2 Thessalonians Chapter 1
Salutation
1:1 From Paul and Silvanus and Timothy, to the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
The author was Paul, who was writing to the Thessalonians in 52-53 A.D. Along side of Paul were his two assistants, Silvanus and Timothy. Thessalonica is in Macedonia, which was one of the two Greek regions of the Roman Empire. Macedonia was the birth place of Alexander the Great. The Thessalonians are in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, meaning that they have been baptized into the Godhead. This verse proves the deity of Christ and His trinitarian position as second in the godhead.
Before Paul founded the church, the Thessalonians were pagans who were steeped into idolatry. Paul taught them the gospel, but he was forced out of town three weeks later. He had to leave the Thessalonians as baby Christians with little Biblical knowledge. He attempted to return and teach the entire counsel of the Word of God, but Satan hindered him from doing so. Satan began his persecution on the Thessalonians, but they were able to endure. The Thessalonians were uncertain about the details of the Rapture and the Day of the Lord, which is the Great Tribulation. Paul wrote his first letter to explain that when the Rapture occurs, the dead in Christ will be raised moments before those who are raptured alive in their bodies. In this second letter, many of the Thessalonians were still baby Christians, they were receiving persecution, and they thought they were living in the Great Tribulation. Paul wrote this second letter to dispel this belief and correct their theology.
1:2 Grace and peace to you from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!
This is Paul's typical greeting in all of his letters. The Greek word for "grace" is χάρις (charis). meaning kindness. This was the typical Greek greeting.
The Greek word for "peace" is εἰρήνη (eiranain), which comes from the Hebrew word שָׁלום (shalom), meaning peace with God. This was the typical Jewish greeting.
If God is kind to a believer, then He will show grace to the believer, open his eyes, and reveal Jesus as Savior. God does not want to take any chances with His children, so when He calls His elect, His call is irresistible. The called-one will believe, and then he will experience peace with God.
Humans are very evil people who would blaspheme God, kill Him, and kill every one of His followers if they could do so. Humans would never believe in God on their own. They do not have enough good in themselves to make this decision. The only way that a human can have peace with God is to believe on Him, but they will not believe unless God opens their eyes and changes their hearts. Therefore, grace must come first, then peace with God will follow. Grace must come before peace with God, so Paul uses this chronology in all of his letters.
Thanksgiving
1:3 We ought to thank God always for you, brothers and sisters, and rightly so, because your faith flourishes more and more and the love of each one of you all for one another is ever greater.
The Thessalonians were a model church. They learned from Paul and spread his teaching throughout the two Greek regions of the Roman Empire.
The Greek word for "faith" is πίστις (pistes), meaning divine persuasion. Man is so depraved and evil, that he must be divinely persuaded by God in order to be saved. The divine persuasion of the Thessalonians was flourishing throughout the two Greek states of the Roman Empire. Thessalonica was an important trade city for commerce, so the Thessalonians had many contacts throughout the trade regions. Their message spread quickly.
The Greek word for "love" is ἀγάπη (agape), meaning divine love. Only believers in Christ possess divine love. Divine love increases as one studies the Word of God. The application of Bible doctrine is the evidence of divine love. An ignorant Christian possesses little divine love. Believers love other believers.
1:4 As a result we ourselves boast about you in the churches of God for your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and afflictions you are enduring.
The Greek word for "perseverance" is ὑπομονή (hupomenay), meaning to remain under a heavy weight. . The Thessalonians were baby Christians. Satan took advantage of their spiritual immaturity by hindering Paul from returning and persecuting those who were left living in the city. This persecution was a heavy burden for the Thessalonians to bear. However, because of their faith, they were able to remain under the burden.
Encouragement in Persecution
1:5 This is evidence of God’s righteous judgment, to make you worthy of the kingdom of God, for which in fact you are suffering.
Christians are called to suffer, not to prosper. Prosperity preachers will often use Old Testament verses in order to teach their false gospel of prosperity. Israel was called to be blessed materially if they kept the Mosaic Law. New Testament Christians are called to suffer. If a believer is suffering for righteous causes, then this is evidence that he is a child of God. Persecutions strengthen the believer and prepare him to understand and appreciate the Kingdom of God, which will eventually come upon this earth.
1:6 For it is right for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you,
God is a righteous Father to His children. Those who afflict His children will be repaid by God Himself. The Christian is not commanded to avenge himself. He is called to be patient and allow God to deal with his persecutors.
1:7 and to you who are being afflicted to give rest together with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels.
If the Rapture would have appeared in the Thessalonians’ lifetime, then the mighty and powerful angels would have been dispatched to take care of the Thessalonians’ enemies and tormentors. Jesus could have called a legion of angels to help Him escape the agony of the cross, but He chose to be humiliated and to experience pain for the sake of the believer.
1:8 With flaming fire he will administer punishment on those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
Those who were tormenting the Thessalonians would eventually be punished by being thrown into the Lake of Fire.
1:9 They will undergo the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his strength,
The Bible speaks very little about heaven, because it is too difficult and to glorious to express in words. If people knew how wonderful heaven was compared to the satanic world system in which they live, then they may commit suicide to get there. Even less is said about Hell. God the Holy Spirit does not dwell much on the condition of the lost. He does not give the depraved mind of man the morbid details of Hell. However, there is warning to unbelievers that such a place actually exists and those who reject Christ will dwell there forever. The Scriptures exist to glorify God, not Hell. The subject of Christ is the majority text of the Bible.
1:10 when he comes to be glorified among his saints and admired on that day among all who have believed – and you did in fact believe our testimony.
Paul was not writing about the Rapture in this verse, because no judgment accompanies this next prophetic event on God's calendar. This event discussed by Paul is the Second Coming of Jesus, when He returns at the end of the Great Tribulation to put an end to the reign of the Anti-christ, imprison Satan for 1000 years, purge the world of evil, and establish His literal 1000 year Millennial Kingdom.
1:11 And in this regard we pray for you always, that our God will make you worthy of his calling and fulfill by his power your every desire for goodness and every work of faith,
Since Christ will return and remove evil, then Paul will add the Thessalonians to his already large prayer list. Notice that it was God who was making the Thessalonians worthy. It was God who called them, not the other way around, as Arminians falsely teach. It was God who had the power to fulfill the divine desire for goodness that the Thessalonians had been given at the time of their conversion. It was God who had the power to help them work within their belief system.
1:12 that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
The purpose of all believers is to glorify the name, or the character, of the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord means deity. Christ means the Messianic King predicted by the Old Testament prophets. Believers can only glorify the name of the Lord Jesus Christ by the grace of God. God was kind enough to open the hearts of all believers so that they could in return glorify Christ. The main goal of the Christian in this life is to study the entire counsel of the Word of God at the deepest level so that he can know the mind of Christ and apply these Bible doctrines in order to glorify Christ. Nothing else is more important.