The second letter to the Thessalonians, like the first, is addressed to the church of the

Thessalonians by Paul, Silvanus and Timothy. It was evidently sent not long after the

first letter, possibly from Corinth. When the Apostle send a second letter to a church, it

was normally to correct misunderstanding arising from the first letter, or an expansion of

some aspect of truth that had not been fully understood. We have seen that the first letter

revolves around the graces of `faith, hope and love'. Both faith and love are mentioned

in the introduction to this second letter.

But as we read on we find that hope is missing, and it was largely because some had

misunderstood his teaching concerning the Lord's Second Coming, possibly being misled

by a spurious epistle purporting to come from him (2: 2), that the Apostle writes this

second epistle as a corrective.

Before we go any further, we set out the structure of the epistle as a whole:

A | 1: 1, 2. Grace and peace.

B | a | 1: 3-10. Bound to thank. Counted Worthy.

b | 1: 11, 12. Prayer for you. Work of faith.

c | 2: 1-12. We beseech. Man of lawlessness, his coming and deception.

B | a | 2: 13-15. Bound to thank. Obtaining the glory.

b | 2: 16 - 3: 5. Pray for us. Good work.

c | 3: 6-15. We command. Disorderliness.

A | 3: 16-18. Peace and grace.

The outstanding section is B | c | 2: 1-12 dealing with the coming of the man of

lawlessness, the son of perdition and the lying miracles whereby he accomplishes mass

deception. The whole subject is compressed because Paul had dealt with it in detail when

he was with the Thessalonian saints. He reminds them of this (2: 15), and it is the

compression of a complicated prophetic subject that makes this passage one of the most

difficult to interpret in the N.T.

Coming back to chapter 1:, the Apostle highly commends them for their courageous

endurance in persecution, which was a proof of the genuineness of their faith: