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.

Thanksgiving

3We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing. 4Therefore we ourselves boast about you in the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions that you are enduring.

The Judgment at Christ's Coming

5This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering— 6since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, 7and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels 8in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might, 10when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed. 11To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, 12so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in 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 together to him, we ask you, brothers, 2not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word, or a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. 3Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, 4who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. 5Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? 6And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time. 7For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way. 8And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming. 9The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, 10and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. 11Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, 12in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

Stand Firm

13But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. 14To this he called you through our gospel, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. 15So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter.
16Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, 17comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word.
3Chapter

Pray for Us

1Finally, brothers, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored, as happened among you, 2and that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men. For not all have faith. 3But the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one. 4And we have confidence in the Lord about you, that you are doing and will do the things that we command. 5May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ.

Warning Against Idleness

6Now we command you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from any brother who is walking in idleness and not in accord with the tradition that you received from us. 7For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us, because we were not idle when we were with you, 8nor did we eat anyone's bread without paying for it, but with toil and labor we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you. 9It was not because we do not have that right, but to give you in ourselves an example to imitate. 10For even when we were with you, we would give you this command: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat. 11For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busybodies. 12Now such persons we command and encourage in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living.
13As for you, brothers, do not grow weary in doing good. 14If anyone does not obey what we say in this letter, take note of that person, and have nothing to do with him, that he may be ashamed. 15Do not regard him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother.

Benediction

16Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in every way. The Lord be with you all.
17I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. This is the sign of genuineness in every letter of mine; it is the way 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

ESV

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).

ESV

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.

ESV

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

ESV

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.