Therefore we also pray always for you that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfill all the good pleasure of His goodness and the work of faith with power, (12) that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. (4:1) Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, (2) not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if it from us, as though the day of Christ had come.

The 2nd letter to the Thessalonians was written by the apostle Paul and our verses today are referring to the promised second coming of Christ. Paul was seeking to comfort readers by assuring them that on That ultimate Day they would experience relief from intense persecution from both Jews and Gentiles by entering their rest following Christ’s second coming. Others were telling the faithful that the day if the Lord had already begun. This seemed to be a possibility since Scripture defines that day as a time of tribulation as well as blessing. The idea was that Christ could come at any time, not that He would come; the doctrine of imminence was valid but their incorrect view involves date setting. The Thessalonians were being told that the end of the world was not really at hand – which was true – but that it was actually present which was not true.

Paul urged that the Thessalonians not be shaken from adherence to the truth Paul has taught them by what they were hearing from others -that the faithful remain steadfast. The Thessalonians were apparently shaken from their reason and a belief that that the Day of the Lord was already upon them causing some of them to think it not worthwhile to attend to things of a doomed world. This belief was confirmed by some by forgeries of letters from Paul and misrepresention of his oral teaching during his stay in Thessalonica; some pretended to direct inspiration or angelic visitations to impose on the brethren the advent of the second coming. Paul responded by urging them to hold fast to the traditions that were his. He also enforces in today’s letter warning against forgeries, saying that the fellowship of the faithful were to have nothing to do with any man/woman who did not obey the words of the epistle.

c.s.Lewis writes in the Case for Christianity: “But I wonder whether people who ask God to interfere openly and directly in our world quite realize what it will be like when He does. When that happens, it is the end of the world, when the author walks on to the stage the play is over. God is going to invade all right: but what good of saying you are on His side then, when you see the whole natural universe melting away like a dream and something else – something it never entered your head to conceive – comes crashing in; something so beautiful to some of us and so terrible to others that none of us will have any choice left?”