Greeting
2 Thessalonians 1:1-2
Thanksgiving for the Thessalonian Believers
2 Thessalonians 1:3-4
The Judgment at Christ’s Coming
2 Thessalonians 1:5-12
OPEN QUESTIONS:
What did your parents do right in raising you? What rewards and punishments worked best?
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2 Thessalonians 1
1Paul, Silas and Timothy,
To the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:
2Grace and peace to you from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Thanksgiving and Prayer
3We ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love all of you have for one another is increasing. 4Therefore, among God’s churches we boast about your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and trials you are enduring.
5All this is evidence that God’s judgment is right, and as a result you will be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are suffering. 6God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you 7and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. 8He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might 10on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed. This includes you, because you believed our testimony to you.
11With this in mind, we constantly pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may bring to fruition your every desire for goodness and your every deed prompted by faith. 12We pray this so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
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OUTLINE
2 THESSALONIANS 1
Paul opens his second letter to the Thessalonians by praising them for faith in Christ and for their love for one another. He encourages them, saying that the persecution they are enduring will prepare them for the Kingdom.
I. Paul’s Praise of the Church at Thessalonica (1:1–4)
A. The church’s testimony (1:1–3)
1. Their faith in the Savior has grown more and more (1:1–3a).
2. Their love for the saints has grown more and more (1:3b).
B. The church’s trials (1:4): They have grown spiritually in spite of troubles and trials.
II. Paul’s Promise to the Church at Thessalonica (1:5–10): The apostle says their trials will be used to accomplish a twofold purpose.
A. What (1:5–6)
1. Concerning the persecuted (1:5): Their hardships will be used to prepare believers for the Kingdom of God.
2. Concerning the persecutors (1:6): God is already preparing judgment and punishment for those who harm believers.
B. When (1:7–10): Both purposes will be accomplished at Christ’s second coming.
III. Paul’s Prayer for the Church at Thessalonica (1:11–12)
A. Concerning God’s power (1:11a): That it might strengthen them.
B. Concerning God’s purpose (1:11b): That it might be fulfilled in them.
C. Concerning God’s person (1:12): That he might be glorified by them.
DIGGING QUESTIONS:
What has happened since Paul wrote 1 Thessalonians (2 Thessalonians 1:4)? How has persecution affected this church?
What is the evidence that they are "worthy" of God's kingdom (2 Thessalonians 1:5)?
Who is on trial here? Who is on the witness stand? In the judge's chambers?
Why is God waiting until the Second Coming to punish these persecutors? Who benefits from this delayed justice? How so?
What quality do you think Paul admires most in these Christians?
What do you see as the net effect of Paul's thanksgiving and prayer?
REFLECTION & ACTION QUESTIONS:
How will you exercise faith and love this week in a specific way or relationship?
Which of your current struggles are a result of being a Christian?
How do you feel about the punishment mentioned in verses 8-9? How might you feel if you were being severely oppressed?
Pray Paul's prayer (2 Thessalonians 1:11-12) in your own words for one another this week.
Devotional
How to be Saved – 2 Thessalonians 1:8 “In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
The main point to the above verse is the punishment God will give those who trouble the saints of God. But a close examination of this verse will reveal the way to be saved. Notice first that the vengeance of God will be taken on two groups of people: ‘them that know not God and that obey not the gospel’. Examining those two groups, we can see here how we may avoid the “everlasting destruction” (2 Thessalonians 1:9) that our heavenly Father will bring upon the disobedient.
First, we see that one group of people who will be punished is those who know not God. In order, therefore, to avoid the vengeance of God, we must know God. How do we learn about God so that we may know Him? Our answer comes from Romans 10:13-17, hearing the word of God. Without hearing the word of God, we cannot believe in God nor know Him. If we then know Him, we will be able to avoid His vengeance and be able to enjoy eternity in heaven.
Secondly, to avoid the ‘everlasting destruction’ of the Lord, we must obey the gospel. Jesus taught that, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel” (Mark 1:15). That which concerns the kingdom of God is what makes up the gospel of Christ. We can find in the scriptures that Jesus is the head of the kingdom/body/church (Colossians 1:18), salvation is in Christ (Ephesians 3:6), and all spiritual blessings are in Christ (Ephesians 1:3). The gospel is the “good news” of salvation in Jesus Christ.
It should really come as no surprise that 2 Thessalonians 1:8, with the same words, shows both what will condemn a person and what will save their soul. If not knowing God and not obeying the gospel will bring the vengeance of God upon us, then it must also be true that knowing God and obeying the gospel will keep us from suffering from that same vengeance.
In Christ, Steve Preston
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