The Christians suffering persecution in Thessalonica wanted to know when it would end. Paul couldn’t tell them, just urge them to hold to their faith and compassion.
Here’s a transcript:
I’m thinking about the second chapter of Paul’s Second Letter to the Thessalonians (2 Thessalonians 2:1-5, 13-17).
In this chapter Paul commented on the return of Christ, the Second Coming, if you will (though he didn’t call it that). The reason, I suspect, is that the Christians in Thessalonica had been having a very bad time. Paul commented on it in his First Letter to the Thessalonians, that they had been enduring some pretty harsh persecution. He compared it to the persecution that he himself had suffered in Jerusalem.
By the time he wrote the Second Letter it appears that that had not ended. They were still going through some very harsh times.
In times like that, the basic question on anyone’s mind would be: “When will it end? And indeed, when will it end in some kind of reversal, in some kind of justice, in some kind of event so that those who persecuted us suffer and we ourselves triumph?
And Paul’s comments here: to me, well, they’re a little obscure, because he talks about some mysterious figure that will sit in the temple (or possibly already was sitting in the temple) and clearly Paul had discussed this with the folks in Thessalonica and so he left the details out. The point is —— and it was a point that he made in First Thessalonians — that we still have to endure, and we still have to live out the lives to which we were called by Jesus as we do so. We still need to do good works for one another. We still need to pray for one another. We still need to bring our compassion to one another even when it is hard.
These are also harsh times. We’ve just come through a global pandemic: harsh times. There are wars in the world in which people suffer terribly: harsh times. And we are looking at the withdrawal of supports from the poorest of the poor here in the United States and elsewhere around the world: harsh times.
We are asked to hold to our faith, to trust in the grace and compassion of God. And in the midst of it all, to exercise our capacity for love and care and tenderly bring to those who suffer the most the resources, the aid, and the compassion that we can, the compassion which has been given to us by Jesus Christ.
That’s what I’m thinking. I’m curious to hear what you’re thinking. Leave me your thoughts in the comment section below. I’d love to hear from you.
