1

¹ Opening Considerations Greeting Paul, Silvanus and Timothy, Paul gives recognition to the junior members of the team. to the congregation The first image that the term ‘church’ evokes in the minds of many is that of a building; what is in view here is a group of people. of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:

² Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. To the ‘western’ mind the repetition of the full form, “God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,” may seem unnecessary, if not stylistically poor, but this letter was written by a Hebrew.

³ Commendation and encouragement We are obligated to always give thanks to God about you, brothers, and properly so, because your faith is really growing, and the love of each and every one of you towards each other keeps increasing;

⁴ so that we ourselves boast about you among God’s congregations, referring to your steadfastness and faith in the midst of all your persecutions, and the tribulations that you are enduring Paul boasts of their steadfastness and faith. Evidently the believers in Thessalonica were passing through tough times—the adversity caused their faith to grow and their love for each other to increase. This equation appears to be a norm within the Kingdom of God.

⁵ —the above is evidence that God’s judgment is right, Presumably God’s judgment in choosing them (see 2:13). to the end that you be considered worthy Wait a minute! If salvation is by grace, where does ‘being worthy’ come in? Well, again we are faced with the paradox of the coexistence of God’s sovereignty and human responsibility. ‘God’s judgment’ = sovereignty; suffering to be considered worthy = responsibility. The gift of life in Christ is indeed free; we don’t deserve it and can’t buy it or earn it. To live for Christ costs everything. of the Kingdom of God, on behalf of which you are actually suffering;

⁶ since to God it is right to pay back affliction to those who are afflicting you Payday is coming; those who mistreated God’s people aren’t going to like it.

⁷ and rest (along with us) to you who are being afflicted, There is a rest for the people of God (Hebrews, chapters 3 and 4). at the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven with His powerful angels in blazing fire, The syntax allows “in blazing fire” to go either with the angels or the vengeance; it seemed more natural to me to put the phrase with the angels—in that event the ‘revelation’ will be an impressive sight.

⁸ inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, It is clearly implied that they could have known God and could have obeyed the Gospel; if they had no way of knowing and never ever heard, ‘vengeance’ would seem to be too strong. So what about the millions of individuals born into cultures where no representative of the Creator has ever gone? Romans 1:18-25 makes clear that all have the light of creation. Since all human knowledge is based on the principle of cause and effect, any rational creature must conclude that there has to be a sufficient Cause for the marvelous creation he sees all around. Each one is also born with a conscience. No doubt anyone who responds correctly to the light of creation will receive more light.

⁹ who will pay a penalty: everlasting ruin, The lost do not cease to exist; they are eternally separated from the Source of all good; they are condemned to never achieve/realize their potential—everlasting ruin. away from the face of the Lord and from the glory of His might,

¹⁰ whenever He comes to be glorified by His saints, There is a stark contrast between the saved and the lost: the saved will rejoice and glory in Christ’s presence; the lost will be excluded from it, a basic ingredient in the ruin. yes to be marveled at by all who have believed (because our testimony to you was believed); Paul includes them in that sanctified throng. in that Day.

¹¹ A model prayer To this end we also pray always for you, that our God may count you worthy of the calling I suppose that “the calling” here is to have an active part in bringing about God’s Kingdom in their context; as they are counted worthy God will work with them to introduce goodness and works of faith into that context. and fulfill God does the fulfilling. every desire of goodness and work of faith with power,

¹² so that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, Note that the point of the manifestations of God’s power is to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ. and you in Him, When we glorify the Lord there is reciprocation. according to the grace of our God and Lord, Jesus Christ. I take “our God and Lord, Jesus Christ” to be the best rendering of the precise turn of phrase here.

2

¹ The Day of Christ Now, brothers, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to Him, The reference is to the Rapture, presumably. we urge you

² not to be quickly shaken from your conviction or disturbed, whether by a spirit or a word or a letter as from us, as though the day of Christ Some 15% of the Greek manuscripts have ‘Lord’ (as in NIV, NASB, LB, TEV, etc.); the 85% that have ‘Christ’ (including the best line of transmission) are doubtless correct. I remember one day in a Greek exegesis class, the professor stated that one reason he preferred the ‘critical’ text (that reads ‘Lord’ here) is that it fit better with his view of eschatology—the ‘Day of Christ’ is usually associated with the Rapture and blessing of the saints, while the ‘Day of the Lord’ is usually associated with heavy judgment upon the world and unrepentant Israel, including the outpouring of wrath just before and after the Second Coming of Christ, when He returns in glory to establish His Millennial Reign. The perceived difficulty here would appear to be that while verses 1, 6 and 7 evidently relate to the Rapture, verses 3-4 and 8-10 evidently relate to the Great Tribulation and the Second Coming. What to do? Look carefully at the Text. In verse 2, why would the Thessalonian believers be “disturbed”? Someone was teaching that the Rapture had already happened and they had been left behind—I would be disturbed too! So ‘day of Christ’ is precisely correct with reference to the content of verses 1 and 2. The trouble comes in verse 3 because a clause is elided; as an aid to the reader translations usually supply a clause, preferably in italics to show that it is an addition, as in NKJV—“that Day will not come”. But that would put the Rapture after the revelation of the man of sin and the ‘abomination of desolation’—definitely not congenial to certain eschatological systems. An easy ‘solution’ would be to change ‘Christ’ to ‘Lord’ in verse 2, but that would put the Rapture within the ‘day of the Lord’—also not congenial. I submit that fine-tuning our view of eschatology is preferable to tampering with the Text. has come.

³ The man of sin Don’t let anyone deceive you by any means; because that day cannot come unless the rebellion There has been no end of rebellion down through the centuries, but this one will be worse. comes first and the man of sin Some 5% of the Greek manuscripts read ‘lawlessness’ (as in NIV, NASB, LB, etc.), but the 95% (including the best line of transmission) are doubtless correct. Yes, ‘the’ man of sin—there have been no end of evil men down through the centuries, but this one will be really bad. is revealed, the son of ruin, He is characterized by ruin; he ruins everything he touches (like Midas).

⁴ who opposes and exalts himself over everything that is called a god or an object of worship, to the point of taking his seat as God in God’s sanctuary, proclaiming himself to be God.

⁵ (Don’t you remember that I used to tell you these things while still with you?) Evidently eschatology was in the roster of subjects that Paul normally covered in his teaching.

⁶ The Restrainer So now you know what is restraining, to the end that he The man of sin. may be revealed at his own time.

⁷ For the mystery of the lawlessness is already at work; Why ‘mystery’ and why ‘the’ lawlessness? After Christ’s victory on the cross, demonstrated by His resurrection, and His taking back the ‘keys’ (Rev. 1:18), Satan had to go ‘underground’. He is behind all human lawlessness and foments it in all sorts of ways, but his master plan is under wraps, hence a ‘mystery’. only He who now restrains will do so until He removes Himself. Perhaps more literally, ‘gets Himself out of the middle’ (the verb γινομαι is inherently middle in voice).

⁸ And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and abolish by the splendor of His coming; Note that “His coming” is subsequent to the revelation of the man of sin and the events he will usher in, and that revelation is subsequent to the departure of the Restrainer. So if the Rapture is linked to the Restrainer’s departure, the Lord’s “coming” is a distinct, subsequent occurrence.

⁹ that one’s coming is according to the working of Satan with all power When Satan fell he did not lose his power. and signs and lying wonders,

¹⁰ and with all wicked deception among those who are wasting themselves, The verb here, απωλλυμι , often rendered ‘to perish’ (John 3:16 in KJV), is used in a variety of contexts, but I take the core meaning to be ‘waste’. The participial form here is ambiguous as to voice, either middle or passive, but the basic form of the verb is middle. Ephesians 1:5-14 makes clear that a basic objective of our redemption is that we be “to the praise of His glory”, which was part of the original plan (Isaiah 43:7). Only as we live for the glory of God can we realize or fulfill our potential, our reason for being. If you live for any other reason you are wasting yourself. because they did not receive the love of the truth The use of the verb ‘receive’ clearly implies an act of volition on their part; that love was offered or made available to them but they didn’t want it; they wanted to be able to lie and to entertain lies told by others. But the consequences of such a choice are terrible; they turned their back on salvation. so that they might be saved.

¹¹ Believing ‘the lie’ Yes, because of this God will send them an active delusion Notice the sequence: first they reject the love of the truth; it is as a consequence of that choice that God sends the delusion. The implication is that there is a point of no return; God sends the delusion so that they may be condemned. The only intelligent choice is to embrace the truth! so that they will believe the lie Perhaps “the lie” is best illustrated in our day by the theory of evolution: “There is no Creator”—so there won’t be any accounting; so you can do what you feel like.

¹² and so that all may be condemned who have not believed the truth but have taken pleasure in wickedness. ‘Taking pleasure in wickedness’ involves rejecting the Truth of a moral Creator who will demand an accounting.

¹³ To be Saved is Different Now we are obligated to always give thanks to God about you, brothers loved by the Lord, because from the beginning God chose you into salvation, through sanctification of spirit and belief in truth,

¹⁴ to which Our versions typically have “sanctification of the Spirit and belief in the truth”, but the Text has no article with ‘spirit’ or ‘truth’; further, the relative pronoun ‘which’ is neuter in gender, while the most likely antecedents are either masculine (‘sanctification’) or feminine (‘salvation’ and ‘belief’). But when the antecedent is a phrase the pronoun is typically neuter, so I take the antecedent to be ‘through sanctification of spirit and belief in truth’. The human spirit must be sanctified. He called you through our gospel, so as to obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

¹⁵ So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, whether by word or by letter.

¹⁶ Another model prayer Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and our God and Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort ‘eternal comfort’—I love it. and good hope, by grace,

¹⁷ encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good word and work.

3

¹ A request for prayer Finally, brothers, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may spread rapidly and be glorified, as also with you,

² and that we may be delivered from evil and malignant men; for not all have faith.

³ But the Lord is faithful, who will strengthen you and guard you from the wicked one. ‘The’ wicked one is Satan.

⁴ We have confidence in the Lord concerning you, that you both do and will do the things we command.

⁵ Now may the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the perseverance of Christ. As Paul makes clear in the opening paragraph, they are already manifesting love and perseverance, so I take the point of the prayer to be progress into God’s kind of love and Christ’s kind of perseverance. They have made a good start, they are on the right road; Paul asks God to help them on toward the goal.

⁶ Instructions Don’t be irresponsible or lazy Now we command you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw from every brother who behaves irresponsibly and not according to the tradition that they There were several of them. received from us.

⁷ For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us, because we did not behave irresponsibly among you;

⁸ neither The distinction implied here indicates that the irresponsible behavior covered a wider area than just idleness or freeloading. did we eat anyone’s bread without paying; rather we worked night and day, with difficulty and hardship, so as not to be a burden to any of you;

⁹ not because we don’t have the right, but in order to offer ourselves to you as a model for you to imitate.

¹⁰ Yes, because when we were with you we gave you this command: “If anyone doesn’t want to work, “Doesn’t want to work”—the reference is not to those who want to work but can’t find a job; it is to the lazy. neither let him eat!”

¹¹ Yet we hear that some among you are behaving irresponsibly; not working, just meddling.

¹² Now to such individuals we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ that they work in quietness and eat their own bread.

¹³ Isolate the disobedient But as for you, brothers, do not lose heart in well doing.

¹⁴ If anyone does not obey our word in this letter, take note of him and don’t associate with him, that he may be shamed;

¹⁵ yet do not regard him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother. The discipline is to be corrective, not punitive. Note that Paul clearly claims authority; he expects to be obeyed.

¹⁶ Conclusion Benediction Now may the Lord of peace Himself give you the peace ‘the’ peace: there is no lack of counterfeit ‘peace’, but the reference here is presumably to “the peace of God, that surpasses all understanding” (Philippians 4:7)—and only ‘the Lord of peace’ can give it. during every situation, in every way. Since they were being actively persecuted, this was a very appropriate blessing. The Lord be with you all.

¹⁷ Sign-off The greeting of Paul, with my own hand, which is the ‘trademark’ in every letter that I write. I take the clear implication to be that Paul dictated his letters to an amanuensis, but ‘signed’ the letter by writing the last line himself.

¹⁸ The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.