Paul and Silvanus and Timotheus to the assembly of Thessalonians in God our Father and [the] Lord Jesus Christ.
Second Thessalonians opens with the same three names as the first letter, and almost the same words. The readers were young believers under persecution. The greeting looks ordinary. Yet almost every phrase in it is unusual for Paul, and one phrase — the address he gives this church — appears nowhere else in his letters.
Paul writes with two companions and drops the word "apostle" that heads most of his letters. One writer traces this to the state of the readers:
The Thessalonians knew Paul, Silvanus and Timothy. These men had been with them, and God used them to bring the gospel to them. He does not speak of himself as an apostle. In nine of his letters, Paul uses his title as apostle... He asserts his apostolic title and authority in the strongest way when he writes to the Galatians and the Corinthians. False teachers troubled those churches and questioned his apostolic calling. Since this trouble did not exist in Thessalonica, he does not remind them that he is an apostle. He did not parade his title. He mentions it only when someone questions the truth he preached, which he had received from the Lord.
Sharing the letterhead with younger men was itself a choice:
Most men in his high position as the apostle to the Gentiles would not dream of putting smaller and younger men beside themselves in their inspired letters... Paul does name others beside himself in his inspired letters, and that shows humility, large-heartedness, consideration for others and fellowship.
The letter goes to "the church of the Thessalonians" — one assembly, not several. Size is not the reason:
Calling them "the church" has nothing to do with having fewer people, all gathered in one company. In no city, perhaps, were there more saints than in Jerusalem, yet we read of the church or assembly there. There might be many houses in a city where the saints met to break bread, but together they made up "the assembly" there. In short, Scripture never speaks of "assemblies" in a city, whatever the number, as it does of a province. It always speaks of "the assembly."
Paul's greetings usually name a city. This one names something else, and only in these two letters:
"The church of the Thessalonians which is in God the Father." The letters to the Thessalonians are the only place where we find the words "in God the Father" used to show where a church stands. In the other letters Paul usually says "the church of God which is at Corinth," or "the saints which are at Ephesus." Paul probably speaks of them this way because they had come to faith so recently. He takes this church at its birth, so to speak, and sees it only in its relationship to God. "One God and Father" — that is the first thought that springs from faith.
Being "in God" might sound like more than it means:
So we have, "The church of the Thessalonians which is in God the Father." That is not putting them in Deity. It is family relationship.
The first letter said "God the Father." Here Paul writes "God our Father." One writer finds purpose in both halves of the description and in that extra word:
He again describes the assembly as in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. The first separates them from Gentiles, as the second separates them from Jews... For what did a Jew know more than a Gentile of such a new, living and intimate relationship with God as Father? And what did a Gentile know more than a Jew of a rejected but risen Lord and Saviour in heaven? He adds "our" here, which the first letter's opening did not have. Why? To fix these saints firmly in the relationship they share with the writer, and with all saints, to Him whose grace is the source of all blessing. They walked well in most respects, yet needed that reminder more than ever.
Persecution was still active. The greeting meets that pressure before Paul makes a single argument:
The apostle at the outset reminds them of the perfect security of the assembly. It was in God the Father, and in the Lord Jesus Christ. No power of the enemy could destroy it... He writes to the Thessalonian saints while persecution was active against them, and both times he reminds them that the assembly is perfectly secure. The enemy tried to stamp out the work of God there, and the strain fell on them. Yet neither false teaching nor careless living had done its withering work among them, so the apostle had no need to blame them for anything.
- Placed — Paul does not address this church only in Thessalonica. He addresses it in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. No other church gets this description.
- Family — that phrase does not lift believers into Deity. It names a relationship: one God and Father, the first thought faith produces.
- Ours — the added "our" ties these believers to the writer and to all saints in one shared relationship.
- Separated — being in God the Father sets them apart from Gentiles; being in the Lord Jesus Christ sets them apart from Jews. Neither Jew nor Gentile knew either one.
- Safe — being in God is the answer to persecution: no power of the enemy can destroy an assembly held there.
Grace to you, and peace from God our Father, and [the] Lord Jesus Christ.
The second letter to Thessalonica opens with the same greeting as the first. It went to believers who were under persecution. Why repeat a familiar greeting to people in trouble? And what does it give them to hear that grace and peace come from two Persons at once?
Paul had already sent this greeting in his first letter. One writer explains why it had lost none of its force.
The "grace and peace" he wishes them is as fresh and new as if he were saying it for the first time. In fact it is all the more needed now that doubts and alarm have attacked them. It is no less available in days of decline than in days of greatest spiritual energy. But we must use it if it is to do us any good. If we ourselves have failed, yet the blessed source of this grace and peace is unchanging — "God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ."
Another writer looks at the greeting from the side of their suffering.
As children of the Father, and owning Christ their Lord, he greets them and wishes them grace and peace from the Father and the Lord. Their sufferings changed nothing about this. They only brought its comfort, greater than words can say, right into the need they were in.
Each of the two words meets something specific in what these believers faced.
The Apostle writes to the assembly of the Thessalonians as being "in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." He sees that they enjoy the full truth of Christianity. That truth reveals God as our Father and Jesus Christ as our Lord… He wants these believers to have grace to endure their persecutions, and peace to guard their hearts despite their troubles.
One writer traces how these two names — God as Father, Jesus as Lord — cut the readers off from both worlds they came out of: the Jews and the other nations.
Again he describes the assembly as in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. The first name cuts them off from the Gentiles, the second from the Jews. In truth each name marked them off from both. What did a Jew know, any more than a Gentile, of such a new, living, close relationship with God as Father? And what did a Gentile know, any more than a Jew, of a rejected but risen Lord and Saviour in heaven? He adds the word "our" here, which the greeting of the first letter did not have. Is it not to fasten those believers… to Him whose grace is the source of all blessing?
Set against Israel's standing under law, the change of ground is the whole point.
Grace had put them in that known position and relationship. So at once the apostle asks for them the favours they need, "grace and peace," to keep them always for God's praise and pleasure. God placed Israel before Jehovah under law; He sets us before the Father under grace.
The verse names two givers, not one. One writer draws out what that says about who Christ is.
Notice how closely God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ are joined here, as Joint Givers of these good gifts. It would be blasphemy to link the name of men or angels with "God our Father" in this way. In chapter 2 we will read plainly that Christ Jesus is equal with God, and this verse tells us the same wonderful truth. May God help us always to hold on to this foundation of the Faith, and to enjoy the Grace and Peace He offers us!
What does it mean to be wished "grace" when you already have it?
"Grace to you" is not only that you stand on the foundation of grace. "Grace to you" means you live from moment to moment in the resources of God's grace… The people of God need those resources of grace and peace every day, every moment… The source is one, yet there is still a difference. The name God the Father brings out the family side. The name Lord Jesus Christ brings out the kingdom side, His authority.
- Source. Grace and peace come from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ together. That pairing tells us Christ is equal with God.
- Unchanging. The source never changes. Grace is as available in days of decline as in days of great spiritual energy.
- Supply. Grace is not only the ground you stand on once, but the resource you live from moment to moment.
- Steadying. Under persecution it means grace to endure and peace to guard the heart in the middle of it.
- Standing. "Our Father" names a relationship neither Jew nor Gentile had known. We stand before the Father under grace, not before Jehovah under law.
We ought to thank God always for you, brethren, even as it is meet, because your faith increases exceedingly, and the love of each one of you all towards one another abounds;
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
so that we ourselves make our boast in you in the assemblies of God for your endurance and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations, which ye are sustaining;
Paul tells other churches about the believers in Thessalonica. He does not boast about their size or their comfort. He boasts because they were under attack and had not broken. Two things stand out: what he singles out for praise, and what he leaves out.
Paul names their steadfastness and faith as the things worth telling other churches about. Other translations render that word "endurance" or "patience", as the writers quoted here do. One writer shows what this praise measures.
The very high praise of verse 3 was not mere flattery. Paul was impressed with how the Thessalonians were getting on, and he held them up to others as an example. In the first letter he had no need to speak about them (1 Thess. 1:8), but here there was a need. They had endurance and faith for, and in, persecutions and tribulations. He later wrote to the Colossians, wanting them strengthened for all endurance and patience (Col. 1:11). Here Paul equates the right handling of difficulty with living, praiseworthy Christianity. It isn't numerical growth. It isn't material prosperity. What Paul boasts in and publicises is Christ-like moral qualities shown in a time of difficulty.
The pressure was not a sign that something had gone wrong. It was what happens to a church where faith and love keep growing.
A church where faith was growing and love abounding would not, in that day or this, escape the attacks of Satan. So we learn they were going through persecutions and tribulations. Yet God allowed these trials to test their faith, for the proving of faith "works endurance" (James 1:3). With the Thessalonian believers, Satan's efforts did only one thing. They drew out their faith in Christ, their love for one another, and their endurance in trial. Such qualities stirred the apostle's thankfulness to God and let him boast about them in other churches.
In the first letter Paul praised their patience of hope. Here that phrase is gone. One writer explains why.
The patience of hope, which he mentioned in the first Epistle, is left out. The false teachers and alarmists had dimmed their hope. They wanted the Thessalonians to believe they were heading into all the tribulations of the day of the Lord. The persecutions and tribulations they endured disturbed them deeply. The suggestion was that these were the judgments of the day of the Lord. They looked more at what was happening to them than at the Lord.
The praise is genuine, and yet hope had slipped. Another writer names the danger in that.
To that degree decline had set in. We must not miss this. It is a healthy warning for our own souls, and a danger always present, even though the coming of the Lord is so much nearer now... Satan would use persecution and at the same time inject his favourite poison, discouragement. He wants to persuade saints to settle down in the world and become absorbed in it enough to lose all distinctive testimony.
Paul reads their tribulations as evidence of where they stood.
On the occasion of their sufferings for the gospel, he recognises their good standing in Christ, and finds in their tribulations evidence that they were really in the Christian position.
Verse 5 goes on to speak of being counted worthy of the kingdom. That word is easy to misread.
This worthiness, here or in Matthew, does not refer to standing before God; for the ground of forgiveness of sins and of acceptance with God is grace alone, never merit of any kind (Eph. 2:8). The point is not relationship but discipleship. And this must be pressed home: suffering for Christ's sake is a leading mark of a true follower of our Lord. To dodge the cross is to forfeit the title of a worthy witness for the Lord Jesus in the world. And the opposite is just as true. Patient courage under fiery trials for the name of Christ proclaims the unwavering loyalty that marks someone worthy of the devotion he professes to his Master.
Most readers will not face what Thessalonica faced. The trial takes another shape, but it calls for the same response.
In this country we may not have to face active persecution, but we shall still have tribulation. In a day of confusion and scattering among the people of God, the trials we meet come more often from the flesh showing itself in various forms inside the circle of God's people than from opposition outside. God allows such trials to produce endurance. Sadly, we too often miss the lesson God would teach us. We resent the trial instead, and repay evil for evil, insult for insult.
- Attack — a church where faith grows and love abounds becomes a target. The pressure showed health, not failure.
- Proving — God allowed the attacks to test their faith. The test drew out faith, love and endurance.
- Boasting — Paul told other churches about Christ-like qualities under difficulty, not size or prosperity. That is his measure of a thriving church.
- Missing — Paul drops "patience of hope." They were watching what was happening to them instead of watching for the Lord.
- Worthy — their suffering showed they were truly Christ's. Worthiness here is about discipleship, not about acceptance with God, which rests on grace alone.
a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, to the end that ye should be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for the sake of which ye also suffer;
Enemies hunted and harassed the believers in Thessalonica, and outsiders took that as proof God had left them. Paul reads it the other way: their patient endurance is a visible sign of God's righteous judgment, and of the kingdom they suffer for.
Their suffering pointed forward. It showed where they stood with God, and how He would deal with those who attacked them.
The persecutions the Thessalonians endured proved that they were "considered worthy of the kingdom of God." God's judgment would bring this into the open. It would also show what the persecutors had done.
Their pagan neighbours read the same suffering the opposite way.
God, whatever people might be, was righteous. Their pagan friends might point to their sufferings as proof that the gods were rightly angry — the gods whose altars they had left and whose worship they condemned. They might also taunt them that their God did nothing to help them. The apostle drew a very different conclusion, and he set it before them. Their sufferings proved that they were God's people. Rest would be their portion, along with Paul and God's other people then on earth, when God's judgment from heaven overtakes the godless in the world.
Does endurance buy a place in the kingdom? The answer separates two very different things.
This worthiness, here and in Matthew, is not about standing before God. Forgiveness of sins and acceptance with God rest on grace alone, never on merit of any kind (Eph. 2:8). The point is not relationship but discipleship. And suffering for Christ's sake is a prime mark of a true follower of our Lord. To shirk the cross is to forfeit the title of a worthy witness in the world for the Lord Jesus. And in the same way, to show patient endurance under fiery trials for the name of Christ is to proclaim the unswerving loyalty which marks one worthy of the devotion he professes to his Master.
If nothing is merited, why is the word "righteous" used at all? Because God is acknowledging what He Himself has worked.
He does not mean or say that suffering, any more than working, could give any title to acceptance from the Righteous God. Someone like Paul could never say such a thing. It was grace (as he says again to the Philippians) that gave them even to suffer for Christ's sake. But grace had righteous title to count them worthy. And to acknowledge what grace had produced in them was itself righteousness.
Bearing wrong patiently takes faith. And the pressure is doing something in them.
To bear wrongful suffering patiently takes faith in a righteous God. He will not always let evil go unchecked, but will judge at the proper time. God allows this persecution against His people now for their own good. It is a training that molds character. It produces in them a true submission to authority as subjects of the King, and so makes them "worthy of the kingdom of God." How thankful we ought to be for this wise way in which God secures for us the greatest good.
The "kingdom of God" here is not a vague word for heaven. Writers connect it to Christ's coming reign on earth — the reign they suffer for.
"The kingdom" implies Christ's coming to reign over the earth. In 1 Thess. 2:12 the apostle speaks of God calling to this, as an encouragement to walking worthily of God; and 2 Thess. 1 shows that the enemy used their persecutions and troubles to claim the day of the Lord had already come. Even before he clears away this delusion, the apostle treats their troubles the other way round. They are a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, "that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering."
The verse looks ahead to a reversal that has not yet happened, and that shapes what a Christian expects now.
Let us, dear fellow-Christians, clearly grasp that the kingdom of God must suffer. "Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted." Soon the tables will be turned. The troubled shall rest, and the troublers be punished. God's kingdom shall triumph; man's shall perish. In the near future our calling is glory. Our present calling is to suffer in true and hearty sympathy with His kingdom and its rejected heavenly King — and may our God count us worthy of it.
- Token — Their suffering was not a sign of God's displeasure. It was proof that they were His people, and that judgment will fall the other way.
- Grace — Worthiness here is never merit; forgiveness and acceptance are by grace alone. The issue is discipleship, not relationship.
- Righteous — Grace gave them their suffering. Grace also has righteous title to own what it produced in them.
- Training — God permits the pressure as a school, forming subjects fit for the King they will live under.
- Reversal — The kingdom they suffer for is Christ's coming reign. When He appears, the troubled will rest and their persecutors will face judgment.
if at least [it is a] righteous thing with God to render tribulation to those that trouble you,
Paul writes to believers under persecution, and he grounds their comfort in the character of God Himself. Why tell them about the trouble coming on their enemies — and what does that say about the day they feared had already come?
The reversal Paul describes rests on who God is, and on the day He has already fixed.
No one can dispute this who believes that God is, and that He rewards those who seek Him out, and avenges all wrong against God and man. He is now dealing in grace. In that day He will judge the inhabited world in righteousness by the Man He has appointed. He has given assurance of this to all men by raising Him from the dead. What then will His attitude be toward those who persecute His children, and toward His children who suffered in this way? He will give trouble to those who troubled them, and rest to His now troubled children.
These believers feared the day of the Lord had already come. Paul answers by pointing at their own circumstances.
The "day of the Lord" was the coming of the Lord in judgment. But He was not coming to make His own suffer. He was coming to punish the wicked. So persecution could not be the day of the Lord. In persecution the wicked have the upper hand, do their own will, and make those whom the Lord loves suffer. Could that be His day! ... When God takes the matter in hand, He will repay trouble to those who troubled His children, and these will have rest — they will be in peace.
This repayment has a set time. Commentators separate it from the moment believers go to be with Christ.
The time of repayment is not when Jesus comes, but when He is revealed. For though at His coming the Church is caught up, there is nothing yet of a repaying character. It is favour, not a process of judgment. But the revelation and the day of the Lord are clearly linked with judgment. So there is the public award of God, made known to the world then for the first time.
If God is righteous, the present state of things cannot be His final word. The faithful are crushed while the cruel stay comfortable.
This truth matters greatly. It shows that we must wait for a future day for the final settlement of God's righteous government. God's righteousness is not fully seen in this life, either in rewarding those who do good or in judging those who do evil. Job's friends were wrong to argue that it is. Now the people of God often have to endure suffering while the wicked prosper. Yet in the world to come everything will be brought to a conclusion. Then men and angels will see that God has not forgotten the sufferings of His people through the ages, and was never indifferent to the violence and corruption of their enemies.
The word "you" in the verse names God's own people as the ones being afflicted.
The Lord is gathering His people for Himself, and at the same time He is noting their enemies. To touch them is to touch Him. And if the people are written down for blessing, their enemies are just as surely marked for judgment. The adversary may escape for a time, but his day is coming: "God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you." This may not be the highest motive for endurance in the present time, but it is one that God Himself has given.
This truth can go wrong in us. God has taken the repayment into His own hands, so the sufferer need not carry it in his own heart.
In this day of grace, the danger is of allowing a judicial spirit. It shows not only in our own minds, like the sons of Zebedee who would have called down fire from heaven to burn up their opponents, but also in how we read God's dealings with others, if not with ourselves. The apostle would have the saints bright in their worst troubles, looking forward with joy to the day of repayment. Then the sufferings of the saints will be swallowed up in their glorious rest.
- Righteous — The repayment is not God losing patience; it is God being right. He is now dealing in grace. In that day He will judge the world in righteousness through the Man He raised from the dead.
- Righteously reversed — The day of the Lord brings trouble to the troublers and rest to the troubled. So the persecution the Thessalonians suffered proved that day had not come.
- Righteously timed — The repayment belongs to the revelation of Christ, not to the moment the Church is caught up. That earlier moment is favour, with nothing of judgment in it.
- Righteously recorded — God has not forgotten one of His people's sufferings, nor overlooked one act of their enemies. The full settlement waits for a future day.
- Righteously left to Him — The account is His to close. So the suffering believer can be bright under the worst trouble, instead of nursing a judicial spirit.
and to you that are troubled repose with us, at the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven, with [the] angels of his power,
Paul writes to believers under persecution. His comfort is not that their trouble will soon end, but that the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven — and that day will bring them rest and bring their persecutors trouble.
The word behind "rest" carries a picture — a tight cord going slack.
The word anesis, from a verb meaning 'to loose', is more the relaxing of cords or bonds, or rest from tribulation. Felix ordered the centurion to let Paul have 'liberty' and that his friends might visit him. Acts 24:23. While Paul waited to hear how the Corinthians had taken his first letter, he had no 'rest' in his spirit until Titus arrived... He also speaks tenderly of the saints at Thessalonica passing out of their tribulation into 'rest' or 'repose' with him and others when the Lord Jesus is revealed.
Some read the verse as fixing the exact moment believers first get relief. Commentators here argue the word describes a condition, not a starting point.
The word can mean the time when relief comes, but it is used just as much for a state of ease, or even pleasure. Scripture never uses it for the moment relief from trial arrives. It always carries the general sense of a state of ease, the opposite of distress. The apostle's whole argument is this. The Lord Himself brings in that day. So when the day is here, it cannot be a day of distress for His people. Clearly it will be a day of distress for His enemies and for those who persecute them.
The Thessalonians feared their sufferings meant the day of the Lord had already arrived. The character of that day rules it out. That day reverses how things stand now.
They were now to learn that this could not be true. The very character of that day rules it out. It is a day of rest for the troubled saints, and of trouble paid back to their foes... This does not mean that saints may not go one by one to be with Christ in the meantime. Nor does it mean that He may not come first to gather us to Himself. But their rest, justly given, and the vengeance on their enemies stay out of public view until He is revealed in flaming fire...
Put simply, the two groups swap places:
Now it is the saints that are troubled, then it will be the world. Now the saints suffer at the world's hands; then the world will be punished by the Lord's hand.
Paul does not comfort them from outside the trouble. He was suffering too, and the rest he promises is rest shared with him. (Older translations read "rest with us" where the ESV has "as well as to us.")
While he was suffering the strongest persecutions, the thought of the appearing of Jesus came in as the time of rest. "Rest with us," says the apostle — rest for you who are troubled, "when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels." How could such a thought comfort the soul, if this hope of Jesus was not a real and present hope?
At His revelation the saints are not gathered to Christ. They arrive with Him. That order matters.
Now the saints were in trouble from these enemies. Then they will be at rest, and they will come with Him when He takes vengeance on those who troubled them. They will be with Him as His company, and like Him. So He must have called them up beforehand to be with Him, as other Scriptures show. "When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory" (Col. 3:4).
Angels were present at His first coming too. What changes is the work they come to do.
At His first coming He came in humility and grace. The angels announced the good news, and a great crowd of the heavenly hosts was there to celebrate His praise, and to announce blessing to man and glory to God. At His second coming He will be revealed in power. Again the angels of His might will be present, but this time to carry out judgment on a world that has rejected His grace.
- Rest defined. The word pictures loosened bonds and lifted pressure. It is a settled state of ease, not just the moment relief arrives.
- Rest reversed. Today the saints are troubled and the world is at ease. In that day the positions swap, and the world carries the trouble.
- Rest shared. Paul puts himself among the persecuted. For him the appearing of Jesus is a real and present hope.
- Rest revealed. This rest stays out of public view until Christ is unveiled from heaven. Commentators note that believers may be with Him before that, but they come with Him on that day.
- Rest enforced. The same angels who once announced good news to men come the second time to carry out His judgment.
in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who know not God, and those who do not obey the glad tidings of our Lord Jesus Christ;
Paul has just told suffering believers that God will repay those who persecute them. Now he names the moment and the method — and raises hard questions about who is judged and how good news can be disobeyed.
Commentators keep this scene apart from the promise that Christ will come for His own.
Notice that not a word here hints that this is the moment when the Lord comes to gather the saints to Himself. This is not the act of sovereign grace that takes the saints who wait for Him to heaven. It is the display of judicial righteousness by the Lord when He appears in glory. Then, and not till then, God will send trouble to the troublers, and rest to the troubled who suffered for Christ's sake and for righteousness. How unsuitable it would be for Him to appear "in flaming fire with angels of power" just to receive the children of God, His bride, to Himself and bring them with Himself into the Father's house!
Many read the wording as one description of unbelievers. Writers who work from the Greek say it names two separate objects of judgment.
Here it is a question of rendering vengeance to two distinct objects of judgment, not to unbelievers marked by two features, as Calvin says. The first is "those who do not know God" — the Gentiles, described in just this way in 1 Thessalonians 4:5, and in substance throughout Scripture. The second is "those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus." The Jews might well be counted here. On the surface they claimed the true God and boasted of His law, yet they were now the most determined of all in disobeying the gospel, whether openly angry or quietly resentful.
Commentators agree there are two classes, but differ on who fills them. One writer marks out where this judgment falls, and draws the line by attitude, not nationality.
This makes the judgment of the living all the more solemn, because it reaches so widely. In general, though, it falls where the Christian name is claimed. "Those who do not know God" may mark out people who were too indifferent to pay attention to the gospel. "Those who do not obey the gospel" will be those who more deliberately rejected Christ. But a common fate will be their portion.
These are not people God never approached. They turned away from the clearest showing of Himself He has ever given.
The knowledge of God had come in the Person of God's Son, and men in refusing Him had refused the wonderful knowledge of God. After the rejected Son of God had gone back to heaven, God in wonderful grace sent out His gospel about His Son, to call for the obedience of faith. Those who have received it will be in the company of the Lord when He returns. Those who have not obeyed will come under His unsparing judgment.
If God could not be known, this judgment would be unfair.
The gospel makes God known. It is the revelation to us of what He is. But rejecting the gospel is the refusal of this wonderful light, and that in turn means the judgment of the refuser. If God cannot be known, it would be unrighteous that such people should suffer vengeance. But if He can, and may, and should be known, then it is only righteous that the despiser of His grace should receive the eternal award of his unbelief.
The word "obey" changes how we preach the message and how we hear it.
Notice that the gospel is a message from God which we are to OBEY. We are so apt to think of it as a kind invitation which we are to accept, and to present it to others only in that light. So they think of it as an invitation they may turn down, or at least keep putting off, without any very serious consequences. That is a fatal mistake for them. All who hear the gospel are responsible to answer it with the obedience of faith.
Because God keeps repayment for that day, the believer takes the opposite path now.
The Christian has been dealt with in grace, so he must also act in grace towards others. The word to him is "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord." Now it is the day of grace; but a day of vengeance is coming for those who "do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus."
- Revealed, not received. This is the Lord appearing in judicial righteousness, not the moment He takes His own to be with Himself.
- Two doors, one fate. Two groups meet one judgment: those who never knew God, and those who refused His gospel.
- Light refused. "Not knowing God" is guilt because the knowledge of God came in His Son, and people turned Him down.
- Obedience, not opinion. The gospel is a message to obey. Treating it as an invitation you can postpone is the fatal mistake.
- Grace now, vengeance then. Because that day is God's to execute, this day is ours to live in grace toward others.
who shall pay the penalty [of] everlasting destruction from [the] presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his might,
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
when he shall have come to be glorified in his saints, and wondered at in all that have believed, (for our testimony to you has been believed,) in that day.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
To which end we also pray always for you, that our God may count you worthy of the calling, and fulfil all [the] good pleasure of [his] goodness and [the] work of faith with power,
Paul has just described the day when the Lord Jesus comes from heaven and is glorified in His people. His prayer here turns that future scene into a request for today. It raises two hard questions: what is "his calling," and how can God make anyone worthy of it?
The words "to this end" tie the prayer back to what Paul had just said about the Thessalonians' suffering.
This links with verses 4 and 5. There he showed that their troubles had this goal in view: that God should count them worthy of His kingdom. That is what he refers to here. So his prayers were not only that they would be held up in their suffering, but that the suffering would end in reward for them.
The calling is the place God gives these believers alongside Christ when He appears. That place should shape how they live before it comes.
They are joined to the Lord Jesus in the matchless glory of the day when He is revealed. That is a calling of dignity and blessing far above anything on earth. If God is to count us worthy of such a calling, it can only be by a real moral separation from a godless world and a true attachment of heart to His blessed Son. All of this will be true of us then. So only a walk now that matches that end is worthy of it. And this is something the saints need continual prayer for. That is why the apostle prayed "always."
The calling has a present side as well as a future one:
Our calling in the near future is glory. Our present calling — and may our God count us worthy of it — is to suffer in true and warm sympathy with His kingdom and with its rejected heavenly King.
The phrase does not mean earning the calling. It means God's own assessment, on the day of reckoning, that their lives matched what He had called them to.
The apostle closes with a prayer that they may show, here and now, a character that answers to such a calling. He prays that God may count them worthy of it. That is, that on the day of reckoning God may judge that they walked as people governed by that calling. He prays this so that God may do in them all that was in His heart to do. Faith would carry it out, as His instrument, but by a power greater than human.
God's goodness was already at work in these believers. The danger was that false teaching would stop it short of its full result.
God's goodness was at work toward the Thessalonians in their troubles. But if the enemy's deceiving teachings ran their course unchecked, the good pleasure of God's goodness would not be fulfilled. His good pleasure was not to see them limp to the finish line but to continue running on strongly.
The desires themselves come from God, not from the believer:
God plants these desires in the soul, because He puts the character of goodness there. They should not be quenched or ignored. They should be carried out.
Faith works. But the power to finish that work is God's, not ours.
Confidence in the Master's grace produces faithful service. It gladly admits that whatever the purpose of goodness may be, whatever the work of faith, only God fulfils each and all of it in power.
Verse 10 looks to the day when Christ is glorified in His people. This prayer asks for that to begin now.
What a wonderful calling this is! No wonder the apostle longed for God to count them worthy of it, by fulfilling His good pleasure in them now, and by carrying the work of faith forward with power in their hearts and lives. In this way the name of the Lord Jesus would be glorified in them now, and not only in the coming age. If He is to be glorified in us then, it is right that we should care that He is glorified in us now.
- Calling — you are joined to the Lord Jesus in the glory of the day He is revealed. That place is "far above anything on earth," and for now it means suffering with a rejected King.
- Counted — not merit earned, but God's verdict on the day of reckoning that they "walked as people governed by that calling."
- Completed — God plants the good desires, and He means them finished — not "to see them limp to the finish line."
- Carried — the work of faith moves forward only by a power greater than human, since "only God fulfils each and all of it in power."
- Crowned — the point of the whole prayer is that Christ's name be glorified in His people now, not only in the coming age.
so that the name of our Lord Jesus [Christ] may be glorified in you and *ye* in him, according to the grace of our God, and of [the] Lord Jesus Christ.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.