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 prayer grows out of the hope
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.
What the calling is
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.
"Count you worthy" is a verdict on the walk
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.
"Every resolve for good" — God finishing what He started
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.
"Work of faith by His power"
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.
The aim: His name glorified now
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.
Summary
- 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.