The Poor Mans Commentary-Book of 2nd Thessalonians

He indwells every believer individually and the church collectively; therefore as long as the church is in the world, the antichrist will not be revealed. Of course as 1 John 2: This antichrist will not be revealed as long as the Spirit of God is in the world. The Holy Spirit came to abide with the church forever, so as long as the church is here, He will be here.

But when the church is caught up to be with the Lord, the Spirit of God will no longer be in the world in the sense in which He has been here during the Christian era. It is the Holy Spirit who works in the hearts of men and women, leading them to Christ. This lawless one, who will set himself up as God incarnate, will be the special object of divine judgment; he will be destroyed by the Lord Himself when He returns in power and glory. We learn from Revelation Jesus said that if it were possible, the very elect would be deceived by him Matthew In fact it is God Himself who in righteous judgment will give them up to be deluded.

We read in 2: This is a solemn word indeed for those who hear the gospel in our day and definitely reject it. If they are still rejecting the truth when the rapture of the church takes place, there will be no hope of their turning to Christ during the period of tribulation. Having believed the lie, they will be judged with all those who have apostatized from the truth. If you have not yet received Christ, the following words are for you.

No doubt many of you who are unsaved are children of Christian parents. You have heard the name of Christ all your lives, yet you have never definitely accepted Him. If Jesus should come today, you would be among the number who will receive the antichrist. I have been too well-taught for that; I have heard the gospel too many times.

I have learned the great outlines of prophecy, and I know something of the divine program. I would not be deceived in that way. I would turn immediately to the Lord after He had taken His church out of the world, and thus I would be prepared to welcome Him at His glorious appearing. If you reject Christ now, you will have no desire to accept Him in the coming day of tribulation. You are in the most dangerous position anyone could be in. Some of the saddest funerals I have had to conduct have been for unsaved young people who were members of Christian families.

These young men and women had often been urged to come to Christ, but they had gone on in carelessness, hoping that everything would come out all right in the end. Then suddenly they were struck down, perhaps by accident, and they went out into eternity leaving no testimony. If you are unsaved, I plead with you not to allow another day to pass without coming to Christ, lest the near future find you forever beyond all hope of mercy. God has given you the opportunity to believe the truth; He has presented His Word.

Salvation through Sanctification 2 Thessalonians 2: We read in Romans 8: If you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, you need never worry about your election. The very fact that you are a believer, redeemed by Christ, assures you that you are among the elect of God. That means we were aroused to realize our lost condition and our need of a Savior by the direct work of the Holy Spirit and thus we were led to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Sanctification of the Spirit is the initial work of God in the soul, and then when we believe the gospel we have the assurance of salvation. A man may preach the Word with great liberty and power, but unless the Holy Spirit applies the Word to the hearts, illumines the minds, and troubles the consciences of his listeners, his preaching will never convert a single person. Those of us who are saved can look back and recall how the work of the Holy Spirit began in our souls. We remember the time when we were just part and parcel of the world around us, and then there came an awakening.

Perhaps at first we could not understand what was happening to us. We became unhappy and dissatisfied; we desired something we had never known before; we became conscious of our sinfulness and guilt; and we cried out in our hearts for cleansing and purity-that was the sanctification of the Holy Spirit. There is a beautiful illustration of this sanctification in Genesis 1: But in Genesis 1: Every muscle is quivering and this generates the warmth needed to hatch the eggs.

This was the beginning of the new order. So as 2 Thessalonians 2: This is the order in Scripture: The Word of God is proclaimed, heard, or read. The Spirit of God sanctifies-He convicts the sinner, bringing him to the place where he desires to be saved and is ready to receive Christ. Believing the gospel, the sinner is justified by faith. Let me give some advice to those who seek to win souls: Do not try to rash people into confessing Christ. Do not try to make them say they are saved.

Try to find out if there is any real conviction of sin. Try to find out if the Spirit of God has awakened them. The reason a great many people make a profession of Christianity in revival meetings and soon afterward drift back into their former ways is that there has been no real work of God in their souls. They have never been sanctified by the Holy Spirit; they have never known divine conviction.

First people need to be awakened to see their need of Christ; then the gospel can be given to them. That is the divine order. When people believe the gospel message, they may be assured of eventually sharing the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ: This is the purpose for which God is sending His gospel out into the world. When people have been really born again, they will continue in the Christian life. We hear a great deal about backsliders, but some one has well said that many who are designated as backsliders have never been frontsliders; they have never been born again.

The Thessalonians had listened to the apostle and had also received his written word, and in 2 Thessalonians 2: He had not added human traditions to the Word of the Lord. Usernames should only contain letters, numbers, dots, dashes, or underscores. Passwords should have at least 6 characters.

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Advanced Options Exact Match. En dash not Hyphen. Subscribe to our Newsletter. Daily Bible Reading Plans x. Recently Popular Pages x. Study Guide for Luke 2 Don Stewart:: What Does Genesis 3: Study Guide for Luke 1. Recently Popular Media x. Commentary on 2 Thessalonians 1. Chapter 1 After the introduction v. The occurrence of the same words in this epistle as in the former shows us that ministers ought not so much to regard the variety of expression and elegance of style as the truth and usefulness of the doctrines they preach.

And great care should be taken lest, from an affectation of novelty in method and phrases, we advance new notions or doctrines, contrary to the principles of natural or revealed religion, upon which this church of the Thessalonians was built, as all true churches are; namely, in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. The apostle's expression of the high esteem he had for them. He not only had a great affection for them as he had expressed in his former epistle, and now again in his pious wish of grace and peace for them , but he also expresses his great esteem for them, concerning which observe, 1.

How his esteem of them is expressed. He glorified God on their behalf: We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is meet, v. He chose rather to speak of what was praiseworthy in them in a way of thanksgiving to God than by commendation of them; and, as what he mentions was matter of his rejoicing, he accounted it matter of thanksgiving, and it was meet or fit it should be so, for we are bound, and it is our duty, to be thankful to God for all the good that is found in us or others: He also glories in them before the churches of God, v.

The apostle never flattered his friends, but he took pleasure in commending them, and speaking well of them, to the glory of God and for the excitement and encouragement of others. Paul did not glory in his own gifts, nor in his labour among them, but he gloried in the grace of God which was bestowed upon them, and so his glorying was good, because all the commendation he gave to them, and the pleasure he took himself, centered in the praise and glory of God.

For what he esteemed them and thanked God; namely, the increase of their faith, and love, and patience.

In his former epistle ch. Note, Where there is the truth of grace there will be increase of it. The path of the just is as the shining light, which shines more and more unto the perfect day. And where there is the increase of grace God must have all the glory of it. We are as much indebted to him for the improvement of grace, and the progress of that good work, as we are for the first work of grace and the very beginning of it.

We may be tempted to think that though when we were bad we could not make ourselves good, yet when we are good we can easily make ourselves better; but we have as much dependence on the grace of God for increasing the grace we have as for planting grace when we had it not. The matter of the apostle's thanksgiving and glorying on behalf of the Thessalonians was, 1. That their faith grew exceedingly, v. They were more confirmed in the truth of gospel-revelations, confided in gospel-promises, and had lively expectations of another world.

The growth of their faith appeared by the works of faith; and, where faith grows, all other graces grow proportionably. Their charity abounded v. Note, Where faith grows love will abound, for faith works by love; and not only the charity of some few of them, but of every one to each other, did abound. There were no such divisions among them as in some other churches. Their patience as well as faith increased in all their persecutions and tribulations.

And patience has then its perfect work when it extends itself to all trials. There were many persecutions which the Thessalonians endured for the sake of righteousness, as well as other troubles which they met with in this calamitous life; yet they endured all these, by faith seeing him that is invisible, and looking to the recompence of reward; and endured them with patience, not with an insensibility under them, but with patience arising from Christian principles, which kept them quiet and submissive, and afforded them inward strength and support.

He tells them of the present happiness and advantage of their sufferings, v.

1 Thessalonians 2 Commentary - Hawker's Poor Man's Commentary

Their faith being thus tried, and patience exercised, they were improved by their sufferings, insomuch that they were counted worthy of the kingdom of God. Their sufferings were a manifest token of this, that they were worthy or meet to be accounted Christians indeed, seeing they could suffer for Christianity. And the truth is, Religion, if it is worth any thing, is worth every thing; and those either have no religion at all, or none that is worth having, or know not how to value it, that cannot find in their hearts to suffer for it.

Who that reads Christ's first Sermon in the Jewish Synagogue, can find any traces of it in the discourses of modern times? His was to preach the Gospel to the poor, to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind. Happy the people who sit under preaching formed on this plan? We never can too much admire the affection with which Paul describes his labors, and those of his companions in the ministry, as he hath here represented it.

We were gentle among you, saith he, even as a nurse cherisheth her children. The image is most tender, and is designed to represent how very watchful the faithful servants of the Lord are of his fold, and how affectionately they bear with all the weaknesses and wants and even waywardness of the babes and the young of Christ's family. But, while I admire Paul's figure of the nurse, I cannot but remark his modesty also, in taking that of the nurse, and not of the mother.

The nurse, yea, the tenderest nurse is not the real, but only the foster mother. Jesus hath taken this image of the mother to himself, and to himself alone it belongs; and, therefore, Paul doth not presume to use it. As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you. But I pray the Reader to observe what a fullness of love the Apostle hath summed up in his expressions, when he saith, that being so affectionately desirous of the Lord's people, they were willing to have imparted to them, not the Gospel of God only, but also their own souls, because they were dear to them.

Commentary on the book of 2 thessalonians

It is hardly possible, in the cold and selfish times in which we live, to enter into an apprehension of the warmth of Paul's heart. All he had, and all he knew; his gifts, and graces, and enjoyments were all for the people, among whom he labored in word and doctrine yea, his very soul was theirs, because Christ and his members are all one. If the Reader would wish to see the several features more largely drawn, I refer him to Acts We must not overlook the disinterested conduct of Paul and his companions in their ministerial services, that it was all free, and without cost or charges.

He labored night and day at his trade of tent-making, that the Gospel might bring no expence to his hearers. Not, as he elsewhere said, because that he had no right of eating of their bread, while he fed them with the bread of life; see 1 Corinthians 9: He knew the blessedness and truth, in his own experience of his Lord's words, and acted upon them. Allow me to add one word more on this beautiful passage, in which the outlines of a faithful minister of Christ is so correctly drawn. I beg the Reader to observe how the Apostle tells the Church that they were witnesses, and God also, how holily and justly, and unblameably, they had behaved themselves among them, and also had exhorted and charged them as a father doth his children, that they would also walk worthy of God, who had called them unto his kingdom and glory.

I entreat the Reader to be the more attentive to this feature of the ministerial character, as drawn by God the Holy Ghost with the pen of Paul, because many, either from ignorance or perversity, are perpetually mistaking the subject, as though they who preach the great truths of the Gospel in God's electing love, Christ's redeeming blood and righteousness, and God the Spirits regenerating grace, do not inculcate obedience, neither exhort to godliness and an holy life.

• Commentary on 2 Thessalonians 1 by Matthew Henry;
• The Conspiracy of Haha!
• 2 Thessalonians 2.
• Lambada pour lenfer (SOURIS NOIRE) (French Edition);
• Feminine Wiles (Black Lace).
• 2 Thessalonians 2 Commentary - Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible (Complete);

Whereas the fact is the very reverse. Preachers sent by God the Holy Ghost, and none unsent by him are sent at all, being themselves regenerated, and an unregenerate man was never ordained by the Holy Ghost, begin the subject where Christ begins it. Make the tree good, saith Jesus, and his fruit good.

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Until the sinner is born again, he is dead in trespasses and sins. Hence, when a soul is himself renewed and ordained by the Holy Ghost, and sent forth to preach Christ he simply preacheth Christ, and nothing beside. He doth, as Moses did in the wilderness, lift up the Son of man, that whosoever believeth in him may not perish, but have eternal life. And when God the Spirit, who send's the word, gives power to the word, and by his regenerating grace quickens the sinner to a new and spiritual life, then all the blessed effects are the consequence, which the Apostle here describes.

Holiness of life and conversation will always follow the renewed life.



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But to do as some modern teachers would prescribe, namely, to address the ungodly, and call them to faith and repentance, is like bidding the Ethiopian to change his skin, and the leopard his spots. Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming? How very lovely it is to observe the Apostle following up the account he gave the Church, of his going in and out before them with thanksgivings to the Lord for the success of his ministry!

And I beg the Reader to observe no less, how blessedly he traceth all the success of his labors to this one source, in the Lord's disposing them to receive the word of God, not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God. It is always blessed to behold Christ's Servants referring all the glory where alone it is due.

We have a beautiful instance, Acts 3: We can easily conceive what the Apostle alludes to, when he saith, that he was taken away from them, meaning, as his history informs us, when he was hurried away at the time the uproar was made against Paul and his companions; Acts And the hindrance of Satan, meaning his agents, was what Paul more than once noticed. I admire the expression of the Apostle, when he calls the Church their hope and joy.