2 Thessalonians: Waiting until Jesus comes back

We read all of 2 Thessalonians and track Paul’s call for perseverance when the church is under pressure. We also face the dangers of end-times confusion and hear a simple, grounding command: stand firm, live peacefully, and keep doing what’s right. 
• Paul’s encouragement to a persecuted church and God’s promise of justice 
• A warning not to be shaken by rumors about the Day of the Lord 
• The “man of lawlessness” and the reality of deception 
• Standing firm in the gospel and holding to trustworthy teaching 
• Prayer for protection and for the message to spread 
• A clear correction for idleness, meddling, and undisciplined living 
• A practical vision of peace, hard work, and endurance while we wait for Christ 

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Transcript

Why Paul Writes A Follow-Up

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Hey, this is the Out Loud Bible Podcast, and I am Mike, and we're going through Paul's second letter to the Thessalonians today. If you're with me the past couple episodes, you know we read through 1 Thessalonians, today's 2nd Thessalonians. We'll read the whole letter today. It's a follow-up letter addressing some of the issues that have come up in the meantime. We know from the last letter, the 1 Thessalonians, that Paul was addressing persecution and uh their resilience, their endurance, and that he's going to continue to encourage them in that vein. And also there seems to have been some, I don't know, some confusion regarding Paul's last bit of the first letter regarding the day of the Lord's return when Jesus comes back, that seems to have inspired some wrong ideas and some little bit off behaviors due to some misunderstanding there. So he's gonna respond to that situation here in this letter, the second letter to the Thessalonians. We'll read all of chapters one through three today in the New English Translation.

Perseverance Under Pressure And Justice

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From Paul and Silas and Timothy to the Church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace and peace to you from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We ought to thank God always for you, brothers and sisters, and rightly so, because your faith flourishes more and more, and the love of each one of you all for one another is ever greater. And as a result, we ourselves boast about you in the churches of God for your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and afflictions you're enduring. This is evidence of God's righteous judgment to make you worthy of the kingdom of God, for which in fact you are suffering. For it's right for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to you who are being afflicted, to give rest, together with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, with flaming fire, he will meet out punishment on those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will undergo the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his strength. And when it comes to be glorified among his saints and admired on that day among all who have believed, and you did, in fact, believe our testimony. And in this regard we pray for you always that our God will make you worthy of his calling and fulfill by his power your every desire for goodness and every work of faith, that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, regarding the arrival of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to be with him, we ask you, brothers and sisters, not to be easily

Day Of The Lord And Lawlessness

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shaken from your composure or disturbed by any kind of spirit or message or letter allegedly from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord is already here. Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not arrive until the rebellion comes and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction. He opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship. And as a result, he takes his seat in God's temple, displaying himself as God. Surely you recall that I used to tell you these things while I was still with you, and so you know what holds him back, so that he will be revealed in his own time. For the hidden power of lawlessness is already at work. However, the one who holds him back will do so until he's taken out of the way, and then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will destroy by the breath of his mouth and wipe out by the manifestation of his arrival. The arrival of the lawless one will be Satan's working with all kinds of miracles and signs and false wonders, and with every kind of evil deception directed against those who are perishing, because they found no place in their hearts for the truth so as to be saved. Consequently, God sends on them a deluding influence so that they will believe what's false. And so all of them who have not believed the truth, but have delighted in evil will be condemned. But we ought to thank God always for you, brothers and sisters loved by the Lord, because God chose you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth. He called you to this salvation through our gospel, so that you may possess the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. And therefore, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold on to the traditions that we taught you, whether by speech or by letter. And now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who loves us and by grace gave us eternal comfort and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good thing you do or say. Finally, pray for us, brothers and sisters, that the Lord's message may spread quickly and be honored, as in fact it was among you, and that we may be delivered from perverse and evil

Prayer, Protection, And A Work Ethic

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people. For not all have faith, but the Lord is faithful, and he'll strengthen you and protect you from the evil one, and we're confident about you in the Lord that you are both doing and will do what we're commanding. Now may the Lord direct your hearts toward the love of God and the endurance of Christ. But we command you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to keep away from any brother who lives an undisciplined life and not according to the tradition they received from us. For you yourselves know how you must imitate us, because we didn't behave without discipline among you. We didn't eat anyone's food without paying. Instead, in toil and drudgery we worked day and night in order not to burden any of you. It was not because we don't have that right, but to give ourselves as an example for you to imitate. For even when we were with you, we used to give you this command, if anyone is not willing to work, neither should he eat. For we hear that some among you are living an undisciplined life, not doing their own work, but meddling in the work of others. Now such people we command and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ to work quietly and so provide their own food to eat. But you, brothers and sisters, don't grow weary in doing what's right. But if anyone doesn't obey our message through this letter, take note of him, and do not associate closely with him so that he may be ashamed. Yeah, don't regard him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother. No. May the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way. The Lord be with you all. I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand, which is how I write in every letter. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. And that's it. Pretty short. We see a theme here in Paul's letter about standing firm. It's really our orders in the meantime. Meantime

Standing Firm With Peace And Purpose

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of what? Until Jesus comes back. Until he comes back, let's not fear about the end days. Uh, and let's not just take it as license to, I don't know, I don't need to take care of anything or take care of myself or do anything or move anything forward, because hey, when he comes back, it won't matter anyway. No, we we we stay busy, but we we we work hard, but we also live a life of peace. The there's a theme of peace here uh as well. And and Paul's prescription here for the believer, in between whatever we've gone through so far and what we have yet to expect with Jesus coming back, is hey, let's work hard to just live a peaceful life. Not work without rest, take rest in the Lord, but not so much rest that we end up trying to fill our time and energy with something else that's unproductive. It's a lot of work to stand firm, he says in in chapter two, verse 15. Therefore, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold on to the traditions that we taught you, whether by speech or by letter. There's a lot of effort that goes into standing firm, especially when the world around you is against you, especially when even there's issues among your brothers and sisters in the church. Let's stand firm to what we know. Yeah, that may sound very traditional, but but there's nothing wrong with that when what we're standing firm on, what we are the tradition that we're keeping is the gospel and and God's word. Ask Jesus to give you the strength to stand firm today. That's the Thinking Out Loud thought for the day. Thanks for joining me here in this reading of 2 Thessalonians. We'll see you next time on the Out Loud Bible Podcast.