2 Thessalonians

Chapter 1 reads the persecution in the light of the judgment to come. The church’s patience under it “is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God” (1:5), because God will settle the account at one moment, “when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels” (1:7). Then he repays in kind: tribulation to those who trouble, rest to the troubled. The punishment is “everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord” (1:9); the reward is to be glorified in him (1:12) when he comes “to be glorified in his saints” (1:10). Theodoret: Therefore God is said to be just, when, coming as the enforcer of the law, there is reward for us who have suffered for the faith and punishment for the godlessness of our persecutors.

The day of Christ “shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition” (2:3). Paul does not name what holds him back; he had told them in person: “ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time” (2:5–6). Christians have read it differently. Tertullian asked, What obstacle is there but the Roman state, and Chrysostom wrote, Some indeed say, the grace of the Spirit, but others the Roman empire, to whom I most of all accede. Severian of Gabala held the first view: That which restrains and prevents the coming of the lawless one is the Holy Spirit. Both readings start from what the text does say: “the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way” (2:7).

The coming of the man of sin is “with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved” (2:10). Then: “for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie” (2:11). The cause comes first. Those who would not love the truth, and “had pleasure in unrighteousness” (2:12), are given over to a lie, as God gave over those who “did not like to retain God in their knowledge” to “a reprobate mind” (Romans 1:28). Augustine: this sin is also punishment for preceding sin. The church is the contrast, chosen “to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth” (2:13), and told to “stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle” (2:15).

Some in the church walk “disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies” (3:11). Paul answers with an example before a rule. The apostles “wrought with labour and travail night and day” (3:8), “not because we have not power, but to make ourselves an ensample unto you to follow us” (3:9). The rule had been given in person: “if any would not work, neither should he eat” (3:10). So the brother who will not work walks “not after the tradition which he received of us” (3:6): what the apostles handed on included how a Christian eats his bread. The church is to have no company with him, “that he may be ashamed,” and the limit is set in the same breath: “count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother” (3:14–15).