2 Thessalonians
GROWTH IN SPITE OF ADVERSITY
2 THESSALONIANS 1:1-4
The fact that Paul gives thanks to God for answering his prayers reminds us it is all too easy to forget to thank God for answering our prayers.
Only a tentative reconstruction can be offered of the events between the reception of Paul’s first letter by the church and the composition of the second. The outward situation at Thessalonica appears little changed. Persecution has continued (1:4; see also 2:17; 3:3ff.). Paul, Silas and Timothy are still together, evidently at Corinth, where opposition to the gospel also persists (1:1,7; 3:1f.). Our scanty evidence suggests that the second letter was addressed to Thessalonica in AD 50, perhaps no more than two months after the first.
Its immediate occasion was the emergence of a new crisis in the congregation. Some individuals were convinced that Paul had said that the Day of the Lord was actually present (2:2). This provided a new argument for the idle and rekindled all the fears of the fainthearted. If the Day of the Lord had come, what time remained to gain the holiness or the faith, hope and love which Paul had insisted on (1 Thessalonians 3:13; 5:8)? The wrath reserved for unbelievers would certainly overtake the Christians as well! When the elders saw that the crisis was more than they could cope with effectively, they sent word to Paul by the first of their number who had occasion to journey to Corinth (see 3:11). 2 Thessalonians was written in response to this urgent request for help. It is a simple, tactful, pastoral letter, devoted almost entirely to encouraging the same fainthearted Christians previously addressed (1:3–3:5), and to warning the idle (3:6-15).
The opening lines of Paul’s two letters to the church are almost identical. The addition of “our” before “Father” in the address shows that Paul is contemplating the relationship of sonship which the Thessalonians have come to enjoy with God the Father in common with all those who have experienced faith through Christ (1:1). The prayer for grace and peace (1:2) is repeated from the earlier letter, but now the apostle reminds his readers of the divine origin of these gifts. In both the address and the initial greeting, God the Father and Christ the Lord are intimately associated. The existence of the church and the giving of the qualities that sustain its new life are the gifts of God as we know him in Jesus Christ.
The reason for the apostle’s continued thanksgiving for the Thessalonians is seen in the vigorous growth of their faith, the increase of their love for one another and their steadfast endurance in the face of persecution and affliction (1:3-4). Adversity had prompted a depth of Christian experience to which Paul could appeal when instructing the churches of Achaia. In spite of a misinterpretation of hope and in spite of severe suffering, the church of the Thessalonians was marked by a dynamic faith and a devoted love inspired by Jesus Christ.