33.  THE SECOND EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS, like the first, is written in the name of “Paul, and Silvanus, and Timotheus,” and seems to have been sent from Corinth not many months after the first.  The apostle’s main design was to correct a pernicious error respecting the time of our Lord’s second advent, which some at Thessalonica seem to have been strenuously engaged in propagating, and to give them further instruction respecting this great doctrine and their duty in relation to it.  After the apostolic salutation he expresses his gratitude to God for the growth of their Christian faith and love, and comforts them under the pressure of the persecution to which they were subjected with the assurance of our Lord’s second coming in glory to destroy his and their enemies and give rest to his suffering servants; but proceeds in the second chapter to show that this day is not yet at hand, and cannot come till there has first been a great apostacy, the characteristic features of which he proceeds to give (verses 3-12).  The remainder of the epistle is occupied with commendations and encouragements to perseverence, mingled with admonitions.  The latter have special reference to certain idle and disorderly members of the church, whom the apostle describes as “some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busy bodies” (chap. 3:11), and who also set themselves in opposition to his apostolic authority (verse 14).  These disorderly persons seem to have been the same as those who were engaged in propagating erroneous notions respecting the time of our Lord’s second advent.  Their visionary views on this subject made them self-conceited, talkative, and self-willed, and led them to neglect the sober duties of daily life.

The apostle beseeches the Thessalonians not to be soon shaken in mind, or troubled, “neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.”  And he adds:  “Let no man deceive you in any way”—­in any of the ways specified or any other way.  Chap. 2:2, 3.  There were then persons at Thessalonica busily occupied in misleading the Thessalonians:  (1) “by spirit,” that is, by prophesies which they professed to have received from the Holy Spirit; (2) “by word,” by oral teaching; (3) “by letter as from us,” that is, purporting to come from the apostle.  Or, perhaps, we should render:  “nor by word nor by letter as from us:”  that is, neither by oral teaching nor by written communication alleged to have come from me.  We can well understand how the unwritten words of the apostle should have been perverted by these false teachers.  The question remains:  Did they pervert the meaning of his language in the first epistle, or did they employ an epistle forged in his name?  The latter has been from ancient times a common interpretation of this clause, and it is favored by the words:  “The salutation of Paul with mine own hand, which is the token in every epistle:  so I write.”