Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me

 Good morning. And Paul's prayer for them is my prayer for you: May the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass. As Paul said before, it is God who sanctifies you. And He does not do it partially – He does it entirely. It is your entire tri-partite being. We can trust Him to do it because He is faithful. That is the end of first Thessalonians – now for second Thessalonians. He talks about their faith being greatly enlarged and the love each one had towards one another. They had perseverance and faith in the midst of all their persecutions and afflictions which they endured. It's hard enough to maintain your faith when everything is going great – they did it even in the midst of persecutions and afflictions. This is a plain indication of God's righteous judgment so that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which indeed you are suffering. Sounds like they did not have it easy. And then some more end times stuff: for after all it is only just for God to repay with afflictions those who afflict you, and to give relief to you who are afflicted and to us as well when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels and flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. As my friend from college would say – they are cruisin' for a bruisin'. You don't mess with God's people. However you don't see payback right away like we would want. Father thank You that the reader has perseverance and faith in the midst of all that he/she goes through. Thank You for meeting all of his/her needs. You will sanctify him/her entirely.