1–2 Thessalonians. Nijay K. Gupta
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is he who has torn, and he will heal us; he has struck down, and he will bind us up. After two days he will revive us, on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him. Let us know, let us press on to know the Lord, his appealing is as sure as the dawn; he will come to us like the showers, like the spring rains that water the earth.
His appearing is a sure as the dawn. He will heal us. He will raise us up. Paul may have even been thinking about such verses when it came to the death of some beloved Thessalonians. Hope is walking in the light of the future dawn. Christian hope is anticipatory imagination. Christian hope is the capacity to actualize and embrace the power of God’s promised (and, thus, certain) future in the present through Jesus. Hope is less a wish and more a muscle that must be exercised (see Rom 5:3–5). And we exercise hope by enduring trust and hard work.
Thanksgiving and Joy
In light of the perilous ministry life that Paul endured, it is striking that his letters, not least 1 Thessalonians, are characterized by thanksgiving: he is thankful for his Thessalonians brothers and sisters who accepted the gospel with joy and faith (1:6; 2:13) and who show great resilience in affliction (1:2–3). Paul himself rejoiced in their life (2:19–20). They became a source of deep happiness for him (3:9). He passed on a ministry of thanksgiving to them as well (5:18).
Thanksgiving and joy require faith and hope. It is easy to wallow. It is convenient to complain. It is a discipline to release oneself from worldly comparison, from “keeping up with the Joneses,” and to learn to live a quiet life (4:11). Paul tells the Philippians, writing to them from prison, that he has learned how to be content; sometimes you have a little and sometimes you have more (Phil 4:11–12). He trained himself not to wager his joy on stuff so that he could always be thankful.
Love
I would be remiss not to include love (agapē) in the list of themes for 1 Thessalonians. This completes our discussion of the faith-hope-love triad, and it also represents well the emphasis Paul places on love as the deepest expression of true discipleship. Love, for Paul, is not mere sentimentality, nor a fleeting or occasional emotion. He basically commences the letter by reference to how love can inspire labor—we are most motivated to work hard on behalf of what we love (1:3). Reference to their steadfast love appears in 3:12. But I wish to focus on 4:9–10. Here Paul reminds them of how they should love one another like family (philadelphia—“sibling love”). David deSilva offers a nice, succinct illustration of what this kind of sibling love looks like: “Rather than insisting on having one’s own way at the cost of a brother or sister’s well-being, the loving sibling will forgo his or her rights in order to safeguard the well-being of the other.”64
At the end of 1 Thessalonians, Paul offers a few instructions to the Thessalonians, one of which especially captures his understanding of love—dedicate yourself to caring for the weak (5:14). In the competitive Greco-Roman world it only paid off to help those who can help you. Paul radically cuts through this quid pro quo mentality to focus on cruciform love, a kind of pure generosity that places an interest and care on the other. The Messiah would, of course, have served for Paul as the prime model (see Rom 15:3)—just as Matthew points to the fulfillment of Isa 53:4, “He took our weaknesses and carried our diseases” (Matt 8:17 NET). To care for the weak (1 Thess 5:14) is to live out the ministry of love demonstrated by Jesus.
2 Thessalonians: The Story Continues65
First and Second Thessalonians is not the only example of a set of texts written to the same church. We have two letters that Paul wrote to the Corinthians, for example. However, those Corinthian letters are quite different, dealing with a separate (though not unrelated) set of problems. The challenge we face with 2 Thessalonians, in relationship to 1 Thessalonians, is that these two letters are very similar. Also, we do not have further information (e.g., from Acts) to fill the modern reader in on what happened after 1 Thessalonians. Again, we are left to read 2 Thessalonians and try to guess how the story continued after the first letter. At the very least we can say confidently that things did not get better for the Thessalonians after Paul’s first letter; rather, they worsened.66 It appears that they are experiencing even more persecution. Furthermore, they appear to need teaching on how things will happen and turn out at the Lord’s impending intervention. David deSilva summarizes aptly the probable situation that gave rise to this second letter to the Thessalonians.
The believers had made some positive progress in the direction that 1 Thessalonians has urged them, as Paul affirms their growing mutual love and the steadfastness of their faith. Relationships with the community are sufficiently strong and have become sufficiently primary for most members that Paul believes the Christians can now use shaming and shunning within the group to reinforce certain believers (2 Thess 3:14–15). Nevertheless, the pressures from outside the group continue to demand Paul’s attention—he continues to encourage the Christians to resist that pressure.
A second issue revolves around a misunderstanding of Christian eschatology, thinking that “the Day of the Lord has arrived” (2 Thess 2:2). Indeed, it is possible that such a misunderstanding arose from the discussion of 1 Thess 5:1–11 and perhaps from some glossing of the copy or copies of that letter circulating among the other house churches in Thessalonica. Finally, the “idle” or “disorderly” (ataktoi) of 1 Thess 5:14 emerge here as a more evident problem requiring the believers’ direct intervention (2 Thess 3:6–15).67
Persecution
In the first letter, Paul takes the role of comforter and encourager to those Thessalonians who face opposition. In the second letter, Paul’s tone is more serious, and he emphasizes not only future relief for these beleaguered believers, but also inevitable judgment upon the persecutors.68
Eschatology
The second chapter of 2 Thessalonians appears to comprise the main teaching that Paul wanted to pass on. Apparently somehow the Thessalonians came to believe that the “Day of the Lord” arrived.
As to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we beg you, brothers and sisters, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as though from us, to the effect that the Day of the Lord is already here. (2 Thess 2:1–2)
Paul’s reference here to being taught (spirit/word/letter) about the arrival of the Day of the Lord appears to imply that some group was impressing this notion on them—further evidenced by his next warning that they be deceived by no one (2:3). Who would have taught them this is unclear.
Traditionally, scholars have assumed that Paul wrote 2 Thessalonians to correct a misunderstanding of his earlier instruction that the Day of the Lord will come suddenly (cf. 1 Thess 5:2). Here in 2 Thessalonians, according to this view, the Thessalonians “can relax because the apocalyptic signs that must precede the coming of that day have not yet occurred, namely, the apostasy, the appearance of the lawless one or son of perdition who is anti-God, and the activity of Satan with portended signs and wonders.”69 However, 2 Thessalonians does not offer a point-by-point timeline of eschatological events. There is a bigger concern at work in this text.
My own hunch is that the same Jews that persecuted the Thessalonians somehow convinced them that the “Day of the Lord” has dawned—not completely, but insofar as the traumatic events experienced in their community (e.g., deaths) are evidence of divine displeasure.70 Perhaps their message to the Thessalonian believers was this: We are beginning to see the wrath of God, repent and return to our community. It may not be too late. If this is the case, Paul’s letter carries the urgent task of re-establishing their identity in the community of Jesus and that the Thessalonians are safe and secure in Messiah Jesus alone.