What Is Distinct about the Theology of 2 Thessalonians?
This article is part of the Distinctive Theology series.
Similar Themes
Casual Bible readers may not realize just how tight a connection runs between 1 and 2 Thessalonians. Other numbered “sets” of New Testament letters exhibit distinct differences. We typically treat 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians separately; 1 Timothy and 2 Timothy carry quite different tones; 1 Peter and 2 Peter can be strikingly diverse; and, along with several similarities, 1 John and 2 John and 3 John are at the least addressed to different readers. Yet the two Thessalonian letters are customarily treated together.
This is an indication of how closely the two letters track—sent from the same team of authors to the same readers, not many months apart. We can get a good handle on the themes and theology of 2 Thessalonians by reviewing the themes and theology of 1 Thessalonians. (It’s one indication of the closeness of the two letters that some scholars think them suspiciously similar. The two are so alike that 2 Thessalonians is occasionally accused of being a copycat homage.)
In this vein, 2 Thessalonians continues the emphases found in 1 Thessalonians. Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy write to a freshly planted church and rehearse the stages of the Christian journey. God is praised for having called the Thessalonians to faith (e.g. 2 Thess. 2:13–14). They are to persevere in faith and love as they wait for final vindication, when God judges those who are troubling them (e.g. 2 Thess. 1:5–10; 2:8–12). In the meantime, the new believers are to keep living according to the apostles’ instructions and modeling, especially in maintaining a lifestyle that is non-disruptive and self-sufficient (2 Thess. 3:4, 6–12).
To Walk and to Please God
Andrew Malone
To Walk and to Please God explores 1 and 2 Thessalonians and expounds on its predominant themes to provide readers with a positive example of what Christians should believe and how they should behave.
Additional Emphases of 2 Thessalonians
When the two letters are so similar, we’re given the chance to see what’s emphasized differently between them. If we assume that 2 Thessalonians was written after 1 Thessalonians, we can ask what the congregation needs to hear—or to hear again—the second time around.
Both letters praise God for the fruit born from the Thessalonians’ faith, love, and hope (1 Thess. 1:2–3; 2 Thess. 1:3–4). The second letter spells out even more clearly how far the apostles expect this fruit to develop. They pray “that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power” (2 Thess. 1:11). We see that (1) God has called and sanctified the believers, (2) through God’s empowerment the Thessalonians are to keep living in a manner that respects and reflects their new holy status, and (3) the apostles are so confident in such fruitfulness that God can “rubber stamp” the believers’ every resolve and every work. Much the same prayer is repeated later:
Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word. (2 Thess. 2:16–17)
In passing, we must note that this is another example of Thessalonian prayers addressed to Jesus as much as to God (cf. 1 Thess. 3:11–13; 2 Thess. 3:5, 16). The longer prayer just quoted in full names the Son before the Father, and some of the other prayers are addressed to the Lord Jesus alone. The Thessalonian letters—and 2 Thessalonians in particular—add substantially to the list of biblical prayers addressed to God the Son. Simplistic searching often turns up only a very small number of such prayers (Acts 7:59–60; Rev. 22:20; likely also Acts 1:24–25; 1 Cor. 16:22), leading theologians and prayer manuals to insist that biblical prayers are all but exclusively addressed to God the Father. We are indebted to 2 Thessalonians for redressing this balance.
This letter is also infamous for its unique mention of a “rebellion” and “the man of lawlessness” that must precede Jesus’s second coming (2 Thess. 2:1–12). Such details fascinate end-times watchers, especially because 2 Thessalonians confirms that these must occur before Jesus’s return and that such precursors should be noticeable. Some of the details are clear enough and future enough that they need not cause consternation. For example, this protégé of Satan will be summarily dealt with by the Lord Jesus. But there are enough other elements—a mystery of lawlessness, and someone/something that temporarily restrains it—that enthusiasts can attempt to mingle these with other speculative events and timelines concerning the alleged Last Days. The apostles defend the paucity of information here, with Paul confirming that these written comments are but brief reminders of the fuller details that had previously been furnished in person (2 Thess. 2:5).
A Useful Jigsaw Piece
In all these ways, we must admit that 2 Thessalonians can feel incomplete when read in isolation. It’s very clearly one episode within a broader series, one chapter in a written saga. We best read the letter with additional insights from 1 Thessalonians and other letters associated with Paul (and it’s then this interdependence on other parts of the Bible that can fuel less reliable speculations).
Phrased more positively, 2 Thessalonians contributes to the picture of Scripture like a smaller piece in a wider jigsaw puzzle. It connects with and supports the pieces around it, adding one or two splashes of unique detail. It fleshes out the apostles’ call “to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands” and their concerns with the “idle and disruptive” (1 Thess. 4:11–12; 5:14 NIV), giving clearer descriptions of the problematic minority and providing instructions for how the obedient members of the congregation might respond and rehabilitate them (2 Thess. 3:6–15). We are given additional insights into Jesus’s return and God’s judgment of unbelievers. We read further of the opposition to believers that’s presented by Satan and his supporters. And we are stretched to ponder God’s role in actively sending “a strong delusion” to reinforce the intransigence of those who “refused to love the truth and so be saved” (2 Thess. 2:9–12).
As much as any other positive letter in the New Testament, we glimpse a snapshot of a church that is largely getting it right: glorifying the Lord Jesus in their every good work and word. It offers us teaching and models of how we too might persistently walk in ways that please God. It helps prepare us for the day when the Lord Jesus returns “to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at among all who have believed” (2 Thess. 1:10).
Andrew Malone is the author of To Walk and to Please God: A Theology of 1 and 2 Thessalonians.
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