Lesson for November 15, 2020
The Book of II Thessalonians
Chapter 3:1-6
Verses 1-6
“Finally, brethren, pray for us that the word of the Lord will spread rapidly and be glorified, just as it did also with you; and that we will be rescued from perverse and evil men; for not all have faith. But the Lord is faithful, and He will strengthen and protect you from the evil one. We have confidence in the Lord concerning you, that you are doing and will continue to do what we command. May the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the steadfastness of Christ. Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from every brother who leads an unruly life and not according to the tradition which you received from us.” Paul, for the first time recognizes that there are many believers in Thessalonica who have reached spiritual maturity and therefore this is a great compliment to ask them to pray. There is tremendous power in prayer. It is the privilege of every believer to have a part of another person’s life or ministry through prayer. We all need the prayer of others. Therefore, it is important that we all develop a consistent prayer life. In James 5:16 it tells us that the effective, continuous prayer of a righteous person has great results. It is impossible to pray effectively without knowledge of specific and essential needs. So, we should keep an updated prayer request list. These are tools we can use to pray effectively for others. (Acts 12)
Paul’s prayer request was not for his personal needs, but for the rapid spread of the doctrine he had taught these believers, which would glorify God. Paul asks that the Word of God might have free course, that it might run freely. The more relaxed the pastor-teacher is the more effective his communication, and therefore the Word of God will receive glorification in its presentation. Some of the Thessalonian believers had been very positive to his ministry, and he was very relaxed when he stood up in front of them because of their positive volition. Rapport between a pastor and a congregation comes from positive volition on the part of the congregation. The Thessalonians are an illustration of responsiveness to Bible doctrine.
And that we will be rescued from perverse and evil men; for not all have faith. Being rescued from evil men meant that there were those within the church teaching false doctrine who needed to be stopped. The Greek word for perverse is “atopos,” which means harmful or unreasonable, and it refers to reversionistic believers. The Greek word for evil is “poneros,” which means malicious and indicates the opposition of the unbeliever (for not all have faith). Paul faced opposition to teaching accurate Bible doctrine from both believers and unbelievers. The Greek word for faith is “pistis,” which can mean to believe or what is believed. Both meaning apply here because we have two categories of opposition to Paul’s teaching. We have the reversionistic believer who is described as harmful and unreasonable and the unbeliever who is described as malicious and lacks faith in Jesus Christ.
But the Lord is faithful, and He will strengthen and protect you from the evil one. The Greek word for faithful is “pistos,” which means trustworthy or reliable. The Greek word for strengthen is “sterizo,” which means to set in a certain position or direction. It also means to be mentally stabilized, to be firmly established, to be firmly supported by something. This is accomplished through Bible doctrine.
The Greek word for protect is “phulasso,” which means to guard or to keep watch. As you respond to doctrine and reach spiritual maturity, the more doctrine you have in your soul and the more you are guarded from the evil of Satan’s world system. The greatest defense you have against Satan (the evil one) is Bible doctrine in your soul.
Satan’s strategy is to accuse every believer. Satan is in the business of accusing every believer. It is the strategy of Satan to persuade the believer to ignore the Word of God, to be negative toward it. This is done by getting a believer to be disobedient to the Word of God and the authority of the one teaching it. This is also done by getting a believer to worry and be anxious. So, Satan does this by getting a believer to ignore or neglect the doctrine that he has already learned. (Zechariah 3:1-2; Job 1:6-11; Revelation 12:9-10; Genesis 2:17, 3:4; Philippians 4:6-7; I Peter 5:7-9)
Satan’s strategy to keep a believer from doing the will of God by destroying his focus. He does it in three ways: 1) to get your eyes on self. (I Corinthians 1:10,11; I Kings 19:10; Matthew 26:31-35); 2) to get your eyes on other people. (Genesis 19:28; 20:1); 3) to get your eyes on things. (Hebrews 13:5-6) It is also his strategy to infiltrate the believer’s stream of consciousness with religious legalism and to involve believers in human viewpoint solutions to man’s problems so that divine solutions are ignored. The only solution to mankind’s problems is spiritual transformation. (Romans 12:1-2)
We have confidence in the Lord concerning you, that you are doing and will continue to do what we command. Confidence comes from spiritual growth. Paul had confidence in every situation in life. He had doctrine in his soul, and he knew how things should go in any situation. So, all confidence in the Christian life inevitably goes back to the start of our relationship with God at salvation when we enter into union with Christ. Paul’s confidence toward these believers was based upon the fact that he knew there were Thessalonians who were positive toward God and His Word. When believers are positive toward Bible doctrine and they are growing in grace they are approaching spiritual maturity life and total confidence in the Lord which is characterized by stability. Command is the Greek word “paraggello,” meaning to announce, to notify, or to communicate. Paul, as an apostle had the authority to communicate doctrine to these believers for their spiritual well-being.
May the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the steadfastness of Christ. The love of God refers to personal love for God and occupation with the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Greek word for steadfastness is “hupomone,” which means patient endurance which means use of the Faith-Rest Technique to have a relaxed mental attitude.
“Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from every brother who leads an unruly life and not according to the tradition which you received from us. There are often people in local churches who are negative toward doctrine. There were in Thessalonica lots of believers with positive volition but there are also some with negative volition. If believers are going to reach spiritual maturity, they are going to have to learn the principle of separation. No one reaches spiritual maturity unless they separate from those who are negative toward God and His Word.
Keep away from means to separate or withdraw. It is God’s purpose for you to be separated from certain believers in life but to still love them in Christ. There are certain types of carnal (out-of-fellowship) believers from which we must separate ourselves: 1) separate from believers in reversionism which is negative volition toward God and Bible doctrine. (II Thessalonians 3:6,14,15; 1 Samuel 22:1) 2) separate from believers who make emotion their standard of life. (Romans 16:17-18.) 3) separate from those involved in making pleasure their priority. (I Peter 4:4; Proverbs 1:10-19) 4) separate from religion and apostasy. (II Corinthians 6:17; II Peter 3:5)
Unruly is a military word which means to be out of ranks, to be insubordinate or to be undisciplined. Leading a spiritually undisciplined life can be a very negative influence on believers desiring to learn and apply Bible doctrine. There were those in Thessalonica who had rejected the authority of the pastor, Paul’s apostolic authority and the authority of Bible doctrine. The Greek word for tradition is “paradosis,” which means handing down teachings. The tradition which you received from us means the teaching of accurate Bible doctrine resulting in advancing toward spiritual maturity.
Doctrinal translation of II Thessalonians 3:1-6, “Finally, fellow believers, pray for us that Bible doctrine will spread rapidly and be glorified, just as it did also with you; and that we will be rescued from harmful and unreasonable reversionistic believers and malicious unbelievers; for not all have faith in Jesus Christ as Savior. But the Lord is faithful, and He will stabilize your mind through accurate Bible doctrine and protect you from Satan and the influence of his world system. We have confidence in the Lord concerning you, that you are applying and will continue to apply the Bible doctrine we have communicated to you. May the Lord direct your hearts into the personal love of God and occupation with the Person of Jesus Christ into patient endurance from Christ which means using the Faith-Rest Technique to have a relaxed mental attitude. Now we command you, fellow believers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you separate from every believer who leads a spiritually undisciplined life and not according to the doctrinal teachings which you received from us.”