to you briefly, encouraging you and testifying that this is the true grace of God in which you stand.