2 Thessalonians 2.16a-The Lord Jesus Christ and God the Father Divinely-Loved the Child of God (Doctrinal Bible Church in Huntsville, Alabama)

Doctrinal Bible Church

Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom

Sunday August 3, 2025

Second Thessalonians Series: 2 Thessalonians 2:16a-The Lord Jesus Christ and God the Father Divinely-Love the Child of God

Lesson # 43

2 Thessalonians 2:16 Now, may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself as well as God, who is our Father, who divinely loved each and every one of us, namely by means of grace having given to each one of us as a gift an encouragement, which is eternal resulting in a confident expectation of blessing, which is divine-good, 17 encourage and exhort your hearts. Specifically, by strengthening each and every one of you with respect to every kind of action and oral communication, which are divine-good in quality and character. (Pastor’s translation)

2 Thessalonians 2:16 marks a transition from Paul’s statements in 2 Thessalonians 2:13-15 to his statements in 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17.

Now, in 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17, Paul communicates to the Thessalonian Christian community an intercessory prayer that he, Silvanus and Timothy regularly offered up to the Father on behalf of each and every one of them.

They communicate this prayer to the Thessalonians to encourage them and to express their love and concern for them.

In this prayer, both the Lord Jesus Christ and God the Father are described as having loved them.

By divinely-loving them, Paul means that by means of grace the Lord Jesus Christ and God the Father gave to each of them an encouragement, which is eternal in nature which resulted in a confident expectation of blessing, which is divine-good in quality and character.

Paul, Silvanus and Timothy requested that both the Lord Jesus Christ and God the Father encourage and exhort the hearts of the Thessalonians by strengthening them with respect to every kind of action and word, which is divine-good in quality and character.

Therefore, 2 Thessalonians 2:16 is marking a transition from Paul communicating to the Thessalonians that he, Silvanus and Timothy regularly gave thanks to the Father for them which is followed by their command for them to begin to strongly adhere to their teaching regarding the eschatological day of the Lord and continue doing so to communicating to them, the intercessory prayer that he, Silvanus and Timothy regularly offered up to the Father for them.

2 Thessalonians 2:16-17 contain a grammatical oddity related to the referent of the third person singular form of the verbs agapaō (ἀγαπάω), didōmi (δίδωμι), parakaleō and stērizō (στηρίζω) since all of these verbs are used with a plural subject.

Specifically, the subject of all four of these verbs is the articular nominative masculine singular form of the noun kurios (κύριος), “Lord” as well as the articular nominative masculine singular form of the noun theos (θεός), “God.”

Therefore, both the Lord Jesus Christ and God the Father are the referents of all four of these verbs and thus perform the actions of all four of them.

Therefore, in relation to the verb agapaō (ἀγαπάω), this would indicate that the Lord Jesus Christ and God the Father performed the action of divinely loving Paul, Silvanus and Timothy as well as each member of the Thessalonian Christian community.

This love is divine in nature and does not refer to the function of human love because it is intrinsic to the character and nature of each member of the Trinity.

Therefore, in relation to the Lord Jesus Christ, this would indicate that the Lord Jesus Christ divinely loving Paul, Silvanus and Timothy as well as each member of the Thessalonian Christian community when He voluntarily suffered the righteous indignation of the Father.

The Lord Jesus Christ suffered the righteous indignation of the Father by suffering a substitutionary spiritual and physical death on the cross in place of the Thessalonians and all sinful humanity in order to deliver them from the Father’s righteous indignation in the eternal lake of fire forever.

This sacrificial act also redeemed each of them out of the slave market of sin, reconciled them to a holy God and propitiated the Father’s holiness, which demanded that sin and sinners be judged.

Also, in relation to God the Father, this would indicate that the Father divinely loved Paul, Silvanus and Timothy as well as each member of the Thessalonian Christian community by offering His one and only Son as a substitute for each of them on the cross.

It would indicate that the Father divinely loved each one of them by exercising His righteous indignation against His one and only Son in order that each of them would never experience His righteous indignation in the eternal lake of fire forever.

This would also indicate the Father performed the act of divinely loving Paul, Silvanus and Timothy as well as each member of the Thessalonian Christian community when He identified each of them with His Son in His crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session at the Father’s right hand through the baptism of the Spirit the moment He declared them justified through faith in His Son.

Consequently, this identification delivered the justified sinner from eternal condemnation, condemnation from the Law, personal sins, spiritual and physical death, enslavement to the sin nature and Satan and his cosmic system.

Through this identification with Jesus Christ, the justified sinner is delivered in a positional sense from these things.

By positional, I mean that God views the justified sinner as crucified, died, buried, raised and seated with Christ.

It also means that this is what God has done for the justified sinner through the Spirit and His Son.

It also sets up a guarantee of receiving a resurrection body at the rapture of the church.

Lastly, it sets up the potential to experience this deliverance in time.

I say potential because the justified sinner can only experience this great deliverance by appropriating by faith this union and identification with Jesus Christ.

This is accomplished by the justified sinner considering themselves as crucified, died, buried, raised and seated with Jesus Christ at the Father’s right hand (cf. Rom. 6:1-11; Col. 3:1-5).