{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"database_sha256":"8cfbe7284c6936871d57c02dc6aa63ebbdfd4722422d539dd9f716e46e91112e","date_end":null,"date_start":null,"edition_year":null,"id":"sermonindex-ecf-2311","native_reference":{"book_number":600,"chapter_from":2,"chapter_to":2,"system":"MyBible module coordinates (mapping unverified)","verse_from":2,"verse_to":2},"public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"verse-keyed-module-record","review_required":["English edition and exact text","author/work attribution","dating","verse mapping and citation kind","reuse and attribution","split author quotations and deduplicate"],"review_status":"unreviewed","source_html":"<p><b>Ambrosiaster</b>: He begs them not to lightly and easily receive the opinion of the impending arrival of the Lord, as if it were certain; and he gives such commands, that even if someone were to speak as if inspired by the Spirit, they should not be believed; nor should assent be given if something were written in a treatise or letter, perhaps written in the name of the apostles. For deceivers often fabricate a letter under the name of some famous man, in order to commend by the authority of the name that which could not be accepted on its own merits.<br/><i>— Commentary on 2 Thessalonians</i></p><p><b>Augustine of Hippo</b>: Therefore, not to know the times is something different from moral decay and the love of vice. For when the apostle Paul said, \"Don't be easily shaken in your mind nor be frightened, neither by word nor by epistle as sent from us, as if the day of the Lord were at hand,\" he obviously did not want them to believe those who thought the coming of the Lord was already at hand. Neither, moreover, did he want them to be like the wicked servant and say, \"My Lord will not be coming for a long time,\" and deliver themselves over to destruction by pride and immoral behavior. Thus, Paul's desire that they should not listen to false rumors about the imminent approach of the last day was consistent with his wish that they should await the coming of their Lord fully prepared and ready for the journey, with lamps burning.<br/><i>— LETTERS 199.1.2</i></p><p><b>Augustine of Hippo</b>: All this you repeat with great piety and truth, praising the happiness of those who love the coming of the Lord. But those to whom the apostle said, \"Be not easily moved from your mind as if the day of the Lord were at hand,\" evidently loved the Lord's coming. The purpose of the doctor of the Gentiles in saying this was not to break them away from the love which burned in them. Rather, he did not want them to put their faith in those from whom they heard that the day of the Lord was at hand, lest, perhaps, when the time had passed when they thought he would come and they realized that he had not come, they might think that the other promises made to them were also false and might despair of the mercy of faith itself. Therefore, it is not the one who asserts that he is near nor the one who asserts that he is not near who loves the coming of the Lord but the one who rightly waits for him, whether he be near or far, with sincere faith, firm hope and ardent love.<br/><i>— LETTERS 199.4.15</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: 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.\" \"Neither by spirit\" he says, glancing at the false prophets.<br/><i>— Homily on 2 Thessalonians 1</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: \"That ye be not quickly shaken,\" he says, \"nor yet be troubled, either by spirit, or by word, or by epistle as from us, as that the day of the Lord is now present.\"</p><p>Here he seems to me to intimate that certain persons went about having forged an Epistle, as if from Paul, and showing this, said that the Day of the Lord is at hand, that thence they might lead many into error. Therefore that they might not be deceived, Paul gives security by the things he writes, and says, \"be not troubled, either by spirit or by word\": and this is the meaning of what he says: Though any one having the spirit of prophecy should say this, believe it not. For when I was with you I told you these things, so that you ought not to change your persuasion from the things which you were taught. Or thus, \"by spirit\": so he calls the false prophet, speaking what they spoke by an unclean spirit. For these men, willing the more to be believed, not only endeavored to deceive by persuasive words, (for this he shows, saying, \"or by word,\") but they also showed a forged letter, as from Paul, declaring the same thing. Wherefore pointing out this also, he has added, \"or by letter as from us.\" Having therefore secured them on every side, he thus sets forth his own doctrine.<br/><i>— Homily on 2 Thessalonians 3</i></p>","source_html_sha256":"dfba5590fd89851fff43344bad6e232775b724cb366c07a6a611aacdd72db35c","source_module":"ECF","source_row_id":2311,"source_url":"https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/ecf/","text_sha256":"49f632c3cad47bd4c3779e8b362a33bc9e5063661f39301c9eaf0ee2a3f14efd","translator":null,"work":null}