2 Thessalonians 3:2

2 Thessalonians 3:2. That we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men. Ellicott says that ‘to find here [as Jowett does] a mere shrinking of the flesh on the part of the apostle from the dangers that awaited him, is to assign to the apostle a character that never belonged to him.' But when Paul himself expressly requests the Ephesians and Colossians to pray that he may have boldness; and when God, on the very occasion of which the apostle is now speaking, sees it needful to address him in the words, ‘Be not afraid, but speak and hold not thy peace; for I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee,' we need not scruple to ascribe to the apostle so much apprehension of danger as would prompt him to ask the Thessalonians to pray far his deliverance. The actual circumstances in which he was, and what the dangers were, and who the mischievous and wicked men were, will be learned from Acts 18; this Epistle having probably been written during the latter part of the residence in Corinth, which is there described. This verse gives us one of those ‘undesigned coincidences between the Epistles and the narrative of the Acts, which afford one of the strongest proofs of their genuineness.

For not all have faith. Wherever the Gospel is preached, it meets with such opposition as Paul speaks of, for not all accept it. It always sifts a community, and marks off a remnant, large or small, who do not believe, the perverse and wicked men.