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Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents
2:1-17 Refuting the False Claim about the Day of the Lord. Paul reassures the Thessalonians that the day of the Lord has not come. In 1 Thess. 5:1-11 Paul responded to a question from the community relating to the timing of the day of the Lord. He has now heard that they have succumbed to the false notion that the day of the Lord has already arrived (2 Thess. 2:1-2). Paul first points out that, before that day, a final rebellion and the revelation of the "man of lawlessness" must occur (vv. 3-12). Then he reassures the Thessalonians that they are destined for glory (vv. 13-14), and calls on them to hold firmly to the traditions he passed on to them (v. 15). He concludes with prayer (vv. 16-17).
2:1-2 The False Claim. The Thessalonians were alarmed by a false claim concerning the day of the Lord.
2:1 Paul discusses Christ's coming (Gk. parousia), his return in glory at the end of the age to save the elect and punish the wicked, and our being gathered together (Gk. episynagōgē) to him (see Matt. 24:31 with the related verb episynagō; cf. also 1 Thess. 4:16-17). The idea that the day of the Lord had already come (2 Thess. 2:2) may have made the Thessalonians fear that Jesus' coming and the gathering of his people to him were no longer legitimate or realistic expectations.
2:2 The Thessalonians were shaken into mindless panic and were alarmed or frightened by the false claim that the day of the Lord had already come. Though the source of the confusion was unknown to Paul, he suggests a number of possibilities: a spirit. An alleged prophetic word. a spoken word. A word of teaching or a sermon. a letter seeming to be from us. Paul seems to have suspected that a letter forged in his name was circulating (3:17). the day of the Lord. See notes on Amos 5:18-20; 1 Thess. 5:2-3. Although some believe that the Thessalonians were thinking in terms of a complex of events that would lead to the second coming, Paul seems to assume here, as elsewhere (1 Cor. 1:8; Phil. 1:10; 1 Thess. 5:1-4; 2 Thess. 1:7-10), that the arrival of the day of the Lord and the second coming occur at the same time, as aspects of a single event. has come. The Thessalonians have fallen victim to the implausible notion that the day of the Lord has come, presumably because some source they regard as authoritative has claimed this. There is no reason to think that the idea was part of a developed heresy.
