Last time we learned that Paul remained in Corinth for eighteen months, building a church and continuing his ministry. We read, in Acts 18:9-11, “And the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, ‘Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent, for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in this city who are my people.’ And he stayed a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.“

Early in his time in Corinth we learned that Paul had received word from Timothy and Silas about how the believers in Thessalonica were doing and that prompted Paul to write his first letter to the Thessalonians. Well, during the eighteen months in Corinth, Paul must have received additional communication or news from Thessalonica which prompted him to write a second letter to them. The text of this letter, along with a few points of discussion, follows:

“Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, to the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Just as with the first letter, Paul, Silas, and Timothy collaborated on this letter. Some propose that the first letter was carried to Thessalonica by Silas and Timothy. I don’t know if that was the case, but if it was, they would have brought a report back to Paul. Otherwise, Paul may have received word or even a letter from believers there that prompted him to write this letter (under the prompting and leadership of the Holy Spirit, of course.)

“We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing. Therefore we ourselves boast about you in the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions that you are enduring. This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering—”

Paul uses both the persecution of the Thessalonian believers and his own suffering as a segue into a treatise on the coming Judgment Day. He had already addressed the rapture and what happens to believers after they die in the first letter, but here he takes the opportunity to teach them more about the coming judgment of God.

“since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.”

In the sequence of events surrounding end times (eschatology), there are some basic terms that we should all be familiar with. While there are many different theories and views, I’m going to outline the ones that I’ve settled in my mind based on the teaching and studying that I’ve experienced.

• The rapture – This is the event that Paul referenced in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 when Jesus comes and the living and dead believers are caught up in the air to meet him. This is NOT the same thing as Jesus’ second coming (which I’ll address in a moment).
• The Great Tribulation – Daniel 7 and 9 (discussed in other posts of mine here , here, here, and here), and much of the book of Revelation speak of a time of great distress for the saints. If the rapture does indeed remove Christians from the picture prior to this, then the “saints” would be those who come to believe in Jesus Christ as the promised Messiah as a result of, and after, the Rapture. I believe this will largely be Jews as God reaffirms his covenant with them. Some specific time frames are mentioned which seem to equate to a seven-year period of increasingly bad times for Israel. The rest of the items in this list primarily come from Revelation.
• The Man of Lawlessness – This is a person who sets himself up as God (acting as Satan’s representative and a false proxy for Jesus – the Antichrist). He will wage war on Israel and his actions will ultimately end with the second coming of Jesus.
• Jesus’ second coming – Jesus will physically set foot on Earth again as a conquering king, putting an end to the Antichrist and ushering in a 1,000 year age of peaceful reign as king on Earth. The great battle that precedes this age is called the Battle of Armageddon.
• Satan will be released once again at the end of this age to wage war on God’s people. This will usher in the final Day of the Lord, in which God’s final judgment will occur.
• Great White Throne Judgment – God will judge everyone who has ever lived, based on how they chose to listen to His word and believe in Jesus, the promised Messiah. Believers will be given their homes and jobs (yes, jobs) in eternity, and non-believers will get what they asked for – separation from God in eternal hell.
• New Heaven and New Earth – Earth will be restored and remade into our eternal home, in which we will live with God forever, worshipping him through our work, rest, and play in the perfect environment that he has designed and provided for us (foreshadowed in the garden in Eden).

With that brief background, we can proceed with Paul’s letter. He picks up with a reminder that those who stand against God’s people will suffer eternal punishment. This is the punishment meted out at the Great White Throne judgment following Jesus’ second coming as the conquering king.

“They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might, when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed. To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, so 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.”

Now, in his discussions on end times, Paul is not being chronological here. He’s simply addressing topics in more detail than he was able to in person or in his first letter. He references a caution about teaching reportedly from him that is contrary to what he’s saying now and he warns them to be careful about verifying the sources of any theological teaching.

“Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him,

This is in reference to the rapture…

“we ask you, brothers, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word, or a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come.”

Here, Paul uses “the day of the Lord” as an all-encompassing reference to the events listed above. His point is explained next – that they should not be worried about “missing it.”

“Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way.”

I believe that this “restraining” entity is the Holy Spirit, which lives in every Christian. The Spirit of God serves to restrain evil on the Earth and when the rapture happens, He will be removed from his widespread co-existence on Earth when the Christians leave. This will revert human history back to the way the Spirit operated throughout the Old Testament (before the church age).

And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming. The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.“

This is a description of Jesus’ Second Coming at the conclusion of the Great Tribulation and leading to the Battle of Armageddon. Thus ends Paul’s discussion of the end times.

Now he turns to final encouragements and admonitions for the believers about their daily lives as Christians.

“But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. To this he called you through our gospel, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter.”

Paul reminds the believers that “God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved…” This phrase is translated several different ways in the various English translations of the Bible, and while there are no major doctrinal discrepancies between the translations, there are some interesting different nuances to be explored. The term firstfruits is translated to mean:

• Their salvation was predetermined and predestined from the beginning of time. This speaks to the omniscience or all-knowingness of God that they would be receptive to the gospel of Christ.
• The Thessalonians were the first major church growth in Greece. While the Philippians were receptive, there was apparently not a large Jewish presence there and the organization or operation of the church may have been a bit slower in developing than the church in Thessalonica. Remember, nearly ALL of the very first believers in Jesus were Jews and the early church grew on the background of the Jewish faith.
• The reference to firstfruits may be a link to the Old Testament significance of firstfruits (of crops) as being specifically set apart for God. In this sense, God set apart the Thessalonians to be His special witness, which Paul has already referenced in his letters about how the testimony of the Thessalonian faith has spread throughout the region.

“Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word.

Finally, brothers, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored, as happened among you, and that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men. For not all have faith. But the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one. And we have confidence in the Lord about you, that you are doing and will do the things that we command. May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ.”

Remember that Paul is writing this letter from Corinth. He spent 18 months there preaching and building what would become the Corinthian church, but he still faced persecution and trouble there. We’ll read about that in a moment when we return to the Acts account. Paul asks the Thessalonians to pray for him and then uses words of encouragement to them about standing strong as a word of self-encouragement as well.

Paul then returns to a theme that he used in his first letter – encouraging the believers not to be idle but to be productive citizens.

“Now we command you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from any brother who is walking in idleness and not in accord with the tradition that you received from us. For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us, because we were not idle when we were with you, nor did we eat anyone’s bread without paying for it, but with toil and labor we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you. It was not because we do not have that right, but to give you in ourselves an example to imitate. For even when we were with you, we would give you this command: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.”

Paul then gives the reason that he is returning to this theme of productivity. He has received a report.

“For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busybodies. Now such persons we command and encourage in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living.”

Just as in the first letter (where he charged the church to have his letter read to all the believers), here he closes with another notice of accountability.

“As for you, brothers, do not grow weary in doing good. If anyone does not obey what we say in this letter, take note of that person, and have nothing to do with him, that he may be ashamed. Do not regard him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother.”

The church was to hold one another accountable for what Paul has instructed them. He then closes his letter with this.

“Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in every way. The Lord be with you all. I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. This is the sign of genuineness in every letter of mine; it is the way I write. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.”

I was going to go ahead with the next scene in Acts 18:12-21, but I think I’ll wait until next time to delve into that. Thanks for reading!