Category: 帖撒罗尼迦后书

Request for Prayer

v1: [… pray for us..]. Some Christians think only the more spiritual Christians should pray for the less spiritual Christians. No so with Paul. Paul, as apostle, an elderly brother, a teacher, a missionary, asked the young Church at Thessalonica to pray for him. Christians workers many prayers to uphold his works for the Lord.

v1: […the message of the Lord may spread..]. Paul prayer request was not for him own personal needs, it was for the spreading of the gospel of the Lord Jesus.

v2: […be delivered from wicked and evil men..]. The Lord Jesus taught us to pray to deliver from temptation. (Matt 6:13)

Warning Against The Idleness

God created men and gave work to man, before man fall (Gen 2:15). Men and women should work and be productive. For women who stay at home as full time mom is work. The writers were mainly concerned about Christians who do not work, but expect others to support them. Not only they do not work and stay idle, they were busybodies (v11).

Missionary, teaching and pastoral and other Christian workers have the rights to be supported financially by other Christians (Gal 6:6, 1 Cor 9:3-14, 1 Tim 5:17-18).

However Paul and his coworkers did not use this right (1 Cor 9:12, 2 Thes 3:9). They worked night and day, laboring and toiling (v8) to support themselves. This was a repeat of 1 Thes 1:9. These are the reasons why Paul and his coworkers worked to support themselves:

1. But in order to be example of the rest of the brothers and sisters, [..how you ought to follow our example] (v7), [..to make ourselves a model for you to follow] (v9)
2.  they do want to be a burden to the people they served (v9)
3. do not want to hinder the gospel, for someone might misunderstood their motive. (1 Cor 9:12)

Paul did not reject all financial supports from everyone. The Philippi church supported Paul financial, when Paul was in Thessalonica (Phil 4:16).

The Man of Lawlessness (v1-12)

I like the quote from Warren Wiersbe: “The purpose of Bible prophecy is not for us to make a calendar, but ot build character.”

v1: [the coming of our Lord..]. referring to the Lord Jesus’s second coming.

v1: [..our being gathers to Him]. Referring to the rapture of Christians

v2: False teachers and self proclaimed prophets were teaching the Lord of the Lord was already here. Some even wrote forged letter pretending to be written by Paul.

v3: [the day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed..]. Rebellion is greek is apostasia (G646), where the english word apostasy derived from. Before The Day of The Lord, there will be great apostasy, where many will not believe in the truth of God, and false teachings will be dominant in the church. The man of lawlessness is referring to antichrist. The name antichrist is only used by John in his 1st and 2nd letter. He is referred by Daniel as the “abomination that cause desolation” (Den 9:27). The Lord Jesus referred to the “abomination that causes desolation” as well (Matt 24:15).

v4: [… sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God.]. Many believer Paul was referring to physical temple in Jerusalem will be rebuilt, with the help of antichrist, and he will set himself up in the temple to be God. This phase could potentially be interpreted as the spirit temple of God, the Church of Christ. If we take the later position, antichrist could be someone who is extremely powerful in the church.

v5: […I used to tell you these things]. In the short three weeks stay in Thessalonica (Acts 17), Paul taught them the Day of the Lord.

v6-7: […what is holding him back….the one who now holds it back..]. Paul was referring to the Holy Spirit, who works in the church of Christ in spiritual warfare with Satan.

v7: […till He is taken out of the way.] When the church rapture, the Holy Spirit not hold back the antichrist anymore.

v7: [..the secret power of lawlessness is already at work]. The power of antichrist is already at work even in Paul’s time. It is a secret, until in the Day of The Lord, the antichrist will show his true identity, he will be revealed (v8).

v8: [..Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of His mouth]. The antichrist and satan is very powerful, but in comparison to our risen Lord Jesus, their power is nothing. Lord Jesus will take them out with His breath.

v9: […all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders]. The Lord Jesus Himself said: “For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect” (Matth 24:24). So dear brothers and sisters, do not use signs, wonders and miracles by itself to judge a person is from God. We may look at the person characters, and the words the he preached. Miracles itself is not a prove of someone is anointed by God, he could be false prophet used by Satan.

Stand Firm (v13-17)

v14: We are called to shared the glory of Jesus Christ! How glory is our calling, we ought to live a life worthy of this calling.

v15: […stand firm…hold to the teachings..]. Many Christians heard about the truth of God, but how many are standing firm and holding on to the teachings?

v16-17: […eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.] Such comforting encouragement to know that our Lord loved us, and by His grace gave us all these blessings, so that we can stand firm.

Worthy of God’s calling in our life (v1-12)

v1: Paul as the main writer, together with his coworkers Silas and Timothy wrote this epistle from Corinth (Acts 18:5), soon after they wrote the first letter to the Thessalonians Church.

v2: The Lord Jesus Christ and God are frequently mentioned together in NT, implying the equality of God the Father and God the son (Phil 2:6).

v3: [..faith..love]. Faith and love go together. Our faith is towards God, and our faith is reflected by our love for each other. When faith increases, love increases.

v4-5: [..counted worth of the kingdom of God]. We are saved by grace not by works (Eph 2:8). When we were saved, we became the citizen of kingdom of God. We are unworthy for such blessing. Paul said the reason why the Thessalonians were experiencing persecution and trials was because of the judgement of God. God’s judgement is like the fire in a refiner, purifying metal. After believers persevere through trials, they impurity will be less and they will be more like Christ. They are still unworthy of being citizen of the kingdom, but because of the works of Christ for them and in them, they will be reckoned, or counted as worthy.

v7-8: [God is just..punish..do not obey the gospel]. God will punish the ones who choose not to put their faith in His Son, and reward those who put their faith on His Son. It may not be apparent in this age, but God will surely fulfilled His promises when His Son return to this earth.

v9: [..everlasting destruction…]. God’s punishment is eternal. Suffering in hell will go on forever. Hells mean without the present of God. Hells will not experience the power of the Lord’s majesty.

v11: […may count you worthy of His calling]. We are called live a life worthy of His calling. The means:

1. The Lord a good purpose for our life, for His glory. We need to constantly pray that His purpose for our life will be done by His power.
2. Our faith will grow and will result in acts that glorify His name
3. We ought to live a life the glorify our Lord
4. Wo ought to live a life so that the Lord is gloried in us