To this church Paul, as its spiritual father, full of affection for his inexperienced children,
wrote in familiar conversational style two letters from Corinth, during his first sojourn in that city,
to comfort them in their trials and to correct certain misapprehensions of his preaching concerning
the glorious return of Christ, and the preceding development of "the man of sin" or Antichrist, and
"the mystery of lawlessness," then already at work, but checked by a restraining power. The hope
of the near advent had degenerated into an enthusiastic adventism which demoralized the every-day
life. He now taught them that the Lord will not come so soon as they expected, that it was not a
matter of mathematical calculation, and that in no case should the expectation check industry and
zeal, but rather stimulate them. Hence his exhortations to a sober, orderly, diligent, and prayerful
life.
It is remarkable that the first Epistles of Paul should treat of the last topic in the theological
system and anticipate the end at the beginning. But the hope of Christ’s speedy coming was, before
the destruction of Jerusalem, the greatest source of consolation to the infant church amid trial and
persecution, and the church at Thessalonica was severely tried in its infancy, and Paul driven away.
It is also remarkable that to a young church in Greece rather than to that in Rome should have first
been revealed the beginning of that mystery of anti-Christian lawlessness which was then still
restrained, but was to break out in its full force in Rome.^1135
The objections of Baur to the genuineness of these Epistles, especially the second, are futile
in the judgment of the best critics.^1136
The Theoretical Theme:: The parousia of Christ. The Practical Theme: Christian hope in
the midst of persecution.
Leading Thoughts: This is the will of God, even your sanctification (1 Thess. 4:3). Sorrow
not as the rest who have no hope (4:13). The Lord will descend from heaven, and so shall we ever
be with the Lord (4:16, 17). The day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night (5:2). Let us watch
and be sober (5:6). Put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet, the hope of salvation
(5:8). Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks (5:16). Prove all things; hold
fast that which is good; abstain from every form of evil (5:21, 22). The Lord will come to be glorified
in his saints (2 Thess. 1:10). But the falling away must come first, and the man of sin be revealed,
the son of perdition (2:3, 4). The mystery of lawlessness doth already work, but is restrained for
the time (2:7). Stand fast and hold the traditions which ye were taught, whether by word, or by(^1135) The difficult passage, 2 Thess. 2:1-12, must be explained in connection with the prophecies of Daniel (the fourth empire)
and the Apocalypse. See the commentaries of Lünemann, Lange (Riggenbach, translated by Lillie), Ellicott, Jowett, Marcus
Dods, and the Excursus of Farrar on the Man of Sin (St. Paul, II. 583-587). Many modern exegetes adopt the patristic interpretation
that "the restraining power" (τὸ κατέχον) is the Roman empire, "the restrainer" (ὁ κατέχων) the then reigning emperor (Claudius),
and "the man of sin" his successor, Nero. But the last is very doubtful. The whole passage must have a prophetic sweep far
beyond the time of the old Roman empire. There are "many antichrists" and many restraining forces and persons in the successive
ages, and the end is yet apparently afar off. "Obviously, whatever the words signify, they must mean something which has existed
from Paul’s day to our own, something which, during that whole period, has had the effect of restraining wickedness." (Dods,
in Schaff’s Com. on the N. T, III 535.)
(^1136) Grimm, Lünemann, Reuss, Lipsius, and others have refuted the arguments of Baur. The first Epistle is conceded to be
genuine also by Hilgenfeld, who declares (Einleit., p 246):"In dem ganzen Brief erkennt man die Sprache des Paulus. Es ist kein
Grund vorhanden, denselben dem Paulus abzusprechen. Nicht so bedeutsam, wie andere Briefe, ist derselbe eines Paulus
keineswegs unwürdig, vielmehr ein liebenswürdiges Denkmal väterlicher Fürsorge des Apostels für eine junge Christengemeinde."
But the second Ep. to the Thess. Hilgenfeld assigns to the age of Trajan, as a sort of Pauline Apocalypse; thus reversing the view
of Baur, who regarded the First Ep. as an imitation of the second. Grotius and Ewald put the Second Ep. likewise first (especially
on account of 1 Thess. 1:7, 8, which seems to imply that the congregation had already become famous throughout Greece), but
they regarded both as genuine.
A.D. 1-100.