2 Thessalonians 2, selected verses; November 6-12, Year C:

This passage testifies to the certainty of dark days for the church near the end of the present age. There will be great deception, with Christians following false christs, and with many rebelling against the true faith. There will be delusions and false teachings, and great falling away. I'm sure that these things happen to a greater or lesser extent during every phase of church history; so to some degree, when we see these things happen in our own day, we are right to be on our guard and to be watchful for the Second Coming of Christ. But we dare not be so presumptuous as to predict times or days or years or seasons. Nowhere does the Bible give us warrant to do that. At the same time, this chapter closes on a hopeful note. It speaks of those who have been chosen from before the foundation of the world who will be sanctified and preserved. All of the elements of God's sovereignty are here--His love, His preservation, His election, His decrees. To some, these truths speak of an arbitrary, cold, and aloof God. Instead, we should think of this passage as a reminder that God cares very much for His world and is very much involved in its care--both spiritual and physical. This is an indication of how much God cares for His children. He will make us who believe in Christ more like Christ; and He will preserve and protect us to the end.

2 Thessalonians 1, selected verses; October 30-November 5, 2007:

In our lectionary epistle reading for this week, Paul is acknowledging the faith and the love of these Thessalonians. These Christians are a subject of conversation among all the churches. They have endured persecution and tribulation with patience and steadfastness. Paul expresses certainty that a righteous God will repay with His judgment those who have troubled this church. Those who do not know God or obey the gospel will be visited with the vengeance of Almighty God. Everlasting destruction and punishment will be the final end of those who reject the gospel and hinder the churches, and they will be cast out of the presence of God. But the saints who have followed Christ and have endured will ultimately be glorified. So Paul and the other Christians pray for these Thessalonians who God counts worthy to suffer in this great cause and to participate in this great calling. We are reminded in this text that to suffer for Christ is honorable. Paul gives thanks for this church and encourages them to do even better. They are worthy of praise in part, at least, because they are suffering--not just suffering for *any cause, but for Christ. They are serving, working together like a true family, struggling, but bound together in love by Christ to God and to each other. They are wrestling with the meaning of discipleship, born, as they were, amid persecution. Are we today suffering for God's kingdom? Are we even worthy of such suffering? We do not consider our projects and our missions efforts worthy unless they succeed; and the standards for success are *our standards, not those of God. We do not know too many churches that are persecuted today. Perhaps most churches in our country are not persecuted because they stand for nothing spiritual that can be clearly identified. Suffering honors God only when it is visited upon a church or a Christian that honors God! We need not adopt a martyr complex and say that suffering is good for its own sake; but we know that if we seek truly to live a Christian life, we will, at some point, be persecuted. This is assumed in the pastoral epistles and elsewhere. Andwhen I speak of suffering for Christ, I'm not speaking of that suffering which is often identified by activists of the left or the right politically as suffering for Christ. Suffering for a cause which you or I believe to be Christian is not the same thing as suffering because we *are Christian, or because we affirm the Christian faith. I believe there are many Christians who even suffer within their own congregations or denominations simply because they affirm the Christian faith. And clearly, there are many who suffer because they are Christian and yet are seeking to maintain their faith as they live and work in a hostile world. Other causes may seem good or right or virtuous, and may be perfectly valid areas of Christian involvement; but the world will tolerate an activist and may likely ignore a fanatic! The question is: What will it do with a Christian?