Biblical Theology XLIX: 2 Thessalonians

 The Second Letter to the Thessalonians was written to readdress the same issues Paul had addressed in the first letter. The issues had gotten worse rather than better. Persecution had gotten worse, there were some arguing that the judgment of Christ had already come and the Thessalonians had missed it, and some were living undisciplined and had ceased working, perhaps, because they believed they were in a new era. The letter is brief since Paul already addressed these issues previously.The letter is organized into three sections, each ending in a prayer.

Theology: The wicked who are persecuting the Thessalonians may have the upper hand now, but when Christ returns He is going to destroy all of them. Paul relates the divine warrior concept seen throughout the Old Testament to Christ.

God sends a deception upon everyone who does not receive a love of the truth of the gospel. Hence, His judgment begins now by giving the wicked over to believing their lies, and is a sign and seal of the judgment to come. If one is given over to deception now, it means that he or she will be destroyed when the Lord Jesus comes.

Paul wants to inform the Thessalonians that, despite what others may be arguing, the day of the Lord, i.e., His coming and judgment of the world, has not yet taken place. As mentioned before, His judgment is taking place now in the sense that He is giving people over to their deceptions, but the final judgment has not yet come. The only way to make this argument, of course, is by arguing that the judgment is spiritual and the second coming is likewise a spiritual event. This type of thing was likely argued by Greeks who had a tendency toward Platonism and proto-gnosticism that taught that the coming of Christ, the resurrection, and the judgment was a spiritual event. It is easy to see, then, that this spiritual event may have already passed the Thessalonians by. Paul argues, however, that the Lord will destroy all of their persecutors with fire when He appears visibly, that a great apostasy will happen first, and that the man of lawlessness must first appear. 

The man of lawlessness concept comes from Antiochus IV who is spoken of in Daniel. Paul uses some of that imagery here when he refers to him exalting himself above every god and seating himself in the temple, i.e., desolating it. This is likely a political figure who will attempt to subvert the religion of God’s people, the church, as Antiochus IV attempted to subvert the religion of Judaism in the second century B. C. Since the man of lawlessness exalts himself above every god, he does so above Christ, and probably even claims to be Christ, since the temple here likely refers to the church and not the literal temple in Jerusalem. The church that testifies that this figure is the true Christ is actually the false prophet that has apostasized against the apostolic teaching concerning Christ. This is the same concept found in Revelation, where the beast is the political/religious figure (i.e., the Emperor Domitian) is the one who exalts himself above all gods and the false church, i.e., false prophet, gets the world to follow him instead of the true Christ.

Ethics: Since Christ will destroy their persecutors, the Thessalonians display their worthiness of the kingdom to come by persevering in their love of one another and faith in the truth the apostles proclaimed to them. God has chosen them to suffer and their perseverance through it is evidence of God’s just judgment to make them worthy of the kingdom. Hence, salvation is through sanctification in the spirit and much of that sanctification is being produced by their sufferings.

Since the Lord is coming in judgment of the wicked, however, the Thessalonians should make every effort to both be disciplined in their daily lives, working for their livelihood, and to practice a form of church discipline on those who are living unruly lives and gossiping/meddling in other people's affairs. However, full discipline is not enacted in such cases, since Christians are to consider these people as fellow Christians still, unlike those put out of the church and are to be considered pagans by the Lord in Matthew 18.

Paul is encouraged by their love for one another, their strong faith in apostolic teaching given to them, and their growth in Christ even in the face of such adversity.