2 THESSALONIANS (Letter 53, Larry Crabb’s 66 Love Letters)
LET THEN INTERPRET NOW
We will never think clearly about what’s happening now and how we want to live today until we are thinking clearly about what will happen when God’s Son returns.
If we don’t live now with then in view we will move through life with a self-focused demand to have things go our way, to find relief from a misery we cannot escape.
Over the doorway into hell, Dante correctly envisioned this greeting: ” Abandoned hope, all you enter here.” Isolation- the unending absence of everything God created people to enjoy of everything He provided in His Son – that is the destiny so many have chosen.
The gospel of a toothless love, which fails to center on the forgiving grace that alone makes possible a perfect life later, is now in vogue in too many churches. It is a false gospel that focuses on a better life now.
The mystery of the lawlessness continues to have its way, held back only for a little longer until the moral structure of society completely breaks down (it’s happening now) and the church that claims to know God becomes nauseatingly lukewarm (that’s happening too). Then the devil will reveal his man, the man of lawlessness who with impressive displays of power will persuade many that he is the messiah who can restore society to its entitled comfort.
On the Great Judgment, God’s Son will blow away His counterfeit.
With the hope that evil will be destroyed, wait eagerly and actively for the day of the Great Gathering.
Celebrate and preach the good news of forgiveness that centers us on the cross and fills us with hope for His Son’s return.
2 THESSALONIANS: From Ray Stedman
Click here for entire Bible Summary from Ray Stedman
2 THESSALONIANS: Restrainers of Lawlessness
Before Jesus Christ left this earth he said that he would return, but that before his return there would be a time of difficulty and widespread lawlessness.
In the first letter, he wrote to comfort them in their distress over their loved ones who had died, but this letter is written to correct certain misunderstandings they had about the “Day of the Lord,” and this time of trouble.
First, to these believers who are undergoing such difficulty, the very trials that they’re undergoing, Paul says, are making them worthy
of the coming kingdom of God. That aspect of suffering is what makes us able to take it. It puts strength in our muscles and sharpens our moral equipment so that we’re able to endure.
There will come a time when God will set them straight, when those who have misused their opportunity of service in life will face a righteous judge who knows their hearts. His vengeance will have two aspects – destruction and exclusion from the presence of the Lord. That is what they had been dishing out, and that is what they will finally obtain. God will let them have their own way, and when they get it, it will be the last thing they want.
And then the Lord himself will be repaid on that day.
In some way, the Jews will find a way to reconstruct another temple on the site in Jerusalem where the Dome of the Rock is now. And it is in that temple that Paul says “the man of lawlessness” will take his seat.
The problem – this lawlessness, this spirit of rebellion against authority which is always the greatest danger to any nation. But Paul says that something is restraining it. And Jesus told us what that is; he said to his disciples, “You are the salt of the earth; …”{Matt
5:13a RSV}. “You are the light of the world,” {Matt 5:14a RSV}. Salt prevents corruption from spreading: light dispels darkness, and it is the presence of the people of God on earth that restrains the forces of evil.
But Paul says here that the restraint is going to be taken out of the way, and then the whole flood of human evil will be let loose upon the earth. And when that happens there will come the greatest time of trouble the world has ever seen.
This is the characteristic of the spirit of lawlessness – deception – and it must, and will, be destroyed by the coming of Jesus, the Son of Man who destroys the destroyer of earth.
As we get nearer to the time of his coming, Paul says, remember that your responsibility is to keep on taking care of your responsibilities.
So Paul rejects the attitude of fanaticism (Let’s just live and enjoy ourselves, and wait for his coming) and says that we are to give ourselves to the task that God has set before us.
In this little letter, discouragement is answered by looking to the day when God sets everything straight.
Fear is answered by remembering that God is in perfect control of human events, and things will take place just as he has predicted they will take place.
And fanaticism is rejected with a specific command – to be busy at the Lord’s work.
The application of this letter to each individual heart is simply this: God’s people are called to be restrainers of lawlessness.
How often are you operating as a restraint to lawlessness?
The measure in which you oppose lawlessness will be the measure in which there is no lawlessness in your own heart, and your own life.
2 THESSALONIANS – David Jeremiah (Understanding the 66 Books of the Bible)
Key thought: The return of Christ is a future event that will be swift, certain, and glorious.
Key Verse: Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and our God and Father, who has loved us and given us everlasting consolation and good hope by grace, comfort your hearts and establish you in every good word and work. 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17
Key Action: The Second Coming shouldn’t provoke idleness among believers, but action; not speculation, but sanctification.