If you are feeling afflicted in your faith, Paul wrote, you can take comfort that the day is coming when it will all be set right, “when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God” (II Thessalonians 1:7-8). When that happens, he will be “glorified by his saints” – he will “be marveled at on that day among all who have believed” (1:10).

In that expectation, there were some who figured they should just sit back and wait for it all to happen: “some of you are living in idleness, mere busybodies, not doing any work” (3:11). We should notice that the famous exhortation “Anyone unwilling to work should not eat” (3:10) was not addressed to people who had lost their jobs; it was addressed to religious people who felt like there was no point to working when the second coming of Jesus was about to take place in the next few days. But Paul rebuked that attitude: he and Silas had given them the example of working hard when they had been there (3:7-9).

And the return of Christ isn’t going to happen as quickly as some people suppose. This awareness sometimes surprises people today, who have been told that Paul thought that the Second Coming was going to happen very quickly in his own time – clearly a mistaken belief on his part. What he actually said was, “As to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, let no one deceive you in any way; for that day will not come unless the rebellion comes first and the lawless one is revealed” (2:1-3). And it turns out that there’s a whole lot of lawlessness yet to come (2:4-12).

So, in the meantime, Paul asked for prayer for himself and his missionary team, just as missionaries today ask for our prayers as they work to spread the word of the Lord everywhere (3:1). It was difficult then, and it’s difficult now: there are many who oppose this work (3:2). But the Lord is faithful; and so Paul had confidence that the Thessalonian Christians would persevere in steadfast obedience and prayerfulness (3:4-5).

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We pray for patience in our afflictions, Lord, as we await the culmination of all things. We pray for boldness, for career missionaries and for the rest of us, as we seek to work with diligence in spreading your word in every place. We pray that you would comfort our hearts, and that you would strengthen us day by day to do the tasks you have given us.