2 Thessalonians 1:1-10

1 Paul, Silas^[a] and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:

2 Grace and peace to you from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Thanksgiving and Prayer

3 We ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters,^[b] and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love all of you have for one another is increasing.

4 Therefore, among God’s churches we boast about your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and trials you are enduring.

5 All this is evidence that God’s judgment is right, and as a result you will be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are suffering.

6 God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you

7 and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels.

8 He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.

9 They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might

10 on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed. This includes you, because you believed our testimony to you.

2 Thessalonians 1:1-10 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO 2 THESSALONIANS

This second epistle was written, not from Athens, as the subscription testifies, nor from Rome, as Athanasius {a} supposes; but from Corinth, from whence was sent the former, and where the apostle and Timothy, and Silvanus met; and which was sent about half a year after the other. The design of which is to comfort and support the Thessalonians under the afflictions and persecutions they endured for the sake of the Gospel; and to rectify a mistake they had gone into, and which might be occasioned by what the apostle had said in his former epistle, concerning the second coming of Christ, as though it was just at hand; which might lead them to neglect their worldly business, and duties of civil life, and give the enemies of the Gospel an advantage against the whole of it as false, should not this prove true; as also to exhort this church to take notice of disorderly persons such as were idle, and busy bodies, and withdraw from them, and remove them from their communion, as being not only burdensome to them, but a reproach to their profession.

{a} Synopsis Sacr. Script. Tom. ii. p. 129.

\\INTRODUCTION TO 2 THESSALONIANS 1\\

This chapter, besides the inscription and salutation, contains a thanksgiving for the flourishing condition in which the graces of the Spirit were in these saints, and consolation for them under their suffering circumstances. The inscription and salutation are in 2Th 1:1,2 and are as usual: the thanksgiving is in 2Th 1:3 for the growth of their faith, the abounding of their love, and their constant patience under persecutions and afflictions, insomuch that the apostle also gloried of them for these things among other churches, 2Th 1:4 and as an encouragement to them to continue patient under sufferings, he observes that this was a token of the righteous judgment of God, and that they were reckoned worthy of his kingdom for which they suffered, 2Th 1:5 and of which righteous judgment they might be assured, from the nature of God himself, whose justice required a retribution of vengeance to their persecutors, and rest to them with the apostles, 2Th 1:6,7 the time of which rest and ease is pointed at, as that it will be at the coming of Christ; which is described by the place from whence he comes, heaven; by his retinue, his mighty angels; by the manner in which he shall come, in flaming fire; and by the vengeance he will execute: the objects of which are also described, by their ignorance of God, and by their disobedience to the Gospel of Christ; and by the nature of the punishment inflicted on them, which will lie in an expulsion from the presence, power, and glory of God, and in an everlasting destruction of soul and body, 2Th 1:7-9 but as for them, the persecuted saints, and which is mentioned for their comfort, Christ shall at this day be glorified and admired in them, and by them, 2Th 1:10 wherefore the apostle prays for this perseverance of them, that the good work of faith might be performed in them, and they enjoy the glory they were called unto; and that Christ might be glorified in them, and they in him; not according to their works, but according to the grace of God through him, 2Th 1:11.

Cross References

• 1. S Acts 15:22
• 2. S Acts 16:1; 1 Thessalonians 1:1
• 3. S Acts 17:1
• 4. S Romans 1:7
• 5. S Romans 1:8; Ephesians 5:20
• 6. S 1 Thessalonians 3:12
• 7. 2 Corinthians 7:14
• 8. 1 Thessalonians 1:3
• 9. 1 Thessalonians 1:6; 1 Thessalonians 2:14; S 1 Thessalonians 3:3
• 10. Philippians 1:28
• 11. Luke 20:35
• 12. Luke 18:7,8
• 13. Romans 12:19; Colossians 3:25; S Revelation 6:10
• 14. S Luke 17:30
• 15. Hebrews 10:27; S Hebrews 12:29; 2 Peter 3:7; S Revelation 1:14
• 16. 1 Thessalonians 4:16; Jude 14
• 17. Psalms 79:6; Isaiah 66:15; Jeremiah 10:25
• 18. S Galatians 4:8
• 19. Romans 2:8; S 2 Corinthians 2:12
• 20. Philippians 3:19; 1 Thessalonians 5:3; 2 Peter 3:7
• 21. 2 Kings 17:18
• 22. Isaiah 2:10,19; 2 Thessalonians 2:8
• 23. 1 Corinthians 3:13
• 24. John 17:10
• 25. 1 Corinthians 1:6

Footnotes

• [a] Greek "Silvanus" , a variant of "Silas"
• [b] The Greek word for "brothers and sisters" ("adelphoi" ) refers here to believers, both men and women, as part of God’s family; also in 2:1, 13, 15; 3:1, 6, 13.