Congregational Bible Experience Day #66: 2 Thessalonians 1-3

Not a lot of time has probably passed since Paul wrote his earlier letter to the Thessalonians (a matter of months, maybe?), but enough has happened to warrant him to stay in touch. That they have positively responded to his previous exhortations to a deeper faith and stronger love among the fellowship is clear (1:4-5).  But then, the persecution they faced and the suffering they endured hasn't gone away - if anything, it's worse. As in the book of Job, there comes a point when our personal experience of ('unjust') suffering demands more than to simply 'grin and bear it'. At the very least, like these young, struggling believers, we have a need to understand - at least with broad strokes - how this world, God's world, that He created, sustains and overrules, works. We need some measure of reassurance that in life we're not being blown about by random, whimsical, impersonal malevolent forces; nor that we've somehow helplessly fallen into the grip of Satan who's making our lives a merry hell; nor even that God - for reasons unknown - is punishing us for failing to live up to His perfect (and unreachable) standards. No, he insists, "God is just" (1:6). So, as he writes to other churches elsewhere (for example, Romans 8:18,35-39; 2 Corinthians 4:16-18; 12:7-10), Paul wants the Thessalonians to see their present sufferings against the 'big picture' backdrop of eternity when everyone will receive their due recompense - both "trouble" and "relief" (v7).  He reminds the Thessalonians of the future judgement and punishment that awaits the troubling persecutors and the glory that awaits the faithful persecuted (1:5-10), so that - with Paul's and his team's prayerful help and support - they may be encouraged in the present to persevere in the Lord's strength and so live by His grace and for His glory (v11-12).

But therein lies another problem: 'someone', in Paul's name, has written a deceitful report stating that the final Judgement has already taken place (2:1-2). How can this persecution rightly persist if Jesus has already come back?  Where will the Thessalonians' justice come from now if Jesus has been unable to overcome the evil they are currently experiencing? All this, of course, is Satan's deceptive ploy to undermine and weaken their faith in Christ's trustworthiness (see v9-12). Paul's response is to expose this devilish deceit (v1-3a; see also 3:17 for reassurance), and to remind them of what they have already been told (v5-6) regarding the appearance of the 'Man of Lawlessness' - the ultimate personification of evil who will appear to harness humanity's final act of rebellion against God - as a prelude before the triumphant and victorious return of Christ when he shall be overthrown (v3-4,6-8). Even though the spirit of such lawlessness is already at work and is in fact what they are already experiencing (v7a), even here God is in complete control (v7b), restraining evil until Christ's final victory (won at Calvary's cross) is revealed.

Now, does it need to be said (?), there's a lot here that is beyond our full understanding regarding the 'man of Lawlessness', his identity, his role and his activity upon the world's stage before he is fully, finally and forever overthrown when Jesus returns. And while many eager students of the Bible have tried to creatively harmonise what 2 Thessalonians 2 teaches about the Second Coming with other similar passages (such as Matthew 24 and Mark 13), there is little lined-up agreement as to what precisely will happen or may be expected at that climactic point in human history.  It remains clouded in unknowable mystery.

My own tuppence worth of suggested insight is this:  despite the Spirit-inspired truthfulness and clarity of what Paul says will happen, the actual outworking reality of these times and events will be totally unexpected. Nobody, and I mean, nobody, will be able to say "See! Told you! I was right!" And I say that for this reason: no-one, not the godliest of Jewish scholars, not even the very prophets of God themselves, had figured out how all the Old Testament prophecies and promises regarding the appearance of the Messiah and his defeat of evil (some of which seemed quite contradictory) would actually be fulfilled, ahead of time. Only with the blessedness of hindsight could the Apostles look back from the events of Good Friday and Easter Sunday and see how everything that had been written beforehand about Jesus, His appearing, ministry, suffering and victory, all fitted perfectly together. My suspicion is, something similar will be true when, from the vantage point of eternal glory, we watch again the rewind tape of Christ's return. With our Bibles in our hands, we shall then, and probably only then, understand how everything worked together to fulfil God amazing plan.

Until then, what we can do, like the Thessalonians, is not to overly speculate about these matters, but rest secure in the assurance of our present and future salvation (v12-15):  that we are loved and have been chosen by God, we are set apart and kept secure by the Spirit as we believe in the Gospel of truth, so that we may share in this promised glory of Christ.

Until then, says Paul in chapter 3, get on with the task in hand of spreading (3:1-5) and living out God's Gospel of truth (v6-14).  Theological uncertainty (chapter 2) and external hostility (v1-3) should not hinder the church in her primary calling and work of evangelism. Whatever the situation, God is in control and will use them (and us - if we take this to heart) to explore and prove further depths of God's love in the service of sharing and proclaiming the Gospel to the unbelievers all around (v5).  And to the group of 'idle busybodies' (v11) among the wider church family, who - either through genuine laziness (if you pardon the paradox), or because they were distracted by the supposed imminent return of the Lord - had stopped working for a living, they really ought to be shamed (v14-15) for their behaviour and start to live responsibly as Paul had shown (v7-10,13), for the sake of the Lord's reputation among His people and beyond (v12; see also 1 Timothy 5:8).