NOTES ON THE SECOND EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS
2 Thess.1:1,2 The second epistle of Paul to the Thessalonians followed closely on the writing of the first. The second forms the complement of the first; for whereas the first deals in the main with the Lord’s coming to the air for His saints who comprise the Church which is His (Christ’s) Body, commonly called the coming of the Son of God (1 Thess.1:10), the second deals principally with the coming of the Son of Man to earth in judgement, and with events which will immediately precede that coming, especially with the apostasy and the revelation of the man of sin. In addition, the last chapter gives warning against unreasonable and evil men, and deals with disorderly conduct in the church in Thessalonica, and the course of admonition by the church is in addition to that indicated in 1 Thess.5:14, where the overseers are exhorted to admonish the disorderly. It will be noted that the manner of address of the epistle is similar to the first.
2 Thess.1:3,4
These servants of God gave thanks to God continually for the Thessalonians, for that their faith grew exceedingly, and their love toward each other abounded. Their glorying or boasting in them in other churches of God must have been by letters which were sent to the different churches, for we know of no journey by the apostle from Athens (Acts 17) until he departed from Athens and came to Corinth (Acts 18:1). The Thessalonians were a suffering people, as we see from the first epistle, and also here we read of their patience and faith in the persecutions and afflictions which they endured.
2 Thess.1:5,6
Such as have caused God’s saints to suffer will themselves suffer divine displeasure for their acts of persecution. We do not speak of those who have repented of their acts, as the Apostle Paul did. This is a righteous thing with God, and the suffering of saints at the hand of the wicked is a manifest token of God’s righteous judgement which will come upon the wicked for their wickedness. At the same time, and in God’s manifold wisdom in dealing with His own, those who stand the test of suffering, whose faith does not give way, are thus counted worthy of the kingdom of God for which they suffer; that is, such saints as are in the kingdom of God. The kingdom is not something that is entered once for all, nor is it entered by the new birth, though all must be born again before they can either see it or enter it. The words of Acts 14:22 are helpful, where Paul is seen confirming the souls of the disciples in the churches of God in Galatia, as it says, “Confirming the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the Faith, and that through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of God.” The words of Heb.12:28,29, show also continuity in the reception of the kingdom of God: “Wherefore, receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us have grace, whereby we may offer service well-pleasing to God with reverence and awe: for our God is a consuming fire.” Believers who are in the kingdom of God and are guilty of any of the sins of 1 Cor.5:11; 1 Cor.6:9,10, Eph.5:5 cannot inherit or have any inheritance in the kingdom of God. Hence they must be put away by the church of God, which is the local expression of the kingdom of God. See Rev.1:6, where the seven churches of God in Asia are described as having been made a kingdom and priests by the Lord Jesus unto His God and Father. This was God’s kingdom then. The kingdom of God is not entered by being in a spiritual frame of mind, nor are persons out of it if their spiritual condition of happiness is not on a high plane. The kingdom of God is righteousness, the right acting of those who are together in
obedience to the call of God, righteousness which is according to the teaching of the Faith (Jude 1:3; Acts 14:22,23; Matt.6:10,33; Rom.14:17,18). The kingdom of God was taken from Israel, and given to the little Flock of the Lord’s disciples in the beginning of this dispensation (Matt.21:43,31,32; Lk.12:31,32; Acts 1:3).
2 Thess.1:7,8
The words of the Lord Jesus, in Lk.18:7,8, speak of the same time as that of the verses above: “Shall not God avenge His elect, which cry to Him day and night, and He is longsuffering over them? I say unto you, that He will avenge them speedily. Howbeit when the Son of Man cometh, shall He find (the) faith on the earth?” God has betimes visited men in judgement for their wicked persecution of His saints, as witness the parable of the kingdom of heaven, in Matt.22:1-14, in which the Lord showed God’s punishment of the Jews by the Rom.for their shameful treatment and killing of His servants. But the full recompense of the wicked upon the earth will be when the Lord Jesus, the Son of Man, is revealed from heaven with His angels in flaming fire, when vengeance will be taken on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of the Lord Jesus. This gospel is, I judge, the gospel of the kingdom, which will be preached unto all the nations (Matt.24:14). The subject of the gospel of the grace of God, which is preached in this dispensation (Acts 20:24), and the gospel of the kingdom, is the same in both cases, even “the Lord Jesus”; the former case tells of Him who died, was buried and raised again, and went back to heaven; the latter case of His imminent return to earth in judgement. “Obey not” (Gk. me hupakouo) means to refuse to listen, hence to refuse to submit and obey. The attitude shows intentional neglect or sheer rebellion.
2 Thess.1:9,10
Those who refuse to listen to the gospel shall suffer punishment or pay the penalty (Gk. dike, judicial punishment), and this penalty is eternal destruction (Gk. olethros, vengeance, perdition, destruction). This is not annihilation, an end of being, but an eternal or continuous state of punishment. Vain are the hopes of those who persist in refusing to hear and obey the gospel, that sometime in eternal fire of eternal punishment (see Matt.25:41,46) they will cease to be. It is said of the Devil, that he, with the beast and the false prophet, will be tormented day and night for ever and ever (Rev.20:10). Even so will it be with the wicked of the human race (Rev.20:14,15). The punishment of the wicked envisaged in the verses above will begin when the Lord comes back to earth with His angels and His saints, when He will come to be glorified in His saints, and to be marvelled at in all them that have believed. All who have believed will be with the Lord in that day of judgement and victory. The condition of being with Him is not obedience and faithfulness, but simply one of believing, though those who are with Him in His war against the beast and his ten confederate kings will be such as are “called and chosen and faithful” (Rev.17:12- 14).
2 Thess.1:11,12
The object or end of the prayers of God’s servants was that God might count them worthy of their calling. They had been called out to a path of separation, as in 2 Cor.6:14-7:1, and called into the Fellowship, as in 1 Cor.1:9, which is similar to the call, in 1 Thess.2:12, “God, who calleth you into His own kingdom and glory.” The purpose in their being counted worthy was that there might be fulfilled in them, or brought to completeness, every desire or good pleasure of goodness, toward God (see Hos.6:4; Jer.2:2), and work of faith (1 Thess.1:3), toward men, with power, that the name of the Lord Jesus might be glorified in them, and they in Him, and this could only be through the grace of God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
2 Thess.2:1,2
The coming of the Lord and our gathering unto Him is what is referred to in 1 Thess.4:16,17: They were not to be quickly shaken in their mind, as to what the apostle taught them, from whatever cause, by spirit, by word, nor by epistle purporting to have been written by the apostle, as that the day of the Lord was then present. Certain things, which are afterwards stated, must transpire ere that day is present.
2 Thess.2:3,4
The day of the Lord cannot come or be present until two things take place, (1) the falling away or the apostasy, and (2) the Rev. of the man of sin, the son of perdition, who is also called the antichrist, and the (wild) beast (1 Jn 2:18-22; Rev.13:3-8,12-15, etc.). Mankind, with the exception of the faithful remnant of Israel, and the multitude of faithful witnesses scattered over the earth, and others who will succour them, will apostatize completely from God and will worship the beast and his image when the beast is revealed. The man of sin and the (wild) beast describe the same person who is the object of worship. The second beast of Rev.13:11-18 is the false prophet, not the antichrist. As to what some have alleged, that the Jews, the apostate Jews, would not acknowledge a Gentile to be a messiah, I think it will be found, from Ezek.21:25, that the deadly wounded one (the beast with the death- stroke or deadly wound, of Rev.13:3,12) is the prince of Israel, whose day is come, in the time of the iniquity of the end. So that all that has been said about the apostate Jews not receiving a Gentile king (indeed we do not know whether the antichrist will be a Jew or a Gentile by race, though he sits on a Gentile throne), and that the second beast who is a Jew is the antichrist (Rev.13:11-18), is just so much unsupportable exposition. (On this subject, see my notes on the book of the Revelation.) The man of sin exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped. This agrees with what is said in Dan.11:36-39: “The king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods … Neither shall he regard the gods of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all. But in his place (office) shall he honour the god of fortresses: and a god whom his fathers knew not (the Dragon, or Devil – Rev.13:4) shall he honour with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant things. And he shall deal with the strongest fortresses by the help of a strange god (the Devil).” These words show clearly that the man of sin is the king that shall come, the last of the kings of the north, the antichrist and the (wild) beast. Some few have taught that the man of sin is Judas Iscariot, because both are called “the son of perdition” (2 Thess.2:3; Jn 17:12). There is as much sense in this, as if we were to say, that because Jud.as (Jn 6:70) and Satan are called in Gk. diabolos (Devil), therefore Judas and Satan are the same person. The temple (Gk. naos) of God is that which will yet be built in Jerusalem, probably by the Jews. Though God shall not dwell therein, yet that place is His by right, hence it is called “the temple of God.”
2 Thess.2:5,6,7
“Your mind”, of verse 2, about these coming events was formed by the teaching of the apostle, as he shows in the above verses: “Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?” We have in verses 6 and 7, “that which restraineth,” and “one that restraineth,” or “the restraining thing,” and “the restraining one. ” Restraineth, Gk. katecho, means here to hinder or impede. The “restraining thing” is the coming apostasy which must come first. “The restraining one” is the Devil, who will hold back until the season (the condition of time appropriate to the revelation of the man of sin, “when the transgressors are come to the full” – Dan.8:23) arrives, which is in the time of the great apostasy. The old interpretation of verse 8 is quite incorrect, that the one that restrains is the Holy Spirit, whose restraint will be removed when He is taken out of the way at the coming of the Lord for the Church. This interpretation implies that the Holy Spirit will not be in the earth to restrain the uprising tide of lawlessness. Far from the Holy Spirit being taken from the earth, there will be a world-wide out-pouring of the Spirit upon all flesh before the day of the Lord comes, as is shown from Joel 2:28-32; Acts 2:16-21: The battle between the Spirit- filled saints of that period and the antichrist or (wild) beast will be vigorous and fierce, as the book of Revelation shows. The quotation from Joel 2 by Pet.in Acts 2 was an application of what that prophet said as to what was transpiring in Jerusalem at Pentecost, but it was by no means the fulfilment of the Joel prophecy. The words of verse 7 above are, in my opinion, better rendered as follows: “Only he who restrains at present, until out of the midst he become.” He who restrains is the Devil, and he who shall become out of the midst is the antichrist or (wild) beast. When he rises out of the midst, then shall be revealed the lawless one. If the one who restrains and is taken out of the way were the Holy Spirit, then the revelation of the beast would take place consequent upon the Lord’s coming for the Church, which cannot be supported from Daniel and Revelation.
2 Thess.2:8,9,10
When the man of sin or (wild) beast rises from the midst, “out of the sea” (Rev.13:1) – “the waters which thou sawest, … are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues” (Rev.17:15) – “then shall be revealed the lawless one.” Him “the Lord Jesus shall slay” (Gk. analisko, take away or destroy, not slay, as we learn from Rev.19:20, where are told that the beast and the false prophet “were cast alive into the lake of fire that burneth with brimstone”) with the breath (Gk. pneuma, spirit or breath) of His mouth. He shall also bring him to nought (Gk. katargeo, to render inactive, make useless: see of death, 2 Tim.1:10; of the Devil, Heb.2:14; etc.), not annihilate, by the appearing (Gk. epiphaneia), or brightness, of His coming (Gk. parousia). The coming (parousia) of the lawless one, the beast or antichrist, is according to the working of Satan, “in every power and signs and wonders of falsehood” (translated literally), all of which will be aided and abetted by the false prophet, who shall work great signs in the sight of the beast, and shall deceive them that dwell on the earth (Rev.13:13,14). Such wonders of falsehood shall be connected with the deceit of unrighteousness, for sin is ever a deceitful thing (Heb.3:13). This deceit shall be to the perishing ones, because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved. They loved falsehood rather than truth, hence they were deceived, and they loved to be deceived. What a sad story! But is it different in kind from what exists today? Nay verily: the deceit may be different in measure, for deceit will then have reached its high water-mark, but it is not different in kind from the many forms of deceit practised now.
2 Thess.2:11,12
Herein lies the cause of the rise of antichrist; men in general want to be told lies, because they have pleasure in unrighteousness. They want to sin; they neither want to be righteous nor to do righteousness. Men need not blame the devil or the antichrist; the state of the world, which will admit of the last tragic scenes of Gentile government and behaviour, will be that which men have made it for themselves. Hence we have the awful reality and truth of these verses, that God will send them a working of error, that they all may be condemned who believe not the truth. The condition of men’s hearts will be fully revealed in that they will actually love lying rather than truthfulness, hence the devil, the father of lies, will find men an easy prey.
2 Thess.2:13,14
Paul gives thanks again for the Thessalonians, that God chose (Gk. haireo, strictly “to take, to choose”; elsewhere he uses Gk. eklego, to pick, to choose, for election) them from the beginning unto salvation, in sanctification of the Spirit, which is God’s side of salvation, and belief of the truth, which is our side. In 1 Pet.1:1,2, we have election and sanctification of the Spirit again spoken of, but there it is unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ, which is the New Testament answer to Ex.24:3-8: But in verse 13 above sanctification of the Spirit is unto salvation. These facts should be carefully noted. It was unto this salvation that the Thessalonians were called through the gospel which had been preached by God’s servants.
2 Thess.2:15
Seeing that this was God’s purpose regarding them, in election, salvation and glory, they were exhorted to stand fast and firm, and to hold fast the traditions. “The traditions” were the oral instructions or instructions by letter which were given by the apostles to the saints while as yet there was no New Testament. The epistles to the Thessalonians were among the first, if not the first, parts of the New Testament to be written, so we see how the saints of those days were shut up for instruction to the teaching of the apostles (Acts 2:42) which was the traditions (1 Cor.11:2; 2 Thess.2:15; 2 Thess.3:6). The word traditions ceased to be used in the inspired writings of the New Testament as these writings began to appear and be circulated among the saints.
2 Thess.2:16,17
The words, “which loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace,” apply to the Father. But Paul wishes the Lord Himself and God the Father to comfort and to stablish the Thessalonians in every good work and word. The thought of the Father having loved us and given to us eternal comfort and good hope through His wondrous grace is very precious indeed. Eternal comfort – nothing can disturb the inward state of rest of the soul that rests completely in Him who says, “Come unto Me … and I will give you rest.”
2 Thess.3:1,2
Finally, or for the rest, the apostle asks them to pray for him, as he often does throughout his epistles, that the word of the Lord might run rapidly and be glorified in reaching the throne of the hearts of the hearers, even as it had in reaching the hearts of the Thessalonians. There are ever opposers of the work of the Lord, hence Paul writes of unreasonable and evil men, “for,” said he, “all have not (the) Faith.” The definite article is present before faith and should appear, as evidently it is the Faith and not faith.
2 Thess.3:3
“The evil” would point out some definite form of evil, but no evil is mentioned. It seems more natural to conclude that it is “the evil one” who is envisaged. The Lord, who is faithful, would stablish or fix firmly, and guard them from the evil one. He would guard them as a sentinel, for the evil one goes about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour (1 Pet.5:8).
2 Thess.3:4,5
“In the Lord” is a term which implies subjection to His will; and Paul was confident in Him that they were so subject that they both did and would do what he commanded them, within the compass of the Lord’s will. His wish for them was, that the Lord would direct their hearts into the love of God, which is the mainspring of all true acting, and into the patience or endurance of Christ. The endurance of the Master should be the endurance of all who follow Him.
2 Thess.3:6,7,8
Whilst the overseers were exhorted, in 1 Thess.5:14, to admonish the disorderly (Gk. ataktos, “principally spoken of soldiers who desert their ranks”), we have here a state of disorder which calls for admonition to be administered by all within the church; all the saints being commanded in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to withdraw themselves from the disorderly. This command would be made by a public announcement by the overseers to the church. The apostle and his fellows had taught them how to walk orderly when they were with them, and had shown orderly behaviour by working in manual labour to maintain themselves while they preached to the Thessalonians. He described how that they had wrought night and day in ceaseless toil, working and preaching, so that they would not be a burden to any of them.
2 Thess.3:9,10
Paul had the right, as one who preached the gospel, to live of the gospel (1 Cor.9:14). But to show themselves ensamples for others to follow, these men wrought to keep themselves, so as to make the gospel without charge (1 Cor.9:18). How wholesome are his words, “If any man will not work, neither let him eat”!
2 Thess.3:11,12
Lazybodies become busybodies, officious, prying, intermeddlers, persons who are a stain on any community and serious causes of trouble with their tittle-tattle. Such Paul commanded and exhorted in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work in quietness, to give their tongues a rest and their hands work to do, and to eat their own bread, and not that of others.
2 Thess.3:13
The saints in Thessalonica in general were well-doing people, and they were exhorted not to be weary in well-doing.
2 Thess.3:14,15
If the corrective words of this epistle were not obeyed by any one, that man was to be marked (Gk. semaino, from sema, a sign or mark, and means to signify, also to declare, to announce), and the saints were not to keep company or associate with him, so that he might be ashamed of his conduct. He was to be admonished as a brother and not accounted as an enemy. This is admonition within the church.
2 Thess.3:16,17,18
We read of the God of peace several times. Here we have the Lord of peace Himself who would give them peace always and in every way. Paul’s wish was, “The Lord be with you all.” As of old, so now, He will be with us, if we be with Him. Here is Paul’s salutation, a salutation in every one of his fourteen epistles, that of “grace.” It is given under his own hand, as in 1 Cor.16:21; Col.4:18: See in contrast Rom.16:22, and also Gal.6:11.