Being out-of-place: 2 Thessalonians 3:2

In his second letter to the church at Thessalonica, Paul asks them to pray for him and his team that they might be “rescued from perverse and evil men; for not all have faith” (2 Thessalonians 3:2 NASB). A couple of things are of interest when reading this verse in the original Greek. First, in referencing the perverse and evil men, Paul includes the definite article. This verse could be rendered “from the perverse and evil men.” This may possibly indicate that Paul had certain perverse and evil men in mind when he wrote his letter. The second thing of interest is the word translated here as “perverse.” The various English translations of this verse have translated this word as unreasonable, wicked, inappropriate, worthless, bad, importunate, crooked, and so forth. In the Greek text, this word is a compound of the negative article and the Greek word for place. It means “no place” or, in this context, “out-of-place.”

In America, we are facing a cultural war where social norms and mores are being redefined. We speak of “being on the right side of history,” “being woke,” and “being in” as it pertains to the new morality of the emerging culture. Often, Christians, and those who hold to conservative or traditional values, are seen as being outsiders, as being “out-of-place” or outside of modern culture, ethics, and morality. However, it is not the believer who is “out-of-place” but those who are evil in their thoughts and actions. It is the unbeliever who is truly out-of-place when it comes to the Kingdom of God. They may fit well into the kingdom of this world, but they have no place in the Kingdom of God. As believers, and those who desire goodness in both mind and deed, we are those who are in-place, who stand on the right side of history, who are truly woke to the reality of life around them. It matters little what the world may think of us, for God has already seen fit to approve us and welcome us into his Kingdom. We must not let the world, and those who are out-of-place, define us. Rather, we must stand secure in our place as we invite others to join us and to find their place in the Kingdom of God.

David Robison