Commentary on Philippians, Colossians, and Thessalonians

Comm on Phil, Col, Thes
concession, as though he had said, “However they may pretend to have the spirit of revelation,
believe them not.” John, in like manner, says:
“Try the spirits, whether they are of God.” (1 John 4:1.)
Speech, in my opinion, includes every kind of doctrine, while false teachers insist in the way
of reasons or conjectures, or other pretexts. What he adds as to epistle, is an evidence that this
impudence is ancient — that of feigning the names of others. 638 So much the more wonderful is
the mercy of God towards us, in that while Paul’s name was on false grounds made use of in spurious
writings, his writings have, nevertheless, been preserved entire even to our times. This,
unquestionably, could not have taken place accidentally, or as the effect of mere human industry,
if God himself had not by his power restrained Satan and all his ministers.
As if the day of Christ were at hand. This may seem to be at variance with many passages of
Scripture, in which the Spirit declares that that day is at hand. But the solution is easy, for it is at
hand with regard to God, with whom one day is as a thousand years. (2 Peter 3:8.) In the mean
time, the Lord would have us be constantly waiting for him in such a way as not to limit him to a
certain time.
Watch, says he, for ye know neither the day nor the hour.
(Matthew 24:32.)
On the other hand, those false prophets whom Paul exposes, while they ought to have kept
men’s minds in suspense, bid them feel assured of his speedy advent, that they might not be wearied
out with the irksomeness of delay.
2 Thessalonians 2:3-4
3. Let no man deceive you by any means: for 3. Ne quis vos decipiat ullo modo; quia nisi
that day shall not come, except there come a prius venerit discessio, et nisi revelatus fuerit
falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, sceleratus ille filius perditus,
the son of perdition;
4. Who opposeth and exhalteth himself above 4. Adverserius, et qui se extollit adversus
all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so omne, quod dicitur Deus, aut numen: ita ut ipse
that he, as God, sitteth in the temple of God, in templo Dei tanquam Deus sedeat, ostendens
shewing himself that he is God.
se ipsum quasi sit Deus.
3 Let no man deceive you. That they may not groundlessly promise themselves the arrival in
so short a time of the joyful day of redemption, he presents to them a melancholy prediction as to
the future scattering of the Church. This discourse entirely corresponds with that which Christ held
in the presence of his disciples, when they had asked him respecting the end of the world. For he
exhorts them to prepare themselves for enduring hard conflicts, 639 (Matthew 24:6,) and after he
has discoursed of the most grievous and previously unheard of calamities, by which the earth was
to be reduced almost to a desert, he adds, that the end is not yet, but that these things are the
638 “Des grands personnages;” — “Of great personages.”
639 “Merveilleux et durs combats;” — “Singular and hard conflicts.”
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John Calvin