2 THESSALONIANS 3 — PRAYER, WORK, AND DISCIPLINE

Chapter 3 completes the letter with prayer, practical instruction, and a final greeting. It returns to the problem hinted at in the first letter (1 Thessalonians 4:11–12; 5:14): some members of the church were not working. The causes are not given in detail. Some scholars suggest that the excitement about the nearness of the Lord's return led people to abandon their jobs, and others suggest that it reflects the common Greco-Roman pattern in which wealthy patrons supported dependents, so that the church was being taken advantage of. In any case, Paul's response is firm. The first part of the chapter (verses 1–5) is a request for prayer and an assurance of the Lord's faithfulness. The second part (verses 6–15) is a detailed instruction on how to deal with those who are not working, based on Paul's own example and teaching. The third part (verses 16–18) is the closing benediction and personal signature. The chapter shows the apostle's balance between truth and love, and it addresses the relationship between the hope of Christ's return and ordinary responsibilities.

This chapter reveals several features of the early church that are significant historically. First, the emphasis on work and personal responsibility was not a feature of all religious movements in the ancient world, and some of the traveling teachers of the time were notorious for living off their followers. The Didache, an early Christian manual probably written within a generation or two of Paul, gives instructions that match Paul's concern: a traveling Christian who wants to stay in a community must work for his living, and one who refuses to work is called a "Christ-peddler" and is to be avoided. The second-century satirist Lucian, in his story about the charlatan Peregrinus, mocks the credulity of Christians who supported a false teacher without questioning, and yet his account also shows the way in which the early Christians shared resources generously. Paul's insistence on the combination of generosity and accountability protected the church from both exploitation and hardness. Second, the signature in verse 17 and the earlier warning about forged letters in 2:2 are evidence that Paul's letters were already treated as authoritative and that the church took steps to guard their authenticity. A modern critic should note that the very concern for authentication shows that the early Christians cared about the genuineness of their documents. Third, the letter has been well attested from the earliest period: it appears in Marcion's collection and in the Muratorian list, and it was quoted by early writers such as Polycarp and Justin. Some modern scholars question its authenticity because of its eschatological emphases and its similarity to 1 Thessalonians, but its early acceptance, its coherence with Paul's other teaching, and the plausibility of its historical setting support the traditional view that Paul wrote it.