2 Thessalonians

1Chapter
1Greetings from Paul, Silas, and Timothy. To the church of those in Thessalonica, who are in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
2Grace and peace to you from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
3We thank God for you always. And that’s what we should do, because you give us good reason to be thankful: Your faith is growing more and more. And the love that every one of you has for each other is also growing. 4So we tell the other churches of God how proud we are of you. We tell them how you patiently continue to be strong and have faith, even though you are being persecuted and are suffering many troubles.

Paul Tells About God’s Judgment

5This is proof that God is right in his judgment. He wants you to be worthy of his kingdom. Your suffering is for that kingdom. 6God will do what is right. He will punish those who are causing you trouble. 7And he will bring relief to you who are troubled. He will bring it to you and to us when the Lord Jesus comes from heaven for all to see, together with his powerful angels. 8He will come with burning fire to punish those who don’t know God—those who refuse to accept the Good News about our Lord Jesus. 9They will be punished with a destruction that never ends. They will not be allowed to be with the Lord but will be kept away from his great power. 10This will happen on the day when the Lord Jesus comes to receive honor with his holy people. He will be admired among all who have believed. And this includes you because you believed what we told you.
11That is why we always pray for you. We ask our God to help you live the good way he wanted when he chose you. The goodness you have makes you want to do good. And the faith you have makes you work. We pray that with his power God will help you do these things more and more. 12Then the name of our Lord Jesus will be honored because of you, and you will be honored because of him. This can happen only by the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
2Chapter

Evil Things Will Happen

1Brothers and sisters, we have something to say about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. We want to talk to you about that time when we will meet together with him. 2Don’t let yourselves be easily upset or worried if you hear that the day of the Lord has already come. Someone might say that this idea came from us—in something the Spirit told us, or in something we said, or in a letter we wrote. 3Don’t be fooled by anything they might say. That day of the Lord will not come until the turning away from God happens. And that day will not come until the Man of Evil appears, the one who belongs to hell. 4He will stand against and put himself above everything that people worship or think is worthy of worship. He will even go into God’s Temple and sit there, claiming that he is God.
5I told you before that all these things would happen. Remember? 6And you know what is stopping that Man of Evil now. He is being stopped now so that he will appear at the right time. 7The secret power of evil is already working in the world now. But there is one who is stopping that secret power of evil. And he will continue to stop it until he is taken out of the way. 8Then that Man of Evil will appear. But the Lord Jesus will kill him with the breath that comes from his mouth. The Lord will come in a way that everyone will see, and that will be the end of the Man of Evil.
9When that Man of Evil comes, it will be the work of Satan. He will come with great power, and he will do all kinds of false miracles, signs, and wonders. 10The Man of Evil will use every kind of evil to fool those who are lost. They are lost because they refused to love the truth and be saved. 11So God will send them something powerful that leads them away from the truth and causes them to believe a lie. 12They will all be condemned because they did not believe the truth and because they enjoyed doing evil.

You Are Chosen for Salvation

13Brothers and sisters, you are people the Lord loves. And we always thank God for you. That’s what we should do, because God chose you to be some of the first people to be saved. You are saved by the Spirit making you holy and by your faith in the truth. 14God chose you to have that salvation. He chose you by using the Good News that we told you. You were chosen so that you can share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. 15So, brothers and sisters, stand strong and continue to believe the teachings we gave you when we were there and by letter.
16-17We pray that the Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father will comfort you and strengthen you in every good thing you do and say. God loved us and gave us through his grace a wonderful hope and comfort that has no end.
3Chapter

Pray for Us

1And now, brothers and sisters, pray for us. Pray that the Lord’s teaching will continue to spread quickly. And pray that people will give honor to that teaching, the same as happened with you. 2And pray that we will be protected from crooked and evil people. Not everyone believes in the Lord, you know.
3But the Lord is faithful. He will give you strength and protect you from the Evil One. 4The Lord gives us confidence that you are doing what we told you and that you will continue to do it. 5We pray that the Lord will cause you to feel God’s love and remember Christ’s patient endurance.

The Obligation to Work

6Brothers and sisters, by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ we tell you to stay away from any believer who refuses to work. People who refuse to work are not following the teaching that we gave them. 7You yourselves know that you should live like we do. We were not lazy when we were with you. 8We never accepted food from anyone without paying for it. We worked and worked so that we would not be a burden to any of you. We worked night and day. 9We had the right to ask you to help us. But we worked to take care of ourselves so that we would be an example for you to follow. 10When we were with you, we gave you this rule: “Whoever will not work should not be allowed to eat.”
11We hear that some people in your group refuse to work. They are doing nothing except being busy in the lives of others. 12Our instruction to them is to stop bothering others, to start working and earn their own food. It is by the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ that we are urging them to do this. 13Brothers and sisters, never get tired of doing good.
14If there are some there who refuse to do what we tell you in this letter, remember who they are. Don’t associate with them. Then maybe they will feel ashamed. 15But don’t treat them as enemies. Counsel them as fellow believers.

Final Words

16We pray that the Lord of peace will give you peace at all times and in every way. The Lord be with you all.
17Here’s my greeting in my own handwriting— Paul. I do this in all my letters to show they are from me. This is the way I write.
18The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.
Study
Chapter 1
ESV

Opening. Paul’s opening here is very similar to 1 Thess. 1:1 (see note). On authorship, see Introduction: Author and Title. The fact that all three missionaries are still together suggests that 2 Thessalonians was written shortly after 1 Thessalonians.

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Thanksgiving and Comfort for the Persecuted Thessalonians. In Greek, vv. 3–10 are one long, unwieldy sentence containing Paul’s gratitude and encouragement.

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Thanksgiving Proper. Paul gives thanks for the faith and love of the Thessalonians, even while they are suffering persecution.

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ought … as is right. Paul is reassuring the Thessalonians that his giving thanks to God for them is both legitimate and necessary in the face of their concern caused by misunderstanding the Lord’s return (2:1–2). Specifically he gives thanks for their increasing faith and love (cf. 1 Thess. 3:6). “Hope” is not mentioned here (cf. 1 Cor. 13:13; 1 Thess. 1:3; 5:8), which may suggest that the Thessalonians were in need of it. The fact that their love for one another is increasing is an answer to Paul’s prayer in 1 Thess. 3:12.

ESV

The Thessalonians are so highly thought of that Paul and his coworkers boast about them to other churches of God concerning their steadfastness and faith in the context of unrelenting and severe persecutions and afflictions.

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Justice Guaranteed When Jesus Returns. The wicked will be punished and the righteous vindicated.

ESV

The Thessalonians’ endurance and faith under persecution constitute evidence of the righteous judgment of God. Since God is granting them the grace to endure, he is clearly on their side and is working to make them worthy for entrance into the kingdom of God. Cf. Phil. 1:28, where the Philippian Christians’ fearless perseverance in persecution is a proof (Gk. endeixis, from the same root as endeigma) that they will be saved and their enemies destroyed when Jesus returns.

ESV

a No one can doubt the fairness of God’s judgment when he dispenses justice according to lex talionis (the principle of an eye for an eye): those now afflicting (Gk. thlibō) the Thessalonian Christians will be afflicted (Gk. thlipsis, a noun from the same root), and the afflicted believers will get relief at the second coming. as well as to us. The Thessalonians are not alone with respect to their suffering for Christ or their destiny when Jesus returns.

CSB

Essentially, hell is separation from God’s presence. For those who refuse God’s grace and influence in their lives, he gives them what they want—no experience of God.

ESV

b The just judgment of God comes in fullness at the second coming, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven (cf. 1 Thess. 4:16–17). Jesus is called “Lord,” which identifies him as Yahweh who executes final judgment (see Isaiah 64; 66; cf. Introduction to Mark: Key Themes).

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in flaming fire. Jesus the judge will be awesome and devastating, and he will instill fear in the hearts of unbelievers. See Isa. 66:15–16; Dan. 7:9–10.

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When Jesus comes again, unbelievers will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, a ruinous and unending judgment of separation from Jesus. Against the idea of the final annihilation of unbelievers, see Matt. 25:46; Rev. 14:9–11.

ESV

when he comes. The punishment of unbelievers and the reward of believers both occur on the day of the Lord (that day), when Jesus comes to save his people. Confusion regarding the timing of the day of the Lord is a major problem in Thessalonica (2:2). Paul’s description of the day in 1:7b–10 would have helped to alleviate the crisis. Jesus will at that time be glorified in his saints, that is, his glory will be seen in them (see Rom. 8:17–18, 30). saints. Lit., “holy ones” (plural of Gk. hagios). Believers will be fully and finally transformed so that they are holy and blameless at the second coming (see 1 Thess. 3:13; 5:23–24). In addition, Jesus will be marveled at among all who have believed. Paul assumes that the Thessalonian Christians are included in this group, so he writes because our testimony to you was believed. To proclaim the gospel is to bear “testimony” to the saving act of God in Christ.

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Prayer Report. Paul’s prayer for the Thessalonians is that God will make them worthy of their calling, so that Jesus may be glorified in them.

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To this end. That is, in view of vv. 5–10. our God. Paul unites himself with the Thessalonians with respect to God. make you worthy. Having declared that the Thessalonian Christians will be considered worthy (Gk. kataxioō) of the kingdom when Jesus the judge comes (v. 5), Paul’s prayer for them is that they may even now be made worthy (Gk. axioō) of this calling (see 1 Thess. 2:12). resolve for good. A God-imparted resolution to do good. work of faith. Work inspired by faith.

ESV

according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. The glorification of Christ’s name in the Thessalonians occurs when they exalt him as Lord in their daily lives.