that ye be not soon shaken in mind, nor troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter, as [if it were] by us, as that the day of the Lord is present.
Commentary for this Verse
The believers in Thessalonica were under heavy persecution. Then a report reached them that the day of the Lord had already begun. Paul writes to steady them — and the way he does it tells us both how the lie spread and why it could never be true.
Alarm, Not Eager Expectation
The two words Paul uses describe people knocked off balance by fear. They were not impatient for Christ's return. They were afraid of a judgment they thought had already begun.
William KellyBy then some people had stirred up the Thessalonians. They told them that their persecutions and other trials were the start of the day of the Lord. They were passing through severe trouble. So the claim was not that the day was close, as people often say, but that it had arrived. This troubled and shook them badly. Paul writes this new letter to drive out their fears and settle them again in the confidence of their hope... It was certainly not the excitement of hope but of anxiety and terror.
Older English versions read "the day of Christ is at hand." That suggests something still future. But the sense is stronger. The claim was that the day was already here, and the ESV reflects this: "has come."
J. N. DarbyBeyond all argument it should read, "as though the day of the Lord were present." The word is the one translated present elsewhere, as the opposite of things still to come. They were troubled and upset because they thought the day of the Lord, that great and terrible day, had arrived.
Why the Lie Was Believable
Their suffering seemed to confirm the rumour. That day means darkness and trouble for the world. Trouble was what they were living through. The conclusion looked obvious.
William KellyThe Thessalonians were suffering great trouble and persecution for the truth's sake. The false teachers turned this into that day, claiming that the day of the Lord had come... So the believers who were watching for that day, as the first letter shows, were troubled by this cry and shaken in mind. As we have seen, false teachers shake the righteous instead of comforting and steadying them.
What they feared is real enough — but it is not the believer's portion.
Numerical Bible NotesThis idea that the day of the Lord had come brings nothing but trouble. Paul is not holding back the excitement of an empty hope. He is answering the gloom that comes from dread... That day is a time of judgment for sin. Yet God's mercy also makes it a time of new birth for Israel, and for many other nations too. But it is "a time of trouble, such as never has been since there was a nation till that time" (Daniel 12:1).
Three Channels of Deception
Paul names three routes the error took. One of them was deliberate fraud.
Greg QuailThe attack was three-pronged: by spirit, by word and by letter. "By spirit" would mean someone claiming a supernatural revelation. John warns about this when he says, "test the spirits" (1 John 4:1). A fake revelation has an evil spirit behind it. "By word" would mean oral teaching. "By letter" would be, of course, a written message. About this he adds a specific detail — "as if it were by us."
Commentators point out that Paul does not say our letter. He says a letter claiming to be from us. So this was not a misreading of his first letter. It was a forgery.
William KellyHe does not say it was his letter. If he had referred to the First Epistle, he would have said, the letter from us... Claiming that something false came from God is the worst kind of dishonesty. Forgery is a great sin... How often men stop being truthful once they lose the truth!
The Cure Paul Applies
He does not begin by arguing. He appeals to what they already loved — the Lord's coming and their gathering to Him — and uses that hope as the answer to the fear.
William KellyThey pretended in various ways that they had a revelation for it. They even claimed Paul himself as the author of their error. He utterly denies it... "Don't you know," he suggests, "that the Lord is coming to gather you all to Himself?" With this he appeals to the heart. With this he stirs their spiritual feelings against the lie. When the Lord does come, the first thing He will do is to gather those He loves to Himself.
The whole tangle unravels once two things are kept apart.
William KellyThey did think that His "day" was not merely "at hand," which is true, but "present," which is false. Identify "the coming" with "the day" of the Lord, and all is confusion; keep them apart, and light comes at once.
Summary
- Pressure — real suffering made a false report believable. Hardship is when the enemy twists the meaning of what God is doing.
- Panic — "shaken" and "alarmed" describe fear, not eagerness. They thought the day of judgment had already begun.
- Present, not near — the claim was that the day had already arrived, and that single word is where the error sat.
- Three doors — a claimed revelation, spoken teaching, and a forged letter. Lose the truth, and truthfulness goes with it.
- Anchor — Paul steadies them with their hope, not with argument alone. The Lord comes to gather His own before that day breaks.