Final Greetings… and Questions

Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way. The Lord be with all of you.

I, Paul, write this greeting in my own hand, which is the distinguishing mark in all my letters. This is how I write.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.

2Thessalonians 3:16-18

As was customary, Paul wraps up the second letter to the Thessalonian church with final greetings. In this case, there is a final hope/prayer in verse 16, authentication in verse 17, and a closing in verse 18.

First, Paul expresses his wish that God will grant to his recipients peace in the midst of their persecution. If you think about it, peace is almost the opposite of what they are going through at this time, and this wish expressed by Paul reminds us that even in the most difficult of times, we can be at peace in Christ, for we may realize that in Him we not only have all that we need, but the hope of a greater and more wonderful future that will set us at peace even now as we live through the strife and trials of this world.

The next verse is the authentication. Those who claim that the letter was written after Paul’s death would suggest that either (a) this was done to enhance the chances people would accept the fraud, and (b) that it was a grave error because Paul didn’t authenticate his letters in this way. To my mind, both of these are absurd because if Paul didn’t normally do this, it is likely to stand out and bring questions upon the letter, thus defeating the supposed purpose. Yet the fact remains that Paul did authenticate several of his letters by writing in his own hand at the end. (1 Cor. 16:21; Col. 4:18; Gal. 6:11; Phlm. 19) It would be fair to ask why he chose to do it here however, and to answer that question, I would suggest that we consider the fact that one of his reasons for writing was to correct the false teaching, outright lie actually, that Jesus had already returned but had left the Thessalonians on their own in persecution.

He made much in this letter of following his teachings and instructions, and rejecting contrary teaching from others, and thus it makes perfect sense that he would want to add his own hand to the letter to validate that this is his own teaching, much as he did in Galatians where he was contradicting the teachings of those who claimed that a Gentile must first become a Jew.

Finally, Paul concludes with a statement that the grace of our Lord is with his recipients. This is one of those sentences that we often race past, and assume it is a wish that the grace will be (one day) with us because of the word “be” instead of the word “is”. This happens sometimes when Greek is translated into English, but notice that the word “will” does not precede “be” (will be). Bearing in mind that “be” and “is” are conjugations of the same verb with “will be” being future tense and “is” being present tense, we assume therefore that this indicated the future. To be very precise, this sentence actually means that the grace of our Lord is with you, and will continue to be with you, which is a wonderful meaning for all of us.

On that wonderful note, our little adventure through Paul’s letters to the Thessalonians draws to a close.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.

 

Paul Gives Instruction

2Thessalonians 3:6-13

In these verses Paul pulls no punches as he gives instruction to the Thessalonians regarding Christians who are idle. A common view of this text is that people within the church became idle because they believed that the Lord would return immediately and quit working to support themselves and their families. Actually, this is the way I was taught to understand this, but upon closer investigation, it seems unlikely.

Paul wrote about Jesus’ return in chapter 2. He writes about idleness here in chapter 3; why didn’t he link them together directly? What he actually did was to separate them, to place a bridge of transition in between and then raise a new subject, keeping these two points apart. If he wanted to tell people that Jesus wasn’t coming back any time soon (which he did NOT tell them) then it would have been a great deal more effective for him to have told them to get back to work in chapter 2. If you combine that with the fact that he wasn’t telling them that Jesus would return in a long time, he was writing to tell them He hadn’t come back yet; the notion of eschatology being the reason for the idleness seems very unlikely indeed.

A more likely approach to this text is that some had stopped working because the believing community of the first century was so generous with each other that they just didn’t feel it was necessary to work; thus they were taking advantage of the generosity of others, placing an added burden on the ones who had to provide for them, which is no way to present the gospel to the larger community. Paul’s point here is that they must not allow this kind of behavior in the church.

Paul’s seriousness is evident right off the bat as he “commands” in the Lord’s name that this must stop. (v. 6) In 7-9, Paul reminds everyone that when he was with them, he worked every day to pay for his own food, and that he did so as an example to be followed by all.

 For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: “The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat.” (3:10)

This verse makes a very clear point that one who is unwilling to work isn’t to be helped in the church. The New Testament writers, including Paul are very clear that the ones who are unable to work are to receive help of all kinds, and those who are in a temporary bad way are to be helped, but those who just want to be lazy are to be permitted to reap the harvest they have sown for their own edification.

Verses 11-12 go on to mention that at least some of these idlers were using their leisure to insert themselves into the business of others, and of course that also must stop.

In the centuries that have passed, some have taken this as teaching for non-church governmental bodies and outside social policy, and this view misses the point of Paul’s message entirely. First, Paul is speaking of life within the church, not in the outside community. In the first century, there were some provisions made for the poor and destitute, although nothing like we have today in most places; Paul did not mention this or comment upon it at all. His instruction here is within the strict confines of church discipline and the way believers should behave.

Bonus Post: Authorship of 2 Thessalonians

Throughout the centuries, there has been some discussion about whether or not Paul really wrote 2 Thessalonians. While this discussion has been primarily in the scholarly sphere, in recent years it has grown in intensity with many coming to the conclusion that the letter was written by another person after Paul’s death; some have even suggested that it was written to an entirely different church. Most of the time, I leave these discussions to others, but in this instance, I thought you might find it interesting to take a look…

Most often, challenges to Pauline authorship fall into four main areas. First, some argue on the grounds that Paul seems to some to have changed his view of eschatology. Adherents to this view claim that in the first letter, Paul expressed the immediate likelihood of the Lord’s return, and in the second letter that he placed a series on things in the way that must happen before Jesus can return, claiming also that these signs have not yet been accomplished even in our time.

Second, some have argued that the tone of the second letter is much more cool and formal than the first letter, which expressed great personal warmth between Paul and his recipients.

Third, some have asserted that Paul wrote the first letter to a largely Gentile audience, while the second letter appears to be written to a Jewish audience, because of references it contains that only someone with a Jewish background could have understood. Once again, these are eschatological in nature, and found in 2:2-14, with the “Temple of God” being at the fore.

A final observation from some is that Paul’s sentence structure in 2:2-14 is more complex, with a more frequent use of the genitive and subordination of conjunctions, which is not found in other Pauline writing.

As I write this, I hope you will understand that I am only giving a brief and basic synopsis of the positions on both sides of the ‘debate’ that scholars would be making here, but then I’m writing a humble blog post and not a piece for an academic journal. I am trying to lay it out simply here in a way that anyone can follow, and would suggest a more academically minded person seek out further information if interested.

The argument for Pauline authorship usually relies on a couple of relatively simple facts: First, not only did the eschatology not change, but Paul isn’t writing this to be an eschatological statement, for his purpose in writing the second letter is to address a specific problem, namely that the Thessalonians have been misinformed in an attempt to deceive them, and he wished to prove Jesus had not yet returned. Secondly, in both his first mention of the Lord’s return in 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11, and in 2 Thessalonians 2, the Lord is portrayed as able to return at any time, for as we saw when we carefully looked at the text, there is nothing to indicate a series of future events or signs that precede His return, but instead the second letter portrays a present reality, not a future series of signs.

As to the second point, the tone of the letter is different from that of the first, but so is the occasion of the second letter. Paul’s first letter was written to them to express his deep personal concern for them and to encourage them, the second letter was written to address a specific problem that had come up. .. and to encourage them. Obviously, these 2 letters would have a different tone!

The third point seems dubious at best that the two letters are written to different audiences. Again, in our discussion of 2 Thessalonians 2, we saw what role his reference to the Temple of God was, and that it wasn’t a literal prediction, but rather that it carried a much larger and more important purpose. If it did refer to the literal Jerusalem Temple, and it was written several years after Paul’s death, then it would have already been destroyed, making the likelihood of another author passing it off as terribly unlikely.

As to the sentence structure in 2 Thessalonians being different than other of Paul’s writings, I must point out that Paul’s writing style wasn’t all that consistent, and that there are other cases where Paul wrote in a way that is unique in his writings. We need search no further than Romans for such an instance, a book that is universally accepted as being written by Paul. He uses a rhetorical question frequently in Romans: “What shall we say then?” (3:5; 4:1; 6:1; 7:7; 8:31; 9:14, 30) where else does he do this in his writings? As for me, I think this concern for style is seriously over-stated.

At the end of the day, good scholarship requires asking many questions and investigating many working theories, and to be clear, this is as it should be. I would certainly invite anyone who wants more information or study on this subject to dig deeper; by all means arrive at your own conclusion. As for me, I always ask myself if the search is worth it; no really, that’s what I ask myself. You see, we can research and dig and compose brilliant theological pieces about our investigation, and we can try to prove many things, but if we aren’t making disciples in the process, we aren’t doing the thing the Lord asked us to do; it’s as if we’ve gone down a trail that’s off the main road where Jesus is walking, and when all the dust settles, I’d rather be at His side on the main trail, than lost in the woods somewhere along the way.

Let Us Pray

As for other matters, brothers and sisters, pray for us that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly and be honored, just as it was with you. And pray that we may be delivered from wicked and evil people, for not everyone has faith. But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen you and protect you from the evil one. We have confidence in the Lord that you are doing and will continue to do the things we command. May the Lord direct your hearts into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance.

2 Thessalonians 3:1-5

Paul signals a transition from the discussion of chapter 2 into a new discussion that takes the form of a final exhortation and instructions that is so typical of his writings. He begins asking for prayer that the message of the gospel would spread rapidly and take hold quickly as it did in Thessalonica. It is interesting once again to note the priority of placement for this part of the prayer: First, God’s will is the first priority of the prayer that the Gospel would spread.

Verse 2 is part of the same sentence as verse 1 in the Greek, and asks for prayer for his safety, for he is also being opposed harshly. I mention the continuation of the sentence, because it makes more clear the fact that Paul isn’t just asking for an easy ride, he is asking them to pray that he is able to continue spreading the Gospel, thus doing God’s will.

Not everyone has faith, and so some actively oppose the message, but God is faithful. This provides clear insight into the contrast between the faithlessness of men and the faithfulness of God and brings the strong insinuation that we can depend upon God to always be faithful. This is a reminder of Paul’s reason for writing, which is to encourage the brethren to hang onto their faith.  Thus, the Lord can be counted on to provide us the resources we need to persevere and will protect us from the evil one. This should not be understood to mean that we will always have clean sailing, that the evil one will never bother us. Instead it recognizes the reason for the evil one’s interest in harming us, that we might be separated from the love of God and lose all that we have in Christ, and this is what God will protect us from if we remain steadfast.

The end of this paragraph expresses Paul’s confidence that they will hold on, that they will continue to do what is right in God’s eyes and that they will continue to take his instruction to heart, for they are about to receive some more instruction!

God is our Refuge

I think we all have times when it seems that our world has been turned topsy-turvy.  I think we all have times when we aren’t quite sure which way to go or how best to proceed…

We might cry out to God and wonder where He has gone or why He is letting things be so crazy, but then we remember that God hasn’t left our side even for a minute. He is always there for us to lean on, for us to draw strength and courage from… and then we look directly at Him and things become more clear.

God is our refuge and strength, 
    an ever-present help in trouble. 
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way 
    and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, 
 though its waters roar and foam 
    and the mountains quake with their surging. 

Psalm 46:1-3

Take heart, for God is near!  Even though we can’t always quite figure things out, we can have the courage to get back on the road and move forward because He renews our strength.  Even though we may not know exactly the best thing to do at any moment, we can be strong in the knowledge that we are not going alone.

Random Ramblings: August 19, 2017

This past week, there has been so much I’ve wanted to write about that my brain has gone on some kind of a sensory overload, and I haven’t been quite able to write about any of it. Oh I’ve tried, I lost count of how many drafts I’ve deleted about the Charlottesville business, and then Barcelona came to the fore. I’ve tried to write about Mr. Trump and then my head explodes…

Maybe it’s because I’m trying to get settled into a new house. Maybe it’s because I’ve been ill. Maybe I’m just losing my mind, or I’m out of practice; I don’t know, but I haven’t gotten anything written that I’ve wanted to write about.

I can tell you that after I gave the flooring guy a deadline for completion of our floor, he got his act together and finished on time a week ago Wednesday. We moved last Saturday, but not before I had a rip-roaring case of bronchitis; oh what fun. Unfortunately for me, I haven’t been able to shake it yet; even more fun.

None of that is very important however.

What I would like to share that is important is a few thoughts about hatred.

It seems that whenever you turn on the news, hatred is evident, and it has been for quite some time. Of course there is the hatred shown to Mr. Trump by so many of his opponents. Then there is the overt hatred shown by certain news outlets for Mr. Trump, not to mention the contempt shown by Mr. Trump to his opponents and the news outlets in his public statements and tweets. It makes me wonder where all of the adults have gone!

Yet as irritating as all of that is becoming, there is a more urgent form of hatred out there that seems to be growing each and every day, not just in the US, but all over the world. We’ve seen it in the UK, in the US and most recently in Spain. It is sometimes shown by Islamic extremists as in Spain, and sometimes by other extremists, as in Charlottesville; it is overt, obvious, violent and frankly, disgusting. It is a type of hatred that simply cannot be tolerated or excused for it is an expression of pure evil.

But you don’t need me to tell you that.

What concerns me most these days is how we respond to this kind of hate.

Jesus was faced with hatred from certain elements within the Jewish leadership of His day; how did He respond to the Pharisees and the chief priests and teachers of the law when they set about to murder Him for speaking the truth?

It would be easy for us to say that He condemned them, and it would be a true statement. It would also be easy for us to say that He responded in love, for that would also be true. The hard part for us, is putting the two together in our responses to the pure hatred all around us.

Over this past week, I’ve heard quite a few commentators on the news speaking out against hate groups; they’ve done a good job in expressing condemnation, but they’ve by and large oozed their own hatred. I’ve even seen some of that right here on WordPress.

Maybe you’re wondering why I bring this up now…

Scripture teaches us that our enemies are not flesh and blood, but rather they are the spiritual forces of Evil at work in this world, i.e. Satan and friends. Evil is a tricky thing, a snare really, for we fall into its trap when we allow ourselves to hate others because of their hatred for us, and that applies both to Islamic terrorists, or white supremacist terrorists… or anyone else for that matter: Hatred in response to hatred is in itself evil and in opposition to our Faith in Jesus Christ.

That is easy to say, but difficult to practice, don’t you agree?

Maybe that is why I deleted so many drafts in recent days, because I was crossing the very line I’m talking about.

Jesus taught us to pray for our enemies: OK fine, I’m praying for my enemies, for the very ones who have hurt and maimed innocents to make some kind of statement for their evil causes… but I’m doing it through clenched teeth. Somehow I don’t think that’s what He had in mind.

Oh Lord, show us how to pray…please!

Gee, I guess He’s answered that one, hasn’t He?

Pause and Regroup

Now that we have completed 2Thessalonians 2, I thought it might be a good idea for us to sit back, relax and consider what we have discovered there. Oh yes, dear reader, we have made a major discovery in this chapter, and if you haven’t seen it before, I would recommend that you pause and let it sink in, for we have discovered a portal through which we can get a rare glimpse of what is really going on all around us, every hour of every day. We can see that there is much more to this life than the things that we can see, touch, feel, taste and smell. We can also begin to understand the very forces behind human history in this rare glimpse into eternity.

Am I overstating my case here? No, not a chance!

Most of the time, readers of this chapter miss this opportunity, for most teachers these days pull the text out of its actual context to use it as supporting material for one or another eschatological doctrine. Now this may seem natural enough to many, but Paul wasn’t writing about the end of time here, he was writing about all time, and when we come to that realization, so many things become clear. It is almost as if a veil has been removed so that we can see clearly. That is why I was so painstaking in the way I covered these 12 verses.

We began with a little theory:

Jesus Messiah came, and Satan opposed Him with everything at his disposal, and finally was able to have Him killed, and in so doing, Old Satan stepped right into a trap. I would imagine that round about the time of the resurrection, or at the latest at Pentecost, he recognized that Christ’s Kingdom, indwelt by the Holy Spirit spreading across the planet was his worst nightmare, and thus almost immediately, he launched an all out frontal attack against it. He used everything he could muster to try and destroy the fledgling Kingdom, concentrating his strength in the power and might of the Romans. Those good brothers and sisters of ours in Thessalonica found themselves under attack on the front lines of this assault, as did others in various places over the next one or two hundred years.

God, thinking for the long term, did not directly intervene to take away the attack, remember that His most notable attribute is restraint, not the unlimited exercise of His awesome power. Instead, God provided those people the spiritual resources that would be necessary for them to not only survive this attack, but to actually grow and prosper spiritually while it continued, for the time had not yet come for Jesus to return. The more Satan tried to destroy the church, the more it grew, and eventually, Satan was forced to change his tactics. Even though the battle rages on, the result of God’s strategy is that literally billions more people became part of God’s Kingdom, including you and me.

If you read through the posts on this section, you saw that this working theory was borne out. Now that we have finished the section, we can add a few details.

The “man of lawlessness” is not someone who will come to the scene one day, for he is Satan, who has been working in opposition to God and His purposes since the very beginning, was doing so when Paul wrote the letters to the Thessalonians, and is still hard at work today. As he does so, God restrains him, and he can only go so far. God’s purpose will be done in full when God sees fit to complete it and Jesus returns, and Satan will not be allowed to keep God from accomplishing this. We do not know when that will be, but based upon what Paul has told us in 2Thessalonians 2:1-12, it could be at any time.

Satan uses multiple tactics in his fight against God. In the time of the Thessalonians, he was using a direct tactic, persecution. If you were paying close attention, you will have also noticed that Satan used an indirect method, when person or persons unknown attempted to deceive the Thessalonica Christians into thinking that Jesus had already returned. If the Thessalonica believers had allowed themselves to believe this, there would have been little point in their remaining faithful to the Lord, but to God’s glory, they did not falter.

Does Satan engage in other deceptions? Well, you know the answer to that; he was a liar from the beginning and the father of lies. We see them everywhere around us in every area of life, and each has as its object the frustration of God’s purpose of redemption and the ruin of those who accept the lie. Joseph Goebbels reportedly said that people will always believe the lie and the bigger the lie, the more readily it is believed. Since he was Hitler’s propaganda minister, I guess he must have known what he was talking about.

The Thessalonians must have wondered why God didn’t just put an end to their persecution; why Jesus didn’t just come back. We today might wonder the same thing: “Why doesn’t Jesus just return today?”

I can’t answer that question, for I don’t know. I do know this however: If Jesus had come back in the days of Paul and the Thessalonians, you and I would never have had the opportunity to share in the inheritance of our Lord.

Well dear reader, that’s probably enough for now; suffice it say that I could go on and on with this subject. Think on these things, then have a look around you, and think some more. You might be surprised how much you see.