2 Thessalonians 1:1-4, 11-12

Verses 1-22 Thessalonians begins almost identically to 1 Thessalonians.[1] Both letters are co-sent from Paul, Silvanus (aka Silas), and Timothy, although Paul is primarily responsible for their content. While Timothy isn’t mentioned in Acts 17:1-9 as being present at the founding of the church, the way the account there is framed (see 16:1-4 and 17:13-15) suggests he was there with Paul and Silas as a co-founder of this church. Paul, then, worked as a part of a “ministry team” as he engaged in God’s mission rather than as simply a “lone ranger” preacher with no collegial support from others. Busy pastors—especially in small churches without other staff members—might take note and find creative ways to form such supportive collegial relationships with other pastors.

To describe a local church as being “in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” emphasizes that they have been brought into existence by divine grace in order to share in the life of “the God/Lord of peace” (1 Thess 5:23; 2 Thess 3:16). So Paul re-extends the grace and peace to the church that they/we have already experienced as coming “from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” Everything that follows presumes that God’s grace—God’s own personal presence in the person of the Holy Spirit—is prior to anything the church does or is asked to do, and that God’s peace/shalom is available to them even in their persecuted present. This isn’t simply some “inner peace of mind,” but rather the overall well-being toward which God is steering his creatures and all of creation. Its reality in the church stems from God’s graceful provision of saving justice (aka “righteousness”)[2] that restores and reconciles relationships between God and humans and between people at odds with each other. As beneficiaries of these divine gifts, all churches are called upon as Spirit-inhabited communities to be God’s channels of granting that same grace and shalom to others in Thessalonica, Tucson and Topeka—even in the face of persecution from those to whom they may offer these gifts (v. 4).

Verses 3-4 As is typical of most of Paul’s letters, after re-extending grace/peace to his audience, he offers thanks publicly for those hearing the letter read by his emissary in their local gathering. In my commentary, I translate the first two verses of that thanksgiving like this:

1:3 Brothers and sisters, as is only right, we ought to be thanking God always for you because your faithfulness is growing by leaps and bounds and the love of every one of you for each other is increasing. 1:4 So we are boasting about you in the churches of God, about your determined persistence and faithfulness in all your persecutions and trials.

1 Thessalonians 3 and its setting provide the most relevant background for these verses. There Paul mentions the pressures and persecutions that were continuing to afflict the Thessalonians. When those in the church turned to “the living and true God” and stopped engaging in the “commonsense” practice of giving loyalty to the gods and goddesses who were understood to guarantee the peace and security of their society (see 1 Thess 1:9), the trouble began. Others in Thessalonica most probably felt that this put their city in danger and tried to bring this troublesome group into line with social ostracism, verbal harassment, possible political sanctions, and perhaps even sporadic physical violence. No wonder that in 1 Thess 3 Paul is concerned about the Thessalonians’ fidelity to God and his ongoing redemptive project, i.e., to the missio Dei. Suffering is an inevitable byproduct of giving ultimate loyalty to God and participating in God’s project of reconciliation and redemption in a world bent toward idolatry and injustice. In other words, faithfulness to God and God’s mission is costly—whether in first century Thessalonica or twenty-first century Tallahassee. For a local church not only to announce, but actually become an embodiment of, God’s grace and peace is indeed to demonstrate fidelity/faithfulness to God and to his mission. Their growing fidelity to God and God’s mission offers Paul an opportunity to let this beleaguered church know that he is boasting about their determined persistence (hypomonēs) in the face of the troubles they are experiencing, especially since, as he notes later in Romans, such determined persistence (hypomonēn) in the face of tribulation produces character (Rom 5:3-4).

But now this growing faithfulness and determined persistence (v. 4) have likely led to increased suffering. The ability to bear up under it is undergirded by the increase of loving actions of every single member of the congregation toward every other member. Such love is a unifying force in the midst of their tribulations. But really Paul? Every single member is concretely increasing in loving actions for the sake of every other member?? Granted, Paul’s language here sounds “over the top” to most of us acquainted with typical local churches.

But what Paul does here in publicly commending a church for their increased acts of love one for the other is something that a pastor ought to consider doing whenever she/he can point to specific acts of love within the congregation. Paul even says that he is obliged to do this since it is at least a partial answer to his earlier prayer in 1 Thess 3:11-13 where he had prayed that their love for each other and for all would increase. Check out this site https://pacificdreamscapes.com. Paul doesn’t hesitate to thank God and publicly commend his congregation when he sees that his prayers are being answered and their communal life is characterized by increasing faithfulness to God/God’s mission and self-giving actions toward each other, i.e., when the character of Lord Jesus is being recognizably formed in them. Nor should we. In fact, we should help our congregation recognize that this is evidence that the faithful God is at work among us, continuing our sanctification which will culminate at the Lord’s royal coming which Paul goes on to speak about in the remainder of this chapter.

Verses 11-12 Predictably, the Lectionary avoids vv. 5-10. But what Paul has just referred to in these difficult verses is precisely the consummation of God’s kingdom (see esp. the language of the Thessalonians being made worthy of the kingdom of God in v. 5). We learn from 1 Thess 2:12 that God is presently calling the Thessalonians (and the rest of us) into God’s own kingdom and honor/glory (doxa). Here in 2 Thess 1:12, Paul expresses the specific purpose of God’s making the church “worthy of [that] calling” and of his bringing their desire and work to completion: “So in that way the name of our Lord Jesus will be honored/glorified (endoxasthē) by your life together and you yourselves honored in him.” When the pattern of their (and our) communal and personal lives bring observable honor/glory to the name of the Lord, they (and we) will become the means by which the name of the Lord is publicly “hallowed/sanctified” (cf. Matt 6:9; Luke 11:2; Ezek 36:23), both now and at the consummation of the kingdom. Paul’s prayer here, then, is related to his earlier prayers in 1 Thess 3:11-13 and 5:23-24 in that all these prayers are aimed at imploring God to enable the Thessalonians (and us) to become the sanctified community of persons blameless in holiness that God wills us to be. [1] The detailed exegetical basis for the following comments along missional lines can be found in my recently released 1 & 2 Thessalonians, Two Horizons NT Commentary (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2016), pp. 162-79. [2] Cf. Isa 32:17: “The effect of righteousness will be peace.”