These letters make important contributions to our knowledge of eschatology. We learn from the first letter that there are no problems about believers who die before the parousia. When Jesus comes back, these people will be the first to rise from the dead, and they will come with him. Afterward believers who are alive at that time will be caught up to meet the Lord. “And so we will be with the Lord forever” (1 Thess. 4:17). No other part of Scripture is as explicit as this; however we understand the so-called rapture, it is this letter that tells us about it. And toward the end of every chapter in this letter there is a reference to some aspect of the second coming. But Paul does not encourage speculation about the date of the parousia. It will come unexpectedly (1 Thess. 5:1-2), and the important thing is that “whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him” (1 Thess. 5:10).
In the same spirit, Paul in the second letter discourages becoming unsettled or alarmed by eschatological speculation (2 Thess. 2:2), and he goes on to point to events that will precede the parousia, notably the appearance of “the man of lawlessness” (2 Thess. 2:3). It may not be easy to combine these thoughts that the parousia will be totally unexpected when it occurs (like a thief in the night) and that it will be preceded by signs, but these two points occur elsewhere in the New Testament. What Paul laid down so clearly in these early writings is standard early Christian teaching. We should not overlook the further point that, while in other parts of the New Testament we have information about the Antichrist and about the evil that would coincide with his appearance, this is the only place where he is called “the man of lawlessness.” Paul’s account of what he will do and how he will be overthrown are also peculiar to the apostle. He is telling us something new, not repeating standard eschatological teaching.
Both letters give expression to the deep pastoral concern the apostle had for his converts and in so doing reveal to us something of the personality of the great apostle. The Thessalonians were new Christians and found themselves the objects of some form of persecution for their faith. They thus needed guidance and encouragement, and Paul provided both. We should not fail to observe that this attitude is found so early in the history of Christianity. But with all his advice and his direct commands from time to time, Paul avoids paternalism. He had left Thessalonica shortly after the foundation of the church, and while he was ready to write letters that would help his converts, he trusted them to rely on the Lord, not on the apostle.
Paul had evidently been accused of a number of shortcomings: he had tricked the converts with his flatteries and the like, he was interested in their money rather than their spiritual progress, he had no love for them. In rebutting such accusations, Paul brings out for evangelists and pastors for all time important lessons about the kind of lives they should live (1 Thess. 2:1-10).
And he has important truths about the kind of lives people in Christian congregations should live. In a day like our own his teaching on sexual purity is important (1 Thess. 4:3-8). People today often think of loose sexual morality as something quite new and perhaps as a sign of modern enlightenment. They reason that Christianity was all right in earlier times when people lived more uprightly but that it is not adequate for a day like
our own. We should bear in mind that the Roman world of the first century was very lax; it has been well said that the only completely new virtue that Christians brought into the world was chastity. This very early letter points the way to deliverance from the subjection to lust that characterizes many people who think they are emancipated but who are in fact slaves to their own desires.
Paul is concerned that his converts live on all levels of life as “sons of the light and sons of the day” (1 Thess. 5:5). This means accepting high standards in all areas of life. In first-century Thessalonica this meant working for one’s living (1 Thess. 4:11-12; 5:14). Apparently some of the converts were slow to learn this lesson, and in the second letter Paul has more to say about it (2 Thess. 3:6-12).
It is important to notice also that 2 Thessalonians makes it clear that we are all subject to the judgment of God. There is a graphic picture of what this means (2 Thess. 1:5-10); we must be clear that we are all responsible people. One day, Paul is saying, we must give account of ourselves to God, and that is no mere formality. Evil will be punished, and sinners should never think that they can get away with it. The blazing fire and the powerful angels of which Paul writes remind us of strength that will prevail in the end and the certainty of the final overthrow of evil.
Much of this is to be found elsewhere in the New Testament. But it is included here, since these letters are among the earliest Christian writings we have, possibly the earliest. We should not miss the revolutionary nature of their teaching, even if much has passed into the common stock of Christian knowledge.