2 Thessalonians 2:13

13. But In contrast with the dark picture of 10-12, we are relieved with the beautiful portraiture of the believers of the truth in Thessalonica. St. Paul presents the divine side of their salvation, the human conditions being subordinately assumed.

From the beginning From the first founding of the Thessalonian Church, when they were first called… by our gospel, as said in 2 Thessalonians 2:14. This, in contrast with the unbelievers of 2 Thessalonians 2:10, who by their own rejection became victims of delusions, Lunemann, followed by Alford, interprets from eternity, a sense which the phrase never has in the New Testament. It is entirely uncritical to quote as they do such phrases “before the foundation of the world,” etc. Equally uncritical to quote St. John’s “In the beginning was the Word,” where the sense of eternity arises from the verb was, as see our note there. In the following passages the phrase is used, limited by the adjoining words to the commencement of human history with Adam. Matthew 19:4; Matthew 19:8; John 8:44; 1 John 3:8; Matthew 24:21; Mark 10:6; Mar 13:19 ; 2 Peter 3:4. So, limited by the context to particular things, in Luke 1:2; John 15:27; 1Jn 1:1 ; 1 John 2:7; 1 John 2:13-14; 1 John 2:24; 1 John 3:11; 2 John 1:5-6; Acts 26:4.

Chosen in consequence of faith, just as those of 2 Thessalonians 2:10 were rejected because of unbelief.

Through The preposition of instrumentality. On the divine side God uses the free act of the creature’s faith as his instrument in bringing them to salvation. Sanctification of, or from, as agent, the Spirit Depends on salvation. It was not, then, first justification by faith which was wrought through sanctification of the Spirit, as Lunemann strangely puts it. Such an idea as sanctification being the primary means of our being chosen is wholly unbiblical.

Belief of the truth The firm permanent faith of the believer in contrast with the unbelievers of 2 Thessalonians 2:10-12.