2 Thessalonians 1:11a-Paul, Silvanus and Timothy Always Made It Their Habit of Interceding in Prayer for the Thessalonians
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Tuesday June 29, 2021
Second Thessalonians: 2 Thessalonians 1:11a-Paul, Silvanus and Timothy Always Made It Their Habit of Interceding in Prayer for the Thessalonians
Lesson # 17
2 Thessalonians 1:11 For which purpose, each one of us make it our habit of always occupying ourselves with praying on behalf of each and every one of you that our God would consider each of you worthy with reference to His effectual call. Specifically, that He would by means of power accomplish this gracious purpose in its entirety, namely, acts characterized as divine goodness, that is, every work produced by faith. (My translation)
2 Thessalonians 1:11-12 completes the thanksgiving section of Second Thessalonians which begins the body of this letter.
This section is divided into three parts.
The first part appears in 2 Thessalonians 1:3-4 and commends the Thessalonians’ for their post-justification in the midst of persecution.
The second appears in 2 Thessalonians 1:5-10 and serves to comfort and assure the Thessalonians that God will judge their persecutors.
The third part is found in 2 Thessalonians 1:11-12 and contains Paul, Silvanus and Timothy’s intercessory prayer for the Thessalonians (1:11-12).
2 Thessalonians 1:11 begins with the assertion that Paul, Silvanus and Timothy made it their habit of always being occupied with interceding in prayer to the Father on behalf of each member of the Thessalonian Christian community.
In this first statement, the prepositional phrase eis ho (εἰς ὃ), “for which purpose” points to or identifies the purpose for which these three men made it their habit of always occupying themselves with intercessory prayer to the Father on behalf of the Thessalonians.
In 2 Thessalonians 1:11, the relative pronoun hos (ὅς), “this” is anaphoric meaning it is pointing back to Paul’s statements in 2 Thessalonians 1:3-4.
This word is the object of the preposition eis (εἰς), which is a marker of purpose indicating the purpose for which Paul, Silvanus and Timothy offered up intercessory prayer requests to the Father for the Thessalonians.
2 Thessalonians 1:3 Each of us is under obligation to always make it our habit of always giving thanks to the one and only God on behalf of each one of you brothers and sisters because it is appropriate for your faith is growing to an extraordinary degree. Correspondingly, the divine-love of each and every one of you is increasing to a considerable degree for one another. 4 Consequently, each one of us, we ourselves regularly expressed great pride in all of you in the congregations belonging to this one and only God, specifically about your perseverance as well as faith in the midst of all your persecutions as well as your adversities, which each of you are regularly enduring. (My translation)
Therefore, here in 2 Thessalonians 1:11, this prepositional phrase eis ho (εἰς ὃ), “for which purpose” indicates that the extraordinary growth of the post-justification faith and divine-love of the Thessalonian Christian community and perseverance in the midst of great persecution was the purpose for which Paul, Silvanus and Timothy made it their habit of always occupying themselves with praying on behalf of the Thessalonian Christian community.
In 2 Thessalonians 1:11, the conjunction kai (καί), “also” is adjunctive, which means that this word is introducing a statement which is in addition to the statements in 2 Thessalonians 1:3-4.
This word introduces a statement which asserts that Paul, Silvanus and Timothy made it their habit of always occupying themselves with prayer on behalf of the Thessalonians.
Therefore, this indicates that in addition to thanking the Father for the extraordinary growth of the Thessalonians’ post-justification faith, divine-love and perseverance in the midst of great persecution, Paul, Silvanus and Timothy made it their habit of always occupying themselves with prayer on behalf of the Thessalonians.
The content of their intercessory prayer is identified for the reader in the hina direct object clause, which follows here in 2 Thessalonians 1:11 and in the statements recorded in 2 Thessalonians 1:12.
Therefore, since the prepositional phrase eis ho (εἰς ὃ), “for which purpose” is pointing back to Paul’s statements in 2 Thessalonians 1:3-4, 2 Thessalonians 1:5-10 is parenthetical.
The latter is designed to encourage and assure the Thessalonian Christian community that the Lord would reward for the faithfulness in the face of persecution and judge those who persecuted them.
It is also pointing forward to Paul’s teaching in 2 Thessalonians 2:1-11 regarding the Thessalonian Christian community’s relationship to the eschatological day of the Lord, which is composed of the seventieth week of Daniel and the Second Advent of Jesus Christ.
So therefore, these parenthetical statements in 2 Thessalonians 1:5-10 serve to encourage and assure the Thessalonian Christian community that God the Father will judge the unrepentant, unregenerate Gentiles in the city of Thessalonica who persecuted them because of their faith in Jesus Christ.
It also assures them that ultimately, He will judge every unrepentant, unregenerate person on the earth during the last three and a half years of the seventieth week of Daniel and when He returns at His Second Advent to establish His millennial kingdom.
In fact, it assures them that the Lord Jesus Christ will judge every unrepentant, unregenerate person in history-past, present and future at the Great White Throne Judgment.
At that time, the Lord will execute the sentence against the unrepentant, unregenerate sinner by casting them alive into the eternal lake of fire.
Now, it has been argued by some expositors that this prepositional phrase eis ho (εἰς ὃ), “for which purpose” in 2 Thessalonians 1:11 is pointing back to Paul’s statement the last statement in 2 Thessalonians 1:10.
This statement asserts that the Lord Jesus Christ will be marveled at by each and every member of the Thessalonian Christian community because Paul, Silvanus and Timothy’s testimony was believed by each of them.
Therefore, this would indicate that the purpose for which Paul, Silvanus and Timothy interceded in prayer to the Father on behalf of the Thessalonians was that the latter had believed the former’s presentation of the gospel.
However, in 2 Thessalonians 1:3-4, Paul asserts that what prompted them to give thanks for the Thessalonians was that their post-justification faith in the gospel was growing to an extraordinary degree and their divine-love was increasing to a considerable degree.
Lastly, as we noted they were persevering in the midst of great persecution because of their post-justification faith in the gospel.
Thus, it was not because the Thessalonians were justified through faith in Christ that prompted this intercessory prayer on the part of these three men but rather it was their spiritual growth since this is what prompted these three to give thanks to the Father for the Thessalonians in the first place.
Therefore, the intercessory prayer is directly connected to these three men giving thanks in prayer to the Father for them.