Introductions to 2 Thessalonians

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/9/2014 6:33 PM

Introduction to 2 Thessalonians

            I wanted to write a short introduction for the book of 2 Thessalonians so that I could begin to work on this study this month, for that is the way that I have been doing my Spiritual Diaries for the last couple of years, continue looking at the OT book that I have been studying and then also look at another book trying to do one chapter a month until I am finished with that book.  We finished 1 Thessalonians last month, and so we begin to look at 2 Thessalonians this month.

            The introductory verses from 1 Thessalonians are almost word for word to those in 1 Thessalonians.  “1 Paul and Silvanus and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace (1 Thess. 1:1).”  “1 Paul and Silvanus and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ (2 Thess. 1:1).”  Paul calls God “our Father” in 2 Thessalonians, making it more personal to them, maybe because he has a longer relationship with them than when he first had seen them and written the first letter to them.  We do not see Paul defending his apostleship in either of these letters, and that is because they did not question it like other churches did. 

            It was probably only a couple of months since Paul wrote the first letter to this church, but he has some reasons to write this letter to them.  In the first chapter Paul writes about their persecution and how they were handling it very well.  I wonder how I would handle that sort of thing, but this church was handling it very well, so well that Paul says that he is proud of them, meaning that God also was proud of them.

            Now when we get to chapter two we learn about the antichrist, and the reason we learn about him is that someone, a false prophet had sent a letter to them making believe it was from Paul and told them that since they were going through this persecution so badly that they were in the tribulation period.  Paul corrects this problem in this second chapter of his letter.

            Chapter three gives a rebuke to some of those who had quit working because they through that the Lord was coming very soon, but Paul does it in a loving way, nothing like the rebukes he gives in other letters he has written. 

            My plans are first of all, all in the hands of the Lord, but I want to try and keep working on 2 Thessalonians along with, at this point Lamentations, and then Ezekiel.  I am not sure how long it will take to get through this short letter, but I am looking forward to studying it and posting in on my blog.

 

9/9/2014 6:53 PM