1Therefore when we couldn’t stand it any longer, we thought it good to be left behind at Athens alone, 2and sent Timothy, our brother and God’s servant in the Good News of Christ, to establish you and to comfort you concerning your faith, 3that no one would be moved by these afflictions. For you know that we are appointed to this task. 4For most certainly, when we were with you, we told you beforehand that we are to suffer affliction, even as it happened, and you know. 5For this cause I also, when I couldn’t stand it any longer, sent that I might know your faith, for fear that by any means the tempter had tempted you, and our labor would have been in vain.
6But Timothy has just now come to us from you, and brought us glad news of your faith and love, and that you have good memories of us always, longing to see us, even as we also long to see you. 7For this cause, brothers, we were comforted over you in all our distress and affliction through your faith. 8For now we live, if you stand fast in the Lord. 9For what thanksgiving can we render again to God for you, for all the joy with which we rejoice for your sakes before our God, 10night and day praying exceedingly that we may see your face and may perfect that which is lacking in your faith?
11Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus Christ, direct our way to you. 12May the Lord make you to increase and abound in love toward one another and toward all men, even as we also do toward you, 13to the end he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.
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. ↩︎