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?
Righteousness, Not Revenge
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.
The Argument Against Their Fear
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.
When The Exchange Happens
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.
Why The Books Stay Open
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.
Whose Injury Is It
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.
What It Must Not Produce In Us
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.
Summary
- 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.