2 Thessalonians

1Chapter

Greeting

1Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy: To the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
2Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

God’s Judgment and Glory

3We ought to thank God always for you, brothers and sisters, and rightly so, since your faith is flourishing and the love each one of you has for one another is increasing. 4Therefore, we ourselves boast about you among God’s churches—about your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and afflictions that you are enduring. 5It is clear evidence of God’s righteous judgment that you will be counted worthy of God’s kingdom, for which you also are suffering, 6since it is just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you 7and to give relief to you who are afflicted, along with us. This will take place at the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven with his powerful angels, 8when he takes vengeance with flaming fire on those who don’t know God and on those who don’t obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9They will pay the penalty of eternal destruction from the Lord’s presence and from his glorious strength 10on that day when he comes to be glorified by his saints and to be marveled at by all those who have believed, because our testimony among you was believed. 11In view of this, we always pray for you that our God will make you worthy of his calling, and by his power fulfill your every desire to do good and your work produced by faith, 12so that the name of our Lord Jesus will be glorified by you, and you by him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
2Chapter

The Man of Lawlessness

1Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him: We ask you, brothers and sisters, 2not to be easily upset or troubled, either by a prophecy or by a message or by a letter supposedly from us, alleging that the day of the Lord has come. 3Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way. For that day will not come unless the apostasy comes first and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. 4He opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he sits in God’s temple, proclaiming that he himself is God.
5Don’t you remember that when I was still with you I used to tell you about this? 6And you know what currently restrains him, so that he will be revealed in his time. 7For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work, but the one now restraining will do so until he is out of the way, 8and then the lawless one will be revealed. The Lord Jesus will destroy him with the breath of his mouth and will bring him to nothing at the appearance of his coming. 9The coming of the lawless one is based on Satan’s working, with every kind of miracle, both signs and wonders serving the lie, 10and with every wicked deception among those who are perishing. They perish because they did not accept the love of the truth and so be saved. 11For this reason God sends them a strong delusion so that they will believe the lie, 12so that all will be condemned —those who did not believe the truth but delighted in unrighteousness.

Stand Firm

13But we ought to thank God always for you, brothers and sisters loved by the Lord, because from the beginning God has chosen you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and through belief in the truth. 14He called you to this through our gospel, so that you might obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. 15So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold to the traditions you were taught, whether by what we said or what we wrote.
16May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us eternal encouragement and good hope by grace, 17encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good work and word.
3Chapter

Pray for Us

1In addition, brothers and sisters, pray for us that the word of the Lord may spread rapidly and be honored, just as it was with you, 2and that we may be delivered from wicked and evil people, for not all have faith. 3But the Lord is faithful; he will strengthen you and guard you from the evil one. 4We have confidence in the Lord about you, that you are doing and will continue to do what we command. 5May the Lord direct your hearts to God’s love and Christ’s endurance.

Warning against Irresponsible Behavior

6Now we command you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to keep away from every brother or sister who is idle and does not live according to the tradition received from us. 7For you yourselves know how you should imitate us: We were not idle among you; 8we did not eat anyone’s food free of charge; instead, we labored and toiled, working night and day, so that we would not be a burden to any of you. 9It is not that we don’t have the right to support, but we did it to make ourselves an example to you so that you would imitate us. 10In fact, when we were with you, this is what we commanded you: “If anyone isn’t willing to work, he should not eat.” 11For we hear that there are some among you who are idle. They are not busy but busybodies. 12Now we command and exhort such people by the Lord Jesus Christ to work quietly and provide for themselves. 13But as for you, brothers and sisters, do not grow weary in doing good.
14If anyone does not obey our instruction in this letter, take note of that person; don’t associate with him, so that he may be ashamed. 15Yet don’t consider him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother.

Final Greetings

16May the Lord of peace himself give you peace always in every way. The Lord be with all of you. 17I, Paul, am writing this greeting with my own hand, which is an authenticating mark in every letter; this is how I write. 18The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.
Study
Chapter 3
CSB

If our physician, God in Christ, having rescued us from our desires, regulates our flesh with his own wise and temperate rule, it is evident that he guards it from sins because it has a hope of salvation, just as physicians do not allow people whom they hope to save to indulge in whatever pleasures they please.

—Justin Martyr

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Transition. Paul requests prayer for his work, reassures the Thessalonians regarding God’s faithfulness, and closes by praying for the Thessalonians.

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Request for Prayer. Paul requests prayer for the gospel’s advance through his ministry and for deliverance from wicked opponents. He prays that the word of the Lord (the gospel) would speed ahead (enjoy unhindered progress) and be honored (by people acknowledging its truth and embracing God’s offer of salvation). For not all have faith. The gospel is not always embraced with faith; indeed, it frequently provokes violent hostility.

ESV

Reassurance. Paul gives some final words of comfort to the Thessalonians in the wake of the false claim about Christ’s return (2:2). In Greek, the last word of 3:2 is “faith” (Gk. pistis) and the first word of v. 3 is faithful (Gk. pistos)—the unbelievers’ lack of faith contrasts with God’s faithfulness. guard you against the evil one. Satan has been seeking to destroy the Thessalonians’ young faith. But God’s faithfulness assures Paul that the Evil One will not succeed: the Thessalonians will overcome him by responding appropriately to Paul’s two letters. He has confidence that they already are doing and, when they get this letter, will do the things that we command. Paul may have in mind his instruction to discipline those within their community who are idle (vv. 6–15) and/or his command to hold to the traditions about the day of the Lord (2:15).

ESV

Prayer. Paul prays that the Thessalonians will be directed toward the love of God and the steadfastness of Christ, by which he means either Christ’s endurance as a model for Christians or the perseverance imparted by Christ.

CSB

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).

ESV

The Problem of the Idlers. Paul instructs the Thessalonian community to exercise church discipline on those refusing to work. Although there is nothing in 1 or 2 Thessalonians that explicitly links the idleness with the confusion about the end times, many think that the Thessalonians stopped working to await and proclaim the Lord’s coming. Others believe that the problem was merely one of lazy Christians exploiting the charity of wealthier Christians, and using their free time to meddle in others’ affairs. Whatever the cause of the idleness, Paul’s patience has evidently now run out (cf. 1 Thess. 4:9–12).

ESV

The Command to the Community. Paul strongly commands (Gk. parangellō) the community as a whole to discipline by disassociation those who are not working but are depending on others for a living. The community is to keep away from these idlers, which probably means excommunicating them. Paul takes the sin of these people seriously, but at this point he still regards them as “brothers” (v. 15). In idleness (Gk. ataktōs) means “in an undisciplined, irresponsible, or disorderly manner.” These people are shirking their obligation to work (see Gen. 2:15). This behavior was not in accord with the tradition passed on by the missionaries regarding the necessity of working for one’s keep.

ESV

The Tradition. The missionaries had passed on the tradition about the need to work for a living both by example (vv. 7–9) and through oral instruction (v. 10).

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eat anyone’s bread without paying for it. Paul refused to depend on others for his living. Indeed he took on a heavy workload of manual labor in addition to his ministry commitments in order to avoid being a financial burden to any Thessalonian Christian, even though (in contrast to the idle Thessalonians) it was his God-given right to be supported (see 1 Cor. 9:3–15; 2 Cor. 11:7–9; 1 Thess. 2:9). He wanted to provide his converts with an example to imitate.

ESV

The Problem. not busy at work, but busybodies. There is a wordplay here in Greek: not ergazomenous (“working”) but periergazomenous (“being a busybody, meddling”). Those who refused to work were exploiting their free time to meddle in others’ affairs. Cf. 1 Tim. 5:13, where irreligious prying flows from idleness.

ESV

The Command to the Idlers. Paul forcefully commands the idle to get back to work, so that they may be financially independent. work quietly. The opposite of being nuisances or “busybodies” (v. 11).

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Instructions to the Community. The community is to keep doing good (v. 13) and to discipline any unrepentant idlers (vv. 14–15).

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The community as a whole, particularly wealthier members exploited by the idle, might grow weary in doing good, but Paul calls on them to continue being charitable, albeit only to those who are deserving.

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Paul believes it is very possible that some will ignore his warning and continue in their idle ways, so he instructs the community as a whole to take note of such people and have nothing to do with them (cf. v. 6). The purpose of this disassociation is so that the stubbornly insubordinate brothers will be ashamed, repent, and be restored to the community. Church discipline must always aim at renewing discipleship.

ESV

Disciplining a fellow Christian can easily degenerate into the community treating him as an enemy, so Paul says warn him as a brother.

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Conclusion. The letter concludes with a benediction, a final greeting, and a prayer for grace.

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Paul offers a benediction. Lord of peace. Jesus has reconciled the Thessalonian Christians to God and is at peace with them, able to replace their disturbed fear (2:2) with an experience of inner peace. in every way. Especially peace as opposed to consternation regarding the end times (2:1–3:5) and peace amid ongoing persecution (1:5–10).

ESV

Paul makes explicit what would have been clear to readers of the original letter: the bulk of the letter was dictated to a secretary, and the final greeting was written in Paul’s own unique handwriting, which served as a mark of authenticity, much like signatures at the end of modern letters. Paul’s highlighting of this fact may reflect a suspicion that a forgery in his name was in existence, which may have been the source of the idea that the day of the Lord had already come (see 2:2). This affirmation of genuineness also shows that writing in another person’s name was condemned among early Christians.