But as to you, brethren, I am convinced –yes, I Paul am convinced– that, even apart from my teaching, you are already full of goodness of heart, and enriched with complete Christian knowledge, and are also competent to instruct one another.
For I will not presume to mention any of the results that Christ has brought about by other agency than mine in securing the obedience of the Gentiles by word or deed,
And I write this to you in order that when I come I may not receive pain from those who ought to give me joy, confident as I am as to all of you that my joy is the joy of you all.
And we send with them our brother, of whose zeal we have had frequent proof in many matters, and who is now more zealous than ever through the strong confidence which he has in you.
For my part I have strong confidence in you in the Lord that you will adopt my view of the matter. But the man –be he who he may– who is troubling you, will have to bear the full weight of the judgement to be pronounced on him.
Therefore, my dearly-loved friends, as I have always found you obedient, labour earnestly with fear and trembling –not merely as though I were present with you, but much more now since I am absent from you– labour earnestly, I say, to make sure of your own salvation.
To persons of that sort our injunction –and our command by the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ– is that they are to work quietly and eat their own honestly-earned bread.
But, by the authority of the Lord, we command you, brethren, to stand aloof from every brother whose life is disorderly and not in accordance with the teaching which all received from us.