Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to 2 Thessalonians · About this commentary
Chosen from the Beginning
2 Thessalonians 2:13-14
13 But we are bound to always give thanks to God for you, brothers loved by the Lord, because God chose you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief in the truth, · WEB
After a chapter about deception, Paul turns to the readers and grounds their security in a choice older than the danger.
But we are bound to give thanks. The contrast is deliberate and the relief audible: verse 12 had ended on judgment, and verse 13 turns to brothers loved by the Lord. Nothing in the preceding paragraph was aimed at them.
God chose you from the beginning for salvation. The security offered is not their steadiness but his choosing, and it is dated before the crisis rather than in response to it — the same order as Ephesians, where the choice is made before the world's foundation Ephesians 1:4.
Then the means, and it is a three-part clause worth reading slowly: through sanctification of the Spirit, and belief in the truth. Both halves are present, God's work and their response, and the truth they believed is the very thing verse 10 said the perishing would not love. The same word divides the two companies. Verse 14 adds how the choice reached them — he called you through our good news — so eternity's decision arrived by a preacher walking into their city.
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