1Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, to the assembly of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
2We always give thanks to God for all of you, mentioning you in our prayers, 3remembering without ceasing your work of faith and labor of love and perseverance of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, before our God and Father. 4We know, brothers loved by God, that you are chosen, 5and that our Good News came to you not in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit and with much assurance. You know what kind of men we showed ourselves to be among you for your sake. 6You became imitators of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Spirit, 7so that you became an example to all who believe in Macedonia and in Achaia. 8For from you the word of the Lord has been declared, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith toward God has gone out, so that we need not to say anything. 9For they themselves report concerning us what kind of a reception we had from you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God, 10and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead: Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come.
The biblical text in the translation used with the HVSB has "day of Christ," but this is reflected in later manuscripts of the New Testament. The earlier reading is "day of the Lord" and is to be preferred in 2 Thessalonians 2:2. The day of the Lord is a phrase used several times in the Bible and speaks of a time of God's judgment over a disobedient people.1 The coming of Christ is a term used to refer to the coming of Christ for His church. This is the focus of Paul's presentation in 2 Thessalonians 2:1, a term found throughout 1 Thessalonians (cf. 1 Thess 1:10; 2:19, 20; 3:13; 4:13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18; 5:23). A letter was delivered to the church at Thessalonica (or someone passed a supposed statement from Paul) that said the day of judgment had already arrived, and this concerned the believers (shaken or troubled) whom Paul had taught. Paul corrects this incorrect teaching by explaining how the Thessalonian believers can be relieved of such teaching by recognizing that the day of God's wrath on the earth had not arrived and would only occur after the coming of the Lord for His people (see 1 Thess 1:10; 2 Thess 2:3).
See Old Testament: Isa 13:6; Ezek 30:3; Joel 2:1; Joel 3:14, and in the New Testament: Acts 2:20; 1 Corinthians 5:5; 2 Corinthians 1:14; 1 Thess 5:2; 2 Thess 2:2; 2 Pet 3:10. ↩︎