2 Thessalonians

The faithful press on to the end.

A healthy modern church might well resemble the congregation in Thessalonica (see the city’s profile at Acts 17:1). Of all the churches mentioned in the New Testament, the Thessalonian church best modeled how to carry out God’s instructions as spoken through the apostles. News of their faith spread far and wide during the first century, impressing everyone who heard their story (1 Thess. 1:7–9). The Thessalonians engaged with their surroundings and were outspoken about their beliefs. Where the world lacked hope, they pointed to the hope that is found in Jesus.

But when hope fades, people lose heart, and doubts begin to grow. That decline might have been happening in Thessalonica, as evidenced by the congregation’s increasing interest in the end times. Perhaps the people were impatient for reward or validation. Paul wrote 2 Thessalonians in response to their questions.

Paul had already told the Thessalonians that Christ’s return would be sudden and unannounced, like “a thief in the night” (5:2). False teachers had twisted this truth and asserted that Jesus would be back within moments—or that He had already arrived. Some of the Thessalonian Christians apparently heard this teaching and quit their work to await Jesus’ return. They wasted their days in idleness and lived off handouts.

Paul responded with a careful explanation of the events that will take place during the end times (2 Thess. 2:1–12). He described the rise of the Man of Sin (called the Antichrist in John’s epistles), but he also explained how Christians should live as they look forward to the Second Coming. As in his first letter to the Thessalonians, Paul urges his readers to serve God with a steadfast hope. “The Lord is faithful,” he declares (3:3). Therefore, His people should be faithful as well.

This letter speaks to Christians whose hope has faded, whose discipline has become lax, and whose trust has been crowded out by doubt. Two thousand years after the Thessalonians, we too are to keep working, stay faithful, and not lose hope. God will honor His commitments according to His perfect timing.

Paul wrote both 1 and 2 Thessalonians, listing himself, Silvanus and Timothy in the openings of the epistles (1 Thess. 1:1; 2 Thess. 1:1). He apparently signed 2 Thessalonians with his own hand (3:17). This second message followed soon after the first, which was written around A.D. 51.

Key Verses in 2 Thessalonians

• “The mystery of lawlessness is already at work.… And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming” (2 Thess. 2:7, 8).

• “If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat” (2 Thess. 3:10).

• “Do not grow weary in doing good” (2 Thess. 3:13).