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Begin Typing VigilAfter congratulating the Thessalonian Christians on their brotherly love and faith and patience (1:1-4), Paul addresses himself to the situation which had specially called into exercise the last-named virtue. (1) The trials and troubles under which they are now suffering (1:4-12) are simply a prelude to the relief and vindication which will be theirs at the coming of Jesus. (2) As the anticipation of this, however, had already produced a morbid fanatical excitement in certain quarters, owing to the fact of some people, apparently from a misunderstanding of his instructions, having failed to recollect that the παρουσία, while near, could not happen till after the appearance and overthrow of a hostile power, Paul proceeds (2:1-12) to reiterate his oral teaching on this point. He then concludes (2:13-17) with an expression of confidence in them, an appeal for loyalty to his teaching, and a brief prayer for their constancy and comfort. Asking their prayers, in turn, for himself, he renews his expression of confidence and interest (3:1-5), whereupon, after a word on the maintenance of discipline and industry, the epistle closes (3:6-18).
Paul is still with Silvanus and Timotheus (1:1) at Corinth (3:2 = Acts 18, 1 Thessalonians 2:15f); he is writing presumably not long after the dispatch of the former epistle (2:15), having heard (3:11) of the mischief caused by local misunderstandings of what he had taught on the course of the Last Things. To repudiate misconceptions and thereby to calm the mind of the church amid its anabaptist perils, is the apostle’s aim. What he has to communicate by way of instruction is practically a re-statement, firmer and more detailed, of teaching already orally imparted (2:5-15), not a discussion of novel doubts and difficulties. If any change in the situation has taken place, it has been to shift the centre of gravity from fears about the dead to extravagant hopes cherished by the living, and to aggravate the restlessness of some pietistic members. Hence, for one thing, the general similarity of structure and atmosphere in both epistles, and, on the other hand, the sharper emphasis in the second upon Paul’s authority.
Both of these features, together with the singular eschatology and the style, have roused suspicion as marks of a sub-Pauline period.
The letters attributed to Paul can be found on this timeline. This collection includes Paul's authentic episltes as well as the disputed writings.