Ii. Prayer (1:3-12)
i Paul, Silasa and Timothy,
To the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:
2 Grace and peace to you from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
1-2 The greeting at the head of this second epistle follows that in the first letter fairly closely (see the notes on 1 Thess. 1:1); the same three names appear, and perhaps we should notice that after this Silvanus disappears from Paul's company. The only differences from the greeting in 1 Thessalonians are the inclusion of "our" before "Father" and the addition of the words that follow "peace" in verse 2. When the New Testament speaks of God as Father it sometimes refers to God as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and sometimes to God as the Father of believers. The inclusion of "our" shows that it is this latter which is the thought here. Paul is thinking of what God has come to be to the believers in Thessalonica and of the bond that unites them with the apostles. The words added bring the shorter form given in 1 Thessalonians up to that which became Paul's standard mode of greeting. It is found in all the other epistles with the exception of Colossians (from which the words "and the Lord Jesus Christ" are missing). The effect is to remind his readers of the divine origin' of that grace and peace which had come to mean so much, and also of the fact that the apostle prayed for them that they might enjoy this grace and peace to the full.2 Wilson comments on the joining of the Father and the Lord Jesus as the source of grace and peace: "That such a construction could be used without comment not only implies the writer's belief in the deity of Christ, but also takes the readers' acknowledgment of it for granted."