Short Summary of 2 Thessalonians
Lord Adalbert Percival Cecil
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
The Second Epistle was written in view of false teachers, most likely Jews, who had represented to the suffering Thessalonians that the day of Christ {day of the Lord} had already come; their great tribulations being the proof of it. They also seem to have pretended (see ch. 2:2) to have had authority by a letter from the Apostle Paul for saying so. This would be in every way calculated to shake the faith of the young Thessalonian converts, who, alas, by this time seem to have lost a little of the freshness of their first hope and joy, resulting from their faith in the return of the Lord.
The error, therefore, here was chiefly in connection with the day of the Lord, as in the first Epistle they had needed instruction on the coming of the Lord for His saints. Consequently the instruction in this 2nd Epistle is chiefly in reference to the second stage of the Lord’s coming, as the 1st Epistle was chiefly in connection with the first. The day of the Lord is therefore viewed in the first chapter as the day of the righteous reward of the believers (the kingdom of God would then be manifested), and as the day of tribulation and judgment for the wicked who remained ignorant of God, and rejected the Gospel of Christ; in the second chapter it is viewed in reference to the apostasy of Christendom and the revelation of the Anti-christ, who is called the man of sin, and the lawless one. The Lord would then destroy him with the spirit of His mouth and the brightness of His coming, and destroy all who were deluded by him. In the 1st chapter the believers are encouraged in reference to the day of the Lord, that in that day they would be resting with the Apostles with Jesus in glory, of course already glorified, as we have seen in the 1st Epistle; and in the second chapter they are reminded that their gathering together unto Christ would take place before the day of the Lord, as also of the apostasy and revelation of the man of sin.
The Church is addressed, as in the 1st Epistle, in reference to its relationship with God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. After giving the usual salutation of grace and peace, the Apostles, Paul, Silvanus, and Timotheus, thank God for the saints because their faith grew exceedingly, and their love one to another abounded; so that they gloried in them in the Assemblies of God, for their patience and faith in all their persecutions and tribulations that they were enduring. These trials, as we have seen, the enemy was taking advantage of to cloud their hope, which is not spoken of here as a subject of praise by the Apostle, as in the 1st Epistle. The day of the Lord had already come, the arch-deceiver said by his emissaries. The poor suffering Thessalonians deceived were about to say, Well, what has become of our hope then? We had been taught that before that day we should be caught up to meet the Lord in the air. Thus they were troubled, not only by the tribulations themselves through which they were passing, but by the deceptions of the enemy, and their hope was clouded. The Apostle does not allude directly to this till the second chapter; he is content in the first to put things right in the minds of the Thessalonians by showing them that their present trials were only a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God coming on their persecutors in the day of the Lord, that they might be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which they suffered. In that day when the Lord Jesus should be revealed, it would be a righteous thing of God to recompense tribulation to their troublers, and those who were troubled rest with the Apostles. Blessed comfort for the saints! Instead of tribulation in that day it would be perfect rest with the Lord in bodies of glory, whilst it would be tribulation only for the wicked! Tribulation now was the portion of the saints.
It is the kingdom of God here of which he speaks, not its present, but its future place, when Christ should return and take the kingdoms of this world into His hands, and reign gloriously as the King over the whole earth. The heavenly saints would have their portion and sphere with Christ in it, they would reign over it, getting their rewards, having been previously translated to glory, as we have seen in the 1st Epistle. Hence the trouble to the wicked would come, and rest to the righteous, when the Lord Jesus Christ should be revealed with His mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obeyed not the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, who should be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord when He should come to be glorified in His saints, and admired in all them that believed in that day.
It is then the second stage of the Lord’s coming of which the Apostle speaks here, called the day of the Lord, and here the day of the revelation of Jesus Christ. It is a day of reward for the saints, a day of judgment to the world. All the living heathen who know not God, all the professing Christians who have not obeyed the gospel of Christ, will be punished in that day. It will be everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power. Oh, careless reader, think of this; as sure as you are an immortal creature, born in sin, and finally rejecting Christ, so sure this must be the final result of a willful rejection of Christ, viz.,
Everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord {2 Thess. 1:9}.
But, on the other hand, Christ in that day will be glorified in His saints and admired in all them that believe. All the realities of His wonderful Person will come out visibly then; all the wonders of God become a man will be seen in His face; the unaltered scars in His hands, feet, and side, resplendent with all His glory, will tell out the wonders of His love. All His beauteous unchanged moral qualities as seen on earth, and more wonderful as seen in the glory of heaven, will meet the admiring gaze of His ransomed ones, as they shout
Worthy the Lamb that was slain, to receive glory, honour, and power, for He hath redeemed us to God {see Rev. 5:6-12}.
Oh, my reader, what a wonderful thing to be there! I trust it is your portion. Assuredly it will be so if the Apostle’s testimony has been believed.
In view of the solemn realities of that day, the Apostle prayed that the dear Thessalonian believers might be counted worthy of this calling and that God would fulfill in them all the good pleasure of His goodness, and the work of faith with power, that the Name of their mutual Lord Jesus Christ might be honoured in them and they in Him, now and in that day according to the grace of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Chapter 2
Paul, Silas, and Timothy, now turn to the subject of the letter that had been written to them, which was troubling their minds. The letter had purported to have been written by the authority of the Apostles. Paul writes positively to deny it. He beseeches them by the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, and by the fact of the gathering of the saints to the Lord Jesus when He should descend into the air, not to be troubled by such a letter, as if the day of the Lord was already come. The letter seemed to have had as its subject that, on account of the great tribulations the saints were going through, the day of Christ was present. The great tribulation that the Lord had spoken of must have come (cp. Matt. 24:21). But that, as the Apostles had shown the saints in the first chapter was coming on the world not on the church; the church in that day would be at rest with the Lord. In this chapter they show the saints that it could not have come for two reasons,
1st, on account of the Lord’s coming, and gathering of the saints to Him in the air; which had not yet taken place;
2nd, that before the day of the Lord, the man of sin would be revealed. That day shall not come the Apostle says, except there come first an apostasy, and the man of sin be revealed;
1st then Christendom must apostatize;
2nd, a man was to appear in the midst of the apostasy, who should, as God, sit in the temple of God, saying He was God.
Sad and solemn news for the young saints to hear, yet re-establishing to their souls, for if the day of the Lord had come, and they were left, where was the promise of His coming into the air for them, which they had been taught would take place before that day?
Paul had already told them of that apostasy and manifestation of the man of sin when he was with them. There was a power withholding, hindering the manifestation of this evil. The mystery of iniquity, alas, was already working in the church, but the Holy Ghost was there, the great hindering power to its development, and He would let, until the Church with the Holy Ghost in it was taken to glory; then should that wicked one be revealed, whom the Lord should Himself destroy with the spirit of His mouth and with the brightness of His coming, literally “Epiphany of His coming,” i.e., the 2nd stage of the Lord’s coming that we have spoken of. Now, before I go on, I wish my reader to notice the Apostle’s sketch of the history of Christendom. It is a solemn seal put on the universal history of man’s departure from God. The Church, as Israel was to fail as God’s witness on earth. The mystery of iniquity had already begun to work in the days of the Apostles, which has since developed in Popery and rationalism. The Holy Ghost’s presence in the church would hinder the full development of the apostasy and man of sin, until all that belonged to Christ’s real body and bride were gathered out, then He and they would be taken out of the way by ascending to glory. Then would follow universal apostasy, then the man of sin would be revealed, sitting in God’s temple literally at Jerusalem, as God; then the Epiphany of the Lord’s coming would destroy him. Alas, alas, for man, it is his universal history: tried without law, he proved himself lawless; under law, a law-breaker: when Christ came he rejected Him; when the Holy Ghost came, he resisted Him; when He is taken out of the way he will set himself up as God in the earth. Dear reader, nothing can stand in the current of this universal departure from Christ as is pictured here, but Christ and known union with Him by the Holy Ghost. May our increasing cry be that Christ’s glory may be known, and that the saints may know their union with Him, standing as we do amidst the wreck and ruin of Christendom.
What a picture this gives of man’s boasted progress! Why, my reader, it is progress backward, not forwards! The professing church is going back from Christ, and redemption, and union with Him by the Holy Ghost, to law, idolatry, rationalism, ritualism, and to Anti-christ! When Christ returns He will find all this full blown. Progress, indeed! Is this what your peace prophets are prophesying of, talking of a silvery line of progress into a golden millennium? Let God’s word tear away the hypocritical veil, and show man up in all his horrid deformity! Let it unveil to him his Man-God sitting in Jerusalem’s temple, energized with Satan’s power and signs and lying wonders, working with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish, because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved: sitting in the midst of apostate Christendom united with apostate Judaism, declaring himself to be God! My reader, say not you will not be deceived in that day. If you are not a real Christian, and, consequently amongst the happy ones, who before this day of tribulation, will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air, you will be found amongst those whom God will hand over to a strong delusion to believe a lie, that they all might be damned who believe not the truth but have pleasure in unrighteousness.
I am aware many godly men since the Reformation and before have branded the Pope as the man of sin and the Anti-christ. But, much as I respect them as men of faith and power far above most of the present day, I cannot coincide with their judgment on this point. First, notwithstanding all the departure from the faith that there has been, up to the present day the foundation of God standeth sure. Even in Rome and Greece they confess a true Christ, God and man, as the foundation of the church. But the rise of the man of sin in this chapter coincides with an apostasy that is to take place (see ver. 3). The foundations will be given up, and man will take the place of God and Christ upon the earth, not merely the place of being His vicegerent as the Pope does now. Second, the letting, hindering power to the mystery of iniquity is still on the earth. The advent of the lawless one does not come till after the removal of this hindering power, which I have no doubt is the presence of the Holy Ghost working in the real people of God on earth now. Third, the Anti-christ will deny the Father and the Son, as John says (chapter 2). This, the Pope has not done yet. Fourthly, he does not rise till after the re-formation of the Roman empire, which has not taken place yet. ( See Rev. 13:1-11.) That the Pope is an Anti-christ I have no doubt. That he blasphemously assumes the place of the Holy Ghost on earth, particularly since the dogma of Infallibility has been proclaimed, is most palpable. But that he is the Anti-christ is impossible, for the four reasons I have mentioned before. The Anti-christ of John, the wicked one of this chapter, the second beast of Rev. 13:11, the false prophet of Rev. 19:20, and the wilful King of Dan. 11:36-37, I believe coincide. The latter chapter seems clearly to show that he is a Jew, who will appear in the Land of Canaan after the temple is re-built, head the apostate Jews, and cause them to submit, and worship the image of the 1st beast of Rev. 13:15, who is the last head of the revived Roman Empire. Babylon, or the Apostate harlot Church of Rome, will still for some time keep her seat in the West, till the ten kings destroy her. All Christendom will be deluded to believe a lie, that they all might be damned who believe not the truth, but have pleasure in unrighteousness.
From this dark picture the Apostle turns to give thanks to God for those beloved young saints because that from the beginning He had chosen them to salvation from all this, through sanctification of the Spirit, and belief of the truth, unto which He had called them by their gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Christ had ascended into glory before His return, so would they be translated in the same manner before the day of tribulation and judgment of ungodly men to meet the Lord in the air, and to be introduced to the glory which is His. We are called to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. We must obtain that before ever one drop of judgment falls on an apostate church or world. In this salvation, present to their souls and future to their bodies, they were to stand fast, holding the traditions they had been taught, either by word or by Paul’s epistle. He ends up by saying, Now our Lord Jesus Christ and God our Father, which hath loved us and given us everlasting consolation and a good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and stablish you in every good word and work. Surely the hope of obtaining the glory of Christ was enough to comfort them amidst their tribulations, and the possession of the certainty of the salvation, was establishment itself to their souls.
Chapter 3
These honored servants of God conclude the Epistle by asking prayer for themselves that the Word of God might have free course and be glorified, even as it was with the Thessalonians, and that they might be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men, for all men had not faith. But the Lord was faithful, who would stablish them and keep them from evil. They had confidence, too, that He would direct their hearts into the love of God and the patience of Christ, a needful lesson as the gloom thickened. If the world waxes darker in its hatred to Christ, the way to meet it is with the love of God; if the church departs further and further away, the thing is to meet it with the patience of Christ. But to do so, our hearts must dwell in these things ourselves. God loves unchangeably above, Christ waits in patience looking forward to His coming; we are called into the communion of this and to manifest the same spirit here below.
Ver. 6-16 refer to disorderly or unruly walk amongst brethren. The extreme act of putting away is not in question here as in 1 Cor. 5. There is discipline to be exercised short of this, which might result in blessed restoration. Any disorderly walk contrary to what the Apostle had written them in these Epistles, they were to mark, and to withdraw themselves from the brothers that engaged in it. The Apostles had not behaved themselves disorderly amongst the saints; they had not eaten any man’s bread for naught, but had laboured and travailed night and day, that they might not be chargeable to any of the saints. Not because these servants had not the power, but to make themselves ensamples how the saints were to follow them. (Cp. 1 Thess. 2.) Some of the saints had evidently in their first zeal perhaps, given up everything in view of the Lord’s coming, and now without gift in service, were burdening the saints, and going about idly doing nothing. Now the Apostles had encouraged no such behavior, they had commanded that if a man did not work neither should he eat. They heard in fact that there were some amongst the saints who were walking disorderly, working not at all, but were busy-bodies. Now such they exhorted by the Lord, that with quietness they should work and eat their own bread. But as for the brethren they were not to be weary in well- doing.
Now if any would not obey the Apostle’s word by this Epistle, they should mark that man and keep no company with him, that he might be ashamed, yet not to count him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother.
Thus were all these minor questions settled by the wisdom of God in the Apostle. The unruly, disorderly, were to be warned (1 Thess. 5:14) admonished, withdrawn from, marked; yet not counted as enemies, that being made ashamed, they might judge themselves and communion with their brethren be restored. Such wholesome discipline is very important amongst young saints. Sad it is if any take sides with the disorderly and hinder the action of the Spirit of God.
It is most needful for saints to understand things that differ in matters of discipline. All discipline is not a matter of excommunication. The object of all kinds of discipline is restoration, even in the case of putting away.
Putting away is treated of in 1 Cor. 5. This is as to moral evil. But 2 John shows us that one not bringing the doctrine of the true Christ, is not to be received into our houses. In Rev. 2:14, 15 the Lord finds fault also with the Assembly at Pergamos for not putting out those who held Balaam doctrine, and those that turned the grace of God into licentiousness. This is most needful to press in the present day. A heretic, a leader of sects, was also after a first and second admonition, to be rejected. (Titus 3:10.) But then there is a secondary discipline to be followed, as we see above, which is also most needful to be discerned.
There is the discipline likewise mentioned in 1 Tim. 5:20 which likewise comes short of putting away. But then every one has not the power to carry this out, viz.,
Them that sin, rebuke before all, that others also may fear.
Lastly, there is the individual withdrawal, mentioned in 1 Tim. 6:3-6, which, I trust to allude to with more length when writing on that Epistle.
The Lordship of Christ is here brought in in our Epistle. He is the Lord of peace, to give peace always by all means, even if it might need be by discipline. The Apostle lastly prays that the Lord might be with all the saints. Others most likely wrote the Epistle as ordered by the Apostle, but Paul signed it with his own hand, the token in every Epistle as to what was his. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.