The Foundation of All Fortitude Text: 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17
Introduction: The Grammar of Stability
We live in a time of great shaking. The foundations of our civilization are being systematically dismantled, and many Christians are, as Paul warned the Thessalonians earlier in this chapter, "soon shaken in mind or troubled." They see the headlines, they witness the advance of lawlessness, and their hearts begin to fail them. They are tempted to think that the chaos is ultimate, that the rebellion of man is the final word. But the apostle Paul, having just laid out the grim realities of the man of lawlessness, does not leave the church in a state of alarm. He immediately pivots from eschatological warfare to doxological comfort. He does not say, "Now go hide." He says, "Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself... encourage your hearts."
This is a crucial move for us to understand. Christian stability is not the product of ignoring the battle. It is the fruit of knowing who our Commander is. Paul's prayer here is not a sentimental add-on; it is the very engine of Christian endurance. It is the theological foundation for all practical fortitude. He has just told them to "stand fast and hold the traditions" (v. 15). But how? On what basis? By what power? You cannot stand fast in your own strength any more than you can pick yourself up by your own bootstraps. The command to stand is immediately followed by a prayer to the one who alone can make us stand. This is the rhythm of the Christian life: divine command followed by divine enablement. Exhortation is followed by intercession. God commands what He wills, and then He gives what He commands.
What Paul gives us in these two verses is a dense, compact, and glorious summation of the entire gospel. It is the ground of our standing, the source of our comfort, and the fuel for our obedience. If you want to know how to remain steadfast in a world gone mad, you must learn to pray this prayer, and more than that, you must learn to live inside the realities that this prayer assumes. This is not a pep talk; it is a prayer that plugs us into the high-voltage power of the Triune God.
The Text
Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us eternal comfort and good hope by grace, encourage your hearts and strengthen them in every good work and word.
(2 Thessalonians 2:16-17 LSB)
The Divine Source of All Good (v. 16a)
We begin with the object of the prayer, the source of all strength.
"Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father..." (2 Thessalonians 2:16a)
Notice the order and the unity. Paul addresses this benedictory prayer to both the Lord Jesus Christ and God the Father. This is a casual, almost off-hand, affirmation of the deity of Christ. In the Old Testament, you would never dare to yoke a creature, however exalted, with the living God in a prayer for divine blessing. But Paul does it here without a second thought. Jesus is not a junior partner in the firm; He is God, the Son, co-equal with the Father. He is the one to whom we pray, alongside the Father.
The word "Himself" is emphatic. It is not a committee of angels, nor the power of positive thinking, nor some abstract spiritual force that will encourage and strengthen us. It is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. It is personal. The Christian faith is not a philosophy; it is a relationship with a person, the risen and reigning Christ. And it is God our Father. This is not the distant, clock-maker god of the deists, but the Abba of Jesus Christ, the one who has adopted us into His own family. Our stability is rooted in the personal, intentional, and powerful action of these two divine persons who are one God.
This is where all Christian fortitude begins. It does not begin with our resolve, but with their reality. Before you can be strengthened in your heart, you must know who is strengthening you. You are not drawing on your own limited reserves of courage. You are connected to the infinite power of the Father who spoke the universe into existence and the Son who holds it all together by the word of His power.
The Divine Motive and Gift (v. 16b)
Next, Paul grounds the prayer in what God has already done. Our hope for future grace is founded upon God's past grace.
"...who has loved us and given us eternal comfort and good hope by grace," (2 Thessalonians 2:16b)
Why should we expect God to act on our behalf? Because of His character, which He has already demonstrated. First, He "has loved us." This is a past tense reality with present tense implications. It points to the definitive act of love on the cross. God's love is not a vague, sentimental feeling; it is a rugged, historical, covenantal fact. He demonstrated His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. This love is the eternal motive behind everything God does for His people. He acts for us because He loves us.
And because He loved us, He has "given us" two things. This is not something we earned or achieved; it is a gift. The first gift is "eternal comfort." The Greek word is paraklesis, which means comfort, encouragement, or exhortation. It is not a fleeting comfort, like a pat on the back. It is eternal comfort. It is a comfort that is as durable as God Himself. It is a comfort that transcends our circumstances because it is rooted in the finished work of Christ. This comfort does not expire. It does not run out. It is an everlasting consolation that is ours right now.
The second gift is "good hope by grace." Our hope is not wishful thinking. It is a "good hope" because its foundation is good and its object is good. The foundation is the promise of God, and the object is the glory of Christ. This hope is not based on our performance, our feelings, or our circumstances. It is given "by grace." It is a free gift. Because it is by grace, it is certain. If our hope depended on us, it would be a very bad hope indeed, flickering in the slightest breeze. But because it is a gift of grace from the God who cannot lie, it is an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.
The Divine Action (v. 17)
Having established the source and the ground of our confidence, Paul now states the specific request of his prayer.
"encourage your hearts and strengthen them in every good work and word." (2 Thessalonians 2:17)
The prayer is for two things: encouragement and strength. "Encourage your hearts." This is the same root word as "comfort" in the previous verse. He prays that the eternal comfort we have already been given would be actively applied to our hearts. The heart, in biblical terms, is the control center of the person, the seat of our will, affections, and thoughts. Paul is praying for a deep, internal fortitude. He is praying that our inner man would be garrisoned by the peace and presence of God.
But this internal encouragement is not for the purpose of quiet contemplation in a monastery. It is for the purpose of active engagement in the world. God encourages our hearts in order to "strengthen them in every good work and word." The word for strengthen here is sterizo, which means to establish, to make stable, to fix firmly. God's comfort is not a spiritual sedative; it is a spiritual stimulant. It is the fuel for obedience.
Notice the scope: "every good work and word." The stability God gives is meant to permeate our entire lives. It is not just for Sunday mornings. It is for the workshop, the kitchen, the classroom, and the public square. It is for our deeds ("work") and our speech ("word"). A Christian who has been truly comforted by the gospel will be a Christian whose hands are busy with good works and whose mouth is filled with good words. The doctrine of grace does not lead to passivity; it is the only possible foundation for true activity. We are not saved by good works, but we were created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them (Eph. 2:10).
Conclusion: Grace, the Great Stabilizer
So what is the takeaway for us, living in our own turbulent times? It is this: our stability is not found in a change of circumstances, but in a clear-eyed grasp of these theological realities. The world will continue to shake. Men of lawlessness will continue to rage. But our God has already acted decisively in history. He has loved us. He has given us a comfort that cannot be taken away and a hope that cannot disappoint, all by grace.
Therefore, our task is to live in light of what has already been given. We are to take this great, objective reality and pray it down into the subjective reality of our hearts. We pray that the God who has given us eternal comfort would, by that same comfort, encourage our hearts today. We pray that the God who has given us good hope would, by that same hope, strengthen our hands and our tongues for every task He sets before us.
This is how you stand fast. You don't stand by focusing on the shifting sands of the culture. You stand by planting your feet on the immovable rock of what God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ have done for you by grace. When your heart is established in this grace, your life will be established in every good work and word. This is the logic of the gospel. God gives, and then we live. He comforts, and then we work. He loves, and then we stand. May He do this very work in all of us.