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Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 2 Thessalonian 2:16

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Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given [us] everlasting consolation and good hope through grace,

16. Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father ] This remarkable invocation corresponds both in form and place in the Epistle to that of 1Th 3:11 (see note). But here Christ’s name comes first, a circumstance indicating the Divinity with which the writer invests it: “Where now are those who would lower the Son of God?” (Chrysostom). Comp. 2Co 13:14. Again the Subjects are united by the singular number of the following verbs ( comfort, &c., 2Th 2:17).

As in 1Th 3:11, we prefer to render the particle of transition But (rather than Now) may our Lord Jesus Christ and God our Father. On “Lord Jesus Christ,” see note to 1Th 1:1. St Paul invokes our Lord Jesus Christ Himself as their stablisher, with God our Father, in contrast with the efforts on their own part to which he has exhorted his readers (2Th 2:15); comp. the transition in 1Th 5:22-23 (see note).

St Paul prays with confidence for his emperilled brethren at Thessalonica, because of the grace which Christ and God had already bestowed both on them and him: Who loved us and gave us eternal comfort (or encouragement) and good hope.

“God our Father, Who loved us and gave,” &c. There is the tenderest connection of thought in these words. God’s Fatherly love prompts His great gifts. See the words of Christ in Mat 7:11; Luk 12:32: “Your Father who is in heaven shall give (you) good things,” &c.; comp. Joh 3:16 ; 1Jn 3:1; also Rom 5:8. While the Thessalonians are “beloved of God” (1Th 1:4), they are also “beloved by the Lord” (2Th 2:13); and this clause, though singular, may include Christ in its reference, He and the Father being one in love as in comfort (2Th 2:17).

In His love the Father had already given the readers gladness of heart in trouble (ch. 2Th 1:4; 1Th 1:6), such as the Apostle often acknowledges in his own case (e.g. in 2Co 1:4-6) an “ eternal comfort,” which the sorrows of time will never waste. To know that God loves us is in itself a comfort infinitely rich. “Consolation” (A.V.) represents the Greek noun corresponding to the verb “comfort” of 2Th 2:17. It is comfort in its older sense of heartening, encouragement, rather than consolation: see note on “comfort,” 1Th 3:2.

A “ good hope” is such a hope as it is good to have, that gives worth and joy to life. See note on “hope,” 1Th 1:3.

These kindred blessings flowing from the love of God, are given in grace not out of merit, and as to the worthy; but in the way of bounty to the undeserving. See notes on “grace,” ch. 2Th 1:12 and 1Th 1:1.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself – This expression is equivalent to this: I pray our Lord Jesus, and our Father, to comfort you. It is really a prayer offered to the Saviour – a recognition of Christ as the source of consolation as well as the Father, and a union of his name with that of the Father in invoking important blessings. It is such language as could be used only by one who regarded the Lord Jesus as divine.

And God even our Father – Greek: And God, and ( kai) our Father; though not incorrectly rendered even our Father. If it should be contended that the use of the word and – our Lord Jesus Christ, and God, proves that the Lord Jesus is a different being from God – the use of the same word and would prove that the Father is a different being from God. But the truth is, the apostle meant to speak of the Father and the Son as the common Source of the blessing for which he prayed.

Which hath loved us – Referring particularly to the Father. The love which is referred to is that manifested in redemption, or which is shown us through Christ; see Joh 3:16; 1Jo 4:9.

And hath given us everlasting consolation. – Not temporary comfort, but that which will endure forever. The joys of religion are not like other joys. They soon fade away – they always terminate at death – they cease when trouble comes, when sickness invades the frame, when wealth or friends depart, when disappointment lowers, when the senses by age refuse to minister as they once did to our pleasures. The comforts of religion depend upon no such contingencies. They live through all these changes – attend us in sickness, poverty, bereavement, losses, and age; they are with us in death, and they are perpetual and unchanging beyond the grave.

And good hope through grace – see the Rom 5:2, Rom 5:5 notes; Heb 6:19 note.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

2Th 2:16

Everlasting consolation

The comforts propounded to us in the gospel

Are of an everlasting tendency and benefit–pardon and life, to free us from everlasting death, and bring us to everlasting happiness (1Jn 2:25; Heb 5:9; Psa 119:111; Psa 73:26). When all other things fail, have spent their allowance, can afford us no more relief, then we begin to enjoy our proper portion.

II. Depend on everlasting foundations.

1. The everlasting love of God (Psa 103:17).

2. The everlasting merit of Christ (Heb 9:12).

3. The everlasting covenant (Heb 13:20).

III. Are sufficient to do their work.

1. To reduce us from temporal and flesh-pleasing vanities (Heb 11:25-26; Psa 16:11; 1Jn 2:17).

2. To make us steadfast in the truth, and cheerful under sufferings (Heb 10:34; 2Co 4:17-18).

3. To increase us in holiness and stablish us in every good work (1Co 15:58; Joh 6:27). (T. Manton, D. D.)

False and true consolation

Trouble of some kind is universally diffused among men, and in the generality pretty equally distributed. Few of Gods own children get through the world and into the heavenly home without trouble by the way. There is a sense in which Christians drink more deeply of the bitter cup than others, for in proportion as they are really Christians, they have refined and developed sensibilities. Trouble is to us what we ourselves are, and so is joy, and so is everything. Sympathy is a precious thing, but beyond a certain point every one has to bear his own burden; and since there is promised grace, let each one bear it like a man. But Christianity is not stoicism, and the Christian heart must have consolation.

I. There are false consolations.

1. The desperate consolation of complete thoughtlessness.

2. The presumptuous consolation of concluding that God is bound to make all turn out well in the end, and that therefore we need not trouble ourselves.

3. The superficial consolation which soothes the mind without going down to the roots of things. If things are dark today–well, then, they will be brighter tomorrow. True enough; but what of the morrow beyond tomorrow? The darkness may be back again. We want the everlasting consolation; anything short of it is deplorably less than we need.

II. There is the true consolation. It is everlasting because it comes from an everlasting source–the unchangeable God. Never can we be consoled for the sorrow of the world, or our own share of it, until we meet with Him–the Father of our spirits, the God of our salvation, and receive what we need from Him. All consolation is in Him. He is everlasting; and He says that He has loved us from everlasting. Believe the gospel, accept its grace, hold its truth, do its duty, breathe its spirit, and you have the everlasting consolation of God. Observe, this is how it is to end for us here practically–in the comfort of our hearts, and stablishment in every good word and work; the everlasting comfort realized everywhere, amid the manifold cares of the household, in the honest trade of the city, in the pure speech and godly habits. God knows all, and that is enough; so I can go on with a quiet, yea, singing heart, seeking that steadfastness in every thing and place which the Father has promised. (A. Raleigh, D. D.)

The eternal comforters

The religion of Jesus Christ is one of consolation. It comes with sunshine, with help, with hopefulness. It is declared on many a page of Scripture, as in the letter of St. Paul, to be full of eternal consolations–consolations taken from that aspect of life which is afforded by looking at it from the immortal and spiritual side. Look then, at some of the elements of this eternal consolation which God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ minister to us in our sorrow.

I. Our sorrow is greatly enhanced by the mystery of life. If we could only understand the reason of it, it would be easier to bear; but the tears seem to be so unnecessary, the wounding so needless, the pain and anguish so inexplicable! Life is a tangled skein, and we can get no clue. Whence we came, why we are here, what there is yet to come, we cannot comprehend. In this mystery and perplexity there comes One who says, Trust Me. He does not, indeed, throw scientific light on the mystery of life; He does not tell us what life means; but He says, Trust Me. And we look up into chat face, and that which looks down into ours inspires us with confidence; and we lay hold of that hand, and the grasp of that hand makes the thrill and throb of faith run through the very nerves of our being; and though we do not understand, and are still perplexed, yet we drink in confidence through the bright eyes that look into ours, and through the strong hand that grasps ours. It is not a philosopher who speaks to us, who has seen a little deeper into life than we have; nor is it a poet who speaks to us, who has gotten a little deeper insight into it than we have: it is the Witness-Bearer, who out of the eternal life has come, and into the eternal life is going. His is the witness; and in this is the root and ground of all that Christianity has offered us–faith, not in a philosopher, a poet, a theologian even, but in a Witness-Bearer.

II. But this mystery of life does not so greatly enhance the pain of life as the fragmentariness of it. It is not without semblance of reason, at least, Chat the broken column is put up in our graveyard–life seems to be such a series of separated fragments, so broken, so discordant I We look up the mountainside, and we see not only the top enfolded in the cloud, but all above is thunder and lightning. And here Christ comes to us, and brings us this further message: Life is not fragmentary: there is no break. You see the river flowing till it reaches the cleft in the mountain, but it goes on: you see your companion entering the dark cavern of the mountainside; it is but a tunnel; presently he will emerge into a fairer, brighter land beyond. Life is like a song; and the singer goes from us, and the song grows dimmer and more indistinct, and then fades away; but the singer has not stopped his singing, though our eyes cannot follow him into the unknown whither he has gone. We get heartbroken, until we turn and find here this word brought to us–That loved one has gone to the mountains, where there is neither pain, nor sorrow, nor temptation, but the everlasting sunlight and the undying song: follow thou on. Instead of the long, long wail of despair, this message of the ever-living Christ has put the throb of exhilaration and the song of triumph!

III. But the mystery and fragmentariness of life are not so hard to bear as the injustice of it. The best men suffer most, and the worst men suffer least. From the days of David down, men have looked thus at life, and felt the cruelty and seeming wickedness of it. So they have thought life ruled by a demoniac spirit–the god of this world; or life made up merely of the conflicting forces of human life, ruled by chance, with might makes right, and the strongest is the best, and a survival only of the fittest; or that it is ruled by cruel wrath and hate and jealousy–furies that pursue men, and are let loose upon them, because the gods are envious of their prosperity and their happiness; at all events, that life is a chaos over which there broods no Spirit of God bringing forth light, but only a spirit of darkness bringing forth darkness. But He who has shed on the mystery of life the light of trust, and He who has shed on the fragmentariness of life the light of hope, sheds on this awful unfaith in God–this awful sense of injustice and wrong against which we protest in vain endeavour, the light of love; for this is Christs declaration everywhere and ever–the devil is not the master of this world, nor furies, nor a god of cruelty, but Infinite and Eternal Love is working out the web of human destiny. There is a higher and better life. The very thought of it is heaven. Blessed be God, even our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. (L. Abbott, D. D.)

Everpresent comfort

More than a thousand years ago a company of refugees, escaping Attilas dreadful devastation of Northern Italy, settled on one of the muddy islands at the head of the Adriatic, and there founded the city of Torcello, and at a later time built up the magnificent commercial empire of Venice. The ruins of the old cathedral still stand in the ruined city, built by those stout-hearted men in a time of struggle and discouragement, as a symbol and stronghold of their religious faith; and in the cathedral the noticeable thing is the openness of the windows and the abundance of sunlight. None of the Gothic windows of the Northern churches or of the gloomy shadows clouding the high-arched ceiling; but all is luminous, bright, and fair, with not even dark colours in the frescoes. It was built by men of sorrows, but they were men who believed in God; and, therefore, while there was fear and depression enough around them, they made their house of worship joyous with all the beauty and cheer of Italian sunshine, and in this spirit they wrung from disaster the beginning of a grand success. The spirit that pervades a mans dally life is the measure of his real religion. He may be careless of sect and ceremony, but if he can carry heavy burdens with a light heart and meet calamities with serene courage, it must be that in the depth of his soul he has real faith, which, like a fountain in an oasis, keeps everything sweet and blooming. He may never put his faith into words, like a great theologian, or build it up into beautiful architecture, like the brave people of Torcello; but, nevertheless, it is known and read of all men in the beauty and courage of his life, which may be more eloquent than, any body of divinity and more impressive than cathedral or stately music. For courage and cheerfulness are, after all, the sincerest possible confession of mans real belief that all things are working together for good, and that Divine Providence is ever changing the darkness into light. Good hope through grace–

I. Hope. No man since the Fall can be satisfied with the present. Here is always either some evil pressing on us, some capacity of enjoyment unfilled, or some desire for the perpetuity of what we possess, which passes beyond the present into the future. This expectation and desire of future good is hope. Its object is the unseen. This hope is–

1. The spring of all activity.

2. With regard to sinners under the sentence of the law, and in prospect of eternity, it is indispensable to any rational peace.

II. Good hope, i.e., well founded, and directed towards what is truly good.

1. Some men are insensible and indifferent with regard to their destiny. This state of mind is–

(1) Irrational.

(2) Unsatisfying.

(3) Precarious.

(4) Destructive.

2. Others have a hope, but it is not good. It is founded on–

(1) The general mercy of God.

(2) Their relation to the Church.

(3) The assumption that all are to be saved.

(4) Spurious religious experience.

(5) The assumption of goodness.

The general basis of a false hope is error either as to the purpose of God in reference to the punishment of sin, or as to the conditions on which exemption from sin is promised, or as to our having fulfilled or experienced those conditions.

3. A good hope is therefore–

(1) A hope founded on the truth, on the promise of God and the work of Christ.

(2) One which we have a right to entertain, i.e., which is the genuine fruit of the Spirit; not an unauthorized anticipation on our part, but one which is inseparable from faith.

(3) One which has for its object the infinite blessings of redemption, sometimes Christs coming, sometimes the resurrection, sometimes the glory of God. Towards this the whole creation looks forward with earnest expectation.

III. Through grace, i.e., a hope which God graciously gives, and gives in the exercise of His grace. God gives us this hope:–

1. In that He promises to us the blessings which are the object of the hope.

2. Because He produces in our minds the exercise of our hope.

IV. Evidence that a hope is good.

1. That it has a Scriptural foundation; i.e., that it rests on the promise of God clearly revealed in His Word.

2. That it has Scriptural blessings for its objects; not earthly good or millennial prosperity, but conformity to Christ, and the enjoyment of Him forever.

3. That it sanctifies the soul, makes us pure even as He is pure (1Jn 3:3).

4. That it is the fruit of faith.

V. This hope.

1. Is a helmet.

2. Is an anchor.

3. Is to the soul what wings are to the eagle.

It elevates it above the world, raises it to heaven, fells us with its spirit. (C. Hodge, D. D.)

Good hope through grace

Faith, hope, and love–the three master principles of the true believer–are principles acted on in worldly things, by every man, every day. You need, then, no definition of the chief term in our text–a good hope through grace. My theme is the best of hopes, a heavenly hope, a hope which cannot fail nor disappoint you–hope from God and in God, good hope through grace. Such a hope was enjoyed by the Thessalonian saints. And this, in connection with their other gospel blessings, is here set forth in awful contrast with an opposite class of characters and destiny–the character and destiny of those who received not the love of truth to their souls salvation, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. The gospel hope, then, is a good hope. Why good? It is good, I observe–

I. In its objects. These are set forth to us in Scripture with much variety of phraseology. In 2Th 2:14, just cited, they are designated in one comprehensive phrase, the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. In 1Th 5:8, as in Eph 6:17, The hope of salvation; Rom 5:2, And rejoice in hope of the glory of God; Col 1:5, The hope laid up for you in heaven; Tit 1:2, Hope of eternal life; Heb 6:19, a hope which entereth into that within the vail; 1Pe 1:3-4, the hope of an inheritance, incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you; and verse 13, Hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. In this last-cited passage, as in Tit 2:13 and 1Jn 3:2, the realization of this hope is connected with the glorious advent of the returning Saviour: Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ: We know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is. Other passages might be adduced to set forth the nature of the believers hope, and to prove it good, from the goodness of its objects. It were much indeed, it were a good hope for man–a sorrower in a sorrowing world–to have before him a heaven, where sorrow and sighing shall have fled away. It were much, it were a good hope, for man, a sinner, with corruption within and conflict without, to have before him an inheritance undefiled; the victors palm and the victors song. And these, all these, the believers hope embraces. Yet, not these only. His eternity is to be spent not alone within reach of God, or near God; but in Gods very presence, with God. His glory is to come not only from God; in a yet loftier and more wondrous sense, it is the glory of God.

II. But the hope which is engaging us is good by reason not only of its object, but, of its security. It shall assuredly be realized: it shall not confound nor make ashamed. Consider its foundation: In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began (Tit 1:2); which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast (Heb 6:17, etc.). If hope deferred maketh the heart sick, hope confounded maketh it desolate. In the good hope of the Christian, uncertainty is no element. It is a deferred hope, a waiting hope, a tried hope; but not an uncertain hope, not a speculative hope. It rests not upon probability. Its security is the word, the character, the nature of the unchanging and unchangeable Jehovah.

III. The hope of which we speak is a good hope in its effects. Mans need is two-fold. He is a sinner, and, as a sinner, a sufferer. This hope meets alike his sin and his sorrow.

1. For, observe, it is a sanctifying hope. Every man, writes St. John, that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as He is pure. Thus, like the faith on which it rests, hope is a principle of no secondary influence in furthering the great work of holiness in the believers soul, and in his growth in grace. The heir of glory must grow in grace.

2. But this hope is, further, a sustaining hope. It sustains under trial. It sustains, too, in the spiritual conflict. And this good hope sustains in death.

IV. But it is further characterized as a good hope through grace. It is through grace in a two-fold sense, as resting on grace, conveyed, that is, through a covenant of grace, even the gospel of the grace of God; and as imparted by grace to the individual believer. It is based on this: that for man, for me an undone sinner, powerless for my own recovery, with no ransom to atone, no escape from hell, God, in the richness of His unbought, unasked, undesired mercy, has provided a free and full salvation; that a propitiation has been made by Jesus the Lamb of God, which is of infinite efficacy for my pardon and reconciliation and peace. They are short and simple words–good hope through grace. They bespeak the truth received, the gospel tasted in its power and sweetness, Christ known and won, Christ dwelling in the sinner, the sinner dwelling in Christ. The words of the same apostle to the Ephesians present the gloomy contrast, having no hope. Such was the state of the Ephesians and Thessalonians in their heathen darkness. Why? They were without Christ. (J. C. Miller, M. A.)

A superlative gift

I. The subject–a good hope.

1. Because it has a good Author-God.

2. Because it has a good object–the salvation of the soul by our Lord Jesus Christ.

3. Because it has a good foundation.

4. Because it has a good influence, for it tranquillizes the mind, purifies it, and establishes it.

II. The source–through grace.

1. Grace is the spring from which it flows.

2. It is applied by the influence of grace, without human merit.

3. The objects on which it fixes are undeserving. (R. Cope, LL. D.)

A good hope

I. It is good in its nature.

1. As to its object.

2. As to its foundation.

3. As to its effects.

II. It is good in its origin.

1. Derives existence from God.

2. Man by nature is destitute of hope.

3. God communicates the principle.

4. God maintains it.

III. It is good in its importance.

1. In regard to mans comfort.

2. In regard to his duty.

3. In regard to his safety. (E. Martin.)

Good hope through grace

I. What it includes.

1. A serious, believing, habitual regard to a future state as represented in the Bible. No atheist denying God or deist rejecting the Scriptures can have it.

2. Preparatory to this hope there must be a humbling conviction of sin, and our danger and helplessness, for the good hope implies deliverance therefrom. Those can know nothing of hope who have known nothing of fear.

3. It implies an acquaintance with the gospel (Col 1:23) for it is derived from gospel promises, and is connected with gospel faith.

4. The term good distinguishes it from every other kind of hope (Job 8:13-14; Job 27:8; Pro 8:32).

II. Why it is called a good hope.

1. Its object is good–not worldly honour, filthy lucre, sensual delight, but the pure, spiritual, exalted felicities of the heavenly world.

2. Its foundation is good–not the stumbling stone of human merit, but the adamant rock of Divine love.

3. Its effect is good. The man who has it is the better as well as the happier for it (1Jn 3:3; Psa 119:166). (G. Burder.)

Good hope through grace

I. The gift.

1. What is this good hope?

(1) Hope is sometimes put for the thing hoped for (Pro 13:12; Col 1:5) such as

(a) The coming of Christ to our comfort (Tit 2:13; 1Pe 1:13).

(b) The resurrection (Act 2:26; Act 24:15; Act 26:6-8).

(c) The vision of God (1Jn 3:2).

(d) Our heavenly inheritance (1Pe 1:4; Tit 1:2; Rom 5:2).

(2) Sometimes hope is put for the reasons and causes of hoping; and so he who gives me solid reasons for hoping gives me good hope (Heb 7:19; Rom 15:4).

(3) The act or grace of hope is good in respect of itself (Lam 3:26) or the measure of it. That is good hope which is most able to do its office (1Pe 1:3; Heb 6:11). Briefly the grace of hope is two-fold.

(a) There is a hope which is the immediate fruit of regeneration, and is a constitutive part of the new creature (1Pe 1:3).

(b) There is a hope which is the fruit of experience, and belongs to the seasoned Christian, who has approved his fidelity to God, and made trial of Gods fidelity to him (Rom 5:4)..

2. The effects of this hope.

(1) Support in troubles. When we are persuaded of a happy issue, we are the better kept from fainting (Php 1:19-20).

(2) Encouragement in working. It is hope that sets the whole world a-work (1Co 9:10) and the Christian (Act 26:7).

3. This hope is the free gift of God.

(1) It is His gift. He not only gives us objective grace–the mercy of the gospel, or its warrant in the promises, but subjective grace by His Holy Spirit whose work is necessary.

(a) By way of illumination that we may see what is the hope of His calling (Eph 1:18; 2Pe 1:9). A short-sighted man cannot see things at a distance; not from any defect in the object, but through the fault in his eyes.

(b) By way of inclination that one may seek after these things as our portion and happiness (Act 16:14; Gal 5:5).

(c) By way of excitation (Rom 15:13).

(2) It is free gift.

(a) The matter of hope is Gods free, undeserved mercy (Psa 130:7). Without this there were no hope, and therefore the saints make this their anchor hold (Psa 13:5; Jud 1:21).

(b) The grace of hope is the fruit of the Lords mercy; such are our ill deservings that nothing else could incline Him to give it us (1Pe 1:3).

II. What encouragement it is to prayer that God has given us a good hope through grace.

1. God would not invite and raise a hope to disappoint it (Psa 119:49).

2. He who gives us the hope will give us all things necessary to the thing hoped for (1Pe 5:10).

3. Those who have received good hope through grace have these to rest upon.

(1) Gods nature as He is merciful and gracious (Jdg 13:23).

(2) His promise, so that we may trust His faithfulness (Rom 8:28; Jer 32:40). (T. Manton, D. D.)

The inspiration of hope

Hope is an active grace. It is like the spring in the watch: it sets all the wheels of the soul in motion. Hope of a crop makes the husbandman sow his seed; hope of victory makes the soldier fight; and a true hope of glory makes a Christian vigorously pursue glory. (T. Watson.)

The inspiration of hope

The hope of Christ is a staff in the hands of the weary before the arm of Christ is stretched out on which he maybe privileged to lean. Hope is a marvellous inspiration which every heart confesses in some season of extremest peril. It can put nerve into the languid, and fleetness into the feet of exhaustion. Let the slim and feathery palm grove be dimly descried, though ever so remotely, and the caravan will on, spite of the fatigue of the traveller and the simooms blinding, to where, by the fringy rootlets, the desert waters flow. Let there glimmer one star through the murky waste of night, and though the spars be shattered, and the sails be riven, and the hurricane howls for its prey, the brave sailor will be lashed to the helm, and see already, through the tempests breaking, calm waters and a spotless sky. Oh! who is there, however hapless his lot or forlorn his surroundings, who is beyond the influence of this choicest of earths comforters–this faithful friend which survives the flight of riches, and the wreck of reputation, and the break of health, and even the loss of dear and cherished friends. (W. M. Punshon, LL. D.)

Hope without grace

A hope is to some like a passport, which one keeps quietly in his pocket till the time for the journey, and then produces it. Or like life preservers, which hang useless around the vessel until the hour of danger comes, when the captain calls on every passenger to save himself; and then they are taken down and blown up, and each man, with his hope under his arm, strikes out for the land: and so such men would keep their religious hope hanging until death comes; and then take it down and inflate it, that it may buoy them up, and float them over the dark river to the heavenly shore. Or as the inhabitants of Block Island keep their boats hauled high upon the beach, and only use them now and then, when they would cross to the mainland; so such men keep their hopes high and dry upon the shore of life, only to be used when they have to cross the flood that divides this island of time from the mainland of eternity. (H. W. Beecher.)

Hope and steadfastness

A good Methodist in a prayer meeting said that when, many years since, he crossed the ocean he was much in the habit of looking over the ships side, particularly near the prow, and watching the vessel as she steadily ploughed her way through the waves. Just under the bowsprit was the image of a human face. The face to him came to be invested with wondrous interest. Whatever the hour or the weather that face seemed ever steadfastly looking to port. Sometimes in great tempests the waves would completely submerge the face of his friend. But as soon as the vessel recovered from its lurch, on looking again over the ships side, the placid face was still seen faithfully looking out for the port. And so, he exclaimed, I humbly trust it is in my own case. Yea, whatever the trials of the past, the toils and disappointments of the present, by the grace of God I am still looking out for port, and not long hence I anticipate a triumphant and abundant entrance. (W. Baxendale.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

2Th 2:16-17

Now our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and God, even our Father

Divine love and its gifts

It is an ill wind which blows no one any good.

We owe this prayer to the needless alarms of the Thessalonians.

I. The blessed fact of the Divine love. This is a fact not to be learned from a dictionary or uttered in speech, but to be felt.

1. God hath loved us.

(1) The text does not say that God pitied us, although that would be true. You may pity a person whom you dislike.

(2) Nor does it say that God has had mercy on us. A man is merciful to his east, to his enemies, but it does not follow that he loves them.

(3) Nor is the word benevolence. A mother is not benevolent to her child, a bridegroom to his bride.

(4) Theologians talk of Gods love of complacency, but that is too cold.

(5) We must keep to the simple term, love. You know, mother, how you love the dear child in your arms. It seems part of yourself. Now, as God has united us to Himself by cords of love He thinks of us as He thinks of Himself.

2. He hath loved us, so insignificant, frail, foolish, sinful, and therefore so uncomely, ungrateful, provoking, deserving to be abhorred. We can understand His love to apostles, martyrs, etc., but that He should love us is wonderful.

3. This love is the great fountain of our Spiritual blessings. What is called the source of the Thames is a tiny rivulet; its real source is the whole watershed. But suppose the Thames a full-grown river from one fountain head, what a sight it would be. Now, the mercy of God to us in Christ leaps in all its fulness from the infinite depths of Gods love.

4. The apostle joins the name of the Lord Jesus with that of God the Father, denoting not only equality of being, but holy concert in all that concerns our well-being. Christ is the gift of the Fathers love, but Jesus loves His own.

5. Christ is here put first because He is first to us in our experience. We began our dealings with heaven not by going first to the Father, but to the Son.

6. Christ is ours. Paul might have written, the Lord, etc., but when he was testifying of this great love he must use a word of possession. Faith takes hold of Jesus and says, He is all my salvation, and all my desire.

7. This love enables us, too, to say. Our Father (1Jn 3:1).

8. We are not told when that love began, only, hath loved us. He loved us when we first came to Him repenting, when we were at the swine trough, ere we had a being, ere the world was formed, from everlasting.

II. The manifestation of this love.

1. Everlasting consolation. He found us wretched, when the arrows of conviction were sticking in our hearts; then He came to us with His consolations. Since then consolation has always followed on the heels of tribulation. What are our consolations?

(1) That God has forgiven us.

(2) That His promises are Yea and Amen in Christ.

(3) That all things work together for our good.

(4) That because Christ lives we shall live also, and live with Him.

2. Good hope. It is good because based on a good foundation. The fanatics hopes will pass away with the vapours which produced them, but the believers hope is founded in grace. Why is it, then, that some believers hopes flicker? Because they get away from a hope in grace and look towards themselves.

III. The prayer flowing out of this.

1. That God would comfort your hearts. This is of the utmost importance. Cheerfulness ought to be the atmosphere you breathe, and if you believe that God loves you, you cannot but be happy.

2. That he would stablish us in every good word and work. This establishment is derived from the consciousness of Gods love. Dont be disheartened at the discouraging signs of the times. God loves you; work and bear witness for Him. Dark nights are but the prelude to bright days. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Free grace a motive for free giving

I. It is of the utmost importance that believers should enjoy consolation. Every commander knows that if he has not his soldiers in good heart, there may be a great many of them, and they may be well trained, but the battle is not likely to be won. This importance is seen–

1. In the very existence of the text. It is the prayer of an inspired man.

2. In the fact that Christ is called upon Himself, without any intermediate agency, and God, even our Father (2Th 3:16).

3. In that it affects the Christians heart. It is well to have a strong hand, how else shall we labour? to have a firm tread, how else shall we stand? Yet these are secondary matters compared with a healthy heart (Joh 14:1).

4. Because it is needful to prevent impatience and other evils. Perhaps it was the lack of comfort which led certain of the Thessalonians to preach the immediate coming of the Lord; their impatience excited the wish, and the wish the assertion. When men lose the present comfort of plain gospel doctrines, they are apt to begin speculating (2Th 3:5). Laziness and despondency lead many to say, Why are His chariots so long in coming?

5. Because it promotes fruitfulness (2Th 2:17). When we are not happy in the Lord we do not give ourselves heartily to His service (2Th 3:13).

II. Gospel consolation is freely bestowed.

1. It is described as a gift; and nothing can be freer than a gift. We have purchased nothing; what have we to purchase it with?

2. This freeness is seen in every part of it.

(1) It covers the past, Which hath loved us. Why? The sole reply is, Even so father, for so it seemed good in Thy sight. Shall not the bridegroom elect his own bride.

(2) As for the present, He hath given us everlasting consolation. The pardon and perfect righteousness of Christ, lie in, union to, marriage with Him is ours, assuredly as a gift; how could it be otherwise?

(3) As for the future, we have good hope through grace, in which there is not a trace of legal claim. It comes not by way of reward, but of Divine favour.

3. This freeness is shown by the persons from whom the consolation comes. The comfort of the gospel must be free since it is brought to us by Christ, and God our Father. A father does not pay wages to his children, his gifts are freely bestowed out of the love of his fatherly heart. What father expects to be paid for what he does for his sons and daughters?

4. This freeness is shown by the source of consolation–the Divine love. What can there be in me for God to love? Love is unpurchaseable. Consolation is through grace.

III. Since the consolations of Gods love have been so freely bestowed, they should lead us to a life of holy benevolence, We ought to be free in our giving to others, since God has been so free in His giving to us.

1. In every benevolent enterprise Christian men should take a hearty interest (2Th 2:17).

2. This interest should be shown in actions as well as words. In the best MSS. work comes before word. Some people think that word should be everything and work nothing. These professors speak a great deal about what they will do, talk much about what others ought to do, and more about what others fail to do.

3. This should be done without pressure. No one could lay constraint upon God to bless His people; no pressure was put upon Christ to redeem them. Even so should men give to God out of an overflowing heart. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Everlasting consolation

1. The prayer passes by a sudden transition from the human duty to the Divine grace.

2. The Lord Jesus is the Being addressed, but with a peculiar relation to the Father. In only one other instance are Father and Son united by a verb in the singular, and in no other instance is His name placed first. This should be noticed by those who hold that Pauls estimate of his Saviour only reached by degrees an exaggerated loyalty.

3. It is a rule that God should be addressed under an aspect appropriate to the specific supplication. The God of all grace turns a countenance infinitely varied towards His petitioners. Here the apostle is about to ask that the Thessalonians may be consoled, strengthened, and established, and accordingly, with exquisite precision, he calls upon Christ, and God as the everlasting Consoler and Strengthener through grace.

I. The invocation. God in Christ is invoked as having loved us.

1. And more generally.

(1) This is St. Pauls first allusion to the supreme and ultimate source of redemption. It is the first clear declaration that in the economy of human salvation love has the preeminence. The only saying that could surpass this was reserved for St. John in his first Epistle, the last document of revelation.

(2) The link between the love that gave and the gift itself is grace. The love of God must by its very nature impart. There is something of grace in every Divine gift; but grace is the medium of the gifts of the love of God as they reach us through redemption.

2. More particularly in the gift of love.

(1) The gift is two-fold and comprises the whole sum of our benefit in Christ. The blessing is an everlasting consolation as it comes from God, and a good hope as we receive it.

(2) Everlasting consolation is a phrase nowhere else used. It implies the healing of the great wound of sin, and the removal of its consequences; an eternal assuagement of a sorrow that would otherwise know no end.

(a) Nothing is more certain than that of itself the misery of sin must last forever; it has in its nature no resources of cure, no elements of change.

(b) The consolation is eternal, unlike the beggarly and fleeting solaces of time, in which it is the joy that endureth for a night, while sorrow comes in the morning. It is an eternal consolation springing from an eternal redemption (Heb 9:12).

(c) But it is treasured up only for those who flee to it for refuge. Hence adjective of boundless meaning is elsewhere applied to the exact opposite everlasting destruction.

(3) The good hope describes that part of the gift which has reference to the future, and is another unparalleled expression, although it has near approximations. As the Epistle to the Hebrews supplies eternal redemption, so it supplies bringing in of a better hope. This hope embraces the whole Christian benediction, for such blessings as are received are only earnests of something better. It is a hope good in itself; better in relation to the promises given to the fathers; it is really the best inheritance that God can give, Christ merit, or we receive.

II. The prayer.

1. Generally we understand the purport of a prayer by its immediate occasion. Confidence within and stability without were the graces that the apostle aimed to strengthen (verse 2). In the former Epistle the coming of death was the disturbing thought; in this it is the coming of the Lord of death foreshadowed by the man of sin. Hence the abundance of hortatory language in both. But a higher comforter than Paul was necessary. Hence the sudden turn, May the Lord Himself comfort your hearts.

2. The comfort prayed for is not what we call by the name. It is always in Scripture at once exhortation to the soul and invigoration as the result. The heart here is not the seat of the feelings, but the centre of the man; and the inner man is comforted when words are spoken to him by the Spirit which strengthens his own energies (Joh 6:63).

3. The idea of establishment in Christian life is as familiar in this Epistle as that of consolation. By keeping the heart strong in His consolation, the Lord stablishes the life in His obedience. But all is dependent on firm faith in Christian doctrine (verse 15). Whatever scruple may arise on this subject is obviated by the reflection that word and work are here linked into one idea. The Christian life is one of entire goodness, based upon and growing out of perfect truth. Conclusion: A touching comment on our prayer is given in chap. 3:8. It is as if the Divine Spirit had without delay, while he was yet speaking, ratified the request. (W. B. Pope, D. D.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 16. Now our Lord Jesus] As all your grace came from God through Christ, so the power that is necessary to strengthen and confirm you unto the end must come in the same way.

Everlasting consolation] The glad tidings of the Gospel, and the comfort which ye have received through believing; a gift which God had in his original purpose, in reference to the Gentiles; a purpose which has respected all times and places, and which shall continue to the conclusion of time; for the Gospel is everlasting, and shall not be superseded by any other dispensation. It is the last and best which God has provided for man; and it is good tidings, everlasting consolation-a complete system of complete peace and happiness. The words may also refer to the happiness which the believing Thessalonians then possessed.

And good hope through grace] The hope of the Gospel was the resurrection of the body, and the final glorification of it and the soul throughout eternity. This was the good hope which the Thessalonians had; not a hope that they should be pardoned or sanctified, c. Pardon and holiness they enjoyed, therefore they were no objects of hope but the resurrection of the body and eternal glory were necessarily future; these they had in expectation; these they hoped for; and, through the grace which they had already received they had a good hope-a well-grounded expectation, of this glorious state.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

The apostle here addeth prayer to his exhortation: the word and prayer are to go together, whether it be written or preached; as the twelve told the disciples, Act 6:4; We will give ourselves to the word and prayer. He had planted them a church, but he knew God gave the increase, 1Co 3:6. The persons he prays to are here, first,

our Lord Jesus Christ; which was a good argument in Athanasiuss time, for the dignity of Christ, against the Arians; and so it is still, and now against the Socinians: for God alone is the object of worship, and the bestower of those gifts which he here prays for. Only the apostle, when he mentions Christ, delights to mention him in his relation to his people; so he doth for the most part in all his Epistles, and so in this text. He useth a pronoun possessive, our, for it is relation and interest which commendeth and sweeteneth any good to us. And the other person is

God the Father, who is the Father of lights, from whom cometh every good and perfect gift, Jam 1:17; and whom in his prayer he mentions together with Christ, because no access can be to God but through Christ, and no good gift descends to us but through him. And so God the Father is mentioned in his relation to his people also, God, even our Father; and when Christ is ours, in him God is ours also. And the apostle thus looking, and thus speaking of Christ and of God, strengthens his own and their faith, for the obtaining of the gifts he prays for.

Which hath loved us: another argument is from Gods love: our doubts in prayer arise more from unbelief in Gods will, than his power, which will vanish when we look upon him in his love to us; for the nature of love is velle bonum, to will good to whom we love. Another is, from gifts already received, which are, first,

everlasting consolation; whereby it appears, that Gods love is communicative, and that it is not common, but his special love he spake of. Outward comforts are common gifts, but these the apostle means not here, because they are not everlasting; they continue not beyond death; they begin in time and end with time: but this consolation begins in time, and abides to eternity; and this man cannot give, the world cannot give, nor we give it ourselves, God giveth it only; and he gives it to whom he loveth, as every man seeks to comfort those whom he loves: and though some whom God loves may not feel his consolation, yet they have a right, and God hath it in reserve for them: Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart, Psa 97:11. And though sometimes it may be interrupted where it is felt, yet not so as to be destroyed in its foundation, and to hinder its return, either in the temporal or eternal world, where it will be everlasting; so that as God is styled the God of all grace, 1Pe 5:10; so, the God of all comfort, 2Co 1:3. And by us in the text he means these Thessalonians as well as himself, for he had spoken before of their joy in the Holy Ghost, 1Th 1:6. And the other gift is, good hope. Hope, as a natural affection, is the expectation of the soul; and the object of it is bonum futurum, arduum, possibile; good, future good, difficult, and possible. But, as a grace, it is the expectation of the good things God hath promised, and not yet exhibited. And it is called good hope, good by way of eminency; with respect to the objects of it, which are eminently good; the certainty of it, it will not make ashamed, Rom 5:5; compared to an anchor sure and stedfast, Heb 6:19; the regularness of it; things promised only, and as they are promised; else it is presumption, and not hope: the fruits of it; peace, purity, industry, and consolation also, and therefore joined with it here in the text: as the apostle speaks elsewhere of rejoicing in hope, Rom 5:2; Rom 12:12; Heb 3:6. Or, as some, it is called good hope, with respect to the degree they had attained of it in their hearts; though they had not yet the good things promised, yet they had good hope of enjoying them. And by this epithet he distinguisheth this hope from the carnal vain hope of the men of the world, and the false hope of hypocrites, Job 8:13; and themselves also from the state they were in when Gentiles, without hope, Eph 2:12. And this also is Gods gift, as he is called the God of hope, Rom 15:13, not only as the object, but the author of it. And both these gifts are here said to be through grace; for else we could have had no ground either of hope or comfort. Sin had shut up our way to both, it is only grace that hath opened it to us. What we enjoy at present, and what we hope to enjoy, is all through grace. And from these gifts already received the apostle strengthens his faith about the other things he here prays for.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

16, 17. himselfby His ownmight, as contrasted with our feebleness; ensuring the efficacy ofour prayer. Here our Lord Jesus stands first; in 1Th3:11, “God our Father.”

which . . . loved usinthe work of our redemption. Referring both to our Lord Jesus(Rom 8:37; Gal 2:20)and God our Father (Joh3:16).

everlasting consolationnottransitory, as worldly consolations in trials (Rom 8:38;Rom 8:39). This for all timepresent, and then “good hope” for the future [ALFORD].

through gracerather asGreek “IN grace”; to be joined to “hath given.”Grace is the element in which the gift was made.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself,…. The apostle having exhorted the saints to perseverance, closes this second part of his epistle, relating to the coming of Christ, with a prayer for the saints, that they might be comforted and established. The objects addressed are Christ and the Father. And in each of their characters are reasons contained, encouraging to believe the petitions will be regarded; for it is “our Lord Jesus Christ himself” who is prayed unto; who is our Lord, not by creation only, in which sense he is Lord of all, but by redemption, and through a marriage relation; and he is our Jesus, our Saviour, and Redeemer; and our Christ, the anointed prophet, priest, and King; even he himself, who stands in these relations and offices; and what may not be expected from him?

and God, even our Father; not by creation, but by adoption; and as it is in his power, he has a heart to give, and will give good things unto his children: and inasmuch as Christ is equally addressed as the object of prayer as the Father, and is indeed here set before him, or first mentioned, it may be concluded that there is an entire equality between them, and that Christ is truly and properly God; otherwise religious worship, of which prayer is a considerable branch, would not be given him, nor would he be set upon an equal foot with the other, and much less before him. The Arabic version reads, “our Lord Jesus Christ, our Father”; and the Ethiopic version also, “our Lord Jesus Christ, God our Father”; as if the whole of this, or all these epithets and characters, belong to Christ, and he was the only person addressed; but the common reading is best: which hath loved us; this refers both to the Father and to Christ. The Father had loved them with an everlasting and unchangeable love, as appeared by his choosing them unto salvation by Christ, securing them in his hands, and making an everlasting covenant with him, on their account; by sending his Son to be the Saviour of them; by regenerating, quickening, and calling them by his grace, adopting them into his family, pardoning all their sins, justifying their persons, and giving them both a meetness for, and a right unto eternal glory. And Christ, he had loved them with the same love; and which he showed by undertaking their cause in the council of peace; by espousing their persons in the covenant of grace; by assuming their nature in the fulness of time; by dying in their room and stead; and by his continued intercession and mediation for them, and by many other instances. And since they had such a share in the affection both of the Father and the Son, it need not to have been doubted but that what was prayed for would be granted: to which is added,

and hath given us everlasting consolation: all true solid consolation is from God and Christ: God is called the God of all comfort; and if there be any real consolation, it is in, by, and from Christ; and it is the gift of God, an instance of his grace and favour, and not a point of merit; the least degree of consolation is not deserved, and ought not to be reckoned small: and it is everlasting; it does not indeed always continue, as to the sensible enjoyment of it, in this life, being often interrupted by indwelling sin, the hidings of God’s and the temptations of Satan, yet the ground and foundation of it is everlasting; such as the everlasting love of God, the everlasting covenant of grace, the everlasting righteousness of Christ, and everlasting salvation by him, and he himself, who is the consolation of Israel, as well as the blessed Spirit, the Comforter, who ever abides as the earnest and pledge of future happiness. And the present spiritual joy of the saints is what no man can take away from them, and what will eventually issue in everlasting consolation, without any interruption in the world to come, when sorrow and sighing shall flee away, and all tears be wiped from their eyes:

and good hope through grace. The Syriac version reads, “in his grace”; and the Ethiopic version, “a good hope; and his grace”, hope, as well as faith, is the gift of God, a free grace gift of his: and it may be called a good one, because God is the author of it; and it is built on a good foundation, the person, blood, and righteousness of Christ; and is of good things to come, and therefore called the blessed hope; and is what is sure and certain, and will never deceive, nor make ashamed; and since consolation is given here, and hope of happiness hereafter, it may be concluded the following requests will be regarded.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

Apostolic Prayer.

A. D. 52.

16 Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, 17 Comfort your hearts, and stablish you in every good word and work.

In these words we have the apostle’s earnest prayer for them, in which observe,

I. To whom he prays: Our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father. We may and should direct our prayers, not only to God the Father, through the mediation of our Lord Jesus Christ, but also to our Lord Jesus Christ himself; and should pray in his name unto God, not only as his Father but as our Father in and through him.

II. From what he takes encouragement in his prayer–from the consideration of what God had already done for him and them: Who hath loved us, and given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, v. 16. Here observe, 1. The love of God is the spring and fountain of all the good we have or hope for; our election, vocation, justification, and salvation, are all owing to the love of God in Christ Jesus. 2. From this fountain in particular all our consolation flows. And the consolation of the saints is an everlasting consolation. The comforts of the saints are not dying things; they shall not die with them. The spiritual consolations God gives none shall deprive them of; and God will not take them away: because he love them with an everlasting love, therefore they shall have everlasting consolation. 3. Their consolation is founded on the hope of eternal life. They rejoice in hope of the glory of God, and are not only patient, but joyful, in tribulations; and there is good reason for these strong consolations, because the saints have good hope: their hope is grounded on the love of God, the promise of God, and the experience they have had of the power, the goodness, and the faithfulness of God, and it is good hope through grace; the free grace and mercy of God are what they hope for, and what their hopes are founded on, and not on any worth or merit of their own.

III. What it is that he asks of God for them–that he would comfort their hearts, and establish them in every good word and work, v. 17. God had given them consolations, and he prayed that they might have more abundant consolation. There was good hope, through grace, that they would be preserved, and he prayed that they might be established: it is observable how comfort and establishment are here joined together. Note therefore, 1. Comfort is a means of establishment; for the more pleasure we take in the word, and work, and ways of God, the more likely we shall be to persevere therein. And, 2. Our establishment in the ways of God is a likely means in order to comfort; whereas, if we are wavering in faith, and of a doubtful mind, or if we are halting and faltering in our duty, no wonder if we are strangers to the pleasures and joys of religion. What is it that lies at the bottom of all our uneasiness, but our unsteadiness in religion? We must be established in every good word and work, in the word of truth and the work of righteousness: Christ must be honoured by our good works and good words; and those who are sincere will endeavour to do both, and in so doing they may hope for comfort and establishment, till at length their holiness and happiness be completed.

Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary

And God our Father ( [] ). It is uncertain whether the first article is genuine as it is absent in B D. Usually Paul has the Father before Christ except here, 2Cor 13:13; Gal 1:1.

Which loved us ( ). This singular articular participle refers to , “though it is difficult to see how St. Paul could otherwise have expressed his thought, if he had intended to refer to the Son, as well as to the Father. There is probably no instance in St. Paul of a plural adjective or verb, when the two Persons of the Godhead are mentioned” (Lightfoot).

Eternal comfort ( ). Distinct feminine form of here instead of masculine as in Mt 25:46.

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

Through grace [ ] . Better, in grace, as the element of God ‘s gift. Const. with hath given, not with hath loved and hath given.

Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament

1) “Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself” (autos de ho kurios hemon lesous Christos) “now himself, the Lord Jesus Christ”, the one who called us to Himself for salvation, comfort, and service, Mat 11:28; 1Th 5:24; 1Co 1:9; 1Co 10:13.

2) “And God, even our Father” (kai ho theos ho pater hemon) “and God, the Father of us”, (brethren); who sent His Son, His love for us, Joh 3:16.

3) “Which hath loved us” (ho agapesas hemas)who has loved us; and prayed for us, as an expression of His love, Joh 17:15; Joh 17:20; Eph 5:25.

4) “And hath given us everlasting consolation” (kai dous parklesin aionian) “and having given comfort eternal”, in all our needs of comfort, 2Co 1:3-4; Heb 13:5.

5) “And good hope through grace” (kai elpid agathen en Chariti) “and good (genuine) hope by grace”; Eph 2:8-9; 1Pe 1:3. The resurrected, and living, and interceding, and coming Christ, is the anchor of our grace, hope, and help, sure and steadfast, Heb 6:17-20.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

16 Now the Lord himself. When he ascribes to Christ a work altogether Divine, and represents him, in common with the Father, as the Author of the choicest blessings, as we have in this a clear proof of the divinity of Christ, so we are admonished, that we cannot obtain anything from God unless we seek it in Christ himself: and when he asks that God may give him those things which he had enjoined, he shews clearly enough how little influence exhortations have, unless God inwardly move and affect our hearts. Unquestionably there will be but an empty sound striking upon the ear, if doctrine does not receive efficacy from the Spirit.

What he afterwards adds, who hath loved you, and hath given consolation, etc., relates to confidence in asking; for he would have the Thessalonians feel persuaded that God will do what he prays for. And from what does he prove this? Because he once shewed that they were dear to him, while he has already conferred upon them distinguished favors, and in this manner has bound himself to them for the time to come. This is what he means by everlasting consolation. The term hope, also, has the same object in view — that they may confidently expect a never-failing continuance of gifts. But what does he ask? That God may sustain their hearts by his consolation; for this is his office, to keep them from giving way through anxiety or distrust; and farther, that he may give them perseverance, both in a pious and holy course of life, and in sound doctrine; for I am of opinion, that it is rather of this than of common discourse that he speaks, so that this agrees with what goes before.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES

2Th. 2:16. Everlasting consolation and good hope.Consolation, or comfort, is ministered by the Paraclete (Joh. 14:16; Act. 9:31), who abides for ever with those who are Christs.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.2Th. 2:16-17

Prayer an Expression of Ministerial Anxiety.

The apostle had warned the Thessalonians of the errors that were becoming rife among them. Indeed, the existence of these errors, and the grave injury they threatened to the faith of the new converts, prompted him to write these epistlesthe first in a series of magnificent apostolic polemics. The apostle knew that if the simplicity of the gospel was vitiated at the beginning of its world-wide mission, unspeakable disaster would ensue, as the checkered history of the Church in the early centuries unhappily proved. Hence his anxiety, not only to clearly state, but with all his resources of logic and persuasion, resolutely to defend the cardinal principles of the gospel. He not only argues, but prays. These verses teach that prayer is the expression of ministerial anxiety.

I. It recognises the need of spiritual consolation.Now our Lord comfort your hearts (2Th. 2:16-17). You have sorrowed over the loss of friends, and harassed yourselves as to their condition in another world. I have pointed out to you that your fears were groundless (1Th. 4:13-18). Now, I commend you God as the Source and Giver of all consolation, and pray that He may specially comfort you. It is Gods presence, says Burroughs, that constitutes the saints morning. As the stars may impart some light, and yet the brightness of all combined cannot form the light of day, but when the sun appears there is day forthwith, so God may make some comfort arise to a soul from secondary and inferior means; but it is He Himself alone who, by the shining of His face and the smiles of His countenance, causes morning. A comfort that is made up of our fancies is like a spiders web that is weaved out of its bowels, and is gone and swept away with the turn of a besom.

II. It recognises the perils that beset the path of obedience.And establish you in every good word and work (2Th. 2:17)or, according to the Revised Version, every good work and word. Work is better than speech, deeds more eloquent than words, though both are necessary. The best safeguard against temptation is to be employed. The busy man is tempted by one devil, the idle man by a thousand. The force of gunpowder is not known till some spark falls on it; so the most placid natures do not reveal the evil that is in them till they are assailed by some fierce and sudden temptation. Excellence in anything can only be reached by hard work; so stability in grace is attained only by being diligently engaged in Gods service. Steadfastness is not dull quiescence: it is self-absorbing activity. If you would be strong, you must work.

III. It recognises the divine source of all spiritual help.

1. That this help is the outcome of divine love. Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God even our Father, which hath loved us (2Th. 2:16). God helps because He loves. His love evokes the best and noblest in us, as the master-musician brings out melodies from an instrument that inferior players have failed to produce.

Love is a passion

Which kindles honour into noblest acts.

O let Thy love constrain us

To give our hearts to Thee;

Let nothing henceforth pain us

But that which paineth Thee.

Our joy, our one endeavour,

Through suffering, conflict, shame,

To serve Thee, gracious Saviour,

And magnify Thy name.

2. That this help meets every possible exigency of the Christian life.And hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace (2Th. 2:16). The consolation refers to everything in the present, the good hope to everything in the future. The consolation is constant, everlasting, as flowing from inexhaustible sources, and is ever available in all the changes and needs of life; and the hope turns our fears into confidence and our sorrows into joy. When the frail barques of the Portuguese went sailing south, they found the sea so stormy at the southern point of Africa that they named it the Cape of Storms; but after it had been well rounded by bolder navigators, they named it the Cape of Good Hope. So, by the divine help afforded us, many a rough cape of storms has been transformed into a cape of good hope. All spiritual help is given through gracethe free, unmerited favour of Godand is therefore a fitting subject of prayer.

Lessons.

1. Every minister should be emphatically a man of prayer.

2. Prayer for others has a reflex benefit on the suppliant.

3. An anxious spirit finds relief and comfort in prayer.

GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES

2Th. 2:16-17. St. Pauls Prayer for the Thessalonians.

I. The objects the apostle addressed.

1. God, even our Father.

2. Our Lord Jesus Christ.

II. The gifts the apostle acknowledged.

1. The manifestation of divine love.

2. The communication of saving grace.

3. The bestowment of Christian hope.

III. The blessings the apostle requested.

1. Increasing felicity in the Lord.

2. Persevering stability in the truth.Eta.

2Th. 2:16. A Good Hope through Grace.

I. The grace of hope.

1. Refers to the resurrection of the body.

2. To eternal life to be enjoyed by both soul and body.

3. Pre-requisites of this hope.Conviction of sin. An experimental acquaintance with the gospel.

II. The excellency of this hope.A good hope.

1. In opposition to the hopes of worldly men.

2. It is a lively hope.

3. The object of it is an infinite and eternal good.

4. It has a good foundation.

5. It produces good effects.

III. The source of this hope.Through grace.

1. Man is the subject of infinite demerit.

2. Christ alone possesses infinite merit.

3. The Scripture warns against all self dependence.Helps for the Pulpit.

Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Text (2Th. 2:16-17)

16 Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, 17 comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word.

Translation and Paraphrase

16.

Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our father, who has loved us and given (us) everlasting consolation and good hope by (his) favor,

17.

May he comfort your hearts and strengthen (you) in every good work and word.

Notes (2Th. 2:16-17)

There is quite a contrast between the eternal destruction awaiting the sinner (2Th. 1:9), and the everlasting consolation which the Christian has. Gods consolations are eternal in their effects.

These verses form the second of the prayers that close every chapter in II Thessalonians. In our outline, we call this a prayer that they be comforted and stablished.

There is no thought in the gospel message more precious than the thought that God loves us. Rev. 1:5 : Unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood. 1Jn. 4:19 : We love him, because he first loved us.

Notice the close relation of God and Jesus. Both of them give us everlasting consolation. Both of them are asked to comfort and stablish the Thessalonians. Paul addresses his prayer to both. We do not honor God by placing Jesus second. They rank together. See Joh. 5:23.

We so often need spiritual consolation. Paul prayed, The Lord . . . comfort your hearts.

We have good hope from God, and our hope comes through His grace, that is, His favor. Our hope does not rest on our own works or our own merit. Because our hope rests on His favor, and because His favor is as high as the heavens, our hope is very sure.

In this prayer we sense Pauls anxiety for the Thessalonians. He was burdened greatly, desiring that they would become established firmly in the faith. Stablish means to make stable, set firmly, set fast, strengthen, make firm. (Thayer)

An anxious spirit, such as Pauls finds relief and comfort in prayer. Every minister must emphatically be a man of prayer.

We notice that both our words and our works must be established. What we say and what we do must both be right in the sight of God. By thy words thou shalt be justified and by thy words thou shalt be condemned. Mat. 12:3.

STUDY SUGGESTION

Turn now to the Did You Learn? questions that follow [see Chapter Comments], and see if you can answer questions 46 to 63.

DID YOU LEARN?
(Questions over II Thessalonians, chapter 2)

What is the topic of II Thessalonians, chapter 2?

What idea had greatly excited the Thessalonians? (2Th. 2:2)

Concerning what two things did Paul beseech the Thessalonians? (2Th. 2:1)

Did the Thessalonians think that the day of the Lord was near or already here? (2Th. 2:2)

What three events were to precede the day of the Lord? (2Th. 2:1-2)

What three sources of misinformation does Paul list as possibly causing the excitement? (2Th. 2:1-2)

Explain what each of these three sources of misinformation may refer to.

What is another word for falling away? (2Th. 2:3)

From what would people fall away? (2Th. 2:3)

10.

Did Paul predict the falling away or a falling away? (2Th. 2:3)

11.

The man of sin is also called the man of __________________________________. (2Th. 2:3)

12.

What does the phrase son of perdition mean? (2Th. 2:3)

13.

Who is called the son of perdition in the gospels? (2Th. 2:3)

14.

Does the Bible specifically connect the man of sin and antichrist? (2Th. 2:3)

15.

According to the futurist (or pre-millennial) view, what is (1) the falling away, (2) the man of sin, and (3) that which hinders the appearance of the man of sin? (2Th. 2:3)

16.

Did the early church fathers regard the man of sin as being one man, or a succession of men at the head of a system? (2,:3)

17.

Are moral conditions in the world worse now than they were in Pauls time? (2Th. 2:3)

18.

How long have we been living in the last days? (2Th. 2:3)

19.

According to the historical view (favored in this book), what is (1) the falling away, (2) the man of sin, and (3) that which hindered the appearance of the man of sin? (2Th. 2:3)

20.

True or false (circle which)The mystery of lawlessness was already working in Pauls time. (2Th. 2:3; 2Th. 2:7)

21.

Mention several departures from the New Testament faith which might be part of the falling away. (2Th. 2:3)

22.

What two things does the man of sin do toward all that is called God? (2Th. 2:4)

23.

Where shall the man of sin sit? (2Th. 2:4)

24.

What does he exhibit himself to be? (2Th. 2:4)

25.

What is the temple of God where the man of sin sits? (2Th. 2:4)

26.

Name some people who have exhibited themselves as if they were God. (2Th. 2:4)

27.

How do you know that Paul did not once tell the Thessalonians that Christs coming was very near, and then later say that certain things had to happen first? (2Th. 2:5)

28.

What kept the man of sin from appearing long before he did appear? (2Th. 2:6)

29.

What is the relationship between the word withholdeth in 2Th. 2:6 and let in 2Th. 2:7? What do these words mean?

30.

Is the force that restrained the man of sin an abstract force or a personal figure? (2Th. 2:6-7)

31.

Explain the phrase mystery of iniquity. (2Th. 2:7)

32.

What is the restraining power, according to the view favored in this book? (2Th. 2:7)

33.

Explain how this restraining power hindered the appearance of the man of sin. (2Th. 2:7)

34.

List four ways in which the papacy fulfills the descriptions of the man of sin. (2Th. 2:7)

35.

How will the wicked one be destroyed? (2Th. 2:8)

36.

Is there one parousia of the Lord when He takes his church out of the world, and then another parousia when He will destroy the wicked one? (2Th. 2:8)

37.

Does miracle-working power prove that a man is pleasing to God? (2Th. 2:9)

38.

The coming of the Wicked one is after the working of whom? (2Th. 2:9)

39.

Was the man of sin to work miracles? (2Th. 2:9)

40.

What does the phrase deceivableness of unrighteousness mean? (2Th. 2:10)

41.

Unto (or in) what people does the Wicked one come? (2Th. 2:10)

42.

What do these people refuse to receive? (2Th. 2:10)

43.

What does God send to people who will not receive the love of the truth? (2Th. 2:11)

44.

Give two examples where God sent delusions to people so that they might believe a lie and be damned. (2Th. 2:11-12)

45.

In what did the people who did not believe the truth take pleasure? (2Th. 2:12)

46.

Had the Thessalonians received the strong delusions and believed a lie? (2Th. 2:13)

47.

What is the brief paragraph, 2Th. 2:13-15, called in the outline? (2Th. 2:13)

48.

Unto what had God chosen the Thessalonians and the other Gentile Christians? (2Th. 2:13)

49.

What are the two possible interpretations of the phrase sanctification of the Spirit? (2Th. 2:13)

50.

Through what other means (besides sanctification of spirit) had God chosen the Thessalonians? (2Th. 2:13)

51.

By what means had God called the Thessalonians? (2Th. 2:14)

52.

What is the goal to which God has called us? (2Th. 2:14)

53.

Which were the Thessalonians to do: (1) Stand fast; or (2) Search out the will of God for their own generation? (2Th. 2:15)

54.

What were the Thessalonians to hold fast? (2Th. 2:15)

55.

By what two means had they been taught? (2Th. 2:15)

56.

Why do we believe that the church now has no oral traditions that should be added to the writings of the apostles? (2Th. 2:15)

57.

In the outline what is the prayer in 2Th. 2:16-17 called?

58.

To what two people is this prayer addressed? (2Th. 2:16)

59.

God has given us everlasting _______________________________. (2Th. 2:16)

60.

Through what have we been given good hope? (2Th. 2:16)

61.

Did Paul feel that the Thessalonians were established firmly in the faith? (2Th. 2:17)

62.

In what two things did Paul pray that they would be established? (2Th. 2:17)

63.

Quote or write out from memory 2Th. 2:3; 2Th. 2:14. 2Th. 2:3 begins, Let no man. 2Th. 2:14 begins, Whereunto he.

Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

(16) Now.Better, And, connecting closely the prayer with the exhortation, just as in 1Th. 5:23. Again, says St. Chrysostom, prayer after advice: this is to help in earnest. The word Himself, as in the passage cited, contrasts the Almighty power of our Lord with the partial instructions and feeble help which even Apostles could give, and with the impotence of the Thessalonian Christians to stand firm in their own strength.

Our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father.The order of mention is unusual. (See, however, 2Co. 13:3.) It is not designedly meant to show the equality of the Blessed Persons, which is done only incidentally by the fact that the same aspiration is directed to both. Probably, in fact, the names are arranged to form a climax: St. Paul having spoken first of the Person whose work on the heart is the more immediate, and then jealously watching lest he should in any way make the Eternal Father seem less deeply interested in our welfare than the Son is. All primitive devotion and doctrine are markedly opposed to the tendency to rest in the Mediator without a real lively faith in the Father who sent Him.

Which hath loved us.Love to us is specially (so fearfully wrong is much of the popular language about the Atonement) the characteristic of the Father. (See, for instance, Joh. 3:16; Joh. 17:23; 2Co. 13:3; Eph. 2:4; 1Jn. 4:10.) It is in the thought of this tender love of God to us that the writer adds immediately the endearing title Our Father. This love seems to be mentioned here as being the ground on which the writer rests his hope for the fulfilment of his prayer. It should literally be translated, which loved us, and gavethe moment being apparently (as in Joh. 3:16) the moment of providing the Atonement for our sins.

Everlasting consolation.This means an ever present source of comfort, of which no persecution can rob us. This giving of comfort is the proof or explanation of the statement that He loved us, and refers to the same act. Our unfailing comfort lies in the thought of Gods love exemplified in the Incarnation of His Son.

Good hope through grace.These words must be closely joined. God gave us not only a consolation under present trials, but a sweet prospect in the future; but this sweet prospect belongs to us only in grace (the literal version). All our hope is based on the continuance of the spiritual strength imparted by the Father through the Son and the Spirit. The qualifying words in grace are added to hope in just the same way as the words in sanctification are added to salvation in 2Th. 2:13.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

16. Now The heart of our apostle now ascends in prayer to God, for the completion of the hopes and exhortations he has uttered. His prayer ascends through the Mediator, Christ, to the primal fountain of all salvation, God.

Hath loved For do not imagine that the Father is all justice, and Christ alone all love. Christ is the offspring of the Father’s love to us.

Consolation Of which, as truly forlorn beings and condemned sinners, we stand in great need. This consolation must be also everlasting, for if it terminate we shall be as forlorn and lost as ever.

Good hope By the divine assurance which sustains our consolation, given us through grace received by the mediation of Christ.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

‘Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word.’

This verse is remarkable in its implication. It was the usual practise of Paul to place ‘God our Father’ first in his greetings (2Th 1:1). Yet here (and in 2Co 13:14) he places first ‘our Lord Jesus Christ’. Furthermore the combination is followed by the use of the singular, and the singular verbs ‘comfort’ and ‘establish’ which must refer to both acting together as One. It is a clear expression of co-equality and oneness.

‘Who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace.’ What a world of meaning is summed up in these words. The whole of a Christian’s destiny is wrapped up in it. First came the love, a love reaching forward from eternity, which includes the giving of Himself for us (Gal 2:20). And then the consequence of that love, eternal strengthening and awareness of His presence (parakaleo), and good hope, sanctification and glorification. And all this through the unmerited love and favour of God, ‘through grace’. Because of the nature of Those Who bring it about it is fully comprehensive, because of its source it is unfailing.

God’s love for man and hope for the future were two elements lacking in the traditions of that ancient world. Man saw himself as the plaything of the gods, and the future as an endless circle of hopelessness. But here Paul could stress God’s deep and loving concern and the certain hope that lay ahead through the working of God within.

‘And establish them in every good work and word.’ As ever Paul cannot stop short with theology. It has to produce its fruit in action. There can be no grace and mercy of God which is not accompanied in men’s lives by fruitfulness. And this is a fruitfulness of both work and word. We regularly put the ‘word’ first, the preaching of the Gospel, but Paul puts the ‘work’ first. A Gospel which does not reveal itself in love and good works is no Gospel.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

2Th 2:16-17 . The apostle rises from his evangelical activity (2Th 2:15 ) up to Christ , the Lord and Ruler of the Christian church, and concludes with the mention of God , who is the final reason and contriver of the Christian salvation. The unusual (2Co 13:13 ) naming of Christ first and of God second , is sufficiently explained from the fact that Christ is the Mediator between God and man.

On the union of the two nominatives, Christ and God, with a verb in the singular , see on 1Th 3:11 .

. . . .] a fittingly-selected characteristic, in order to mark the confidence with which Paul expects the hearing of his supplications.

] refers exclusively to . Baumgarten-Crusius incorrectly refers only the second participle to God, and the first to Christ. But the participle aorist must not be weakened into “qui nos amat et quovis tempore amavit” (so Schott, after Flatt and Pelt), but refers to the divine proof of love already belonging to the past, accomplished, i.e. to the fact by which the love of God to mankind is proved, to the mission of His Son in order to rescue sinners from destruction .

] and has thereby communicated to us.

] comfort . This is called eternal , [69] not, perhaps, on account of the blessings of eternal life which Christians have to expect (Chrysostom, Estius, Vorstius, Grotius, Fromond., and others), but because Christians have become the sons of God, and as such are filled with indestructible confidence that all things, even the severest affliction which may befall them, infallibly serves for their good, because God has so ordained, and that nothing in the world will be able to separate them from the love of God in Christ; comp. Rom 8:28 ; Rom 8:38 f. The opposite of this eternal consolation is the fleeting and deceptive consolation of the world (Olshausen). accordingly refers to the present . On the other hand (2Th 2:13-14 ), refers to the blessedness and glory to be expected in the future .

] in grace, i.e. by means of a gracious appointment, belongs not to , but to the participles. The opposite is man’s own merit.

] may comfort or calm , refers particularly to the disquiet of the readers in reference to the advent (2Th 2:2 ).

] sc. (see critical remarks), which is in itself evident from the preceding .

] in every good work and word . Grotius incorrectly takes it in the sense of . But, with Chrysostom, Calvin, Turretin, Bolten, Flatt, and others, to limit to teaching is erroneous, on account of the universal and its being placed along with . The apostle rather wishes an establishment in every good thing, whether manifested in works or in words.

[69] The feminine form is found only here in the N. T. and in Heb 9:12 .

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

DISCOURSE: 2215
GOD OUR BENEFACTOR

2Th 2:16-17. Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts, and stablish you in every good word and work.

IN reading the epistles of St. Paul, we cannot but be struck with the devout and grateful manner in which he introduces, at all times, the mention of Jehovahs name. He almost invariably combines with it some of those perfections which God has displayed in the Gospel of his Son; and expatiates upon them, either as the theme of his adoring gratitude, or as the foundation of all his hopes. And not unfrequently does he unite the Lord Jesus Christ with the Father, as equally entitled to our adoration with the Father himself, and equally deserving our entire confidence. In the passage before us, both these things are conspicuous: and, that we may bring them clearly before you, we shall endeavour to shew,

What a Benefactor we have

Hear what God, even our Father, has done for us
[Desperate, even as the state of the fallen angels, was the state of man, through the fall of Adam But God, who passed by the angels that sinned, was pleased, of his unbounded mercy and grace, to make provision for the recovery of man, by the gift of his only-begotten Son, to die in his place and stead In truth, he loved us with an everlasting love [Note: Jer 31:3.]; and, in due season, called us, by his grace, to the knowledge of his dear Son, and enabled us to believe in him; and thus gave us a good hope of re-possessing the inheritance which we had forfeited [Note: 1Pe 1:3-4.] O what consolation does this afford us! Verily, it is strong consolation [Note: Heb 6:18.], yea, and everlasting consolation too: for not only will it abide with us under all possible afflictions but, when all the things of time and sense shall have passed away, and been utterly forgotten, it shall remain for ever, with unabated vigour, on our souls ]

But in all this the Lord Jesus Christ himself has also borne his part
[He willingly undertook our cause; and never ceased from his labours, till he could say, It is finished. Truly he loved us, and gave himself for us [Note: Gal 2:20.]: and, by the operations of his grace upon our souls, and his promises that none shall ever pluck us out of his hands, he has made us to abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost, and has filled us with all joy and peace in believing [Note: Rom 15:13.]. Whilst, therefore, we make our acknowledgments to God the Father, we must with equal gratitude trace all our blessings to his only dear Son, by whose transcendent merits alone, and through whose almighty agency, they all flow down unto us ]

In this intercessory prayer to our heavenly Benefactor, we see,

II.

What benefits we may yet further hope for at his hands

We are yet exposed to many trials, and to great dangers; and shall be so, as long as we continue in the body. But God will never leave us nor forsake us. On the contrary, his past benefits are a pledge and earnest of future blessings, to the utmost extent of our necessities. He will, under all the circumstances that can ever occur, impart to us,

Comfort

[We carry about with us, and shall to our dying hour be oppressed with, a body of sin and death; such as made St. Paul himself to exclaim, O wretched man that I am! Nor can we hope to be freed from the assaults of Satan, even such as Paul complained of, when, with repeated cries, he implored the removal of the thorn in his flesh, which so sorely pained him But the same God who comforted him will comfort us with similar consolations; and, if our afflictions abound as his did, will make our consolations to abound also [Note: 2Co 1:3-5.]. And so effectual shall these be, that we shall be enabled to glory in our tribulations [Note: Rom 5:3.], and even to take pleasure in our infirmities and distresses [Note: 2Co 12:10.] ]

Stability

[To serve the Lord with steadfastness and fidelity, in the midst of all the difficulties which we have to encounter, is no easy matter. But God is able to hold us up: and we shall be upheld [Note: Rom 14:4.], if we simply rely on him. Yes; God is faithful to his promises; and he will stablish us, and keep us from evil [Note: Rom 3:3.]; and enable us to maintain our integrity before him, both in word and deed

And here let me observe, that it is not from God the Father only that we may hope to obtain these benefits, but from the Lord Jesus Christ also, whom the Apostle frequently unites with the Father, as equally the object of our worship, the source of our blessings, the rock of our dependence [Note: Eph 6:23. 1Th 3:11.]. If we be strong, it must be in the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the power of his might [Note: Eph 6:10.]. His grace, under whatever circumstances, shall be sufficient for us [Note: 2Co 12:9.]: and if we trust in him, we may confidently say, I can do all things through Christ, who strengtheneth me [Note: Php 4:13.] ]

Application

In all your addresses, whether for yourselves or others, at the throne of grace, look to God,

With adoring gratitude

[It is not possible that you should be in any state, wherein this frame of mind is not called for And think what boldness the recollection of Gods undeserved love and unbounded mercies will give you, in your addresses to him Truly, if you had but the slightest sense of what God has already done for you, you could not but find your hearts enlarged towards him; and would open your mouths wide, whensoever you came into his presence ]

With humble confidence

[See how God the Father, and God the Son, and I may add too, God the Holy Ghost, have concurred in all that has already been vouchsafed unto you. For, whether the Father or the Son confer the benefit, it is by the Holy Spirit that it is imparted to you And with such benefactors, each pledged to the other, by an everlasting covenant, to bestow on you whatsoever shall most conduce to your welfare, what can you want? Verily, you shall want no manner of thing that is good. Only cast all your care on your reconciled God in Christ Jesus, and you shall find, to your comfort, that he is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy [Note: Jude, ver. 24.].]

Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)

16 Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace,

Ver. 16. And good hope ] The fruit of everlasting consolation, Rom 15:4 . And well called good, because it hath for its object the greatest good, and that which is of greatest certainty, Heb 11:1 .

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

16, 17 .] , as a majestic introduction, in contrast with , see 1Th 3:11 , and as ensuring the efficacy of the wish q. d. ‘and then you are safe.’ Our Lord Jesus Christ is placed first, not merely because He is the mediator between men and God (Ln.), but because the sentence is a climax.

. . . . . probably refers to . . . alone: and yet when we consider how impossible it would have been for the Apostle to have written , and that the singular verb following undoubtedly refers to both, I would not too hastily pronounce this. See note on 1Th 3:11 .

who loved us refers to a single fact the love of the Father in sending His Son or the love of the Father and Son in our accomplished Redemption.

. and gave by that act of Love.

. . ] consolation , under all trials, and that eternal , not transitory, as this world’s consolations: sufficient in life, and in death, and for ever: cf. Rom 8:38 f. This for all time present: and then . . for the future.

belongs, not to . . , but to , and is the medium through, or element in which, the gift is made. Better thus than to refer it to both the participles . . ; for as applied to God (or the Lord Jesus) usually stands absolute, cf. Rom 8:37 ; Gal 2:20 ; Eph 5:2 .

] as in 1Th 3:11 ; 1Th 3:3 pers. sing. opt. aor. comfort , with reference to your disquiet respecting the . After . understand , which has been supplied see var. readd., better than . , which are not the agents in and . This latter is not ‘ doctrine ,’ as Chrys., Calv. (‘tam in pi et sanct vit cursu, quam in sana doctrina’), for ( work ) and ( word ), seeing that applies to both, must be correlative, and both apply to matters in which the man is an agent. Still less must we understand as = (Chrys., Thl. 2, Beng., al.): the sphere, and not the instruments, of the consolation and confirmation, is spoken of.

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

2Th 2:16 . , perhaps with a slight implicit apposition to the you or we of the previous sentence. , . . ., connection as in Joh 3:16 . for this world, for the world to come; all hope is encouragement, but not vice-versa.

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

2 Thessalonians

EVERLASTING CONSOLATION AND GOOD HOPE

2Th 2:16-17 .

This is the second of the four brief prayers which, as I pointed out in my last sermon, break the current of Paul’s teaching in this letter, and witness to the depth of his affection to his Thessalonian converts. We do not know the special circumstances under which these then were, but there are many allusions, both in the first and second epistles, which seem to indicate that they specially needed the gift of consolation.

They were a young Church, just delivered from paganism. Like lambs in the midst of wolves, they stood amongst bitter enemies, their teacher had left them alone, and their raw convictions needed to be consolidated and matured in the face of much opposition. No wonder then that over and over again, in both letters, we have references to the persecutions and tribulations which they endured, and to the consolations which would much more abound.

But whatever may have been their specific circumstances, the prayer which puts special emphasis on comfort is as much needed by each of us as it could ever have been by any of them. For there are no eyes that have not wept, or will not weep; no breath that has not been, or will not be, drawn in sighs; and no hearts that have not bled, or will not bleed. So, dear friends, the prayer that went up for these long since comforted brothers, in their forgotten obscure sorrows, is as needful for each of us–that the God who has given everlasting consolation may apply the consolations which He has supplied, and ‘comfort our hearts and stablish them in every good word and work.’

The prayer naturally falls, as all true prayer will, into three sections–the contemplation of Him to whom it is addressed, the grasping of the great act on which it is based, and the specification of the desires which it includes. These three thoughts may guide us for a few moments now.

I. First of all, then, note the divine hearers of the prayer.

The first striking thing about this prayer is its emphatic recognition of the divinity of Jesus Christ as a truth familiar to these Thessalonian converts. Note the solemn accumulation of His august titles, ‘Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself.’ Note, further, that extraordinary association of His name with the Father’s. Note, still further, the most remarkable order in which these two names occur–Jesus first, God second. If we were not so familiar with the words, and with their order, which reappears in Paul’s well-known and frequently-used Benediction, we should be startled to find that Jesus Christ was put before God in such a solemn address. The association and the order of mention of the names are equally outrageous, profane, and inexplicable, except upon one hypothesis, and that is that Jesus Christ is divine.

The reason for the order may be found partly in the context, which has just been naming Christ, but still more in the fact that whilst he writes, the Apostle is realising the mediation of Christ, and that the order of mention is the order of our approach. The Father comes to us in the Son; we come to the Father by the Son; and, therefore, it is no intercepting of our reverence, nor blasphemously lifting the creature to undue elevation, when in one act the Apostle appeals to ‘our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and God our Father.’

Note, still further, the distinct address to Christ as the Hearer of Prayer. And, note, last of all, about this matter, the singular grammatical irregularity in my text, which is something much more than a mere blunder or slip of the pen. The words which follow, viz., ‘comfort’ and ‘stablish,’ are in the singular, whilst these two mighty and august names are their nominatives, and would therefore, by all regularity, require a plural to follow them. That this peculiarity is no mere accident, but intentional and deliberate, is made probable by the two instances in our text, and is made certain, as it seems to me, by the fact that the same anomalous and eloquent construction occurs in the previous epistle to the same church, where we have in exact parallelism with our text, ‘God Himself, our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ,’ with the singular verb, ‘direct our way unto you.’ The phraseology is the expression, in grammatical form, of the great truth, ‘Whatsoever things the Father doeth, these also doth the Son likewise.’ And from it there gleam out unmistakably the great principles of the unity of action and the distinction of person between Father and Son, in the depths of that infinite and mysterious Godhead.

Now all this, which seems to me to be irrefragable, is made the more remarkable and the stronger as a witness of the truth, from the fact that it occurs in this perfectly incidental fashion, and without a word of explanation or apology, as taking for granted that there was a background of teaching in the Thessalonian Church which had prepared the way for it, and rendered it intelligible, as well as a background of conviction which had previously accepted it.

And, remember, these two letters, thus full-toned in their declaration, and taking for granted the previous acceptance of the great doctrine of the divinity of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, are the earliest portions of the New Testament, and are often spoken about as being singularly undogmatic. So they are, and therefore all the more eloquent and all the more conclusive is such a testimony as this to the sort of teaching which from the beginning the Apostle addressed to his converts.

Now is that your notion of Jesus Christ? Do you regard Him as the sharer in the divine attributes and in the divine throne? It was a living Christ that Paul was thinking about when he wrote these words, who could hear him praying in Corinth, and could reach a helping hand down to these poor men in Thessalonica. It was a divine Christ that Paul was thinking about when he dared to say, ‘Our Lord Jesus Christ, and God our Father.’ And I beseech you to ask yourself the question whether your faith accepts that great teaching, and whether to you He is far more than ‘the Man Christ Jesus’; and just because He is the man, is therefore the Son of God. Brethren! either Jesus lies in an unknown grave, ignorant of all that is going on here, and the notion that He can help is a delusion and a dream, or else He is the ever-living because He is the divine Christ, to whom we poor men can speak with the certainty that He hears us, and who wields the energies of Deity, and works the same works as the Father, for the help and blessing of the souls that trust Him.

II. Secondly, note the great fact on which this prayer builds itself.

The form of words in the original, ‘loved’ and ‘given,’ all but necessarily requires us to suppose that their reference is to some one definite historical act in which the love was manifested, and, as love always does, found voice in giving. Love is the infinite desire to bestow, and its language is always a gift. Then, according to the Apostle’s thought, there is some one act in which all the fulness of the divine love manifests itself; some one act in which all the treasures which God can bestow upon men are conveyed and handed over to a world.

The statement that there is such renders almost unnecessary the question what such an act is. For there can be but one in all the sweep of the magnificent and beneficent divine deeds, so correspondent to His love, and so inclusive of all His giving, as that it shall be the ground of our confidence and the warrant for our prayers. The gift of Jesus Christ is that in which everlasting consolation and good hope are bestowed upon men. When our desires are widened out to the widest they must be based upon the great sacrifice of Jesus Christ; and when we would think most confidently and most desiringly of the benefits that we seek, for ourselves or for our fellows, we must turn to the Cross. My prayer is then acceptable and prevalent when it foots itself on the past divine act, and looking to the life and death of Jesus Christ, is widened out to long for, ask for, and in the very longing and asking for to begin to possess, the fulness of the gifts which then were brought to men in Him.

‘Everlasting consolation and good hope.’ I suppose the Apostle’s emphasis is to be placed quite as much on the adjectives as on the nouns; for there are consolations enough in the world, only none of them are permanent; and there are hopes enough that amuse and draw men, but one of them only is ‘good.’ The gift of Christ, thinks Paul, is the gift of a comfort which will never fail amidst all the vicissitudes and accumulated and repeated and prolonged sorrows to which flesh is heir, and is likewise the gift of a hope which, in its basis and in its objects, is equally noble and good.

Look at these two things briefly. Paul thinks that in Jesus Christ you and I, and all the world, if it will have it, has received the gift of an everlasting comfort. Ah! sorrow is more persistent than consolation. The bandaged wounds bleed again; the fire damped down for a moment smoulders, even when damped, and bursts out again. But there is one source of comfort which, because it comes from an unchangeable Christ, and because it communicates unfailing gifts of patience and insight, and because it leads forward to everlasting blessedness and recompenses, may well be called ‘eternal consolation.’ Of course, consolation is not needed when sorrow has ceased; and when the wiping away of all tears from off all faces, and the plunging of grief into the nethermost fires, there to be consumed, have come about, there is no more need for comfort. Yet that which made the comfort while sorrow lasts, makes the triumph and the rapture when sorrow is dead, and is everlasting, though its office of consolation determines with earth.

‘Good hope through grace.’ This is the weakness of all the hopes which dance like fireflies in the dark before men, and are often like will-o’-the-wisps in the night tempting men into deep mire, where there is no standing–that they are uncertain in their basis and inadequate in their range. The prostitution of the great faculty of hope is one of the saddest characteristics of our feeble and fallen manhood; for the bulk of our hopes are doubtful and akin to fears, and are mean and low, and disproportioned to the possibilities, and therefore the obligations, of our spirits. But in that Cross which teaches us the meaning of sorrows, and in that Christ whose presence is light in darkness, and the very embodied consolation of all hearts, there lie at once the foundation and the object of a hope which, in consideration both of object and foundation, stands unique in its excellence and sufficient in its firmness. ‘A good hope’; good because well founded; and good because grasping worthy objects; eternal consolation outlasting all sorrows–these things were given once for all, to the whole world when Jesus Christ came and lived and died. The materials for a comfort that shall never fail me, and for the foundation and the object of a hope that shall never be ashamed, are supplied in Jesus Christ our Lord. And so these gifts, already passed under the great seal of heaven, and confirmed to us all, if we choose to take them for ours, are the ground upon which the largest prayers may be rested, and the most ardent desires may be unblamably cherished, in the full confidence that no petitions of ours can reach to the greatness of the divine purpose, and that the widest and otherwise wildest of our hopes and wishes are sober under-estimates of what God has already given to us. For if He has given the material, He will apply what He has supplied. And if He has thus in the past bestowed the possibilities of comfort and hope upon the world, He will not slack His hand, if we desire the possibility to be in our hearts turned into the actuality.

God has given, therefore God will give. That in heaven’s logic, but it does not do for men. It presupposes inexhaustible resources, unchangeable purposes of kindness, patience that is not disgusted and cannot be turned away by our sin. These things being presupposed it is true; and the prayer of my text, that God would comfort, can have no firmer foundation than the confidence of my text, that God has given ‘everlasting consolation and good hope through grace.’ ‘Thou hast helped us; leave us not, neither forsake us, O God of our salvation.’

III. The last thing here is the petitions based upon the contemplation of the divine hearers of the prayer, and of the gift already bestowed by God.

May He ‘comfort your hearts, and stablish you in every good word and work.’ I have already said all that perhaps is necessary in regard to the connection between the past gift of everlasting consolation and the present and future comforting of hearts which is here desired. It seems to me that the Apostle has in his mind the distinction between the great work of Christ, in which are supplied for us the materials for comfort and hope, and the present and continuous work of that Divine Spirit, by which God dwelling in our hearts in Jesus Christ makes real for each of us the universal gift of consolation and of hope. God has bestowed the materials for comfort; God will give the comfort for which He has supplied the materials. It were a poor thing if all that we could expect from our loving Father in the heavens were that He should contribute to us what might make us peaceful and glad and calm in sorrow, if we chose to use it. Men comfort from without; God steals into the heart, and there diffuses the aroma of His presence. Christ comes into the ship before He says, ‘Peace! be still!’ It is not enough for our poor troubled heart that there should be calmness and consolation twining round the Cross if we choose to pluck the fruit. We need, and therefore we have, an indwelling God who, by that Spirit which is the Comforter, will make for each of us the everlasting consolation which He has bestowed upon the world our individual possession. God’s husbandry is not merely broadcast sowing of the seed, but the planting in each individual heart of the precious germ. And the God who has given everlasting consolation to a whole world will comfort thy heart.

Then, again, the comforted heart will be a stable heart. Our fixedness and stability are not natural immobility, but communicated steadfastness. There must be, first, the consolation of Christ before there can be the calmness of a settled heart. We all know how vacillating, how driven to and fro by gusts of passion and winds of doctrine and forces of earth our resolutions and spirits are. But thistledown glued to a firm surface will be firm, and any light thing lashed to a solid one will be solid; and reeds shaken with the wind may be turned into brazen pillars that cannot be moved. If we have Christ in our hearts, He will be our consolation first and our stability next. Why should it be that we are spasmodic and fluctuating, and the slaves of ups and downs, like some barometer in stormy weather; now at ‘set fair,’ and then away down where ‘much rain’ is written? There is no need for it. Get Christ into your heart, and your mercury will always stand at one height. Why should it be that at one hour the flashing waters fill the harbour, and that six hours afterwards there is a waste of ooze and filth? It need not be. Our hearts may be like some landlocked lake that knows no tide. ‘His heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord.’

The comforted and stable heart will be a fruitful heart. ‘In every good word and work.’ Ah! how fragmentary is our goodness, like the broken torsos of the statues of fair gods dug up in some classic land. There is no reason why each of us should not appropriate and make our own the forms of goodness to which we are least naturally inclined, and cultivate and possess a symmetrical, fully-developed, all-round goodness, in some humble measure after the pattern of Jesus Christ our Lord. Practical righteousness, ‘in every good word and work,’ is the outcome of all the sacred and secret consolations and blessings that Jesus Christ imparts. There are many Christian people who are like those swallow-holes, as they call them, characteristic of limestone countries, where a great river plunges into a cave and is no more heard of. You do not get your comforts and your blessing for that, brother, but in order that all the joy and peace, all the calmness and the communion, which you realise in the secret place of the Most High, may be translated into goodness and manifest righteousness in the market-place and the street. We get our goodness where we get our consolation, from Jesus Christ and His Cross.

And so, dear friends, all your comforts will die, and your sorrows will live, unless you have Christ for your own. The former will be like some application that is put on a poisoned bite, which will soothe it for a moment, but as soon as the anodyne dries off the skin, the poison will tingle and burn again, and will be working in the blood, whilst the remedy only touched the surface of the flesh. All your hopes will be like a child’s castles on the sand, which the next tide will smooth out and obliterate, unless your hope is fixed on Him. You may have everlasting consolation, you may have a hope which will enable you to look serenely on the ills of life, and on the darkness of death, and on what darkly looms beyond death. You may have a calmed and steadied heart; you may have an all-round, stable, comprehensive goodness. But there is only one way to get these blessings, and that is to grasp and make our own, by simple faith and constant clinging, that great gift, given once for all in Jesus Christ, the gift of comfort that never dies, and of hope that never deceives, and then to apply that gift day by day, through God’s good Spirit, to sorrows and trials and duties as they emerge.

Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: 2Th 2:16-17

16Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us eternal comfort and good hope by grace, 17comfort and strengthen your hearts in every good work and word.

2Th 2:16-17 This is a prayer, like 2Th 1:2 and 2Th 3:16.

2Th 2:16 “our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us” In the Greek text there are two subjects but with an intensive singular pronoun, “himself” and two singular aorist participles (loved and given). Also notice that Jesus is mentioned first. This shows the unity and equality of the subjects (cf. 1Th 1:1-2; 1Th 3:11). The Son and the Father have given us eternal comfort and good hope. See SPECIAL TOPIC: FATHER at 1Th 1:1.

NASB, NRSV”eternal comfort”

NKJV”everlasting consolation”

TEV”eternal courage”

NJB”inexhaustible comfort”

The believers’ comfort and hope are based on the grace of God seen and enacted through Christ. Notice the pastoral context of encouragement just like 1Th 4:18. Paul’s insights about the Second Coming were not given to fill out our charts and theories, but to energize our daily Christlikeness (cf. 1Co 15:58).

“good hope” This specific form is only used here in the NT. The term “hope ” is often used in the NT in the sense of the Second Coming (see SPECIAL TOPIC: HOPE at Gal 5:5). This is especially true in the Thessalonian letters which focused on this theological subject. “Good hope ” only comes by God’s grace.

2Th 2:17 Jesus Christ and God the Father have loved us and given us eternal comfort and good hope by means of Their grace, which is designed to

1. comfort our hearts

2. strengthen our hearts for the purpose of

a. every good work

b. every good word

This is the same term in Greek as “comfort” in 2Th 2:17. These two verses form one sentence in Greek. Notice that believers are encouraged to do and say “good things.” We are not saved by doing good things but we are saved for doing and saying good things. Our relationship with Christ must lead to Christlikeness. We were called unto good works (cf. Eph 1:4; Eph 2:10). The goal of every believer is not only heaven when we die but Christlikeness now. These good works and sayings are to help us as believers reach those who do not know our Savior.

“hearts” See Special Topic at Gal 4:6.

Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley

even. Omit.

Father. App-98.

hath. Omit.

hath given = gave.

everlasting. App-151.

consolation. Greek. paraklesis. See Luk 6:24. Act 4:36.

grace. App-184.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

16, 17.] , as a majestic introduction, in contrast with , see 1Th 3:11, and as ensuring the efficacy of the wish-q. d. and then you are safe. Our Lord Jesus Christ is placed first, not merely because He is the mediator between men and God (Ln.), but because the sentence is a climax.

. . … probably refers to . . . alone: and yet when we consider how impossible it would have been for the Apostle to have written , and that the singular verb following undoubtedly refers to both, I would not too hastily pronounce this. See note on 1Th 3:11.

-who loved us-refers to a single fact-the love of the Father in sending His Son-or the love of the Father and Son in our accomplished Redemption.

. -and gave-by that act of Love.

. .] consolation, under all trials, and that eternal,-not transitory, as this worlds consolations: sufficient in life, and in death, and for ever: cf. Rom 8:38 f. This for all time present: and then . . for the future.

belongs, not to . ., but to , and is the medium through, or element in which, the gift is made. Better thus than to refer it to both the participles . . ; for as applied to God (or the Lord Jesus) usually stands absolute, cf. Rom 8:37; Gal 2:20; Eph 5:2.

] as in 1Th 3:11; 1Th 3:3 pers. sing. opt. aor. comfort, with reference to your disquiet respecting the . After . understand , which has been supplied-see var. readd.,-better than . , which are not the agents in and . This latter is not doctrine, as Chrys., Calv. (tam in pi et sanct vit cursu, quam in sana doctrina),-for (work) and (word), seeing that applies to both, must be correlative, and both apply to matters in which the man is an agent. Still less must we understand as = (Chrys., Thl. 2, Beng., al.): the sphere, and not the instruments, of the consolation and confirmation, is spoken of.

Fuente: The Greek Testament

2Th 2:16. , the Lord) Refer to this the words, through grace.- , God) To this refer the words, who loved; 2Co 13:13.-, eternal) Nothing then can destroy believers.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

2Th 2:16

Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father who loved us-Paul commends them to God that they might be by him directly cheered and maintained in the evil day. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us. (1Jn 4:10.) Even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ . . . and raised us up with him, and made us to sit with him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus. (Eph 2:5-6.) Hereby know we love, because he laid down his life for us. (1Jn 3:16.)

and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace,-Freely, not in discharge of obligation, but without restraint of any kind. Hope here describes the happy anticipation of good. The element of uncertainty with the consequent disappointment, which is the essence of all hope among men of the world, has no place in the hope of the faithful Christian. Beloved, now are we children of God, and it is not yet made manifest what we shall be. We know that, if he shall be manifested, we shall be like him; for we shall see him even as he is. (1Jn 3:2.)

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

through grace

Grace (in salvation). vs. 1Ti 1:14; 1Ti 1:15; Rom 3:24. (See Scofield “Joh 1:17”) .

Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes

our Lord: 2Th 1:1, 2Th 1:2, Rom 1:7, 1Th 3:11

which: 2Th 2:13, Joh 3:16, Joh 13:1, Joh 15:9, Joh 15:13, Rom 5:8, Eph 2:4, Eph 2:5, Eph 5:2, Eph 5:25, Tit 3:4-7, 1Jo 3:16, 1Jo 4:9, 1Jo 4:10, Rev 1:5, Rev 3:9

everlasting: Psa 103:17, Isa 35:10, Isa 51:11, Isa 60:19, Isa 60:20, Isa 61:7, Luk 16:25, Joh 4:14, Joh 14:16-18, Joh 16:22, 2Co 4:17, 2Co 4:18, Heb 6:18, 1Pe 1:5-8, Rev 7:16, Rev 7:17, Rev 22:5

good: Rom 5:2-5, Rom 8:24, Rom 8:25, Col 1:5, Col 1:23, 1Th 1:3, Tit 1:2, Tit 2:13, Heb 6:11, Heb 6:12, Heb 6:19, Heb 7:19, 1Pe 1:3-5, 1Jo 3:2, 1Jo 3:3

through: Act 15:11, Act 18:27, Rom 4:4, Rom 4:16, Rom 5:2, Rom 11:5, Rom 11:6

Reciprocal: 1Ch 29:10 – our father 1Ch 29:18 – prepare Psa 90:17 – establish Pro 10:28 – hope Isa 45:17 – an everlasting Isa 49:13 – the Lord Isa 51:6 – my salvation Isa 51:19 – by whom Isa 54:8 – but Isa 61:2 – to comfort Mic 6:8 – what is Mar 10:30 – an hundredfold Luk 2:14 – good Luk 11:2 – Our Joh 5:23 – all men Joh 14:18 – will not Joh 14:21 – that loveth Joh 16:20 – your Joh 16:24 – in Joh 17:26 – that Act 9:31 – and in Act 14:23 – they commended Act 16:5 – so Act 20:12 – were Rom 5:5 – hope Rom 8:35 – shall separate Rom 8:37 – him Rom 12:12 – Rejoicing Rom 15:13 – fill Rom 16:25 – to him 1Co 1:2 – with 2Co 1:4 – comforteth 2Co 1:5 – so 2Co 7:6 – that comforteth 2Co 13:11 – be of good Gal 1:4 – our Eph 1:18 – is Eph 2:12 – having Eph 4:4 – as Phi 2:1 – any consolation Col 1:3 – praying Col 2:2 – their 1Th 3:13 – he may 1Th 5:8 – the hope 2Th 2:17 – Comfort 1Ti 1:1 – is Tit 2:11 – the grace Heb 3:6 – rejoicing Heb 5:9 – eternal Rev 14:6 – everlasting

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

2Th 2:16. God and Christ are again named in a manner that proves they are two separate individuals, although they are a unit in spirit and purpose. The title of God denotes his supreme deity as head over all creation, while that of Father pertains to his spiritual relationship to all who will become members of the spiritual family through obedience. Lord is a title that means ruler, and the Son has been given the rule over the church (Mat 28:18). Jesus means saviour and is given to him because he is the Saviour of the world (Mat 1:21). The title Christ belongs to him because he was anointed (figuratively crowned) to be over the. kingdom (Act 10:38). Everlasting consolation is thus named because the consolation that comes from God and Christ is not temporary. Good hope simply means that the things for which Christians can hope are good in the highest sense. Through grace denotes that the entire benefit is a gift from on High, and not a return for labor, since that cannot earn or merit eternal life.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

2Th 2:16. But may our Lord Jesus Christ himself. As all the instruction we can give you may fail to comfort and establish you, may the Lord Himself effect these blessed results in you, inwardly enabling you to accept the consolation and hope which are really within your reach.

Who loved us. This apparently refers only to God our Father, but see below on the word comfort.

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

Our apostle having abundantly comforted and affectionately exhorted the Thessalonians in the former verses, now concludes with fervent prayer for them.

Where observe, 1. The persons prayed to: our Lord Jesus Christ, and God our Father.

Where note, (1.) That prayer must be made to God alone, he only knows all our wants, and he alone is capable of hearing and helping us.

Note, (2.) That Jesus Christ is here invocated, together with God the Father; surely his Godhead is hereby proved, for he that is the object both of internal and external worship, is God: our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God even our Father, &c.

Observe, 2. The ground of audience and success in prayer: Which hath loved us, and given us everlasting consolation, and good hope through grace.

Where note, (1.) That God’s love to sinners, manifested in their redemption by Jesus Christ, giveth great boldness and encouragement in the duty of prayer.

Note, (2.) That God hath given all believers solid ground of substantial and perpetual consolation; he hath given us everlasting consolation.

Note, (3.) That God has given all believers hope, a good or well- grounded hope of eternal life, and this hope is a great encouragement to the duty of prayer.

Observe, 3. The blessings prayed for: increase of comfort, and perseverance or establishment.

(1.) The apostle prays for increase of comfort; Our Lord Jesus Christ, and God our Father, comfort your hearts.

Where note, that true comfort flows from God, and that the heart is the proper seat of spiritual comfort. Thou hast put gladness into my heart. Psa 4:7

(2.) For establishment and perseverance; And establish you in every good word and work. By every good word, is meant sound doctrine; by every good work, holiness of life.

Learn hence, That establishment in faith and holiness is a great and necessary blessing, earnestly to be sought of God in prayer; as at all times this blessing is to be sought, so especially in unsettled times, that when we are most in danger of falling by temptation, we may be kept by the mighty power of God through faith unto salvation.

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace,

Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)

B. Prayer for strength 2:16-17

As part of a bridge between his instructions (2Th 2:1-12) and exhortations (2Th 3:1-15), Paul added this prayer for the Thessalonians. He petitioned God for their encouragement and strength (cf. 1Th 3:2; 1Th 3:13; 2Th 3:3).

"Addressing his prayer to the first two persons of the Trinity, Paul names the Son before the Father (contra 1Th 3:11), probably in line with the Son’s worthiness of equal honor with the Father and his special prominence in the chapter’s emphasis on future salvation and glory." [Note: Thomas, "2 Thessalonians," p. 330.]

God’s grace is the basis for eternal encouragement in the face of temporary distress. Our hope is beneficial because it motivates us to live in the light of our victorious Savior’s return.

"The phrase ’good hope’ was used by non-Christian writers to refer to life after death." [Note: Martin, p. 259.]

The Thessalonians needed comforting encouragement in view of their recent anxiety that false teaching had produced. They also needed God’s grace to enable them to stand firm and do everything as unto the Lord (cf. 2Th 3:7-13). Too, they needed it as they continued proclaiming the gospel.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

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