Homilies on Second Thessalonians — Homily 1

St. John Chrysostom

1. 0. Greeting

Having said in his former Epistle that we pray night and day to see you, and that we could not forbear, but were left in Athens alone, and that I sent Timothy from [[1 Thessalonians 3.1]]-10, by all these expressions he shows the desire which he had to come among them. When therefore he had perhaps not had time to go, and to perfect what was lacking in their faith, on this account he adds a second Epistle, filling up by his writings what was wanting of his presence. For that he did not depart, we may conjecture from hence: for he says in this Epistle, We beseech you by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. [[2 Thessalonians 2.1]] For in his first Epistle he said, Concerning the times and the seasons you have no need that anything be written unto you. [[1 Thessalonians 5.1]] So that if he had gone, there would have been no need of his writing. But since the question was deferred, on this account he adds this Epistle, as in his Epistle to Timothy he says, They subvert the faith of some, saying that the Resurrection is already past from [[2 Timothy 2.18]]; that the faithful henceforth hoping for nothing great or splendid, might faint under their sufferings.

For since that hope supported them, and did not allow them to yield to the present evils, the devil wishing to cut it off, as being a kind of anchor, when he was not able to persuade them that the things to come were false, went to work another way, and having suborned certain pestilential men, endeavored to deceive those who believed into a persuasion that those great and splendid things had received their fulfillment. Accordingly these men then said that the Resurrection was already past. But now they said that the Judgment and the coming of Christ were at hand, that they might involve even Christ in a falsehood, and having pointed out to them that there is hereafter no retribution, nor judgment-seat, nor punishment and vengeance for those who had done them evil, they might both render these more bold, and those more dispirited. And, what was worse than all, some attempted merely to report words as if they were said by Paul, but others even to forge Epistles as written by him. On this account, cutting off all access for them, he says, Be not quickly shaken from your mind, nor yet be troubled, either by spirit, or by word, or by epistle as from us. [[2 Thessalonians 2.2]] Neither by spirit, he says, glancing at the false prophets. Whence then shall we know them, he says? For this very reason, he added, The salutation of me Paul with my own hand, which is the token in every Epistle: so I write. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. [[2 Thessalonians 3.17]]-18 He does not here mean, that this is the token — for it is probable that others also imitated this — but that I write the salutation with my own hand, as is the custom also now among us. For by the subscription the writings of those who send letters are made known. But he comforts them, as being excessively pinched by their trou