Lesson 1 | The First Pass: Divide

Introduction to 2 Thessalonians

During this course, you’re going to phrase the entire book of 2 Thessalonians. But don’t worry - it is only 47 verses long!
In this step I want to give you a feel for the book as a whole before we begin to study it in more detail, because if you’re like me, you don’t have as many verses memorized from this little letter as from, say, John’s Gospel or Paul’s letters to the Romans or the Ephesians or the Philippians. You’re probably not as familiar with its teaching either. But since this book was “breathed out by God,” it is “profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,” so that you might “be complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Tim 3:16-17).
One of the first steps in studying any smaller Bible passage, whether a single verse or a whole paragraph, is to know the overall context of the entire book. So here is a very brief introduction to this shortest surviving letter Paul wrote to a church.

Historical Situation
The apostle Paul wrote this letter, as his introductory greeting in 1:1 and his closing greeting in 3:17 attest. He wrote it during his second missionary journey, sometime around AD 50-51. Luke records Paul’s visit to Thessalonica in Acts 17:1-9, which was both brilliantly successful and brutally short. Many Jews and Gentiles were saved (v. 4) during a time period of at least three weeks (v. 2), but the unbelieving Jews stirred up a mob, which resulted in both a temporary ripple of danger (v. 5-9), and a lasting threat (v. 13). The young church hastily bundled Paul and his team off to safety in Berea (v. 10). The team continued their missionary journey, but Paul couldn’t stand not knowing what was happening to the baby church that had barely started taking its first steps; however, Satan hindered him from returning himself (1 Thess 2:17-18). So Paul sent Timothy to the city to strengthen them (1 Thess 3:1-3a), and eventually sent Timothy with the two letters that are now in our Bibles, one after the other.
Themes
In his second letter, Paul encouraged them to look in two different directions.
First, they should look up for God’s grace. Both Paul’s praise of them in chapter 1, and his two main exhortations to them in chapters 2-3 (not to be distressed by the lie that the day of the Lord has already come, and not to fellowship with lazy believers) are rooted in God’s grace (see 1:12 and 2:16). God’s grace surrounds them - he has given them grace (2:16), he is giving them grace (1:2), and he will give them grace (1:12; 3:18).
Secondly, they should look ahead for God’s glory. God will relieve them of their suffering and punish their persecutors (1:6-8); he will continue to strengthen them as he has already done so that Jesus will be glorified, and they in him (1:4, 11-12); and they will not be deceived and condemned like those who love sin instead of the truth (2:10-12, 13-14).
Outline
Here is my outline of the book. The commentaries in the links below will give helpful exegetical outlines; this is a homiletical outline, based on the divisions of the book. This is the outline I would use if I were preaching through the book in one sermon (which, by the way, if you are a pastor, is a great way to force yourself to wrap your mind around a book as a whole).
OPENING GREETING 1:1-2

GOD IS HOLDING TIGHTLY TO YOU 1:3-12 

THE WONDERFUL FACT OF THEIR STEADFASTNESS 1:3-4
THE JUST RESULT OF THEIR STEADFASTNESS 1:5-10
A GOD-FOCUSED PRAYER FOR THEIR STEADFASTNESS 1:11-12

HOLD TIGHTLY TO APOSTOLIC TEACHING 2:1-3:15 

REGARDING JESUS' COMING 2:1-17
A reassuring exhortation 2:1-3a
An encouraging explanation 2:3b-12
What must happen first 2:3c-5
What is holding it back 2:6-8
What God will do through Satan 2:9-12
A sovereign salvation 2:13-14
A comforting command 2:15-17

REGARDING DAILY LIVING 3:1-15
A commendation of obedience 3:1-5
A request for prayer because of men’s faithlessness 3:1-2
An expression of confidence because of God's faithfulness 3:3-5
A warning against disobedience 3:6-15
What to do about lazy brothers 3:6-12
What to do about disobedient brothers 3:13-15

FINAL GREETING 3:16-18

Outline of 2 Thessalonianspdf

Finally, if you want to find out some of the best commentaries to use to help you interpret this letter, blogger Tim Challies has a list of the top commentaries on 1 and 2 Thessalonians, as does Ligonier Ministries. Best Commentaries is a helpful site to see how people rate the commentaries on a particular book.