Now we beg you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to him,
Paul opens this chapter with a plea, and he bases it on hope — the return of the Lord Jesus and the gathering of His people to Him. Everything that follows about the man of sin and the day of the Lord rests on that hope, which raises two questions: is Paul naming a topic or pleading by that hope, and are the coming and the gathering one event or two?
Some translations open the verse with "Now concerning," as if Paul were naming a topic. Others read "we beg you by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." Commentators here argue for the second sense: Paul pleads with his readers by reason of that hope.
Paul presents here, as a foundation upon which to base their certainty, the two phases of the second coming of the Lord. The little word "by" has the meaning, "by reason of." What he means is this: "By reason of the Lord's coming, please don't be disturbed about false teaching concerning the day of the Lord." ... In 1 Thessalonians 4 he had shown how Christians will come to be in the Lord's presence — an event commonly called the "rapture," our gathering together to Him.
Another writer tests the Greek word, then draws two conclusions from Paul's plea.
In 2 Thessalonians 2:1 the true force of the word is certainly "we beseech you by" and not "as concerning." ... When the word is used with words of prayer and request, its regular meaning in Greek is "by," "for the sake of." ... So the apostle gives two reasons why they should not believe that the day of the Lord had come. First, the rapture of the saints has not happened yet. Second, the object of the judgment has not been revealed.
Older English versions insert a second "by" before "our gathering together." The Greek does not allow it.
Christ's coming and our gathering together to Him are bound together, as closely linked events of the deepest importance to the saints... The older translation has instead inserted a word which, however small, separates two things that the form of the original could only mean to be in the closest union.
Because the two are joined, His movement decides ours. He cannot arrive without His people being drawn to Him.
Impossible that He should come, and we not be gathered to Him! His place always decides ours. If He is "outside the camp," we must go forth unto Him. If He comes, we must be gathered to Him. When He moves, we move. When He moves from the throne on which He sits, to the air, we move from the earth to the air — our new gathering point, where He is coming to take us back with Him to the Father's house.
Paul names the One believers are gathered to. Even the archangel is not the centre of that scene.
This word tells us of that great gathering, when all true believers, living or asleep, will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air. What a gathering together that will be, and all to Him! Not one saint, from the thief on the cross to the last one brought to the Saviour before He comes again, will be missing then... The archangel will be there, and will utter his voice: but he is not the Centre or Object, the One to whom that vast throng is gathered! No! It is unto the Lord Himself, the Lord alone.
The Greek word for "gathering together" is rare. It appears again in the call not to neglect meeting together.
The Spirit points to the dangers of these closing days in the two Scriptures that speak of our "assembling together" (Episunagōgē): 2 Thessalonians 2:1 and Hebrews 10:25. The coming of our Lord Jesus Christ is in view in both. The word means literally "the complete collection." The first speaks of the gathering of the saints to the Lord Himself when He returns. The second speaks of the gathering together of those who believe now, as the day of His coming draws near.
Someone had told the Thessalonians the day of the Lord had already come. Paul answers with the hope itself.
Satan had tried to terrify them by telling them that the day of the Lord was already present... No, says the apostle, I beg you, by the coming (in the Greek, the presence) of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering together to Him — which will come before that day — that you should not be quickly shaken in mind. This day will come upon the lawless one, and not upon you; you will already have been caught up to Him, and you will accompany Him personally in that great day when He will appear.
Verse 1 speaks of His coming. Verse 8 speaks of the appearing of His coming. Why the change?
When the destruction of the man of sin is in question, Paul speaks not of His coming only, but of the appearing, the shining out, of His coming. If His coming to gather His saints were a public display, why is "the appearing" of it mentioned only in verse 8?
- By, not about. Paul is not opening a topic; he is pleading with them on the strength of a hope they already hold.
- Bound. The Greek ties His coming and our gathering into one idea — no translator may split them.
- To Him. The gathering has one Centre. Not the archangel — the Lord Himself, with not one believer missing.
- Now and then. The same rare word covers believers meeting together today and the whole company assembled to Him at His return.
- Therefore, calm. That day falls on the lawless one, not on you; you will already be with Him — so refuse to be shaken.
that ye be not soon shaken in mind, nor troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter, as [if it were] by us, as that the day of the Lord is present.
The believers in Thessalonica were under heavy persecution. Then a report reached them that the day of the Lord had already begun. Paul writes to steady them — and the way he does it tells us both how the lie spread and why it could never be true.
The two words Paul uses describe people knocked off balance by fear. They were not impatient for Christ's return. They were afraid of a judgment they thought had already begun.
By then some people had stirred up the Thessalonians. They told them that their persecutions and other trials were the start of the day of the Lord. They were passing through severe trouble. So the claim was not that the day was close, as people often say, but that it had arrived. This troubled and shook them badly. Paul writes this new letter to drive out their fears and settle them again in the confidence of their hope... It was certainly not the excitement of hope but of anxiety and terror.
Older English versions read "the day of Christ is at hand." That suggests something still future. But the sense is stronger. The claim was that the day was already here, and the ESV reflects this: "has come."
Beyond all argument it should read, "as though the day of the Lord were present." The word is the one translated present elsewhere, as the opposite of things still to come. They were troubled and upset because they thought the day of the Lord, that great and terrible day, had arrived.
Their suffering seemed to confirm the rumour. That day means darkness and trouble for the world. Trouble was what they were living through. The conclusion looked obvious.
The Thessalonians were suffering great trouble and persecution for the truth's sake. The false teachers turned this into that day, claiming that the day of the Lord had come... So the believers who were watching for that day, as the first letter shows, were troubled by this cry and shaken in mind. As we have seen, false teachers shake the righteous instead of comforting and steadying them.
What they feared is real enough — but it is not the believer's portion.
This idea that the day of the Lord had come brings nothing but trouble. Paul is not holding back the excitement of an empty hope. He is answering the gloom that comes from dread... That day is a time of judgment for sin. Yet God's mercy also makes it a time of new birth for Israel, and for many other nations too. But it is "a time of trouble, such as never has been since there was a nation till that time" (Daniel 12:1).
Paul names three routes the error took. One of them was deliberate fraud.
The attack was three-pronged: by spirit, by word and by letter. "By spirit" would mean someone claiming a supernatural revelation. John warns about this when he says, "test the spirits" (1 John 4:1). A fake revelation has an evil spirit behind it. "By word" would mean oral teaching. "By letter" would be, of course, a written message. About this he adds a specific detail — "as if it were by us."
Commentators point out that Paul does not say our letter. He says a letter claiming to be from us. So this was not a misreading of his first letter. It was a forgery.
He does not say it was his letter. If he had referred to the First Epistle, he would have said, the letter from us... Claiming that something false came from God is the worst kind of dishonesty. Forgery is a great sin... How often men stop being truthful once they lose the truth!
He does not begin by arguing. He appeals to what they already loved — the Lord's coming and their gathering to Him — and uses that hope as the answer to the fear.
They pretended in various ways that they had a revelation for it. They even claimed Paul himself as the author of their error. He utterly denies it... "Don't you know," he suggests, "that the Lord is coming to gather you all to Himself?" With this he appeals to the heart. With this he stirs their spiritual feelings against the lie. When the Lord does come, the first thing He will do is to gather those He loves to Himself.
The whole tangle unravels once two things are kept apart.
They did think that His "day" was not merely "at hand," which is true, but "present," which is false. Identify "the coming" with "the day" of the Lord, and all is confusion; keep them apart, and light comes at once.
- Pressure — real suffering made a false report believable. Hardship is when the enemy twists the meaning of what God is doing.
- Panic — "shaken" and "alarmed" describe fear, not eagerness. They thought the day of judgment had already begun.
- Present, not near — the claim was that the day had already arrived, and that single word is where the error sat.
- Three doors — a claimed revelation, spoken teaching, and a forged letter. Lose the truth, and truthfulness goes with it.
- Anchor — Paul steadies them with their hope, not with argument alone. The Lord comes to gather His own before that day breaks.