BIG IDEA:
GOD’S MINISTERS DESIRE GOD’S RESOURCES FOR GOD’S PEOPLE
INTRODUCTION:
Gordon Fee: Paul’s second letter to the believers in Thessalonica appears to have followed hard on the heels of the first one, since each of the three issues addressed here is picked up in some way or another from the first letter. Moreover, the two major items in this case—the coming of the Lord and the unruly-idle—are now spoken to by a somewhat aggrieved apostle in an expanded form (2:1–12; 3:6–13). The third item, addressed more indirectly in the first letter, deals with the believers’ present persecution at the hands of fellow citizens in Thessalonica. In this letter it is the first thing up, as the major item in the opening thanksgiving (1:6–10).
I. AUTHOR AND ASSOCIATES
A. Paul
B. Silvanus
C. Timothy
What was the nature of their relationship?
Why are all 3 included in the Greeting if Paul wrote the letter?
How were their backgrounds different, yet their mission so unified?
Gordon Fee: The fact that the three of them are still together and thus are intended corporately to be responsible for the letter—even though Paul is the actual “author” while Silas is perhaps the scribe—is a certain indication that this letter was written soon after the first one. One may also assume that they are in the same place geographically as before, and that Timothy, after delivering the first letter, had now returned to Paul and Silas with the information that led to the immediate writing of this one.
G.K. Beale: Paul’s mention of Silas and Timothy indicates that they are his fellow-workers and perhaps were formally commissioned by him to deliver the epistle, though the comment may imply that they were also his secretaries. The initial mention of Paul himself suggests that the letter ultimately represents his own apostolic authority as a representative of the divine Messiah.
II. RECIPIENTS
A. Local Identity: “church of the Thessalonians”
B. Universal Identity
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- “in God our Father”
Ligon Duncan: Some of us have had good fathers—men of character who loved their wives and children, worked hard, provided for their family, and so on. Others didn’t have a great experience of fatherhood and have been left with a void in their heart because of an absence of something that they yearned for. But whatever our experience of fatherhood on earth, every Christian has a heavenly Father, who is quite matchless.
Jeffrey Weima: the Thessalonians are hereby reminded, already at the very beginning of the letter, that they face their trials not alone as pagans but as a community, people who have been brought into the family of God, their spiritual Father.
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- “and the Lord Jesus Christ”
Juxtaposing these two references is a strong argument for the deity of Christ.
III. SALUTATION
A. What Resources?
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- “Grace to you”
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- “ and peace”
Ligon Duncan: Everything that we need to live this Christian life is amply supplied to us. God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ supply everything that we need—grace (complete pardon) and peace (total well-being).
B. From Whom?
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- “from God the Father”
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- “and the Lord Jesus Christ”