II Thessalonians is the ninth of Paul's Epistles. It was written to the Christian Church in Thessalonica shortly after Paul's first letter to them, around 52 AD.
News had come to Paul that some people in Thessalonica had misunderstood what Paul had said about Christ's second coming. Because they believed that Christ might return at any moment, many of them had given up their jobs and were sitting around waiting for Christ to return. Christians were also being persecuted and many thought that the days in which they lived must be the last days. II Thessalonians is Paul's response to hearing this news.
II Thessalonians 1:3-6
"We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is meet, because that your faith groweth exceedingly, and the charity of every one of you all toward each other aboundeth; so that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure: which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer: seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you"