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About Jesus Steve Sweetman ch. 1:1-12 ch. 2:1-12 ch. 2:13-17 ch. 3:1-5 ch. 3:6-15 ch.3:16-18 My
Commentary On Second Thessalonians
Introduction. Paul
most likely wrote this second letter to the Thessalonian church shortly after he
wrote his first letter. That would
place the date in the later half of 51 AD. He
most likely wrote the letter from Thanksgiving
And Prayer (ch. 1:1 - 12) As
in all of Paul’s writings he addresses his letter to those he is writing to,
and in this case it is to “the church of the
Thessalonians”. Note there
is only one church addressed here. This does not mean that there are not a
number of small house churches in Thessalonia.
Paul appears to view all of the possible gatherings of Christians in this
city as the church. I believe in
Paul's thinking, there is only one church per city The
Greek word that is translated as church here is “ecclesia”, simply meaning
“an assembly of people”. It is a
secular word that was used for any gathering of people.
This word was not a “Christian only” word.
Paul and other New Testament writers used this word to denote Christian
groups, no matter how small or large they were.
I
like the word "ecclesia", and wished the King James Bile would have
transliterated it instead of making the word church out of it.
The problem with the word "church" today is that it really
doesn't mean or portray what "ecclesia" means.
Most think of church as a building or an organization, but it isn't.
Church is simply people who have given their lives to Jesus.
Paul
does specify what kind of “ecclesia” this is.
That is to say, the church, or the assembly that Paul is addressing “is
in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ”.
This is what distinguishes this
gathering of people from other gatherings of people.
Note also that he does not simply say these people “of God”, meaning
some generic god that anyone can ascribe to.
The God that Paul is speaking about is
the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Christians do not serve a generic God.
We serve only one God, and He is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ. If you do not believe in
this God, then you do not believe in the Christian God.
Paul
also include Silas and Timothy as co-writers, or at least fellow workers in the
gospel. The letter is from all three
of these men. In
verse 3 Paul thanks God for these people, as he did in his first letter to these
people. He seems quite proud of
them, especially concerning their faith and love that is growing more and more.
As noted in earlier commentaries, Paul often links faith and love
together. First comes faith, that is
trusting Jesus, which results in love for others. I
don't believe that you can express Biblical love without trusting Jesus, without
finding strength to love from Him. Biblical
love is all about sacrifice, that is, sacrificing yourself for others.
The world's definition of love and the Bible's definition of love are two
different definitions. In
verse 4 Paul says that he boasts of these people to other churches because of
their faith in the midst of all the trials and persecutions they are going
through. You can see this boasting
in his second letter to the Corinthians when he speaks about the Macedonian’s
giving in spite of their extreme poverty. Remember,
Thessalonica is the capital of the In
verse 5 Paul is saying that their suffering “will count them worthy
of the The
suffering that these people were going through was associated with the judgment
of God. The question is, "who
are the recipients of God's judgments, the world or Christians?"
At the moment, I'm not sure. All
that I know is that God's people are suffering because of this judgment.
The suffering that these Christians were going through would count them
worthy of God's kingdom. It is thus
clear that Christians can suffer for the sake of God.
If this judgment was on the Roman world, these Christians were suffering
as In
verses 6 and 7 Paul tells these people that God will bring affliction to those
who cause their present suffering. He
also says that God will help them through their suffering.
He also says, and I believe Paul is speaking of the affliction of those
making these people suffer, will take place at the end of this age when Jesus is
revealed. That means, when Jesus
returns to earth. Paul
goes on to say that “He will give relief to those who are troubled, and to us
as well”, since Paul and his friends are always suffering for Jesus’ sake as
the Thessalonians were suffering. This too is part of God’s just judgement at
the end of the age. He will punish
those who do wrong and will reward those for doing good. In
case you aren’t sure that Paul is speaking of future events here, he says in
verse 7, “this will happen when Jesus is revealed from Heaven in blazing fire
with his powerful angels”. In 1
Thess. 3:13 Paul says that he will come with all of his “holy ones”.
Here Paul seems to clarify to a degree who these holy ones are.
He says that they are angels. He
also says that Jesus’ return will be like a
“blazing fire”. In his
first letter to these people he said that Christ’s return would be sudden and
destructive. Here he adds another thought, and that is concerning the blazing
fire. For
those who don’t believe that God will, or can punish anyone, in verse 8 Paul
clearly says that God “will punish those who do not know God or obey the
gospel of our Lord Jesus”. If a
so-called Christian tells you that God does not punish people, then they view
Scripture differently than I do. Note
here that obeying the gospel of Jesus means trusting Him for salvation, or faith
in Him alone for salvation, not of works, lest any man should boast. How
will these people be punished? They
will be punished with “everlasting destruction”.
The destruction that Paul mentions here may be compared to the
destruction that he spoke about in 1 Thess. 5:1 and 2.
Yet Paul says that this destruction is “everlasting”.
It is not a one time event. These
people are constantly, and forever experiencing destruction.
They will always be in the process of being destroyed, but never being
destroyed. This is a subject
that some may not want to talk about because it is scary and negative, but it is
a part of Scripture and should not be forgotten. Another
way I like defining eternal judgment is one being in the process of always
dying, and always wanting to die, but never
being able to die. Paul
also says that these people “will be shut out from the presence … and
majesty of God”. The fact that
God’s presence will be nowhere found might be punishment enough, but still, I
do believe it is more than the lack of the presence of God.
In today’s world God’s presence is available for those who wish it.
His majesty can be seen in creation, as well as in other ways, but not in
the days ahead for those who reject the gospel. Paul
says that all this punishment will begin when
Jesus returns “to be glorified in His people”.
At that day, and that day only, will God’s people find perfection as
Jesus returns in person to be with us. His
prayer in John 17 will finally find its fulfillment on the day He returns for
His people. Not
only will Jesus be glorified among His people, but “He will be marveled at
among all those who have believed”. The Greek word “teras”
is translated here as “marvel”. This
is the same word that is translated as “wonders”, as in “signs and
wonders’ elsewhere in the New Testament. It means “something strange that
causes one to sit back and marvel, or wonder in their imagination”.
Paul
re-affirms that the Thessalonians are part of the people who will someday marvel
concerning the return of Jesus. Why?
Because they have believed the good news of Jesus.
It is as simple as that. Because
of all these end time happenings Paul prays for his readers that “God may
count them worthy of His calling, and that by His power He may fulfill every
good purpose of yours and every act prompted by your faith”.
Paul is praying that God will help these people in whatever they do as a
result of trusting in Jesus. This
may suggest something. Sometimes
people think that they should do nothing as Christians unless they feel the Lord
telling them to do it. Paul, at
least in my thinking, says that we can do things as a result of our faith.
If because we trust Jesus we want to do something good, Paul hopes and
prays that God will bring success to our endeavor. If our desire is to teach
children about Jesus, for an example, go ahead and teach children, and pray that
God will bring success in what you do. This
can be in whatever endeavor you may feel like doing as
a Christian. In
verse 12 Paul tells his readers why he prays for such success in whatever they
do. It is so that Jesus will be
gloried in them. It is so Jesus will
be seen for who He is in His people by the success they have in doing good.
He
closes this chapter with the phrase “by the grace of our God and our Lord
Jesus Christ”. It is by God’s,
and Jesus’ grace that such good things we do can be done in such a way to
bring glory to Jesus. If it is done
purely in a humanistic way, in our own human strength, then the glory will go to
us and not to Jesus where it belongs. Anything
good that we do should be done to bring glory to Jesus, not to us. Notice
the many references to the coming of Jesus at the end of this age in this
chapter. Much of what Paul says is
in light of this fact. The coming of
Jesus seems to be in the forefront of Paul's thinking, so much that we do should
be motivated by the coming of Jesus. .
The
Man Of Lawlessness (ch. 2:1 - 12) Paul
begins chapter 2 with the words “concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ and our being gathered to Him…” This
gathering together of all Christians to meet Jesus is what Paul spoke about in
his first letter when he said that the dead in Christ would rise first and those
who are left would rise to meet Him in the air. Note
here that there are two aspects spoken concerning the return of Jesus that Paul
is addressing. They are "Jesus'
coming", and the saints "being gathered together".
Many Futurists see this as the rapture of the church before the Great
Tribulation because Christians "being gathered" with Jesus seems to be
in reference to Christians meeting Jesus in the sky, as seen in 1 Thess. 4:16 to
17. Yet on the other hand many
Christians see this to be speaking of Jesus' second coming, when He returns to
earth for good to set up His kingdom. They
believe the dead will rise first, as Paul states, living Christians will then be
transformed in newness of life, and then Jesus, Christians, and the angels will
come down to earth. Verse
2 implies that there has been someone, either through a prophecy, or some other
kind of report which includes a false letter from Paul saying that “the day of
the Lord has already come.” Someone
was trying to tell these people that the gathering together of the saints had
already happened. Paul is
discounting these rumors in the following verses. Paul
goes as far as to say that whoever is spreading such teaching is trying to
“deceive” them. Paul’s
instruction here is to clarify certain facts about the second coming of Christ. He
says that Jesus will not return until “the rebellion occurs and the man of
lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction”.
Paul, when he had visited these people told them all about the second
coming of Jesus. Here in this letter
he only reminds them of a few of the facts, not all of the facts.
In verse 5 he says, “don’t you remember that when I was with you, I
used to tell you of these things”. I
wish that Paul had of reminded them of more of these particular facts in this
letter. It would have clarified many
questions that Christians have asked over the years. Two
major questions are, what is the rebellion, and who is the lawless man?
In this particular letter Paul does not explain his words concerning some
kind of future rebellion. People’s
theology on this point comes from their interpretation of other Scriptures that
they link to this verse. I
believe the NIV makes the rebellion purposely vague.
In my Greek text it states a falling away that must "first"
come. The Greek word translated as
"first" in some translations, does not appear in the NIV.
That makes you think that the lawless one leads the rebellion, when in
fact that rebellion, or the apostasy, must
come first so that the lawless one can then come. This
is how I presently see this. Christian
influence slowly disappears from society. This
is the apostasy. Then when there is
no longer a Christian consensus, the lawless one will have an easy time taking
over. There will be little
opposition to him because of this apostasy.
This is what is clearly happening in the world today. Once
the lawless man appears in the world he will lead some kind of rebellion against
God. The rebellion against God won't
appear to be a rebellion against God right
away, but as is seen in the book of Revelation,
the final fight will be against God. This
lawless man, someone who has no respect for God’s laws is “doomed to
destruction”. Before he is destroyed, he will lead this rebellion. “He will
oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is
worshipped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple proclaiming himself to
be God”. (ch. 2:4) This
lawless man will oppose God Himself, not just his people or an angel.
There is only one person, so I think, that could or would do such a
thing, and that would be satan. Paul
calls this person a man, so it can’t be satan, but a human agent of satan.
Some have suggest that the lawless one is a world system, or world
government, If this was the case,
then why would Paul call him a man. We
need to be true to what the Scripture says, not to what it doesn’t say.
I personally believe this man is who Christians often call the anti-christ. All
that being said, there are other view points on "the rebellion".
Many Futurists believe this rebellion is a great "falling away"
from God and the things of God. The
term "falling away" is found in the KJV.
Among Futurists, some believe the falling away are Christians, while
others believe it is just a general falling away from God and His ways, by the
general population of the world. I
can certainly see the last aspect being true.
It is only someone sense that the decline in Christian consensus
throughout the world would lead to the coming of the anti-christ. How
could an anti-christ come if there was a great Christian consensus.
He would not be allowed to arrive on the scene by Christians.
What
Paul means by the “ Those
who believe that Paul is speaking of a literal temple have to believe that the
temple in In
reading these words by Paul, we cannot really say for sure what he means by the
use of the word temple. We can
speculate. I would not be surprised
if it is a literal rebuilt temple in In
verse 6 Paul says, “now you know what is holding him back so that he will be
revealed at the proper time”. These
people may have well known what Paul was saying.
They may well of known who was holding this
lawless person back. They
knew from previous conversations they had with Paul.
This is where I wish Paul would have clarified what he had previously
told them. This verse has created
endless discussions on what is holding this man back.
If Paul could have simply added a couple more sentences and told us who
was holding him back, it would have solved many problems, but he didn’t.
The things that are not said here by Paul are probably designed by the
Lord. It makes us trust Him, as well
as it makes us keep our eyes open. In
verse 6 the word “him” clearly refers back to this lawless man.
Some think that the presence of the church is holding this man back.
These people believe that there is a Great Tribulation period to come and
at some point before it begins the church will be raptured away to escape the
troubles of that day. Others say
that it is the Holy Spirit holding this man back.
Some combine these two by saying the Holy Spirit within the church is
holding him back. Some also say the We
do know that something, or someone is preventing this lawless man from appearing
in the world and creating this rebellion, until “the proper time”.
By the use of the words “proper time”, to me this would suggest that
God has a proper time for these things to happen and that He is in charge of
these events. This would thus mean
that God Himself has power over this lawless man and the rebellion that he will
instigate is part of God’s plan of redemption.
One
thing I do believe is that the one holding the anti-christ back is a man because
of the pronoun "he" that Paul uses here.
I don't think "he" can refer to something, like a nation.
It should refer to a man, because a man is a "he".
In
verse 7 Paul says that even now, before these upcoming events “the secret
power of lawlessness is already at work”. In 1 John 2:18 John says something
similar. He speaks of the anti-Christ that will come, yet at his writing the
spirit of anti-christ was already working in the world.
This most likely is what Paul is getting at here.
The spirit of the lawless one, most likely meaning the devil, is at work
in the world right now. The
rest of verse 7 says, “but the one
who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way”.
The previous verse uses the impersonal word “what”, that is some
thing is holding this lawless man back. This
verse says that “one”, a personal word, suggesting a person is holding
someone back. The word “it” in
the verse is impersonal, most likely referring to the “secret power of
lawlessness”, not the “lawless man”. But
what does the pronoun “he” refer to in this sentence. That is to say,
“one” is holding “it” (lawless power) back until
“he” is taken out of the way. Who
is “he”? The “he” is referring to the one dong the restraining, because
Paul goes on to say, “and then the lawless one will be revealed”.
When “he”, the restrainer is taken out of the way, then the lawless
one can appear in world history, until then, only the secret power of
lawlessness is at work. When
this lawless one is revealed, then Jesus Himself will destroy him simply by His
return to earth, and with “the breath of His mouth”, or “spirit of His
mouth. The Greek word “pnuema”
is the word translated as “breath” here, but is also the word we translate
as “spirit” in the New Testament.
Paul
continues by saying “the coming of the lawless one is in accordance with the
work of satan”. This tells me that
the lawless one is not satan, but one who works with satan, which would fit the
description of a man, an anti-christ. This
lawless one Paul says will do many spectacular miracles and will “deceive
those who are perishing”. Note
that it is the unbeliever that will be deceived.
We as Christians should not be deceived.
Paul
says that “it is every sort of evil” that will deceive those who are
perishing. This man will have the
power to promote every kind of evil activity, maybe more than we have ever known
in world history. Those who are
perishing will be caught up in this evil and will not see the truth of the
gospel. In
verse 10 Paul says “that they are perishing because they refused to love the
truth”, that is, the truth of the gospel of Jesus.
The
next sentence is interesting. It
says, “for this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will
believe the lie, and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the
truth but have delighted in wickedness”. (ch.
2:11 - 12) We see God Himself
sending people a “powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie” of
the lawless one. God is actually
encouraging these people, and even helping them to follow this man of sin, as
the KJV version calls him. The
reason why God is doing this is because previously these people chose not to
follow the truth but gave themselves to wickedness.
It is God’s prerogative to
do what He wishes to do with His creation, and in this instance He chooses to
influence sinners to believe the great lie of the lawless one. Some may suggest
that this is a reason for a pre-tribulation rapture, since God would do such a
thing. Why would He condemn people
while Christian activity is still on the earth?
Why would He condemn someone while we are trying to save the same people?
Once again, the text does not say this.
This way of thinking would only be speculation.
We should stick to the words of the text. Here
is a summery of this chapter.
Before Jesus can return there will be “the rebellion”, led by “the
lawless one”. Yet there is “one
holding” the “lawless one, and the power of lawlessness” back at the
moment. At some point “he”,(the
one holding the lawless one back) will be removed, which releases the lawless
one to work miraculous signs and wonders along with doing great evil, deceiving
those who are perishing. He will try
to set himself up as God in God’s temple, yet at the return of Jesus he will
be destroyed with everlasting destruction. Concerning
this lawless one who I believe is the anti-christ, we need to understand, from a
variety of other passages, that he is like an angel of light.
He is a very attractive and well liked man.
What he promotes will be logical and loving for our world.
He will come in the name of love and unity, something we all want.
His message will be readily accepted by the world, because it is what the
world will desperately need at the time. My
point here is simple. The
anti-christ will not appear as an evil man.
He will appear as the savior of the world.
In
verse 13 Paul says that he thanks God for these people. The reason he gives for
this thankfulness is that “from the beginning God chose you”, (the
Thessalonians). What does Paul mean
by the words, “from the beginning”? It
is my thinking that these words refer to time prior to creation.
We see Paul use such language in other of his writings.
This brings up the subject of predestination.
Does God choose certain people and not choose other people?
For
a detailed explanation you can refer to my commentary on Rom. 8:29 and 30
concerning predestination. In short
these verses say that God calls people, then justifies them, and then He
glorifies them. God has predestine to call everyone to salvation.
This is where predestination comes in .
He chooses and calls everyone, yet only the ones who respond to His call
will subsequently be justified and glorified.
Justification is our salvation and glorification is our final salvation
when Jesus returns for us. Paul
says that these people are saved “through the sanctifying work of the Spirit
and belief in the truth”. “Belief
in the truth”, means faith in Jesus and His gospel, or trusting Him alone for
our salvation. Belief in Scripture
means more than simply mentally agreeing with the truth, but actually giving
yourself to the truth, that is Jesus Himself.
Once you have given yourself to the truth, God’s Spirit comes to reside
within you, beginning the sanctifying process.
This is a process, not a one time experience as some claim.
It lasts a lifetime. Paul
goes on to say just how God “called” these people .
The way in which God called the Thessalonians was through the preaching
of the gospel from Paul’s lips. Once
again, referring back to Romans, in chapter 10, it is clear that preaching is
extremely important. It is the
preaching of the gospel that God uses to bring people to Him, as foolish as that
may seem. Then
once people have given themselves to the gospel “they will share in the glory
of our Lord Jesus Christ”. There
is a partial present day glory to share in, yet as we have seen in the last
chapter, and in Paul’s first letter to these people, the real glory comes when
Jesus returns for us. “He will be
glorified in His people”. (ch. 1:10) We will share in this glory.
Because
what Paul has just said, that is speaking about their salvation that culminates
in their full salvation at the return of Christ, Paul asks these people “to
stand firm”. He also tells them to
hold on the teaching that he has passed on to them, “whether by word or
letter”. I am sure that Paul did
more teaching by word than he did by letter.
I wish he had recorded more of his words in letter form. Paul
ends this chapter by saying, “may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our
Father, who loved us and by His grace gave us eternal encouragement and good
hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good word and deed”.
(ch. 2:16 - 17) Paul knew that he
had limitations in helping these people grow as Christians, but God Himself had
no limitations. God, through His
Spirit can give these people the encouragement and strength they need in the
midst of their trials. Yet this
encouragement and strength was not merely given to get them through the trials,
but to help them do good works in the midst of these trials.
We often feel that we need help to simply get by, but Paul says that
there is help for us to do more than just get by, but to do good things no
matter how hard our lives are. Paul
was a living example of this. Request
For Prayer (ch. 3:1 - 5) Note
in chapter 3 verse 1 that Paul asks his readers for prayer, but not necessarily
prayer for himself, but for the preaching of the gospel, so it would “be
honoured and spread.” Paul was
clearly more interested in the survival of the gospel than he was for himself. In
the next verse he does ask for specific prayers for himself and his fellow
workers. He asks the Thessalonians
to pray “that they will be delivered from wicked men, for not everyone has
faith”. While he is asking his
readers to pray for him he tells them that “the Lord will protect them from
the evil one”. We can accurately
assume by the “evil one”, he means satan. Paul believes that his readers can
be protected from the devil, even though Paul himself was hindered at one point
by satan from visiting these people. Satan
got in Paul’s way, but he did not harm Paul.
The only exception to this might be Paul’s thorn in the flesh which he
called “a messenger from satan”,
and this was God’s doing because of the excess of revelations that Paul had.
Both the Thessalonians and us most likely have not experienced this
excess and therefore don’t have to worry about a thorn in the flesh, a
messenger from satan. Also, even though Paul was bothered by a messenger from
satan, he was not overtaken by him.
Paul
was an apostle and with this apostolic ministry comes a certain authority.
He acknowledges that the Thessalonians were doing, and would continue to
do, “as he commanded”. The Greek
word used here for our English word “command” is “parangello”.
It is made up of 2 words meaning, “to announce”, and “beside”.
This command was more of a passing along of the word of God to these
people. It was not a command as from
a dictator. Yet on the other hand,
this was the Word of God which brings with it a good measure of authority and
should not be taken lightly. Paul
never viewed authority n a dictatorial way.
His motivation was the love of God. Verse
5 says, “may the Lord direct your hearts into God’s love and Christ’s
perseverance”. Notice Paul
mentions both God and Christ, as he quite often does.
Paul expects God to direct people to do as they should. Warning
Against Idleness (ch. 3:6 - 15) In
verse 6 Paul uses the word command once again.
He “commands” his readers to “keep away from every brother who is
idle and who does not live according to the teaching you received from us”. A
number of things can be noted here. One
is that Paul is actually commanding these people to stay away from certain
“brothers”. By the use of the
word “brothers”, we should be able to say that he is talking about
Christians. These Christians are
ones who are idle and do not follow after what Paul taught.
The
picture is that there is a community of Christian brothers, but not all work
hard. Some are idle and prefer to
live off of others. This would
disturb Paul. for he himself hated to impose on anyone.
He felt that everyone should do their best to provide for themselves.
When it comes to the idea of working hard, I'm not sure Paul would be
very happy with the average Christian today. The
Greek sentence structure and word used here implies “a falling out of rank”,
a military phrase. Some were falling
out of rank which Paul had previously established in his teaching. They were
falling out of step with the will of the Lord. Paul
goes on to say, “you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example”.
The words “you yourselves” place double emphasis on Paul’s point.
Even though Paul did not stay long with these people, he must have
stressed the point that they needed to follow his example of living, which
included working for your living. Paul
says that his example was not idleness when he was with them, “nor did we eat
anyone’s food without paying for it”, he says.
He goes on to say, “on the contrary, we worked hard night and day,
labouring and toiling so that we would not be a burden to any of you”.
You can see Paul’s thinking on the subject of working.
I believe his thinking was
based on love, or what Jesus said, “it is better to give than to receive”.
Those who always receive and never give are not living the life of
Christ. Paul says to “keep away”
from such people, even if they are called brothers in Christ.
In
verse 10 Paul gives his reason for living this way while they were among the
Thessalonians. He wanted to be “a
model”, an example for them to follow. Even
though he felt that an apostle has the right to receive financial help from
those he serves, he refused it in order to be an example of one who would rather
give than receive. While
Paul was with these people he taught many things to them as you can well
understand. One thing he taught, and actually commanded was, “if a man will
not work, he should not eat”. Notice
the use of the word “man” here. He
did not say women or children. He
used the word “man”. In 1
Timothy 5 Paul gives various instructions to Timothy and one is to look after
the widows who do not have children to look after them.
Paul doesn’t say to look after the widowers.
Most likely in their society a widower was more able to make a living
than a widow. Yet even in financial
distribution to the poor, Paul had certain requirements.
One was that a widow, if she
had children to look after her, should not receive financial help.
Here in 2 Thess. Paul would say, that if a man was capable of working and
didn’t, he too should not receive financial help. Money
did not come to Paul on a silver platter, and I don’t think he was in favour
of throwing it away to those who did not appreciate it.
This is something for all of us to understand in church life today as we
help the poor among us. Somehow
Paul had heard that there were some among the Thessalonians who were idle.
“They are not busy, but busybodies”, he says.
Idleness produces things like gossip, and other such evils. He commands
these idle people to earn their own money and buy their own food.
For the rest of the hardworking people he urges “never to tire of doing
what is right”. In
verse 14 Paul speaks from his apostolic authority once again when he says, “if
anyone does not obey our instructions in this letter, take special note of him.
Do not associate with him in order that he will feel ashamed”.
Paul is being quite bold in his words here, and maybe even harsh on these
idle men, but harshness is probably what they needed.
They needed to be ashamed of the way in which they were living.
Maybe if they were ashamed enough, they would come to their senses and
get back being productive people. Once
again, Paul is telling his readers to stay away from a certain sector of the
Christian family, something that we might not be all that comfortable with
today, nevertheless, this is Paul’s command. Even
though he tells these people to stay away from the idle man, he tells them not
to treat him “as an enemy, but warn him as a brother”.
If you remember, Paul told the Corinthians to excommunicate one brother
from their midst because of the sinful life he was living.
They were to treat him as a sinner, but not in this case.
Final
Greetings (ch. 3:16 - 18) Paul
ends his second letter to the Thessalonians by praying that the Lord would give
these people peace in all that they do, and in every circumstance they find
themselves in. It is only Jesus who
can give such peace to anyone. He
ends by saying, “I, Paul, write this greeting in my own hand, which is the
distinguishing mark in all my letters. This
is how I write”. Note that Paul
does not say his hand wrote the whole letter, only the final greeting.
Like most of Paul’s letters, he dictated it to someone else. He says,
“this is the way I write”, hoping that people would know his writing style
and thus be sure that this letter was actually from him.
Can we read anything further into this? Maybe we can, but it is pure
speculation. When he says, “this
is the way I write”, and “this is the distinguishing mark”, might this
suggest that his hand writing for some reason is much different than normal?
In Gal. 6:11 he mentions the big letters he was using.
Were these big letters the distinguishing mark that everyone would
recognize. Once again, this is only
speculation, but an interesting idea. I
mention this because many people say that Paul's thorn in the flesh was bad
eye-sight, and the big letters would suggest that.
Paul
ends his letter by saying, “the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you
all”. It is only by the Grace of
our Lord that we can possibly succeed in our lives as Christians.
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