Yesterday morning I preached through 2 Thessalonians 2:13-3:5 and spent a lot of time expounding upon my love for the grace of God (audio found here). The first part of our text is as follows:

” But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. To this he called you through our gospel, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter. Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word.” – 2 Thess. 2:13-17

This passage is so grace soaked and gospel saturated that I tend to think Paul is intentionally calling the Thessalonians to recognize how extremely important it is to never take the gospel for granted. I felt specifically led to point this out yesterday. The gospel is excellent in so many ways. To realize that our salvation is not based off of our own works but is based sole on the work of Christ on the cross is life-altering. There is no neutral ground when it comes to the gospel or our response to Jesus Christ (cf. Luke 11:23).

Paul calls our attention to (1) the Thessalonians’ election, (2) the call of the gospel, (3) the work of the Spirit in our sanctification and our belief in the truth, and (4) our future glory in Christ Jesus. Though it is doubtful that Paul intended to provide a thorough ordo salutis (“order of salvation”), we certainly can take note of what seems to be of importance in Paul’s mind. Previously, Paul had informed the Thessalonians that their election was essentially ‘proved’ due to the fact that the gospel was confirmed in word, signs & wonders, and by their lifestyle (1 Thess. 1:4-5). This seems to be a common way that Paul felt the gospel was “fully” preached (cf. Rom. 15:18-20). Apparently it seemed that Paul felt it necessary to encourage the Thessalonians with the knowledge that God had previously planned to include them in his act of redemption. I can only speculate that this would be encouraging and comforting in the same way that I find it encouraging and comforting!

The last phrase was a bit tedious for me as I was working through the Greek text. The question is, who loves us and gives us eternal comfort and good hope through grace? It seems like the temptation to draw out a “high” Christology was calling. Commentators differ as to whether this phrase, in the Greek, refers specifically to “God our Father” or to both the Father and the “Lord Jesus Christ.” In other words, within this text, does love and comfort and hope through grace come from Jesus and the Father or specifically from either the Son or the Father? The Divinity of Christ does not rest on this text, so, as Green and Wanamaker note, the singular participles ho agapêsas… kai dous seem to clearly dictate that the Greek phrase is in relation grammatically to “God our Father.” Green writes,

“God is, in the first place, the one who loved us. The aorist participle most likely points us to some event in which God our Father demonstrated his love, a possible allusion to his election of the Thessalonians (2.13; and see 1 Thess. 1.4), to the incarnation (John 3.16), or to the act of sending his Son to die for our sins (Rom. 5.8). The way in which the apostle links God’s love with election in these letters favors the first interpretation. But whatever act of love the author has in mind, their concern is to encourage and strengthen the Thessalonians in the midst of their persecutions and their battle against erroneous teaching (v. 17). In the presence of these adversaries the love of God our Father would be the foundation of their hope (the thought is similar to Rom. 8.37-39, where God’s love is the counter-point to the believers’ sufferings).” – Green, The Letters to the Thessalonians (PNTC), 331

This does not suggest that love and comfort and hope do not come from the Lord Jesus Christ. Other texts point out that Jesus loved the church (Eph. 5:25), is the “blessed hope” of the church (Titus 2:13), and comforted the church by ultimately giving the church the great “Comforter,” namely the Holy Spirit (John 15:26; 16:7). But we must avoid reading into the text what Paul does not actually say here in this specific passage. Author’s intent is our priority in exegesis and hermeneutics.