2 Thessalonians 3 Footnotes

3:6,14-15 Refusing to associate with certain so-called believers is not a call to intolerance or avoiding unbelievers (1Co 5:10-11) but to church discipline (reflecting Jesus’s teaching in Mt 18:17). Discipline (removal from fellowship) should be for those boldly and persistently engaging in loveless divisiveness (Rm 16:17), deviant teaching (2Jn 9-11), or scandalous moral behavior (1Co 5:1-5). It should always have the goal of restoring the disciplined one to fellowship and changed behavior (see Mt 18:15; 1Co 5:5; Ti 3:10-11; Jms 5:19-20).