μὴ πως, also written as one
word, μήπως, is dependent on
the verb ἔπεμψα and expresses the
genuine mood of apprehension felt by Paul when he sent Timothy back to
Thessalonica (see BDF §370.2). As was suggested in the Introduction, this may
to some degree explain the character of 2 Thessalonians if it is the letter
Paul sent in his anxiety. His concern was that “the tempter might have tempted”
the Thessalonian Christians,” so that his and his coworkers’ work would be “in
vain” (ἐπείρασεν ὑμᾶς ὁ πειράζων καὶ εἰς κενὸν γένηται ὁ κόπος ἡμῶν). That is, in the difficult situation the
Thessalonians had faced without their spiritual mentors, they might have
renounced their Christian beliefs and way of life. According to 1 Cor. 7:5
Satan is the one who tempts Christians, and this is who Paul has in mind here
as well (cf. 2:18). The aorist ἐπείρασεν is written from the perspective of Paul before Timothy went back to
Thessalonica. His apprehension had been that his readers might already have
succumbed to Satan’s testing of them before Timothy was able to return to
strengthen and encourage them. If this had happened, then the missionaries’
hard labors among the Thessalonians (cf. 2:9) would have proved useless or to
no purpose (εἰς
κενόν).
The imagery of Satan as the tempter of Christians was derived from
Paul’s apocalyptic framework in which Satan was viewed as the archadversary of
God (see Beker, Paul the Apostle, 188
and the comments above on 2:18). Paul went so far as to call him “the god of
this age” who “has blinded the minds of unbelievers” in order to prevent them
from accepting the gospel of Christ (2 Cor. 4:4; cf. 2 Thes. 2:9–12). Within
his apocalyptic understanding of the two ages, Paul saw Satan as the one who
has “usurped God’s authority” to become the ruler of the present age but who
will be overthrown when God establishes his dominion in the age to come
(Barrett, Second Corinthians, 130).
It is no wonder then that Paul also portrayed Satan as seeking to
destroy the fruits of the Christian mission (cf. 1 Cor. 7:5; 2 Cor. 2:10f.;
11:13–15; 1 Thes. 2:18). In the context of 1 Thes. 3:5, Paul implicitly
demonizes those who afflict the Thessalonians because they are by implication
the agents of Satan’s temptation. This certainly must have had the effect of
heightening the separation between the new and struggling Christian community
at Thessalonica and the social world from which its members had removed
themselves. This in turn fits in with his parenetic intention throughout the
letter because it strengthens the identity of his readers as Christians. (Charles
A. Wanamaker, The Epistles to the Thessalonians: A Commentary on the Greek
Text [New International Greek Testament Commentary; Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans,
1990], 132)