2 Thessalonians 2:1

Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ Lit., But we beseech you, brethren, on behalf of the coming. The prospect of this Coming has been held out in language of ardent hope (ch. 2 Thessalonians 1:7; 2 Thessalonians 1:10, &c.); "but" the readers must not entertain wild and unreasonable notions respecting it. The preposition (touching, R. V.) signifies "in the interest of," and not merely "with reference to;" for the confusion of mind and the alarm existing at Thessalonica upon this matter tended to discredit the Second Advent; they obscured the features of "the blessed hope" which the Apostle has just delineated (ch. 2 Thessalonians 1:10-12).

He adds and our gathering together unto Him, remembering what he has written in 1 Thessalonians 4:17; 1 Thessalonians 5:10 concerning the reunion of the living with departed saints at Christ's coming. The corresponding verb appears in the promise of Jesus (Matthew 24:31; Mark 13:27): "He shall gather togetherHis elect from the four winds;" comp. the echoes of our Lord's sayings on the Last Things noted in 1 Thessalonians 4:13 to 1 Thessalonians 5:11. The intense sorrow of the Apostle at his separation from the Thessalonians (1 Thessalonians 2:17; 1 Thessalonians 3:6; 1 Thessalonians 3:11) may also have prompted this thought; comp. note on "rest with us" ch. 2 Thessalonians 1:7.

On beseech(or ask) see note to 1 Thessalonians 4:1.