To OWE, to be UNDER OBLIGATION — the verb of a debt, financial first (what is owed on a loan) and then moral (what one is bound to do). ⚠ At 2 Thessalonians 1:3 it colours the thanksgiving: not the first letter's plain 'we give thanks' but 'we OUGHT to give thanks… as is fitting'. Some read that note of obligation as cooler and more formal, and count it among the reasons to doubt the letter is Paul's; others read it as a man telling a harassed congregation that their growth does not merely please him but is OWED thanks — their due, not flattery. It is the root of opheilēma, 'debt', in the Lord's Prayer ('forgive us our debts', Matthew 6:12), and of opheiletēs, 'debtor'. → first discussed at 2 Thessalonians 1:3