Today I am introducing the second letter to the Thessalonians. This is a letter written to the Thessalonian church about a couple things. First off, this letter is short. It only has three chapters and it’s written to the church to give hope and to teach. There are three parts to this letter. The first part talks about the people of this church thinking that Christ had already come, the second part is an encouragement to stay strong in the persecution, and the third part talks about idleness.
PART 1
The Thessalonian church was struggling with something. There were people who were coming into the church and spreading lies. They would speak for Paul by bringing letters that they said Paul had written. The problem is that no one knew he didn’t write those letters. These false writings were basically explaining to the church that Christ had already come and they missed the cut. This was hard to hear because this church was constantly under stress and persecution. Their only hope was that one-day God would return and get them out of this persecution. Paul found out that about these false teachings people were told in his name and had to write this letter. He reminded them that the coming of Christ is a good thing and that the signs would be hard to miss. He spoke on the signs again and encouraged them to stop listening to these false teachings.
PART 2
Like I said in the first part, the Thessalonian Church was heavily persecuted. They needed encouragement to keep on this path because it was hard for them to keep choosing to be persecuted for Christ. Paul understood this from his own experience. He also encouraged them by letting them know that the other churches respected their church and that he talks about their church all the time to other people.
PART 3
The last part talks about idleness. Basically, since the church was being so heavily persecuted people stopped working. Some thought it was because Christ was going to come back really soon so they didn’t see the point. Paul writes to the church to let them know that idleness is wrong and that they should all be working to earn their keep. He reminds them that when he was visiting, he also had a job and worked to earn his keep so that they didn’t have to support him while he was there.
Those three parts explain the short letter to the Thessalonian church. It is a quick book to read but it has so many important points to learn. We can’t wait to dive into this book the next three days with you! Be on the lookout of 2 Thessalonians Chapter 1 tomorrow morning!