II Thessalonians Lesson 6 - Faithfulness
Series: II Thessalonians
July 23, 2025
Brett Cooper
One of the primary rules of realistic, 2-D art is, “verticals remain vertical.” If you want to make a picture that looks like the real world, you’ll have to make sure that up is always up and down is always down. In the rest of the picture, lines bend all over the place, but verticals remain constant. God is always faithful! Your life might get thrown all over the place. But God is always faithful. If you keep that in mind, your picture will remain real. If you lose sight of this core truth of following Jesus Christ, your life could spin out of control. This is why the second rule of Alcoholics Anonymous is, “came to believe that a Power greater than myself could restore me to sanity.” Your ability to stand on a firm foundation in life is reset by focusing on God’s faithfulness.
Episode Notes
The Apostle Paul is reminding the Thessalonian church (2 Thessalonians 3:1–5) of the faithfulness of God:
While Paul was in Corinth, he was facing opposition and focusing on the faithfulness of God. His letter is not just preaching to the Thessalonians about what they should be doing while he lives in an ivory tower. He’s facing the same opposition that they are facing, and he’s asking for their prayers:
“Finally, brothers, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored, as happened among you, and that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men. For not all have faith.”
2 Thessalonians 3:1–2 ESV
Paul is not saying that his life has been made easier because he’s a great follower of Jesus Christ. His life is a lot harder because he’s a follower of Jesus Christ. He was there in Corinth with Priscilla and Aquila, making tents and preaching the gospel as he faced evil opposition. The fact that he’s living it himself and finding a way to flourish gives him great qualification to say what he said next:
“But the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one.”
2 Thessalonians 3:3 ESV
στηρίζω (stérizó) is the word that’s translated as “establish,” and some translations will render it as “strengthen.” The Greek word here means the following:
1. to set fast
2. (literally) to turn resolutely in a certain direction
3. (figuratively) to confirm
Try to see a mental picture of life attempting to spin you out of control and God grabbing hold of you and setting you in place. This is what God does for someone who has faith in His faithfulness. So standing up straight and trusting God in the midst of the storm is an inner choice you make, and it will keep you sane on the inside when everything around you is going crazy.
The carpet bombing of Dresden caused massive devastation in Germany. Thousands of civilians lost their lives. The city was torn to pieces. Verticals still remain verticals. No matter how much chaos existed in the world around anyone who survived that bombing, up was still up, and down was still down. God is faithful, no matter how crazy the world seems to be.
Paul goes on to talk about his confidence in the Lord working inside of the Thessalonians. Some of the people were failing. But the work of God never fails:
“And we have confidence in the Lord about you, that you are doing and will do the things that we command.”
2 Thessalonians 3:4 ESV
People fail all the time. The failure of people is evident. Overly anxious people fail. Overly confident people fail. All kinds of people fail. God is faithful. If you want to put your confidence in a person, then put your confidence in the faithfulness of God working in that person. If the person fails, it does not mean that the faithfulness of God has failed. Paul is explaining that to the Thessalonian church, and it is a core truth that we need in our lives today:
“May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ.”
2 Thessalonians 3:5 ESV
Notice that Paul was not narcissistically telling them how much they needed him. Paul directs their hearts to trust in the faithfulness of God.
Let’s not make ourselves judge and jury of every Christian that fails. Let’s trust the faithfulness of God to forgive them, as we believe that they can fight another day. Someone who regains focus as they are refined by the faithfulness of God is someone who becomes a great fighter.
In the history of the Rocky movies, there is a fantastic scene where Ivan Drago throws in the towel to save his son. It was both a sign of the love he had for his son and the respect that he gained for the man who was avenging his father’s death. Drago throwing in that towel is a picture of what it looks like to get rid of pride. Pride had destroyed his life. Throwing in the towel established his love for his son and set him free from the hatred he had inside himself.
All too often, as Christians, we get caught up in everything that’s going wrong with the world, and we focus on Christians who fail. We should learn from that Russian fighter. When people we really believe in start to lose and life starts to beat them senselessly, we should throw in the towel for them and help them find their faith in Christ again. The truth is that most of us are not Rocky Balboa or Adonis Creed. No, if we’re judgmental of other believers, we are Ivan Drago. If we can find it in our hearts to throw in the towel for our brothers and sisters who are failing, then we can be a part of helping them to get up again. To train again. To learn to fight again. It’s time to remember that the faithfulness of God is core to our belief.
While Paul was in Corinth, he was facing opposition and focusing on the faithfulness of God. His letter is not just preaching to the Thessalonians about what they should be doing while he lives in an ivory tower. He’s facing the same opposition that they are facing, and he’s asking for their prayers:
“Finally, brothers, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored, as happened among you, and that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men. For not all have faith.”
2 Thessalonians 3:1–2 ESV
Paul is not saying that his life has been made easier because he’s a great follower of Jesus Christ. His life is a lot harder because he’s a follower of Jesus Christ. He was there in Corinth with Priscilla and Aquila, making tents and preaching the gospel as he faced evil opposition. The fact that he’s living it himself and finding a way to flourish gives him great qualification to say what he said next:
“But the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one.”
2 Thessalonians 3:3 ESV
στηρίζω (stérizó) is the word that’s translated as “establish,” and some translations will render it as “strengthen.” The Greek word here means the following:
1. to set fast
2. (literally) to turn resolutely in a certain direction
3. (figuratively) to confirm
Try to see a mental picture of life attempting to spin you out of control and God grabbing hold of you and setting you in place. This is what God does for someone who has faith in His faithfulness. So standing up straight and trusting God in the midst of the storm is an inner choice you make, and it will keep you sane on the inside when everything around you is going crazy.
The carpet bombing of Dresden caused massive devastation in Germany. Thousands of civilians lost their lives. The city was torn to pieces. Verticals still remain verticals. No matter how much chaos existed in the world around anyone who survived that bombing, up was still up, and down was still down. God is faithful, no matter how crazy the world seems to be.
Paul goes on to talk about his confidence in the Lord working inside of the Thessalonians. Some of the people were failing. But the work of God never fails:
“And we have confidence in the Lord about you, that you are doing and will do the things that we command.”
2 Thessalonians 3:4 ESV
People fail all the time. The failure of people is evident. Overly anxious people fail. Overly confident people fail. All kinds of people fail. God is faithful. If you want to put your confidence in a person, then put your confidence in the faithfulness of God working in that person. If the person fails, it does not mean that the faithfulness of God has failed. Paul is explaining that to the Thessalonian church, and it is a core truth that we need in our lives today:
“May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ.”
2 Thessalonians 3:5 ESV
Notice that Paul was not narcissistically telling them how much they needed him. Paul directs their hearts to trust in the faithfulness of God.
Let’s not make ourselves judge and jury of every Christian that fails. Let’s trust the faithfulness of God to forgive them, as we believe that they can fight another day. Someone who regains focus as they are refined by the faithfulness of God is someone who becomes a great fighter.
In the history of the Rocky movies, there is a fantastic scene where Ivan Drago throws in the towel to save his son. It was both a sign of the love he had for his son and the respect that he gained for the man who was avenging his father’s death. Drago throwing in that towel is a picture of what it looks like to get rid of pride. Pride had destroyed his life. Throwing in the towel established his love for his son and set him free from the hatred he had inside himself.
All too often, as Christians, we get caught up in everything that’s going wrong with the world, and we focus on Christians who fail. We should learn from that Russian fighter. When people we really believe in start to lose and life starts to beat them senselessly, we should throw in the towel for them and help them find their faith in Christ again. The truth is that most of us are not Rocky Balboa or Adonis Creed. No, if we’re judgmental of other believers, we are Ivan Drago. If we can find it in our hearts to throw in the towel for our brothers and sisters who are failing, then we can be a part of helping them to get up again. To train again. To learn to fight again. It’s time to remember that the faithfulness of God is core to our belief.
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