2 Thessalonians

Paul had a bad day when he wrote this one, I think. He truly vented his anger at those who he considered to be enemies of the religion he was working to build. In particular, he targeted the unbelievers, like yours truly, and the slackers inside the church membership. They got it with both barrels from Paul!

2 Th 1:1,2 - Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I read this opening, and it made me wonder about Paul's personal theology. As in, why would he wish grace and peace to his readers only from the Father and his Son? Did Paul believe in the Trinity? The man claimed to have spent just about all his time talking to God - so what did he think about this Holy Spirit thingy?

2 Th 1:4-8 - Therefore we ourselves boast of you among the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith during all your persecutions and the afflictions that you are enduring. This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, and is intended to make you worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering. For it is indeed just of God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to give relief to the afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
Here's an interesting concept. You need to suffer persecution in order to become "worthy" of getting into heaven! How does that fit into the concept of being accepted into heaven in spite of perceived worthlessness? Paul seems to be looking forward to having God take the revenge Paul felt a need for. This hearkens back to some of the more bloodthirsty Psalms!

1 Th 2:8-12 - And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will destroy with the breath of his mouth, annihilating him by the manifestation of his coming. The coming of the lawless one is apparent in the working of Satan, who uses all power, signs, lying wonders, and every kind of wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion, leading them to believe what is false, so that all who have not believed the truth but took pleasure in unrighteousness will be condemned.
Paul's getting into some weird thoughts in his decline. I think it's quite interesting that this book states that God is helping the work of Satan, by making sure people are deluded into having the wrong beliefs, just to make sure they can be sent to hell. It makes me wonder just what the church leaders were thinking when they decided this letter should be considered to be God's word!

2 Th 3:6-8 - Now we command you, beloved, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to keep away from believers who are living in idleness and not according to the tradition that they received from us. For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us; we were not idle when we were with you, and we did not eat anyone's bread without paying for it; but with toil and labor we worked night and day, so that we might not burden any of you.
In other words, toss out any slackers from the communes. They don't deserve to be supported by the rest of the community. Well, maybe this is a good idea - after all, the communism as practiced by the early Christian church was ideally supposed to be a matter of each member of the community working for the common good of all members. Here, though, Paul doesn't link his command to the self-interest of the community. Instead, he links it to imitating his personal example, as if he thought that imitating him was the best way to teach the simple art of living in a community!