PAUL, AND SILVANUS, AND TIMOTHEUS. — The company which despatched the First Epistle is not yet broken up. This proves that the Second Epistle was written before the end of the second missionary journey, for after that time we do not read of Silvanus being in the company of St. Paul. The salutation i... [ Continue Reading ]
WE ARE BOUND TO THANK GOD ALWAYS FOR YOU, BRETHREN. — The thanksgiving is regarded as a positive _debt_ incurred, which it would be a dishonesty not to pay. BECAUSE. — This assigns the reason for saying that it was “meet,” and does not merely follow after “thank God:” in which case, the words “as i... [ Continue Reading ]
SO THAT WE OURSELVES. — Why was it less likely that St. Paul and his companions should thus glory in them than other friends did, or perhaps than the Thessalonians themselves? Possibly, because it seemed almost like self-praise to praise their own converts; but much more probably, because the writer... [ Continue Reading ]
WHICH IS... — In the fervid eloquence of the original these connecting words are omitted, and the clause added in a kind of apposition to the words “in all your persecutions;” the effect is the same as when we in English put a dash: “which ye endure — a manifest token,” &c. The indication of God’s r... [ Continue Reading ]
SEEING IT IS. — Literally, _if so be it is fair:_ a form very common in St. Paul, when he wishes to argue from some fact which he knows his readers will recognise (_e.g.,_ Romans 8:9). “Your persecution is a clear indication what God’s fair verdict will be — that He will pronounce you fit — unless i... [ Continue Reading ]
REST WITH US. — Why “with us”? It shows sympathy in their present trials, for it implies that the writers themselves had earned or were earning (see Acts 18:12) that rest by the like trials. The word “rest” (or _relaxation_) is the opposite of the “strain” at which the persecution kept them. Such “r... [ Continue Reading ]
IN FLAMING FIRE. — Most critics agree to change the punctuation here, by omitting the comma after “angels” and inserting it after “fire.” The flaming fire here is not the instrument of the vengeance — _i.e.,_ hell-fire — but the common pictorial attribute of the Divine Presence (Exodus 3:2; Exodus 1... [ Continue Reading ]
PUNISHED WITH EVERLASTING DESTRUCTION specifies the “vengeance” to be taken. But the word “destruction” does not stand absolutely and alone as a synonym for “annihilation.” This passage, in itself, gives us no reason to suppose that the lost will be “destroyed” in the ordinary sense of the word. The... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEN HE SHALL COME. — Not simply a repetition of the temporal date which was mentioned in 2 Thessalonians 1:7 — “when the Lord,” &c — but an introduction of the contrast which will be presented “in that day” by the spectacle of the glory of the saints. Thus the penalty of 2 Thessalonians 1:9 is made... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEREFORE. — Literally, _whereunto_ — _i.e.,_ to their being found among the blessed. The “also” serves to emphasise the “pray”: we do not content ourselves with merely hoping, but we direct actual prayer to that end. The word “whereunto” seems grammatically to depend upon the word “calling” — “of t... [ Continue Reading ]
THAT THE NAME... — This verse gathers up what has been said in 2 Thessalonians 1:8. Seeing the favours bestowed upon the Christians in the last day, all, the lost as well as the saved, will be forced to acknowledge the glory (_i.e._, the divine perfection) of the Jesus whose Christship had been reje... [ Continue Reading ]