Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 2 Thessalonian 2:5
Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?
5. Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?] More precisely, I used to tell you; comp. 1Th 3:4, for the tense.
This reminder serves two purposes: (1) It is a gentle reproof to the readers, who ought not to have been so easily unsettled by the alarmists, after what the Apostle had told them, (2) It obviates the necessity of explanation by letter. Any more explicit statement would probably have raised political suspicion, exposing the Apostle to a renewal of the charges which led to his expulsion from Thessalonica (see Act 17:6-7; Introd. pp. 15, 20, 21). St Paul had watchful enemies, who would be quick to seize on anything that might compromise him with the Roman Government.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things? – The whole subject of the second coming of the Saviour seems to have constituted an important part of the instructions of Paul when at Thessalonica. He now refers them to what he had told them respecting the great apostasy, to show that his views had not changed, and that he did not mean to have them understand that the world would soon come to an end. He had stated these things to them implying that a considerable interval must elapse before the Saviour would appear. Much of the obscurity of this prophecy arises from the fact, that the apostle alludes to things which he had told them when with them, of which we have now no knowledge. Hence, what would be perfectly clear to them, on reading this letter, is now difficult to be understood.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 5. I told you these things] In several parts of this description of the man of sin, the apostle alludes to a conversation which had taken place between him and the members of this Church when he was at Thessalonica; and this one circumstance will account for much of the obscurity that is in these verses. Besides, the apostle appears to speak with great caution, and does not at all wish to publish what he had communicated to them; the hints which he drops were sufficient to call the whole to their remembrance.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The apostle tacitly upbraids them for their forgetfulness. To forget the things that have been taught us, is a great evil: Solomon often cautions against it, Pro 3:1; 4:5; and it is often reproved, Heb 12:5; Jam 1:24; and the contrary required, Mal 4:4; Joh 16:4; Jud 1:17; Rev 3:3. David hid the word in his heart, Psa 119:11, and the virgin Mary kept the angels sayings, Luk 2:19. The apostles did take care to tell the churches of the apostacy that would come, and of false prophets and teachers that would arise, as Paul the elders of Ephesus, Act 20:29,30, and Peter, 2Pe 2:1, and St. John of the coming of antichrist, 1Jo 2:18; and more fully, though obscurely, in the book of the Revelation; and the apostle here in this verse minds these Thessalonians that he told them of the coming of the man of sin before the coming of Christ, so that they should not have been shaken in their minds about Christs coming in that present age. And they told the churches of these things, that they might not be surprised by them, or offended at them, when they came.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
5. Remember, &c.confutingthose who represent Paul as having labored under error as to Christ’simmediate coming when writing his first Epistle, and as nowcorrecting that error.
I told youmore thanonce, literally, “I was telling,” or “used to tell.”
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Remember ye not, that when I was yet with you,…. At Thessalonica, for the apostle had been there in person, and had preached there with great boldness and success; he had declared the whole counsel of God, and the Gospel came in power and worked effectually in them, and yet there was too great a forgetfulness of it; with which the apostle tacitly charges them, and rebukes them gently for it; and as a faithful monitor, stirs up their pure minds by way of remembrance, and reminds them of former truths delivered to them:
I told you these things: or “words” as the Arabic version; concerning the coming of Christ as that it would not be yet, that there, must be a defection from the faith, and antichrist must be revealed; which shows that these were things of moment and importance, and were useful and profitable to be insisted on; and therefore the apostle had told them of them, and spoke freely and largely about them, at his first preaching among them, and were what he inculcated everywhere; and also that his doctrine was all of a piece at one time as another; it was not yea and nay, or contradictory; what he now said was no other than what he had said before; and therefore it was the more inexcusable in them, to be shaken or troubled by any means with another doctrine.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
When I was yet with you ( ). The present participle takes the time of the verb (imperfect active),
I used to tell you these things . So Paul recalls their memory of his words and leaves us without the clue to his idea. We know that one of the charges against him was that Jesus was another king, a rival to Caesar (Ac 17:7). That leads one to wonder how far Paul went when there in contrasting the kingdom of the world of which Rome was ruler and the kingdom of God of which Christ is king. Frame notes Paul’s abrupt question here “with an unfinished sentence behind him” (verses 3f.), even “with a trace of impatience.”
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
1) “Remember ye not” (ou muemoneuete) “Do you all not remember or recall”, This reminder, in rhetoric form, was designed to affirm that Paul had formerly explained the matter of the future coming of the Anti-Christ.
2) “That, when I was yet with you”, (hoti eti on pros humas) “that while I was still with you all,” In face to face communion, Paul had explained to these brethren, based on Daniel’s prophecy and the assertions of Jesus Christ, that the return of Christ would be heralded by the cunning coming and uprising of a world deceiver.
3) “I told you these things” (tauta elegon humin) “I used to tell you, I taught you these things,” that an infernal, wicked, cunning, Satanic Messiah would arise preceding Jesus Christ, a caricature of the true Messiah; Paul had taught these brethren, yet, some seemed to misunderstand, and had quit work, neglecting to provide for their own families, and taught that the day of the Lord’s judgment had to be upon them at that time, 1Th 4:11; 2Th 2:2; 2Th 3:7-8; 2Th 3:12; Eph 4:28.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
5 Do ye not remember? This added no small weight to the doctrine, that they had previously heard it from the mouth of Paul, that they might not think that it had been contrived by him at the instant. And as he had given them early warning as to the reign of Antichrist, and the devastation that was coming upon the Church, when no question had as yet been raised as to such things, he saw beyond all doubt that the doctrine was specially useful to be known. And, unquestionably, it is really so. Those whom he addressed were destined to see many things that would trouble them; and when posterity would see a large proportion of those who had made profession of the faith of Christ revolt from piety, maddened, as it were, by a gad-fly, or rather by a fury, (650) what could they do but waver? This, however, was as a brazen (651) wall (652) — that matters were so appointed by God, because the ingratitude of men (653) was worthy of such vengeance. Here we may see how forgetful men are in matters affecting their everlasting salvation. We must also observe Paul’s mildness; for while he might have been vehemently incensed, (654) he does but mildly reprove them; for it is a fatherly way of reproving them to say to them, that they had allowed forgetfulness of a matter so important and so useful to steal in upon their minds.
(650) “ Se reuolter de la vraye religion, et se precipiter en ruine comme gens forcenez, ou plustost endiablez;” — “Revolt from the true religion, and plunge themselves in ruin like persons enraged, or rather possessed.”
(651) Murus aheneus . See Hor. Ep. 1:1, 60.
(652) “ Mais voici en cest endroit qui leur deuoit seruir d’vne forteresse inuincible;” — “But behold in this matter what would furnish them with an invincible fortress.”
(653) “ L’ingratitude execrable et vileine des hommes;” — “The execrable and base ingratitude of men.”
(654) “ Contre les Thessaloniciens;” — “Against the Thessalonians.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
Text (2Th. 2:5)
5 Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?
Translation and Paraphrase
5.
Dont you remember (how) that when I was still with you, I kept telling you these (very) things?
Notes (2Th. 2:5)
1.
This little verse has surely been included in the sacred Scriptures to blast forever out of existence any idea that Paul at one time said that the Lord was going to come very quickly, and then that he later decided that the Lord was not going to come for a long time.
2.
It is a serious thing to charge that Paul changed his mind and wrote one teaching in one place in his letters and another teaching in another place. If Paul changed his mind, he could not have been writing a message that God revealed to him. For God does not change. Mal. 3:6. If Paul did not write the message that Christ revealed to him, then much of our Christian faith rests on nothing but the quicksand of human wisdom. For much of our Christian doctrine rests on the writings of Paul.
3.
While Paul had been with the Thessalonians, he kept telling them these very things about the coming of the man of sin and the falling away. (The imperfect tense here indicates repeated action in the past.)
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(5) Remember ye not.A rebuke of the same character as Rom. 6:3; 1Co. 6:19, and, like those, levelled at ignorance of what in apostolic days were thought the six fundamental points of Christian teaching (Heb. 5:12; Heb. 6:1-2). The doctrine of Antichrist would naturally form part of the course on resurrection and judgment. This explains how the doctrine was enforced (1) so early in the education of the Christian churches: while I was yet with you (see Introduction to the First Epistle to Thessalonians); and (2) so emphatically and repeatedly: my habit was to tell you these thingsfor the word translated told is in the imperfect tense, which means more than a single action. Notice that in St. Pauls eager personal recollection, of thus teaching, he for once (and nowhere else) forgets Silas and Timothy: not we, but I. Imagine a forger who should forge with such subtlety! Mark also how erroneous is the opinion that St. Paul in this Epistle recedes from his former teaching about the Advent and its date.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
5. Remember ye not No reproof here, but one of several appeals to the memory of his readers, with which these epistles abound.
I told you Probably not in his public preaching, but in private conversation. St. Paul, then, is not here giving them any new revelation, or any after-thought. He had told the Thessalonians at his first visit that events of unknown magnitude intervened between the present hour and the parousia.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘Do you not remember that when I was with you I told you these things?’
How we would love to hear what he had told them, but we do not know, nor do we know its extent. But it seemingly ties up with some of John’s teaching in Revelation with remarkable accuracy. John may have had Paul’s letter in mind, or they may both have looked back to the same source.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
The revelation of the mystery of iniquity:
v. 5. Remember ye not that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?
v. 6. And now ye know what withholdeth That he might be revealed in his time.
v. 7. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work; only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.
v. 8. And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming;
v. 9. even him whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
v. 10. and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish, because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved.
v. 11. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie,
v. 12. that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. This was not the first time that the apostle had given the Thessalonian Christians instruction concerning the great apostasy: Do you not remember that, while I was still with you, I told you this? He had made it a point to include this point in his oral instruction, not only once, but habitually. Surely it was merely necessary to remind them of the facts as they had learned them. Therefore also the apostle could continue: And now you know what withholds that he may be revealed in his own time. Before the writing of this letter, the contradicting and contradictory opinions which the Thessalonians heard might have tended to confuse them. But now that they recalled his oral instructions, they knew what he was referring to, they knew the reason for the delay, they knew what restrained Anti-Christ from being revealed before his appointed time. All that Paul had taught them, and a repetition at this time would be unnecessary; they would understand to what Paul was referring.
Just how serious the apostle thought the situation and its possible dangerous developments appears from his next words: For the mystery of lawlessness is active even now, only until he that withholds for the present is out of the way. He speaks of a mystery of lawlessness which was even then working and active; he sees before him the scattered, shapeless mass of ungodliness, which is first to gain form and personality in Anti-Christ. It was at that time still hidden and covered, one could not yet point out specific instances of its terrible power. But it was at work, it was influencing certain persons, for instance, Diotrephes, 3Jn 1:10, and other unruly spirits, 1Jn 2:18. Against a general development and manifestation of power, however, another force was opposing, a force or being that made it impossible for the lawlessness to have free rein until it should be removed. It is probable that Paul is referring to the fact that no bishop could attain to temporal power and honor as long as the Roman emperors could inaugurate persecutions.
When, however, this restriction would be removed, the hidden opposition to Christ, the lawlessness, would break forth: And then the Lawless One will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus shall consume with the breath of His mouth, and He shall make an end of him by the appearing of His coming. “Then,” sometime after the removal of the restriction which kept the hidden lawlessness from being put into execution openly. According to the manner of prophecy, events that are centuries apart are spoken of as occurring in quick succession or about the same time. The revealing of Anti-Christ as such took place through the Reformation of Luther. When he brought forth the everlasting Gospel out of the darkness of centuries, it was an easy matter for every Bible Christian to recognize the antichristian character of the Roman papacy and to withdraw from its soul-destroying influence, But the end is not yet; for though Anti-Christ has now been revealed and exposed before all the world, and though the Lord Jesus, through the breath of His mouth, through the sword of the Spirit in the Word, is counteracting the work of Anti-Christ and destroying his work in many instances, the final destruction will come only at the appearance of His coming. When the Lord returns, visibly and with a full revelation of His divine glory, He will put an end to the arrogance of Anti-Christ forever and give him his punishment with all evil-doers.
The reason for this uncompromising attitude is given in the further description: Whose coming is after the working of Satan in all power and signs and lying miracles, and in all deceitfulness of unrighteousness to them that are lost, because they did not accept the love of the truth that they might be saved. Although Anti-Christ has been exposed and his doom is inevitable, he is making the best of his time and of his situation in the Christian Church. Although he has lost his temporal power, he does not think for a moment of giving up his ambition, but his evil advent continues. He has his inspiration from Satan, from whom he also receives the remarkable power which his errors still exert in the world, in signs and wonders which are the product of lie and fraud, as witness the many healings which are credited to relics of saints. With the same cool audacity which has always characterized Anti-Christ, he continues in all deceit of unrighteousness. He has a glittering show of righteousness and holiness; good works, show, and pomp are flaunted before the eyes of the world at all times by the henchmen of Anti-Christ, yet he is full of unrighteousness. Fortunately, however, he has this influence and power only among those that are perishing, because they refused to accept the love of the truth, the simple Gospel-message of salvation, which teaches them the way of salvation. By the grace of God there is many a person that clings to the map of salvation through the merits of Jesus Christ alone, although outwardly under the dominion of the Roman See. But for those that reject the Word of Salvation and actually place their trust in their own merit and in that of the many saints that have been canonized, their destruction with their acknowledged head is a well-merited reward of their disobedience.
Of this St. Paul writes: And for this reason God sends them working of delusion that they should believe the falsehood, that all might be judged who did not believe the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. For this reason, because they would not accept the love of the truth, the Gospel-message of their salvation, God punishes the deliberately disobedient people by giving their minds up to the lie which they preferred. A strength of deception enters their hearts; they become so -firmly convinced that their course is right that they absolutely refuse to turn back to the truth. They believe the lie, put all their faith and trust in falsehood, in conscious, willful, God-defying untruth. A devilish perversion has taken hold of them, making them blind to all sound and true doctrine. The result, therefore, is that all those that will not believe the truth, but find their pleasure in unrighteousness, in a total lack of the righteousness which the Lord demands, will be subject to the condemnation of the Lord. In this way Anti-Christ serves as a tool in God’s hands for the punishment of such people as reject the truth of the Gospel, surely an earnest warning in our days when the glamour and the pomp of Rome is unfolded before our eyes more and more.
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
2Th 2:5-7. Remember ye not, &c. The apostle thought it a part of his duty, as he made it a part of his preaching and doctrine, to forewarn his new converts of the grand apostacy that would infest the church, even while he was at Thessalonica. From these verses it appears, that the man of sin was not then revealed: His time was not yet come, or the season of his manifestation. The mystery of iniquity was indeed already working;the seeds of corruption were sown; but they were not grown up to maturity. The man of sin was yet hardly conceived in the womb; it must be some time before he could be brought forth. There was some obstacle that hindered his appearing: what this was, we cannot determine with absolute certainty at so great a distance of time; but, if we may rely upon the concurrent testimony of the fathers, it was the Roman empire. Most probably it was somewhat relating to the higher powers, because the apostle observes such caution: he mentioned it in discourse, but would not commit it to writing. See 2Th 2:15. Tertullian says, (Apolog. p. 31.) “We Christians are under a particular necessity of praying for the emperors, and for the continued state of the empire; because we know that that dreadful power which hangs over the whole world, and the conclusion of the age which threatens the most horrible evils, is retarded by the continuance of the time appointed for the Roman empire. This is what we would not experience. And, while we pray that it may be deferred, we hereby shew our good will to the perpetuity of the Roman state.”
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
2Th 2:5 . Estius: “Est tacita objurgatio, quasi dicat: quum haec vobis praesens dixerim, non debebatis commoveri rumoribus aliquorum dicentium instare diem domini.”
On ] see on 1Th 3:4 .
] namely, the contents of 2Th 2:3-4 . To assume, however, a parenthesis from 2Th 2:5 to in 2Th 2:6 (so Heinsius) is arbitrary.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
5 Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?
Ver. 5. Remember ye not ] Satan usually hides from us that which should help us. But as the soul should be as it were a holy ark; so should the memory be as the pot of manna, preserving holy truth for constant use.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
5 .] conveys a reproach they would not have been so lightly moved, if they had remembered this.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
2Th 2:5 . It was no after-thought, on Paul’s part (the singular rules out Spitta’s idea that Timothy wrote this apocalyptic piece). Nor was it an idiosyncrasy of his teaching. Especially since the days of Antiochus Epiphanes (Dan 7:11 ; cf. Gunkel’s Schpfung u. Chaos , 221 f.), a more or less esoteric and varied Jewish tradition had pervaded pious circles, that the last days would be heralded by a proud uprising against God. The champion of this movement was no longer the Dragon or cosmic opponent of God, as in the older mythology (though traces of this belief still linger), but an individual ( ) who incorporates human wickedness ( ) and infernal cunning in his own person, and who essays to supplant and suppress the worship of the true God, by claiming divine honours for himself. He is Satan’s messiah, an infernal caricature of the true messiah. Cf. Asc. Isa. , iv. 6, where it is said that Belial “will do and speak like the Beloved and he will say, I am God and before me there has been none”.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
5.] conveys a reproach-they would not have been so lightly moved, if they had remembered this.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
2Th 2:5. ; do ye not remember?) The apostle intimates, that he neither contradicts himself, nor helps out his former statement by some sort of new declaration, as men under the influence of a fond imagination (conjecturers) are wont to do after being the cause of offence: that he had not said, the day of the Lord was near in such a sense, as that other important great events would not occur in the meantime.-, yet) The Antithesis is , now, 2Th 2:6.- , with you) In the present day Judaism greatly prevails at Thessalonica, and at the proper time the opportunity will be given of observing whether the Iniquitous one [Wicked] is to have a great party, especially in that city. Some even of the tribes [; not as Engl. Vers. kindreds] of Israel, before the death and resurrection of the two witnesses, will stand by the beast, Rev 11:9, and after the ascension of the witnesses into heaven, and the earthquake, will repent. In my opinion, it may happen, that a concealed Jew may become Pope; comp. Thes. 16., on 2Th 2:3 above. I do not assert this positively.- , I told you) So, 2Th 2:15, ye have been taught.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
2Th 2:5
Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?-The spirit of lawlessness was at work in Pauls day. The principle was just developing itself. It was not a grown man. It was really an unborn babe. It took several hundred years to prow into papacy. All the time back to Pauls day it was that same man of sin in different stages of growth. It was the same person in its essential nature and character from its conception until its complete development in the papacy. It is easy in history to trace it back to its appearance at its birth. Its essential character was that it assumed the right to change and modify the order and appointments to legislate for the kingdom of God. Wherever that principle is found, there the mystery of iniquity is. This is its one essential character.
All organizations, institutions, and practices in the church that grow out of the exercise by man or men of this power are developments of the man of sin. Some one body, by preeminence in time or power, may be called the man of sin, but all are of the same family, even though less pronounced in character. This principle has not confined itself to one church or to one development, but has made many and varied growths, each shaped by the conditions and surroundings, of its growth. Whenever or wherever men in the church have added to, taken from, or changed the laws, institutions, or order God has ordained, there the man of sin is at work. The outgrowth of that principle, wherever found, is a development of the man of sin.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Remember: Mat 16:9, Mar 8:18, Luk 24:6, Luk 24:7, Act 20:31
when: 2Th 3:10, Joh 16:4, Gal 5:21, 1Th 2:11, 2Pe 1:15
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
2Th 2:5. I told you these things. Since signs of the apostasy, namely, desire for power were being manifested in those early years of the church (3Jn 1:9), it was natural that Paul would warn his brethren about it when laboring in their midst. He also instructed Timothy to remind the brethren where he preached, of this very defection that was to come into the world. In 1Ti 4:1-3 is such a prediction, and verse 6 directly advises the evangelist to do this service of remembrance for the brethren.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
2Th 2:5. This verse is inserted with a slight accent of surprise not altogether unmingled with reproach that they should have made so little of the instruction he had orally given them.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Observe here, That the doctrine of the rise and ruin of Antichrist is necessary to be made known; for though these things were not to come to pass in their days, yet St. Paul taught them before when present, and now repeateth it again when absent, to fasten it upon their mind and memories; it is necessary to deliver this doctrine, both to warn the faithful against delusion, and to fortify the faithful against persecution, and to keep them patient under it; for when Antichrist is discovered, Christians under his tyranny submit to sufferings more cheerfully: suffering under Antichristian persecutors is martyrdom and suffering for Christ, as well as under pagan persecutors.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
2Th 2:5-6. Remember ye not, &c. These things were not asserted now merely to serve the present occasion: the apostle had spoken, yea, and borne a faithful testimony concerning them while he was at Thessalonica. Indeed, the rise and progress of this apostacy, with the various heresies connected with it, and the evils which were about to be occasioned by it, were matters of such offence and scandal, that unless the disciples had been forewarned concerning them, their happening might have led the weak to fancy that God had cast away all care of his church. The apostle, knowing this, made the prediction of these events the subject even of his first sermons to the Thessalonians, after they had embraced the gospel; and doubtless he followed the same course in all other places where he preached with any degree of success. See 1Ti 4:6. Beza observes that this prophecy was often repeated and earnestly inculcated in the first age, but is overlooked and neglected in modern times. And now ye know By what I told you when I was with you; what with-holdeth Restraineth the man of sin from exercising his impious tyranny. It seems the apostle, when at Thessalonica, besides speaking of the apostacy and of the man of sin, had told them what it was that hindered his appearance. But as he has not thought fit to commit that discovery to writing, we cannot determine with absolute certainty what it was; but if we may rely upon the concurrent testimonies of the Christian fathers, it was the Roman empire. Indeed, the caution which the apostle observes with respect to speaking of it, renders it highly probable that it was somewhat relating to the higher powers. He mentioned it in discourse, but would not commit it to writing. As he afterward exhorts the Thessalonians to hold the traditions which had been taught them, whether by word or his epistle, it is likely this was one of the traditions which he thought it proper to teach them. The apostles manner of speaking here, (that he might be revealed in his time, or in his own season, as properly signifies,) seems to imply that there were reasons for permitting the corruptions of Christianity to proceed to a certain length. Now what could these reasons be, unless to show mankind the danger of admitting any thing in religion but what is of divine appointment? For one error productive of superstition admitted, naturally leads to others, till at length religion is utterly deformed. Perhaps also these evils were permitted, that in the natural course of human affairs, Christianity being first corrupted and then purged, the truth might be so clearly established, as to be in no danger of any corruption in time to come. Macknight.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things? [Literally, was telling. He had repeated the instruction often, and now reproves the Thessalonians for forgetting what he did say, and being agitated by false reports of what he did not say.]
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
2:5 {5} Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?
(5) This prophecy was continually declared to the ancient Church, but it was neglected by those that followed.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Paul reminded his readers that he had told them of these things when he was with them. Since Paul was evidently only in Thessalonica a few weeks this reference is very significant. Paul did not regard prophecy as too deep or unimportant or controversial for even new Christians. Many Christians today play down the importance of this part of God’s revelation. Paul believed prophetic truth was a vital part of the whole counsel of God essential to victorious Christian living. Consequently he taught it without hesitation or apology. So should we.