Inscription and Greeting (2 Thessalonians 1:1–2)

2 Thess. 1:1, 2. Paul and Silvanus and Timothy, to the Church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

This salutation and greeting correspond word for word to the salutation and greeting of the first epistle to the Thessalonians. Let the reader refer to what was said on this in the Commentary on that epistle. Here we shall add only a few remarks of our commentators, which they make, in addition, on certain individual expressions.

“Paul and Silvanus and Timothy.” — By this second placing of his co-workers alongside himself in a series, the holy Apostle gives one to understand that this epistle too is written in the same spirit and in the same circumstances as the former one. From this, apart from historical considerations, it is rightly inferred that it was written not long after the first.

“In God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” If these words are referred to the greeting, the sense will be: we greet the Church of Thessalonica from the person, in the name, and by the goodwill of God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. So blessed Theodoret: “The expression ‘in God the Father’ is similar to what we too write in letters, for we also customarily write: such and such a person wishes such and such a person to rejoice in the Lord.”

If, however, they are referred to the words “the Church of the Thessalonians,” they will indicate the spirit of that Church—that it has not been gathered in some alien name, but in the name of God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. “For there are gatherings not in the Father and the Son, such as the gatherings of pagans and heretics” (Oecumenius). The Jews may say that their synagogue is in the name of God, but it is not in the name of God the Father, and still less in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ—and is therefore nothing. All true blessings descend to us by the good pleasure of God the Father through our Lord Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God. Therefore those who do not gather in their name assemble in vain: there is no truth in them, they do not walk the way of God and have no share in the promises of grace. To say “the Church in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” is the same as to say: the truly Christian Church. For this means the same as saying: the Church which has come into being and continues to exist by the grace of God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ—that is, the Church which God, the Father of believers, has adopted as His own, and which the Lord Jesus Christ, the Author of our faith and the Saviour of souls, has called to faith, has vitally united with Himself in baptism, has made partakers of His body or constituted as His body, and has filled with the Holy Spirit. But only such a Church is the truly Christian Church—the Church that is in God the Father through our Lord Jesus Christ. Likewise, the truly Christian person is known by this: that he is in God the Father by the grace of adoption, is united with Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as a member with his head, is filled with the Holy Spirit and is guided by Him. Let everyone therefore remember that through baptism he became a son of God, a member of Christ, a dwelling of the Holy Spirit—and, keeping this in mind, let him hold it on his conscience that he must live as an adopted child of God and act always in the Holy Spirit, or be guided by Him in all things.

“Grace to you.” “Most people do everything and undertake everything with the aim of earning the goodwill of those who are set over them and of those who are greater than themselves, and they set great store by this goodwill and count themselves happy when they attain what they desired. But if the goodwill of those who are like us is so important to a person, what value ought that to have for us when we are counted worthy of the grace of God? That is why the Apostle in the opening of all his epistles sets forth this kind of benediction of grace and prays for it to God” (Chrysostom).

“Grace to you and peace.” “When God bestows grace upon someone, nothing becomes unbearable for him; everything is borne with ease and passes away. Knowing, therefore, what a great blessing in life grace is, the blessed Paul wishes it to the Thessalonians in prayer. For as soon as it is present in them, they will not only not feel the burden of temptations, but will also, enjoying the peace of God, remain undisturbed and at rest. He also mentions grace to them so that, even if temptations should come upon them, they, remembering the grace by which they were saved, might be comforted and, fortified in spirit by the precious blessings already received, might not despair when they encounter temptations and insignificant privations” (Theophylact); or (as the holy Chrysostom says) so that “remembering the grace of God by which they were saved from greater evils, they might not fall into despondency when subjected to lesser ones, but might find comfort therein.”

“From God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” Let no one conjecture from this that the Apostle’s meaning is that God is our Father and the Lord of Jesus Christ. That is not what the Apostle’s words should lead one to think; they should lead one to see that God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ are equal in honor and equal in authority. He speaks as if to say: from God, Who is our Father, and from Jesus Christ, Who is our Lord. The words God and Lord point to the divine nature which is one in the Father and the Son. In the epistles to Timothy it even stands: “from God our Father and Christ Jesus our Lord” (1 Tim. 1:2)—that is, from Christ Jesus, Who is our Lord and God. Blessed Theodoret writes: “Here the Apostle has taught us also the equal power of the Father and the Son; for having said: ‘in God our Father,’ he added: ‘and the Lord Jesus Christ,’ and again, after the words ‘from God our Father,’ he appended: ‘and the Lord Jesus Christ’—because one and the same blessings are bestowed upon us by the Father and the Son.”