2 Thessalonians 1:1-4 sits inside this longer paragraph.
1Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, to the assembly of the Thessalonians in God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ: 2Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
3We are bound to always give thanks to God for you, brothers, even as it is appropriate, because your faith grows exceedingly, and the love of each and every one of you toward one another abounds, 4so that we ourselves boast about you in the assemblies of God for your perseverance and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions which you endure. 5This is an obvious sign of the righteous judgment of God, to the end that you may be counted worthy of God’s Kingdom, for which you also suffer. 6Since it is a righteous thing with God to repay affliction to those who afflict you, 7and to give relief to you who are afflicted with us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, 8punishing those who don’t know God, and to those who don’t obey the Good News of our Lord Jesus, 9who will pay the penalty: eternal destruction from the face of the Lord and from the glory of his might, 10when he comes in that day to be glorified in his saints and to be admired among all those who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed.
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4 It does not appear to me probable that this…
It does not appear to me probable that this Epistle was sent from Rome, as the Greek manuscripts commonly bear; for he would have made some mention of his bonds, as he is accustomed to do in other Epistles. Besides, about the end of the third Chapter, he intimates that he is in danger from unreasonable men. From this it may be gathered, that when he was going to Jerusalem, he wrote this Epistle in the course of the journey. It was also from an ancient date a very generally received opinion among the Latins, that it was written at Athens. The occasion, however, of his writing was this — that the Thessalonians might not reckon themselves overlooked, because Paul had not visited them, when hastening to another quarter. In the first Chapter, he exhorts them to patience. In the second, a vain and groundless fancy, which had got into circulation as to the coming of Christ being at hand, is set aside by him by means of this argument — that there must previously to that be a revolt in the Church, and a great part of the world must treacherously draw back from God, nay more, that Antichrist must reign in the temple of God. In the third Chapter, after having commended himself to their prayers, and having in a few words encouraged them to perseverance, he commands that those be severely chastised who live in idleness at the expense of others. If they do not obey admonitions, he teaches that they should be excommunicated.
1 To the Church of the Thessalonians which is in God. As to the form of salutation, it were superfluous to speak. This only it is necessary to notice — that by a Church in God and Christ is meant one that has not merely been gathered together under the banner of faith, for the purpose of worshipping one God the Father, and confiding in Christ, but is the work and building as well of the Father as of Christ, because while God adopts us to himself, and regenerates us, we from him begin to be in Christ. (1 Corinthians 1:30)
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On v3 The first part of the Epistle, wherein he rejoiceth…
The first part of the Epistle, wherein he rejoiceth that through the grace of God, they have manfully sustained all the assaults of their enemies, wherein he confirmeth them moreover showing with what gifts they must chiefly fight, to wit, with faith and charity, which must daily increase.
That whereas it grew us before, it doth also receive some increase every day more and more.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–4 1 Paul, and Silvanus, and Timotheus, unto the church…
1 Paul, and Silvanus, and Timotheus, unto the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:
Ver. 1. In God our Father, and the Lord, &c.] As God is in his people of a truth, 1Co 14:25, so are they in God; and as Christ is at God’s right hand, so is the Church at Christ’s right hand, Psa 45:9. Yea, they are in him, and part of him, &c.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4 These two verses are the same as in the…
These two verses are the same as in the former Epistle, and therefore I proceed.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On vv1, 3 These two verses contain the inscription of this epistle…
These two verses contain the inscription of this epistle in the very same words with the former, in the foregoing epistle.
In which observe, 1. The writer of the epistle, St. Paul, joining himself with his two assocites, Silvanus or Silas, and Timotheus or Timothy.
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2. To whom it was written, To the church of the Thessalonians, in God the Father, that is, established in the knowledge of God the Father, and in the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ.
3. The usual salutation, Grace and peace, under which are comprehended all spiritual and temporal blessings: and these are set forth as flowing to us; first, from their fountain, God the Father: secondly, from their means of conveyance, Jesus Christ, as Mediator; intimating, that whatever spiritual grace or temporal blessing we now receive from God, we have it from him, not barely, as a Creator, but as a Father, as a gracious Father in Christ, in and through whom all kinds of blessings are conveyed to us.
Now, 1. From St. Paul’s using the very same form of words in this epistle, which he had made use of in the former, we may observe, That the Holy Spirit of God, in inditing of the scriptures, did not so much regard variety of words and style, as the purpose intended by those words; and accordingly the ministers of Christ, in the expounding and explaining of the scriptures, should rather study solidity of matter, than variety of expression, or elegance of style; it was none of the apostle’s business, God grant that it may be none of ours, to please the wanton wits and gratify the luxuriant fancies of men, with a pompous sound of words; but solidly to instruct them in the great and necessary duties of the gospel, and to furnish them with the strongest arguments and motives to a good life. Plain truths, without any art or varnish, may be conveyed with more warmth and vigour to the conscience,than all the charms of human eloquence from the most fluent and popular tongue. But though we must come in plainness, yet not in rudeness of speech.
Note, 2. From St. Paul’s writing this epistle to the Thessalonians, when he ws providentially hindered in his purpose of coming to them, and preaching amongst them, we may learn, That as the wisdom of God has appointed several means for the edification of his church, sometimes preaching, at other times writing, so the ministers of Christ are obliged and bound to endeavour the church’s edification by all means: when they cannot do it by public preaching, to endeavour it by writing: and when they can by both, their labours from the press, and from the pulpit, should be jointly employed in the church’s service.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v1 Here we have,
Here we have,
I. The introduction (Th2 1:1, Th2 1:2), in the same words as in the former epistle, from which we may observe that as this apostle did not count it grievous to him to write the same things (Phi 3:1) in his epistles that he had delivered in preaching, so he willingly wrote the same things to one church that he did to another. The occurrence of the same words in this epistle as in the former shows us that ministers ought not so much to regard the variety of expression and elegance of style as the truth and usefulness of the doctrines they preach. And great care should be taken lest, from an affectation of novelty in method and phrases, we advance new notions or doctrines, contrary to the principles of natural or revealed religion, upon which this church of the Thessalonians was built, as all true churches are; namely, in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
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II. The apostle's expression of the high esteem he had for them. He not only had a great affection for them (as he had expressed in his former epistle, and now again in his pious wish of grace and peace for them), but he also expresses his great esteem for them, concerning which observe,
1. How his esteem of them is expressed. (1.) He glorified God on their behalf: We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is meet, Th2 1:3. He chose rather to speak of what was praiseworthy in them in a way of thanksgiving to God than by commendation of them; and, as what he mentions was matter of his rejoicing, he accounted it matter of thanksgiving, and it was meet or fit it should be so, for we are bound, and it is our duty, to be thankful to God for all the good that is found in us or others: and it not only is an act of kindness to our fellow-christians, but our duty, to thank God on their behalf. (2.) He also glories in them before the churches of God, Th2 1:4. The apostle never flattered his friends, but he took pleasure in commending them, and speaking well of them, to the glory of God and for the excitement and encouragement of others. Paul did not glory in his own gifts, nor in his labour among them, but he gloried in the grace of God which was bestowed upon them, and so his glorying was good, because all the commendation he gave to them, and the pleasure he took himself, centered in the praise and glory of God.
2. For what he esteemed them and thanked God; namely, the increase of their faith, and love, and patience. In his former epistle (Th1 1:3) he gave thanks for their faith, love, and patience; here he gives thanks for the increase of all those graces, that they were not only true Christians, but growing Christians. Note, Where there is the truth of grace there will be increase of it. The path of the just is as the shining light, which shines more and more unto the perfect day. And where there is the increase of grace God must have all the glory of it. We are as much indebted to him for the improvement of grace, and the progress of that good work, as we are for the first work of grace and the very beginning of it. We may be tempted to think that though when we were bad we could not make ourselves good, yet when we are good we can easily make ourselves better; but we have as much dependence on the grace of God for increasing the grace we have as for planting grace when we had it not. The matter of the apostle's thanksgiving and glorying on behalf of the Thessalonians was, (1.) That their faith grew exceedingly, Th2 1:3. They were more confirmed in the truth of gospel-revelations, confided in gospel-promises, and had lively expectations of another world. The growth of their faith appeared by the works of faith; and, where faith grows, all other graces grow proportionably. (2.) Their charity abounded (Th2 1:3), their love to God and man. Note, Where faith grows love will abound, for faith works by love; and not only the charity of some few of them, but of every one to each other, did abound. There were no such divisions among them as in some other churches. (3.) Their patience as well as faith increased in all their persecutions and tribulations. And patience has then its perfect work when it extends itself to all trials. There were many persecutions which the Thessalonians endured for the sake of righteousness, as well as other troubles which they met with in this calamitous life; yet they endured all these, by faith seeing him that is invisible, and looking to the recompence of reward; and endured them with patience, not with an insensibility under them, but with patience arising from Christian principles, which kept them quiet and submissive, and afforded them inward strength and support.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4 Paul, and Silvanus, and Timotheus,.... See Gill on Th1…
Paul, and Silvanus, and Timotheus,.... See Gill on Th1 1:1.
.
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2 Thessalonians 1:2
th2 1:2
th2 1:2
th2 1:2Grace be unto you, and peace,.... See Gill on Rom 1:7.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv3–4 It is highly observable, that the apostle wraps up…
It is highly observable, that the apostle wraps up his praise of men in praise to God; giving him the glory. Your faith groweth - Probably he had heard from them since his sending the former letter. Aboundeth - Like water that overflows its banks, and yet increaseth still.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4 Chronological Notes relative to this Epistle.
THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PAUL THE APOSTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS.
Chronological Notes relative to this Epistle.
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-Year of the Constantinopolitan era of the world, or that used by the Byzantine historians, 5560.
-Year of the Alexandrian era of the world, 5554.
-Year of the Antiochian era of the world, 5544.
-Year of the Julian period, 4762.
-Year of the world, according to Archbishop Usher, 4056.
-Year of the world, according to Eusebius, in his Chronicon, 4280.
-Year of the minor Jewish era of the world, or that in common use, 3812.
-Year of the Greater Rabbinical era of the world, 4411.
-Year from the Flood, according to Archbishop Usher, and the English Bible, 2400.
-Year of the Cali yuga, or Indian era of the Deluge, 3154.
-Year of the era of Iphitus, or since the first commencement of the Olympic games, 992.
-Year of the era of Nabonassar, king of Babylon, 799.
-Year of the CCVIIth Olympiad, 4.
-Year from the building of Rome, according to Fabius Pictor, 799.
-Year from the building of Rome, according to Frontinus, 803.
-Year from the building of Rome, according to the Fasti Capitolini, 804.
-Year from the building of Rome, according to Varro, which was that most generally used, 805.
-Year of the era of the Seleucidae, 364.
-Year of the Cesarean era of Antioch, 100.
-Year of the Julian era, 97.
-Year of the Spanish era, 90.
-Year from the birth of Jesus Christ according to Archbishop Usher, 56.
-Year of the vulgar era of Christ's nativity, 52.
-Year of Ventidius Cumanus, governor of the Jews, 4.
-Year of Vologesus, king of the Parthians, 3.
-Year of Caius Numidius Quadratus, governor of Syria, 2.
-Year of Ananias, high priest of the Jews, 8.
-Year of the Dionysian period, or Easter Cycle, 53.
-Year of the Grecian Cycle of nineteen years, or Common Golden Number, 15; or the second year after the fifth embolismic.
-Year of the Jewish Cycle of nineteen years, 12, or the first after the fourth embolismic.
-Year of the Solar Cycle, 5.
-Dominical Letters, it being Bissextile, or Leap Year, BA.
-Day of the Jewish Passover, according to the Roman computation of time, the Calends of April, i.e. April 1st, which happened in this year on the Jewish Sabbath.
-Easter Sunday, April 2.
-Epact, or the moon's age on the 22d of March, or the XIth of the Calends of April, 4.
-Epact, according to the present mode of computation, or the moon's age on New Year's day, or the Calends of January, 11.
-Monthly Epacts, of the moon's age on the Calends of each month respectively, (beginning with January,) 11, 13, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 18, 20, 20.
-Number of Direction, or the number of days from the twenty-first of March (or the XIIth of the Calends of April) to the Jewish Passover, 10
-Year of Claudius Caesar, the fifth emperor of the Romans, 12.
-Roman Consuls, Publius Cornelius Sylla Faustus, and Lucius Salvius Otho Titianus; and for the following year, (which is by some supposed to be the date of this epistle,) Decimus Junius Silanus, and Quintus Haterius Antoninus.
CHAPTER I.
The salutation of St. Paul and his companions, 1, 2.
The apostle gives thanks to God for their faith, love, and
union; and for their patience under persecutions, 3, 4.
Speaks of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, the punishment
of the ungodly, and the glorification of the righteous, 5-10.
Prays that God may count them worthy of their calling, that the
name of Jesus may be glorified in them, 11, 12.
NOTES ON CHAP. I.
Verse 1. Paul, and Silvanus, c.] See the notes on 1Th 1:1. This epistle was written a short time after the former: and as Silas and Timothy were still at Corinth, the apostle joins their names with his own, as in the former case.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On v3 2Th 1:3-5. We are bound to thank God —…
2Th 1:3-5. We are bound to thank God — It is highly observable that the apostle here wraps up his praise of men in praise to God, giving him the glory of the increase of grace which was manifest in the Thessalonian believers. That your faith groweth exceedingly — Notwithstanding all that is done by your enemies to prevent its increase, and even to destroy it. Probably he had heard from them since he sent them the former letter. And the charity — Or love rather, of every one of you aboundeth — Like water that overflows its banks, and yet increases still more. Their faith, it appears, derived new confirmation from their sufferings, and their sense of them engaged them tenderly to pity, and do their utmost for the relief of, those who shared in those sufferings, and at the same time endeared to them that one body, that church of Christ, which the carnal world so cruelly hated, and so maliciously endeavoured to destroy. So that we ourselves glory in you — Or boast of you; in the churches of God — “This passage shows us what is a principal occasion of joy to faithful ministers; it is the faith and love, patience and constancy, of the people to whom they minister. The apostle’s address here is admirable. He excited the emulation of other churches by boasting of the Thessalonians to them. And he quickened the Thessalonians by telling them how much he had praised them in the hearing of the churches.” — Macknight. In all your persecutions and tribulations — Arising probably both from the Jews and their own countrymen. Concerning the particulars of these persecutions we have no information. Which is — Or shall be; a manifest token — Ενδειγμα, proof, or demonstration, of the righteous judgment of God — Of the equity of the divine judgment, which shall be fully manifested in due time by God’s amply rewarding you, and punishing your enemies; that ye may be counted worthy — That it may appear by the integrity, faith, and patience, the meekness and superiority to this transitory world, which you manifest under these severe trials, that you are fit to be admitted into that glorious kingdom of God for which you suffer.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4 Paul, and Silvanus, and Timotheus; - See the notes…
Paul, and Silvanus, and Timotheus; - See the notes on 1Th 1:1.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Nelson Darby 1862 · Public Domain On v1 2 Thessalonians Chapter 1
2 Thessalonians Chapter 1
In the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians, the apostle corrects some errors into which these disciples had fallen with regard to the day of the Lord through certain false teachers; as in part of the first epistle he had enlightened the ignorance of the believers themselves respecting the portion of the saints at the coming of Christ to take them to Himself-a point on which they were evidently but little instructed.
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A measure of Jewish darkness was on their minds; and they were, in some points, still subjected to the influence of that unhappy nation, which was ever struggling to maintain a position lost through its unbelief.
This Jewish influence enables us to understand why the apostle spoke as he did in 1Th 2:15-16 of the first Epistle. At that time this influence shewed itself in the tendency of the Thessalonians to lose sight of the heavenly side of the Lord’s coming, to think that He would return to the earth and that they should then be glorified with Him-as a Jew might have believed-and that the dead saints would therefore not be present to share this glory. I do not say that this thought had assumed a definite form in the minds of the Thessalonians. To them the principal and living object was the Lord Himself, and they were awaiting His return with hearts full of joy and life; but the heavenly side of this expectation had not its place clearly marked in their minds, and they connected the coming too much with the manifestation, so that the earthly character predominated, and the dead seemed to be shut out from it.
When the Second Epistle was written, this Jewish influence had another character; and the false teachers were more directly concerned in it.
The faithful at Thessalonica had learnt to contemplate “the day of the Lord” as a day of judgment. The Old Testament had spoken much of this day of the Lord, a day of darkness and unparalleled judgment, a day of trial to men. (Compare Isa 13:1-22, Joe 2:1-32, Amo 5:18) Now the Thessalonians were undergoing dreadful persecution. Perhaps their hope of an earthly intervention of the Lord, during their lifetime, was weakened. The apostle at least rejoiced at the increase of their faith, and the abundant exercise of their love, while he is silent with regard to their hope; and the joy of Christian life is not found here as it was manifested in the First Epistle. Nevertheless they were walking well, and the apostle gloried in them [1] in the churches of God. But the false teachers profited by their condition to mislead them by means of their sufferings, which weighed more heavily on their hearts from the joy of hope being a little weakened; and at the same time the remains of the influence of Judaising thoughts or of habits of mind formed through them, furnished occasion to the assaults of the enemy. The instrument of the subtle malice told them that the day of the Lord, that fearful time, was already come-the word (2Th 2:2) is not “at hand,” but “come,” “present “[2] -and all that the Thessalonians were suffering, and by which their hearts were shaken, appeared like a testimony to prove it and to confirm the words of the false teachers. Was it not written that it should be a day of trial and anguish?
The words of these teachers, moreover, had the pretension of being more than human reasoning; it was a word of the Lord, it was the Spirit who spoke, it was a letter from an inspired channel: and so bold and wicked were they in regard to this matter, that they did not fear to adduce the apostle’s own name as their authority for declaring that the day was come. Now the dominion of fear, which Satan can exercise over the mind, when it is not kept of God in peace and joy, is astonishing. “In nothing terrified by your adversaries,” is the apostle’s word to the Philippians, “which is to them an evident token of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that of God.” In such a state of mind as this everything is believed; or rather everything is feared, and nothing is believed. The heart gives itself up to this fear, and is ready to believe anything; for it is in darkness an knows not what to believe. Thus the apostle exhorts the Thessalonians (chap. 2) not to be soon shaken in mind so as to lose their stability in the truth, and not to be troubled.
The apostle deals with the case in the same manner as in the First Epistle. Before entering on the error he treats the same subject in its true light, building upon the knowledge which the Thessalonians already possessed. Only he sets it forth with clearness in its application to the circumstances of the moment. By this means they were delivered from the influence of the error, and from the disturbance of mind which it had caused; and were rendered capable of looking at the error, as being themselves outside it, and of judging it according to the instruction that the apostle gave them.
They were persecuted and were in distress and suffering, and the enemy took advantage of it. The apostle puts that fact in its right place. He encourages them with the thought that it was a kind of seal upon them of their being worthy of the kingdom for which they were suffering. But more, the “day of the Lord” was the coming of the Lord in judgment; but it was not to make His own suffer that He was coming - it was to punish the wicked. Persecution therefore could not be the day of the Lord; for in persecution the wicked had the upper hand and did their own will and inflicted suffering on those whom the Lord loved. Could that be His day! The apostle does not apply this argument to the question, but he puts the facts in their place; so that all the use which the enemy made of them fell of itself to the ground. The truth of the facts was there in its simplicity, giving them their evident and natural character. When God should take the thing in hand, He would recompense tribulation to those who troubled His children, and these should have rest-should be in peace. The moment of their entering into this rest is not at all the subject here, but the contrast between their actual condition and that which it would be if Jesus were come. It was not to persecute and harass His own that He was coming. In His day they should be at rest, and the wicked in distress; for He was coming to punish the latter by driving them away for ever from the glory of His presence. When we understand that the Thessalonians had been induced to believe that the day of the Lord was already come, the import of this first chapter is very plain.
Two principles are here established. First, the righteous judgment of God: it is righteous in His eyes, on the one hand, to reward those who suffer for His kingdom’s sake: and, on the other, to requite those who persecute His children. In the second place, the glorious manifestation of the Lord Jesus: His own should be in rest and happiness with Him, when His power should be in exercise.
We see also here two reasons for judgment-they did not know God, and they did not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. All being without excuse as to the testimony that God had ever given concerning Himself, some among them had added the rejection of the positive revelation of His grace in the gospel of Christ to their abuse of their natural relationship with God and their forgetfulness of His majesty.
Meanwhile the apostle presents the positive result in blessing of the manifestation of Jesus in glory. He will come to be glorified in His saints, and to be admired in all them that have believed in Him, and therefore in the Thessalonians: a thorough proof, at least that they were not to view their persecuted condition as a demonstration that the day was come. With regard to themselves, they werethus entirely delivered from the confusion by which the enemy sought to disquiet them; and the apostle could treat the question of this error with hearts which, as to their own condition, were set free from it and at rest.
These considerations characterised his prayers on their behalf. He sought from God that they might always be worthy of this vocation, and that the Lord might be glorified in them by the power of faith, which would shine the brighter through their persecutions; and that afterwards they might be glorified in Him at the manifestation of His glory according to the grace of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now that the apostle has placed their souls on the ground of truth, he enters upon the subject of the error, shewing that which had occasioned his remarks. Of this we have already spoken.
Footnotes for 2 Thessalonians Chapter 1
1: In the First Epistle he says he needed not to speak of them, seeing that the world itself recounted everywhere the principles by which they were governed. We shall see a similar difference all through. It is no longer the same fresh energy of life.
2: See Rom 8:38;1Co 3:22; where it (enistemi) is translated “present,” in contrast with “things to come.”
John Nelson Darby — Synopsis of the Books of the Bible: the New Testament (c. 1857–1862) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v1 Address for the Consolation of the readers under the…
I
Address for the Consolation of the readers under the fresh outbreak of persecutions
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2Th_1:1-12
After the salutation (2Th_1:1-2), the Apostle thanks God for their growth in faith (2Th_1:3-4), cheers them by the prospect of judgment and salvation (2Th_1:5-10), and prays that God would make them partakers of perfection (2Th_1:11-12).
1Paul, and Silvanus, and Timotheus [Timothy], unto the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father1 and the Lord Jesus Christ: 2Grace unto you, and peace, from God our1 Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
3We are bound to thank [give thanks to]2 God always for you, brethren, as it is meet, because that your faith groweth exceedingly, and the charity [love, ἀγάπη] of every one of you all2 toward each other aboundeth; 4so that we ourselves3 glory in you in the churches of God, for your patience and faith in all 5your persecutions and tribulations [the afflictions]3 that ye endure: which is a manifest token [a token, ἕνδειγμα] of the righteous judgment of God, that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer: 6seeing [if indeed]4 it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you [to those who afflict you affliction],5 7and to you, who are troubled [afflicted], rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed [at the revelation of the Lord Jesus, ἐν τῇ ἀποκαλύψει τοῦ Κ. Ἰ.] from heaven with His mighty angels [with the angels of His power, μετ’ ἀγγέλων δυνάμεως αὐτοῦ], 8in flaming fire,6 taking vengeance on them that [rendering vengeance to those who, διδόντος ἐκδίκησιν τοῖς] know not God, and that obey not7 the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ:8 9who shall be punished with [shall suffer punishment, δίκην τίσουσιν,] everlasting destruction from the presence [face]9 of the Lord, and from the glory of His power; 10when He shall come to be glorified in His saints, and to be admired in all them that believe [those who believed]10 (because our testimony 11among you [to you, ἐφ’ ὑμᾶς] was believed), in that day. Wherefore [To which end, Εἰς ὅ] also we pray always for you, that our God would count [may count, ἀξιώσῃ] you worthy of this [the, τῆς] calling, and fulfil all the good pleasure of His goodness [every desire of goodness],11 and the work of faith with power; 12that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ12 may be glorified in you, and ye in Him, according to the grace of our God, and the Lord Jesus Christ.13
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. (2Th_1:1-2.) See the First Epistle.
2. (2Th_1:3-4.) We are bound, &c.—As in 1Th_1:2, only that he there says simply εὐχαριστοῦμεν, and here declares the obligation (2Th_2:13), in the earnestness of his spirit, drawn from the greatness of the grace; urgente animi exultatione (Bengel): We are bound to do this, and it is a debt which we shall never be able fully to discharge. It is by no means obvious, why this should be unpauline! is it only because we do not so read in any other Epistle?! The words, as it is meet, are referred by some only to ὀφείλομεν, as confirmatory of the obligation, and, taken thus, they seem to be somewhat dull and pointless; better therefore: “so to give thanks, as the greatness of the unmerited favor deserves;” Bengel: ob rei magnitudinem; Hofmann: as the state of the case requires. Theophylact (along with another explanation): in a worthy manner, by word and deed; for this is true thanksgiving. Too subtle is Lünemann’s interpretation; who, because καθώς does not mark the degree (though it does the way and manner), and because the insertion of ἀδελφοί forbids the close backward reference to εὐχαριστεῖν (but why?), would connect ἄξιον closely with what follows: “as it is meet, because.” But it is more natural to understand ὅτι thus: “We are bound to give thanks (for this), that.”14 Ὑπεραυξάνειν is such an emphatic expression of entire commendation as the Apostle is fond of; αὐξάνειν is used elsewhere transitively, but once also as intransitive, Act_6:7; and so the compound here: “your faith groweth even beyond expectation;15 and love increaseth16 continually.” Paul thankfully acknowledges the fulfilment of his wishes and exhortations (1Th_3:12; 1Th_4:10); Rieger: the fruit of his exhortations and intercessions. Faith and love, of which Timothy (1Th_3:6) had reported the existence among the Thessalonians, had only become stronger in the tempests; at 1Th_1:3 he had added ὑπομονὴ τῆς ἐλπίδος, and that follows here in another form.—Of every one of you all, he thus quite explicitly applies it to every individual; toward each other; he speaks therefore of brotherly love. How can Paul thus praise, when in chh. 2 and 3 he has yet to add reproof? Olshausen well: Even those excrescences (we add: which were found rather in individuals merely) were at least excrescences simply from a good stock. There is something of cordial encouragement in the fact, that Paul first recognizes the good that he finds in them, even though with some their faith and love are still lacking in wisdom.—So that we ourselves, not others merely, glory in you. Hofmann thinks this would require a καί, and prefers to understand it thus: we of our own accord, without being prompted; too artificial. De Wette (and Chrysostom before him) recalls 1Th_1:8 : “We have no need to speak of it, since everywhere people are telling of it;” whereas here: “Not merely do others talk to us and speak of it everywhere, but we also (overcoming a modest reserve) must in our exceeding joy proclaim it.” To be sure, attention is not drawn to this contrast by any particle of time; it at once results, however, from a mere comparison of the two places. Paul not merely thanks God; he glories also before men. Instead of the Recepta καυχᾶσθαι, A. B. Sin. 17 [Lachmann, Tischendorf, Alford, Ellicott] give the rarer and on that account, perhaps, the preferable ἐγκαυχᾶσθαι (A. B., not Sin., write ἐνκ.), which at the most slightly strengthens the sense; κανχ. ἐν means to place one’s honor in something, to boast of a thing (1Co_1:31; 1Co_3:21); there Paul forbids to glory in any men whatever; does he not here do so himself? By no means; he means to boast, not of the Thessalonians as men, but only of the work of God in them (1Th_2:19). The relation is the same as between the ἀνθρώποις ἀρέσκειν that is forbidden (Gal_1:10, flattery of the old man) and that which is enjoined (1Co_10:33, the cherishing of the new man with tender fidelity). He boasts of them in the churches of God, those of Achaia, where he is sojourning; Lünemann: Corinth and its branch churches (the plural points to the surrounding region, comp. Rom_16:1); an advance on 1Th_1:8. Without any reason Hilgenfeld (p. 243) would detect a disagreement with 2Co_1:1, alleging that the genuine Paul does not at all describe the churches of Achaia as properly churches along with that of Corinth. The simple fact is, that in that place of the Corinthian Epistle he does not do so, it being surely equally possible for him to address a large number of saints, or to take them together as churches; but if one were disposed to extort from 2Co_1:1 the idea that the scattered Christians of Achaia had not yet been gathered into churches, we should then have to infer also from Rom_1:7; Php_1:1; Col_1:2, that no churches had yet been organized in Rome, Philippi, Colosse, when Paul wrote to the Christians of those places!—Bengel’s reference of the ὑπὲρ, &c. to the remote εὐχαριστεῖν is unnatural; it is rather a closer definition of ἐγκαυχ. ἐν ὑμῖν: for your patience and (your) faith; their endurance stands first; the thing gloried in is, that they stood their ground not merely against a single attack; the root of genuine patience is faith, which is then again in its turn purified by patience. In faith everything is concentrated (1Th_3:7); it is not of itself the same thing as hope [De Wette] (1Th_1:3); nor, because πίστεως is connected with ὑπομονῆς by one article, are we required (as Olshausen and Lünemann suppose) to assume for πίστις the meaning of fidelity. No doubt, by omitting the second article Paul comprehends patience and faith, so to speak, under one conception; faith, however, retains the sense which it commonly bears elsewhere (and for the Greeks that is certainly less remote from the idea of fidelity than for us). There may be an endurance that does not proceed from faith, that is, from holding fast by the invisible God; and this would have no value; but just as little would a faith, that did not approve itself by its own steadfastness in affliction. In Rev_13:10 also the two are joined together. The manifestation of both takes place in all your persecutions and the afflictions that ye endure, patiently bear, Hofmann; the αἷς ἀνέχεσθε in the second member answers to the ὑμῶν of the first. The persecutions proceed from hostile men; θλίψεσιν is more general, and presents the idea, how painful and distressing the suffering is in the experience of it; αἷς it is generally said, is an attraction for ἅς; Lünemann, for ὧν; both constructions occur; in the New Testament elsewhere always the genitive (Col_3:13, and often). The present ἀνέχεσθε (over against the aorist of 1Th_2:14) shows that there had been a fresh outbreak of persecutions.
3. (2Th_1:5.) A token, &c.—ἔνδειγμα is not equivalent to εἰς ἐνδ. (cod. 73) [slightly favored also by the Syriac, and the Vulgate in exemplum.—J. L.], nor does it belong appositionally to the ὑμεῖς concealed in ἀνέχεσθε (that would have required ὕντες ἕνδειγμα, besides yielding no good sense); but it is (similarly as in Rom_8:3) an apposition to the clause αἷς ἀνέχεσθε, see Winer, § 59. 9;17 it is to be regarded as a nominative (De Wette, Lünemann [Alford, Ellicott, Webster and Wilkinson, &c.]), not an accusative; hence: which is a proof; ἕνδειγμα does not occur elsewhere in the New Testament, though ἕνδειξις does (Rom_3:25-26; Php_1:28). It is not the mere suffering of tribulation that is of itself an evidence of the judgment, as being perhaps an atonement for sins (Estius), or as an indication that the judgment must come; such is not the effect of mere suffering in itself, but of suffering in patience and faith, and accordingly αἷς ἀνέχεσθε is said to those whose patience and faith can be boasted of; and ἀνέχεσθε itself implies the patient acceptance. This patient endurance, then, is a proof of the righteous judgment of God. But to what extent is it so? The great majority of interpreters (Calvin, Pelt, De Wette, Lünemann, Hofmann, &c.) understand ἔνδειγμα (without warrant) as a presage of the future judgment, which has not yet appeared but is certainly impending; a token from which it may be inferred that it will come; so also Luther: which shows that God will judge rightly. They say that ἔνδειξις so stands in Php_1:28; but the perdition and salvation, whose evidence is there spoken of, are by no means impending merely in the future, but are already in progress at present, comp. 1Co_1:18; and the ἕνὃειξις of the righteousness of God, of which Rom_3:25 sq. speaks, is altogether meant as present. In behalf, however, of the view that our text speaks of a presage of the future judgment, there is alleged 1. the article, as indicating the judgment κατ’ ἐξοχήν, and 2. the connection with 2Th_1:6-7, where there is very explicit mention of the future retribution. Granting the latter point, still, if ἕνδειγμα in 2Th_1:5 by itself is to mean a presage, its relation to the following εἰς τὸ καταξ. is anything but clear. Estius, Bengel, Hofmann, and others, make the latter clause dependent on ἀνέχεσθε, and it is true that this would not necessarily lead to the Catholic doctrine of merit (just as little as Rom_8:17), but in the present connection it would have this inconvenience of depressing ἕνδειγμα, &c. into a subordinate parenthesis, whereas plainly in that word is to be seen the new principal thought, the beginning of the new line of thought, which is then carried forward in 2Th_1:6 sqq. This is perceived by De Wette and Lünemann, who are therefore essentially correct in assuming that εἰς τὸ καταξ. depends on δικ. κρίσεως; but how? shall it mean merely: with reference to the fact, that? or shall it be an epexegetical conclusion, like 2Co_8:6 : whose result will be, that (Lünemann)? or shall it even express simply the substance of the judgment (De Wette)? Theophylact even takes it as an equivalent to ὅπερ ἐστὶ καταξ. De Wette gives this paraphrastic explanation of the connection: By their steadfastness in persecution the Thessalonians approve themselves as worthy of the kingdom of God, and from this subjective worthiness may be inferred the objective righteous judgment of God, by which it is realized. But this is a singular confounding of two different modes of viewing the causal relation, as it were thus: Which steadfast suffering, since it shows what sort of people you are, is also a presage of what we have to expect from the righteous judgment of God, in pronouncing you worthy;—evidently an artificial and forced thought, which would still be but very unintelligibly expressed.18 But on the whole it is always best, wherever it is possible, to hold fast in εἰς τό the idea of aim. Add to this the arbitrariness of understanding ἕνδειγμα as a foretoken of something future, as also Hilgenfeld remarks.
The preference, therefore, is due to the interpretation, which we find not quite distinctly in Zwingli, and then in Olshausen, needing only a somewhat more rigorous confirmation; the interpretation, namely, according to which ἕνδειγμα denotes the evidence of God’s righteous judgment already at present in force. The article can be no obstacle to this, since the judgment of God, present and future, is one process (like eternal life, Joh_17:3); and 2Th_1:6-7 also form no counter-argument, for there we are shown that coming issue of the judgment, of which the present judicial administration (2Th_1:5) is the pioneer. But how, then, can the patient endurance of suffering be described as a manifestation of the already present judgment of God?
Here it is of importance rightly to understand the scriptural conception of righteousness and judgment. Now since the righteousness of God is certainly not synonymous with grace, we must not confound these ideas; it is the self-consistent relation of His holy love to the free creature; dispensing on both sides, to the believer according to his faith, to the unbeliever according to his unbelief. A judgment awaits also the former; Olshausen refers to 1Pe_4:17-18; likewise 1Co_11:32 points us to a judgment for discipline and purification; thus: God fulfils in you His righteous judgment, not for your destruction, but for your trial, that He may be able to declare you worthy of the kingdom; He proves your standing in faith, and there is a righteous requital also in this, that He rewards faith with patience; or as Stockmeyer beautifully and clearly carries out the idea on this one side (in an unprinted sermon; see the Homiletic hints on 1Th_4:1-8): “First of all he represents to them the judgment of God as something, whereof they are now already permitted, in the midst of their tribulation, to have an experience in the highest degree joyful and comforting. That the Thessalonians were able to abide so patient in persecution, and so firm in faith, was already an evidence of the righteousness of God. Thereby God already proved Himself in their case to be the righteous rewarder of all that is good. For their obedience, in that they had received the gospel, God rewarded them by bestowing on them new grace, and new strength to suffer for the gospel’s sake, without becoming weary and faint-hearted (Mat_13:12).” What one might find to be wanting in this statement is, at the most, that it would suit the expression, proof of the righteousness, better than it does the one before us, proof of the righteous judgment. It must therefore be supplemented by remarking, first, that for believers also the operation of the Divine righteousness comes indeed to be an effective judgment, but that it is a strong consolation to fall into the hand of God, and not into the hand of men; moreover, as Von Gerlach notes, that it is the most frightful token (not merely a presage) of bursting doom, when God so hardens the ungodly that they persecute His children. Even this, however, must redound to the advantage of the latter.
The thought of our passage, therefore, would be this: Steadfastly and believingly ye endure your persecutions; that is a proof of God’s righteous judgment, of His inviolably self-consistent work of winnowing; which proof is to the end (εἰς τό)19 that ye should be deemed worthy, that He should be able to pronounce you worthy, of the kingdom of God. Toward this mark the judicial and sifting operation of God is working; it will prevail with those who allow His judgment to take effect on them to their purification. It is obvious that, taken thus, εἰς τὀς καταξ. acquires a much better sense. Of course, as Stockmeyer goes on to say, this declaration of judgment, that already takes place at present, stands in closest connection with that last perfect demonstration of it, which is the hope of all believers. (The connection with 2Th_1:6 sqq.: If it is a righteous thing that God should some day render a perfect retribution, there is already now a proof of His righteousness, in directing His judgments toward that end.)20
The kingdom of God, whereof we should be accounted worthy, is the holy dominion which, in distinction from the Church of the present time (the kingdom in the form of a servant), shall one day be revealed by the return of the King in victorious glory. Since flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom, what avails for that is the death of the old man, as the Apostle says: for which ye also suffer; he says also, to express the agreement that exists between their actual experience and God’s plan.21 The ὑπέρ is understood by most to mean: in order to its attainment; and this again would not express any legal meritoriousness, any more than Rom_8:17, but would amount to this: Ye suffer for your faith in it, your confession of it, your faithfulness to it, when grace had received you. Hilgenfeld insists on the meaning, not: in order to its attainment, but: in order to its promotion; similarly Hofmann: to introduce this state of things; and even so there would be no warrant for the assertion of the former, that there is here betrayed an unapostolic estimate of martyrdom. But ὑπέρ (as in Rom_1:5; Act_5:41) means: in reference thereto, in behalf of the kingdom, and includes the two ideas of serving it and participating in it.
4. (2Th_1:6-8) If indeed it is a righteous thing, &c.—The thought is expressed hypothetically, for the very purpose of strengthening its import, and to indicate that it is altogether incontestable, the writer appealing to his reader’s own judgment. Theophylact: The hearers cannot but say: ἀλλὰ μὴν δίκαιον. It is a righteous thing with God [Vulgate: apud Deum; Syriac—coram Deo.—J. L.], righteousness is therein fulfilled; to recompense, properly to render back (1Th_3:9), to those who afflict you affliction, and to you who are afflicted relaxation, release, rest, refreshment (2Co_2:12-13); in opposition to θλῖψις, 2Co_7:5; 2Co_8:13; similarly ὰνάψυξις, Act_3:19; comp. also the resting in Rev_14:13. For the present, he exhibits merely that negative side of the δόξα, for which the afflicted person first longs, freedom from earth’s sorrows; the positive side comes afterward, 2Th_1:10; 2Th_1:12.—With us, says the Apostle in the assured joy of faith; without warrant is Bengel’s explanation (and Ewald’s): us, the saints in Israel; De Wette would understand it generally: with us, Christians at large; that may well be involved in the remoter deduction; but obviously the immediate suggestion of the actual phrase is: with us, the in like manner afflicted Apostles (2Th_3:2), the foremost champions of the faith [Alford and Ellicott: the writers of the Epistle; Webster and Wilkinson: Paul.—J. L.]. Looking back from the final retribution (2Th_1:6), we see that all the previous dealing also (2Th_1:5) is righteous throughout. Of course, the θλίβεσθαι is not of itself meritorious, but 2Th_1:7 likewise takes for granted θλιβομένους of steadfast faith (2Th_1:4); so that Hilgenfeld’s censure of an unpauline thought falls to the ground.—Rest and refreshment will God give at the revelation of the Lord Jesus; it is a far more forced construction, when Grotius would refer this specification of time to the remote καταξιωθῆναι. Of the Lord Jesus is a genitive of. the object, though He is also the subject of it. Revelation is the same thing as παρουσία; only there is still more conveyed by ἀποκάλυψις; not merely that He will be present, but also that He will unveil Himself in His glory (1Co_1:7; Luk_17:30), whereas He is now hid in heaven (Col_3:3-4), and is only invisibly nigh to us (Matthew 28). The way and manner of His coming is shown by what is added: from heaven, comp. 1Th_4:16; with the angels of His power, comp. 1Th_3:13; the expression means that they belong to His power, therefore also form His power, are its servants and executors. Comp. the στρατεύματα of heaven, Rev_19:14. Not: with His strong angels, mighty angels (Theophylact expressly, δυνατῶν), as if δυνάμεως were an adjectival definition of ἀγγ., and αὐτοῦ were to be connected with ἀγγ. Hofmann (because it is not said: μετὰ τῶν ἀγγέλων τῆς δυν. αὐτοῦ) would understand it as meaning with a host of angels,22 ἀγγ. being put first emphatically, to distinguish the heavenly forces from all of an earthly kind (but for this there was no occasion), and δύναμις signifying an army-force likewise in Luk_10:19; Luk_21:26 (?), and in the Septuagint for צָבָה; αὐτοῦ, finally, he refers to what follows. This whole view is too artificial; and when he takes the words αὐτοῦ ἐν πυρὶ φλογὸς διδόντος together, and refers them to God, and at the same time regards ἐν τῇ ἀποκ. &c. as the beginning of this participial construction, this is, to say the least, as cumbrous as the ordinary view, according to which ἐν τῇ ἀπ. &c. more closely defines what goes before.—There might certainly be a doubt as to where ἐν πυρὶ φλογός belongs (the variation which we have noted meets us in like manner at Act_7:30; the Recepta means flaming fire, glowing fire, not faintly burning). Too subtile is Theophylact’s remark, that the expression denotes fire that burns merely, and gives no light, it being merely consuming for sinners, and for the righteous merely luminous. It is possible to refer it to what follows as a specification of detail (Theodoret: τῆς τιμωρίας τὸ εἶδος; Hilgenfeld: In point of fact the fiery flame belongs immediately to the punishment);23 but it may also be regarded as the last feature in the description of the revelation, and this is still simpler [and so Alford and Ellicott]. Theophylact recognizes both explanations, and refers for the second to Psa_97:3. The Lord is revealed in flaming fire, as in the burning bush, or as on Sinai; His throne is [not, as in E. V., is like.—J. L.] glowing flame (Dan_7:9); as in the Old Testament God, so here Christ comes in fire; thus shall His day also be revealed (1Co_3:13); this agrees with the δόξα at His coming (Mat_25:31); somewhat more remote is the glowing flame of His eyes (Rev_19:12); He Himself is a consuming fire (Heb_10:27; Heb_12:29); comp., moreover, in the Old Testament, Isa_29:6; Isa_30:30.
The terrible splendor of His majesty, which consumes all opposition, is concisely, but powerfully, delineated. We are not to inquire curiously into what is physical in this manifestation; not till the last end will the fire that melts the elements come in power (2Pe_3:7; 2Pe_3:10); but at every epoch of judgment fire is also the figure of the purifying ardor of the Holy Ghost, consuming all impurity; comp. Mat_3:11-12.—The reference of what follows, (Jesus) rendering vengeance, dispensing punishment, is by Hofmann without reason felt to be a difficulty. The Greek expression answers in the Septuagint to the Hebrew נָתַן נְקָמָה, Eze_25:14, and elsewhere; comp. ἕκδικος, 1Th_4:6; ποιεῖν ἐκδίκησιν, Luk_18:7; see also Luk_21:22-23. The Apostle now traces back to the general Divine administration what he had previously promised to the Thessalonians in particular. Jesus will execute the Divine judgment on those who know not God; that it is not simply a want of knowledge, but a criminal blindness, that is here intended, is evident; comp. 1Th_4:5; instead of seeking God (Act_17:27), many hold the truth down [κατεχόντων, depress, repress] in unrighteousness (Rom_1:18); in angry defiance, like Pharaoh (Exo_5:2). In the First Epistle the Gentiles were expressly so described (comp. Psa_79:6); here is described more generally the fundamental delinquency, ungodliness. It is further said: and to those, who obey not the gospel, &c.; the Lord Jesus has a right to claim obedience; faith is, after all, an affair of the will, the obedience of faith (Rom_1:5; Act_6:7). The repetition of the article τοῖς in the second member appears to place the disobedient as a second class alongside the first; and so indeed many (Grotius, Bengel, Ewald, Lünemann, Hofmann [Jowett, Alford, Ellicott, Webster and Wilkinson, &c]) distinguish, finding here the two classes of persecutors who vexed the Thessalonians; those who know not God would be the heathen, those who obey not the gospel the Jews (comp. Romans 10). But this same excessive strictness of historical reference is not at all advisable; Paul speaks generally of the judgment of the world. Moreover, Bengel himself says merely Judæis maxime, and Hofmann also [Estius, Cocceius, Whitby, Peile, Revision, &c.—J. L.] sees in the second class all who reject the gospel, whether heathens or Jews; in this we recognize the correct feeling, that to limit the second designation to the Jews is unjustifiable; but in that case the contrast is no longer clear, and there comes in the recollection of Christ’s reproach to the Jews, that they know not God (Joh_8:55; Joh_15:21; Joh_16:3; they are wanting in the knowledge described in Joh_17:3); with which the Apostle’s expressions are to be compared (Rom_3:11; Rom_10:2; Rom_11:8 sqq.). On the whole, since the antithesis here is different from that in Rom_2:12, one looks for a condemnation at last only on account of the rejection of Christ, in which alienation from God culminates. The οἵτινες also of 2Th_1:9 comprehends in one the two seemingly different classes; so that we shall do better to find already in the eighth verse a description, not of two classes of men, but merely of the two poles of enmity against God: the fundamental aversion of men generally, and the consummation of their contumacy, when the opportunity of faith has been afforded them; so Calvin [Bishop Hall], Pelt, De Wette, Olshausen; the repetition of the τοῖς cannot force us to the opposite view,24 if we compare Rom_4:12 [see also my Revision of Rev_16:2, Note j. These two are much better examples than those which Ellicott cites, and objects to as questionable, viz. Mat_27:3; Luk_22:4.—J. L.]. Moreover, the ἅγιοι and the πιστεύσαντες, 2Th_1:10, are not two different classes (as Bengel consistently would have it), but two parallel designations of the same persons. At any rate, we see here that the θλίβοντες of 2Th_1:6 come under the judgment, not as being merely human oppressors of men, but as enemies of God. [Wordsworth: μή implies that their ignorance and disobedience is the cause of their punishment.—J. L.]
5. (2Th_1:9-10.) Who [οἵτινες, who, as such.—J. L.] shall suffer punishment, &c.: properly pay, discharge; but the etymology disappears, as the opposition would otherwise be incongruous: (namely) everlasting destruction; ὅλεθρος we had at 1Th_5:3; ὀλέθριον [Lachmann] is given only by A.; this were an adjective to δίκην; but it is too feebly supported (the Sin. is also against it), and is unsuitable to ἀπό, &c., and to δίκην which already has an adjective [?]; the mistake was occasioned probably by αἰώνιον. The latter word might perhaps denote a long but still limited period; against this, however, is the parallel ζωὴ αἰώνιος, Mat_25:41; Mat_25:46; therefore without limits. Olshausen thinks that Paul has not another text of equally decided import; but, though he does not use this expression, he yet does say unconditionally: βασιλείαν θεοῦ οὐ κληρονομήσουσι (1Co_6:9-10). The ἀπό, &c. is variously understood; Chrysostom, Bengel, Pelt, De Wette, Ewald, Hofmann explain from the face as of the efficient cause (Act_3:19, where, however, it is connected with ἐλδεῖν); προσώπου would be not simply equivalent to person, but more expressive: from His face, which will be turned toward them in a threatening, penal, terrible manner; that mere look destroys them; Chrysostom: He needs but to appear, and they are punished; Hofmann compares Jer_4:26; Sept.25 De Wette supposes that the second member especially: from the glory of His power, compels us to think of the efficient cause; but of that too an explanation may be found, that agrees still better with δίκην τίσουσιν, ὅλεθρον αἰώνιον, namely, as Beza, Lünemann [Jowett, Alford, Ellicott], and others understand it, away from. Olshausen compares Isa_2:10; Isa_2:19; Isa_2:21, Sept.: They will hide themselves, fleeing ἀπὸ προσώπου τοῦ φόβου κυρίου καὶ ἀπὸ τῆς δόξης τῆς ἰσχύος αὐτοῦ, and finds in our text a breviloquence (as it were, hiding themselves from). But that is not at all necessary. We get the finest sense, and, as Lünemann properly remarks, a real advance, and not still the same thing merely that was already implied ἐν τῇ ἀποκ., when we understand it as destruction (away) from the face of the Lord (Jesus Christ); like ἀναθεμα ἀπὸ τοῦ Χριστοῦ (Rom_9:3); comp. ἀπό also in Rom_7:2; 2Co_11:3; Gal_5:4.26 This is destruction, to be separated from the blessed vision of His face, from the Source of light and life, from the influence of His gracious aspect; comp. Mat_7:23; and from the glory (the effulgence) of His strength; there is the less need of understanding this in De Wette’s sense, that it is not said simply, from His strength, but from the δόξα of His strength. Lünemann’s explanation indeed: from the glory which is the creation [Alford: visible localized result] of His power, is somewhat far-fetched; the parallelism leads us rather to understand by that something belonging to the Lord Himself; comp. also the Hebrew הֲדַר נְּאֹנד, Isa_2:10; Hofmann: from His strength appearing in its glory; Diedrich: the glory of His omnipotence, in its creation of a new heaven and a new earth, and in its entire communication of itself to the saved. And is not this a calamitous deprivation, to be separated from that glory of Christ’s power, which will glorify man into the likeness of the Lord? (Php_3:21); and so to remain without any share in that which follows in 2Th_1:10 : When He shall come, more exactly, shall have come [Alford, Ellicott, Wordsworth]. And now the parallel members pour forth in the splendor of the prophetic strain, and bring the positive supplement to the ἅνεσις of 2Th_1:7. To be glorified in His saints does not mean simply to be praised by or amongst them in words, but to be actually shown to be glorious in the glory that He effects in them, by letting His glory appear in the glorification of His saints, by dwelling in them, and imparting Himself to them; see 2Th_1:12; Joh_17:10; Joh_17:22 sqq.; Rom_9:23. And so it is taken also by most expositors. The saints here are certainly Christians, not angels; the latter, indeed, were particularly named in 2Th_1:7. Nor does Bengel succeed in proving, convincingly, that the believers are a different class from the saints; we rather recognize in this place merely the solemn parallelism of the members. But this does not exclude the climax implied in the πᾶσιν: in all, therefore also in you (2Th_1:4; 2Th_1:7). The being admired might be understood thus: In the hearts of His believers He will create for Himself an admiring adoration,; but the parallel member leads rather to this explanation: By that which He works in them He will show Himself wonderful; He will become the wonder and admiration of creation (especially perhaps of the angels, comp. Eph_3:10), when it is revealed, what He has known to make of His believers. Thus it is taken already by Chrysostom: δι’ ἐκείνων θαυμαστὸς ἀποδείκνυται; Theophylact [Webster and Wilkinson] thinks, in the presence of those who are now stiff-necked; Lünemann: The blessedness of believers being admired, Christ also is therein admired as the Author of that blessedness; comp. θαυμασθῆναι, Isa_61:6, Sept. It is worthy of note, how delicately one member of the statement answers to the other; the glory reveals what despised holiness is, and when it becomes manifest to what faith attains, that is a matter of wonder (Hofmann).—Because our testimony to you was believed; μαρτύριον, equivalent to κήρυγμα, εὐαγγέλιον; ἐφ’ ὑμᾶς belongs even without an article to μαρτ. (according to Winer, §20. 2), that directed toward you (similarly Luk_9:5); were it to be referred to ἐπιστεύθη, πρός must have been used.27 Bengel seems to take ὅτι as that, for he says: motivum admirationis, as if the clause supplied the subject of θαυμασθῆναι; whereas its subject is still the Lord. The words ὅτι to ὑμᾶς are already rightly regarded as a parenthesis by Theodoret and Theophylact, and then by Zwingli and Calvin; ἐν τῇ ἡμ. ἐκ. goes back beyond that, but not, as Bengel would have it, to the too remote ἕλθῃ; [still less, as Webster and Wilkinson would have it, to δίκην τίσουσιν.—J. L.], but to ἐνδοξ. and θαυμασθῆναι. Altogether untenable is Luther’s translation: Our testimony to you of that day ye believed; as little does it answer to take ἐπιστευθη for a future or (Grot.) a future perfect; to say nothing of other misinterpretations. The sense of the parenthesis with the verb put emphatically forward is this: Since our testimony to you was believed, therefore I can speak of πιστεύσασιν in application also to you (ὑμῖν, 2Th_1:1); yes, you too belong to the believers; he would fill them with the comfortable assurance: Ye are of the number. The addition of in that day, on the other hand, says: It will not happen till then; till then, patience! Calvin: fidelium vota cohibet, ne ultra modum festinent. [Perhaps also the phrase, in that day, was intended strongly to suggest the thought, that the very same day, which brings terror and ruin to the ungodly and unbelievers, brings rest and glory to their former victims.—J. L.]—Hofmann understands the passage otherwise; to avoid the parenthesis, he supposes that with ὅτι ἐπιστ. there is a new beginning; and that ἐν τῇ ἡμ. ἐκ, belongs to what follows, namely, to ἵνα ὑμᾶς ἀξιώσῃ, thus getting now in his turn εἰς ὅ to ὑμῶν for a parenthesis;—intolerably harsh! For though the position of ἐν τῇ ἡμ. ἑκ. before ἵνα might perhaps be justified by Act_19:4 and similar texts, yet to add to the inversion the parenthesis also is too Much.
6. (2Th_1:11-12) Darauf geht auch allezeit unser Beten fur euch (Thereunto tend also at all times our prayers for you); such was our German paraphrase; εἰς ὅ is not the same thing as δι’ ὅ, quapropter (Grot.); it might mean, in reference to which (Rom_4:20; Lünemann); but the final signification is to be preferred: aiming at which, to which end (Col_1:29; De Wette [Jowett, Revision, Webster and Wilkinson, Am. Bible Union, &c.]), and the objection to this, that the certain truth of the purpose of grace (2Th_1:10) would thus be made dependent on the Apostle’s prayers, loses its force, so soon as we closely connect therewith περὶ ὑμῶν (with this view do we pray for you),28 and further perceive that ἵνα, &c. merely carries out what εἰς ὅ at the forefront of the sentence indicates;29 at 1Th_3:10 likewise the import of the prayer is expressed in the form of a design. Bengel: hoc orando nitimur; that what was promised in 2Th_1:10 may fall also to your share. We also pray, he says; we too for our part, in harmony with the purpose of God. This we do besides giving thanks (2Th_1:3).30—That our God (says he, with devout appropriation) may count you worthy of the calling; § Grotius, Bengel, Olshausen, Ewald, and many understand it of making worthy; Von Gerlach: that He may bestow on you the necessary qualities, of which what follows would thus furnish the explanation. But ἀξιοῦν is always to deem worthy, pronounce [?] worthy; therefore: that He may count you worthy of being adjudged the κλῆσις. But were they not called long since? what should this still impending κλῆσις mean? One might think, as in the parable of the supper, of repeated calls: that He may count you worthy of the last, decisive, energetic call, which brings you to the object; or as Hofmann says (and this might be separated from his distorted construction of our passage): that He may count you worthy of a calling, which brings to completion what began with our testimony and your faith therein; of the call δεῦτε (Mat_25:34), to which already Zwingli refers. But we may also with Lünemann (without regarding Php_3:14, βραβεῖον τῆς κλήσεως, as quite parallel) understand κλῆσις as meaning that to which you are called: May He at last pronounce you worthy of that, the opposite of which might also, indeed, follow a want of fidelity31 comp. ἐλπίς, of the thing hoped for, Col_1:5. The difference, after all, is really unimportant; for he, who is finally thought worthy of the glory to which Christians are called, is thought worthy also of the last invitation: Come, then!32 The Apostle’s prayer is directed, moreover, to this point (in order that the ἀξιοῦν may be realized): that He may fulfil every desire of goodness, &c.; ὑμᾶς does not belong to this clause, πληροῦν not governing two accusatives, but the meaning is, in you. If we disregard obviously false interpretations (Grotius: your goodness, that is well-pleasing to Him; similarly Olshausen and others), the only question is, whether with Calvin, Bengel, Pelt, and others, we are to understand it thus: that He may fulfil all the good pleasure of His goodness, ex parte Dei, adds Bengel, and, at the second member, ex parte vestri. But that is not well here; De Wette, Lünemann, Ewald, Hofmann properly hold that the second member, which denotes something wrought in the Thessalonians, compels us to understand the first also of ἀγαθωσύνη in the Thessalonians. Besides, Paul never uses this word of the Divine, but always of human goodness (Rom_15:14; Gal_5:22; Eph_5:9). And again, if God’s goodness was to be spoken of, we must necessarily have had πᾶσαν τὴν εὐδ., and αὑτοῦ after it. The correct view, therefore, is: that He may bring (in you) to fulfilment every good pleasure in, every inclination to, goodness [so Alford, Ellicott, Webster and Wilkinson: “better, grace in them than towards them,” &c. Alford errs, however, in making ἀγαθωσύνης a gen. of apposition.—J. L.]. God must fulfil this; otherwise we are prone to evil; εὐδοκία of the human disposition we find also at Rom_10:1. Delight in what is good is partly the first preparation for faith (Joh_7:17), and partly its fruit. But here the Apostle speaks, not merely of the furtherance of this disposition, but of its fulfilment. Thus we are not to think simply of a growing sanctification, nor, as regards the work of faith, simply, with Chrysostom, Theodoret, Theophylact, of the endurance of persecutions; but Paul has his eye on the final mark. On ἕργον πίστεως, comp. the exegetical explanation of 1Th_1:3; for the completion and slight modification of that let it merely be added, that for the right understanding of that text it seems to us indispensable, 1. to take the three genitives in the same way, and 2. to avoid every interpretation, by which one member of the statement would be confounded with another. It is very clear that the κόπος τῆς ἀγάπης is there the toil and labor springing from love, befitting love. This must guide us also in the first member; ἔργον τῆς πίστεως is the work springing from faith, befitting faith; not, however, the moral authentication of faith outwardly, which would encroach on the second or third member, but the fundamental inward work of faith in the soul; not the sum of the works which spring from faith, but that which is presupposed as the foundation of all moral activity, to wit, the primary act of breaking loose from self-confidence, and casting one’s self entirely on the living God. Instead of Gal_5:6, the text for comparison is rather Rom_4:20-21. This energetic groundwork of faith Paul sees existing in the Thessalonians; he notes it in 1Th_1:9, whereas here his prayer for them is that God may fully accomplish it, and through faith bring to perfection the new man; ἐν δυνάμει, in power, with force (1Th_1:5); Lünemann: powerfully; resardua, says Calvin. It belongs to πληρώσῃ.—That the name of our Lord Jesus, &c. Compared with 2Th_1:10, this word indicates that to Himself we can bring no glory, but His name is glorified in us, and we personally in Him. Yet is His (and in general the Divine) name itself something real, as is expressly shown by the present context, which in 2Th_1:12 asserts of the name what 2Th_1:10 says of Christ Himself. Hallowed be Thy name; in the name of Jesus we pray, and in the name of God the Father, &c. we are baptized; comp. Exo_23:31; Deu_26:2; 1Ki_8:29; Jer_32:20; Psa_48:11 [10]. What His name is in fact He Himself makes for Himself; it is not a name given by mere human invention and conception. He reveals Himself as he would be recognized and invoked, as He who is what He is called, and is effectively present wherever called upon. His name is glorified in us; and therefore this does not mean merely, that He is celebrated in the praises of our lips, but (as the second member shows) that He is in fact made glorious, when the Lord shows Himself in us true to His name, as the prayer-answering Saviour; when He prevails with us to have His name named upon us, as those who really belong to Him (Deu_28:10; Amo_9:12; Jam_2:7)—And ye in Him, that is, may be glorified; a reciprocity, as in John 17. Most understand this as in Him, the Lord; Lünemann, Hofmann: in it, the name. As regards the meaning, the difference is unessential. This word likewise looks to the consummation; living in the Lord, we are to be made partakers of His glorified nature; in the name of the Lord: the power of that name, which is above every name. And all this, according to the grace of our God and Lord Jesus Christ. He thus quenches all human pride. Since the article stands before θεοῦ, and not before κυρίου, it is altogether most natural, with Hofmann, to refer θεοῦ also to Christ [but see Critical Note 13.—J. L.], without this being, as Hilgenfeld supposes (p. 264), a mark of spuriousness; for not merely Tit_2:13, but also Rom_9:5 speaks of Christ in loftier terms than are agreeable to our modern critics (comp. Joh_20:28; 2Pe_1:1; 2Pe_1:11). The distinction between God and Christ is not to be sustained by an appeal to texts like 2Th_1:1-2, since there the article is wanting also before θεῷ and θεοῦ.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. (2Th_1:3.) It is important for all life, that it also grow; otherwise it stands still, or rather retrogrades. But growth in the kingdom of grace proceeds in part differently from what it does in the kingdom of nature. Even a tree, indeed, must grow as well below as above. But still more does that saying of Starke hold good of the Christian life: This growth takes place either openly and sensibly, when a man, after experiencing the sorrows of repentance, is sensibly comforted and quieted in his soul (Psa_103:1-5); or it takes place in a secret, concealed, hidden manner in circumstances of trial, when a man perhaps makes the most powerful advance, but God does not yet allow Him to be clearly and properly sensible of in—Still more important is another distinction, to wit, that every being in nature, even every man and every people, reaches on the natural side a highest point, and then declines and goes toward death, whereas by Christ and His Holy Spirit is implanted in the individual and in humanity a germ of imperishable life, that does not decay, but ripens to perfection (2Th_1:11), and is just then most powerfully matured, when tribulation even to death wastes the outer man.
[Burkitt: As it is our duty, it will be our great wisdom and prudence, so to speak of the graces of God which we see and observe in others, as that they may not be puffed up with any conceit of their own excellencies, but see matter of praise and thanksgiving due unto God only, and nothing to themselves.—M. Henry: We may be tempted to think that, though when we were bad we could not make ourselves good, yet when we are good we can easily make ourselves better; but we have as much dependence on the grace of God for the increasing the grace we have, as for the planting of grace when we had it not.—J. L.]
2. (2Th_1:4.) Are we at liberty even to glory in men? Not so as to foster our own ambition, or to flatter the ambition of others. Nor is all danger obviated by saying, that we extol God’s work in them; the old man seeks to catch his share also therein. Where faith is really put to the trial of patience (Jam_1:2-5), there is the least risk of pride, and in such a trial there is incentive for others. They, who are commended, are not allowed by God to want for secret checks. For them too that word holds good: noblesse oblige.
3. (2Th_1:5.) God’s rule is a constant righteous judging and sifting with a gracious purpose; for righteousness stands in the service of grace; grace reigns through righteousness (Rom_5:21). But it is not always easy even for faith to keep track of this. Not merely are wilful, impatient persons offended, that it often seems to go ill with the good, and so well with the wicked; not merely do the frivolous and faint-hearted ask, Where is now the righteous God? but even Asaph had well-nigh slipped here. It is the triumph of faith, when it lays hold of the Apostle’s word, and in that very thing, which seems to conflict with all righteousness, learns to recognize the working out of righteous judgment. On one side it is a terribly earnest declaration of it, when God punishes sinners by giving them up to sin (Rom_1:24 sqq.; Rom_9:17; Rom_11:8 sqq., Rom_11:32); the Christian likewise may be sensibly visited with chastisement, and it is hard to stand beneath the judgment of God; nevertheless, in the severity itself there is comfort, since it lifts us above dependence on men. And to him, who yields to the humiliation, there is the further help vouchsafed, that his faith is strengthened in the impossibility of the righteous God allowing confidence in His promise to come to shame; and still more, in the very confusions of time he perceives evidence of the righteous judgment of God, which in sending afflictions and persecutions, in hardening the ungodly, in the chastisement and purification of the pious, in their separation from the world, and in their confirmation to a believing constancy, accomplishes itself from day to day, till in the final consummation (2Th_1:6 sqq.) it reaches the end of righteous retribution. Until then the account is still open; then comes the settlement.
4. Rieger: A man becomes meet for the kingdom of God under suffering; not as if by suffering he could deserve it. For truly our affliction is not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us (Rom_8:18). The mercy of God in Christ alone makes us meet for this inheritance (Col_1:12). But God’s plan and order is, to try man’s intrinsic worth and value by their endurance in the fire of affliction, and whether they are possessed by a paramount delight in the invisible and eternal, or by an irredeemable tendency to vanity (2Co_4:17-18). The heirs of the kingdom must earn for themselves the witness, that they love not their lives unto the death (Rev_12:11). In the judgment of the world, it is true, they suffer as evildoers, as wilful, unmanageable people; but the testimony of God in a good conscience bids them rejoice, and leap for joy, and glory in tribulation, because they suffer for the kingdom of God (Luk_6:23; 1Pe_4:13; Rom_5:3; comp. Rev_6:10 sq.; Rev_7:14; Rev_11:18).—We add, that a man cannot claim the reward, as if he had first given something to God (Rom_11:35); but when God has trained, proved, and tested a man, like gold in the fire, He crowns in him His own grace, and gives him the reward of his fidelity.
[Lectures: “That ye may be counted worthy, &c.;—if indeed it is a righteous thing, &c.” In using such expressions—and there are very many of them in the New Testament—the inspired writers proceed upon the ground of that gracious covenant, in which, through their union with Chrst, believers stand, and whose merciful provisions, on God’s part absolutely sovereign and free, alone give them all the claim they have on the Divine favor here or hereafter. But that claim, though thus originating, and because thus originating, is an infinitely and eternally valid claim. It is deep and abiding, as the love of the Father for the Son; strong and sure, as the word and oath of Him who cannot lie—cannot deny Himself—or frustrate any hope which He himself has raised. In this respect, as in many others, the gospel salvation reveals God’s righteousness no less than it does His love.—J. L.]
5. (2Th_1:6-7.) The jus talionis, “eye for eye, tooth for tooth,” or, “with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again,” would be improperly described as a human right of retaliation. It is rather just the inviolable Divine order, though in a sensible, allegorical form. Jesus Himself does not in Mat_5:38 sqq. reject the principle (comp. Mat_7:2), but merely the arbitrary Pharisaic abuse of it. A Divine order it remains, and as such is engraven on the human conscience, that guilt shall recoil on the head of the perpetrator. However much and however long justice may lie oppressed amongst men, with God it stands unshaken. All God’s long-suffering does not annul the fact, that His proceedings tend in the long run to a perfect retribution. For this reason even the purpose of God’s grace is not accomplished by means of an amnesty setting justice aside, but through the satisfaction of justice by an adequate atonement. Whoever rejects this, draws upon himself the final judgment; whoever in the sense of a living, penitent faith acquiesces in the economy of redemption, in that man the righteousness of God can work out salvation (1Jn_1:9; Rom_3:26). On the wrath of God, comp. the Apologet. Beiträge by Gess and Riggenbach, p. 89 sqq.—[Barnes: If it is right that the sinner should be punished, it will be done.—J. L.]
6. The eschatological excitement in Thessalonica, though it was known to the Apostle, does not at all hinder him from discussing these great truths. An abuse does not abrogate the proper use. And it is true that he speaks on the subject for the very express purpose of comforting those under persecution. But neither does he fail also to follow this up in 2 Thessalonians 2 with the needful sedatives. One chief mark of Scripture as originating with the Spirit of God is, that both in the teaching of doctrine and in the regulation of the life it speaks with so great depth and force, and yet at the same time also with so great moderation; never one-sidedly either in the way of exaggerating or in that of suppressing any truth. It is to be observed, moreover, that this expectation of rest at the return of Christ stands in distinct contradiction to the Irvingite doctrine of the translation; see the Doctrinal and Ethical Note on 1Th_4:17.33
7. (2Th_1:6-9.) But how should the prospect of the perdition of the ungodly serve to comfort the pious? This seems to savor of a malignant joy, or at least to express a strange longing for vengeance. To wait for the judgment of God, however, is something different from avenging ourselves (1Pe_2:23). And the former should as little be wanting in the children of God, as God ever ceases to be holy. The oppressors spoken of here, as so often in the Psalms, are not at all opponents on trifling grounds of human quarrel, but they hate God’s servants and children, because they hate God’s truth. In our text 2Th_1:8 especially shows that those are meant to whom salvation was offered, but they have trifled away their hour of grace. Respecting the violence and scorn of the ungodly the living sentiment of justice now cries to God. On this point no man can judge, who has no inward experience of zeal for God’s glory. Paul testifies with joyful faith, that now already the righteous judgment of God rules, but withal he holds fast, as a postulate, the final, complete separation between the pious and the ungodly, as in Mal_3:18. Scripture generally is far from any abstract, idealistic surrender of the final and absolute triumph of the cause of God. If then we think of the Apostle’s fervent longing to be made a curse for his brethren (Rom_9:3), if they could thereby be helped, we shall give up entirely talking about vindictiveness. Yet how few have experienced the vehement desire, that right shall still be right, and God continue to be God, which must arise in a soul compelled to endure the harshest abuse and oppression of its faith! We need not wish to be more merciful than the eternal Mercy (Mat_7:14). There is a point, at which the flaming majesty of the holiness of God advances in power against the obdurate despisers of His grace. Nevertheless, the love of enemies remains in force (1Th_5:15), so long as there is still anything to be hoped for. Calvin’s admonition is, that, although Paul promises vengeance, yet we are not to wish for it against any man. It is quite possible that the honor of God’s cause, and the salvation of those exposed to seduction, might impel an Apostle to call down a sharp judgment on the adversaries (1Co_5:5; Act_13:10-11); but the design always is, wherever it is still possible, correction in order to salvation; and human violence is never allowed to interfere (Mat_13:29. Give place unto wrath (Rom_12:19), that is, to the wrath of God; where that is kindled, it becomes man, in the fulness of awe, and also of humble submission, as well as of sympathy towards those who are judged, to stand aside. There thus exists a fundamental likeness between the piety of the Old Testament and that of the New. The difference does not consist in the setting aside in the New Testament of the threatenings of judgment, but only in this, that in Christ’s redemptive work there is revealed an inconceivably larger grace than the Old Testament gave occasion to expect, whereby the uttermost is done to render possible a deliverance from judgment. While the revelation before Christ was to be altogether true—wholly that, and nothing more than that, which humanity before Christ was able to bear—yet, with all the glory of the words of grace even in the Old Testament, it was still impossible that the fulness of mercy should be made known as it was by Christ in word and deed. Comp. the essay on die Nächstenliebe, Stud. und Krit., 1856, p. 117 sqq.
8. On not knowing God, see the Doctrinal and Ethical Note on 1Th_4:5. The heathen also are guilty, when they do not even inquire after God; but there are still many amongst them, who, for their own part, are at least in some measure excused by the general degradation. This is recognized in the words of the Lord respecting Tyre and Sidon, Sodom and Gomorrah (Mat_10:15; Mat_11:22; Mat_11:24). The consummation of guilt is, when the original stupidity towards God develops itself into conscious rejection of His gracious counsel and work; and here again also blasphemy against the Holy Ghost marks the highest point. “Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father” (1Jn_2:23); this word is receiving an ever-growing fulfilment in our day. It is possible for one to pray to a God who yet is rather sought than known. But wherever Jesus, the highest revelation of the true God, is not merely still unknown, but is denied and rejected, there at last nothing more is retained than a power of nature, to which it is impossible to pray as to a Father. But as the denial of Jesus betrays the repugnance of the heart, so faith is a matter of the will. In the former case, the meaning is: So thou sayest, but I will not, and thus God is made a liar (1Jn_1:10); here the Apostle speaks of the obedience of faith. For this very reason the principle stands firm also with Paul, that a man is judged according to his deeds (Rom_2:6-11; 2Co_5:10). But the innermost soul of right conduct is obedience to the command for the reception of grace; and that is just faith.
9. Holy Scripture knows nothing of the entire renunciation of all motives of fear and hope, such as is required by philosophic morality; nor is it known in actual life. Even the dullest indifferentism, even the haughtiest self-consciousness, cannot fully extinguish fear and hope; nor should it. The only point of importance is, that the living God become their object.
10. The eternity of punishment is to many a peculiar offence. But let us not forget that only those are threatened with this (especially in Mat_12:31-32), on whom the merciful God, Father, Son, and Spirit, has brought to bear His entire work of grace, and has done so in vain.34 Through obdurate resistance to grace the state of inward desolation must have reached such a pass, that from a man in this condition even his neighbors necessarily become detached; whereas on the other hand we cannot think highly enough of the resources of the grace of God. Now since the grace of God Himself, being more fervent than a mother’s love, cannot forget, and therefore cannot, it would appear, cease to love, how is it possible that it should perpetuate the life of the damned, merely to subject them to perpetual torment? In the line of these thoughts we reach various attempts to set bounds to the eternity of the punishments of hell. The most obvious device still would be to take αἰώνιος in a limited sense; but the inference on the side of life [Mat_25:46] would scarcely be accepted. It must be allowed that, where we have to deal with first principles and final issues, we are least capable of viewing things as God Himself views them, and therefore also are least entitled to lay down definite doctrines transcending the rule of Scripture. Comp. Apolog. Beiträge, p. 239 sqq. [On the subject of this paragraph, see Lectures on Thessalonians, pp. 454–460.—J. L.]
11. (2Th_1:10-12.) Who can form to himself a sufficiently lofty conception of that glory, when the Lord shall glorify His own in soul and body—shall disclose to all the world their previously unknown inward blessedness and sanctifying forces—shall manifest them as the Temple of God, as His friends and children, and introduce them to His everlasting joy (Calwer Handbuch der Bibelerklärung)! What amazement will it then awaken, to see this mighty body (of which Christ is the Head), grown up from the small seed-corn of faith, and now standing there perfect in its beauty through the union of all its members with the Head (Von Gerlach)!
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
2Th_1:3. Beginning and progress—both come from God; even growth therefore is no merit of ours.—Heubner: As the individual, so likewise the Church must be constantly on the increase.—Calvin: How disgraceful is our sluggishness, that we scarcely in a long while advance a foot!—The same: We owe God thanks also for the good that He does to our brethren. So dear to us should be the salvation of our brethren, that whatever is given them we should regard as our own good. The welfare of every member tends to promote the prosperity of the whole Church.—Paul seeks to keep all the churches bound to one another in cordial sympathy.—Berl. Bib.: In the growth of love consists the greatest beauty of a church.—Theophylact (after Chrysostom): We should not love one, and another not; partial love is not love, but the cause of quarrels.—The same: It is not tears and lamentations that our sufferings deserve, but thanksgiving.—[Bishop Wilson: If love abounds, faith also increaseth. This is a test.—J. L.]
2Th_1:4. Heubner: Temptations verify faith; by persecution is Christianity sealed.—Stähelin: The fairest growth of faith, love, and experience flourishes on the stem of the cross.—In such circumstances a mere notion does not hold its ground.—Chrysostom: Where love and faith are weak, they are shaken by affliction; where they are strong, they become thereby still stronger.—How is it that in distress faith grows? and how love?
2Th_1:5. To what degree is the patient endurance of persecution proof of the righteous judgment?—When things go well with the ungodly, the carnal mind says: There is no judgment.—Heubner: That which now appears to conflict with the Divine righteousness is for faith a confirmation of it. It is shown that God saves those only who are proved and sorely tried. Thy sufferings are necessary for the justification and glorification of the righteousness of God. Thou art thereby to appear as one worthy of salvation.—Berl. Bib.: Satan must not say: Christians do well to be pious; they are not allowed to suffer.—Stockmeyer: When it is said: Where is now the righteous God? why does He not own us? understand that, in enduring with patience and faith, thou hast already experienced a palpable demonstration of the righteousness of God.—The same: From the glorious end light is reflected on the darkest experiences, wherein, however, the righteousness of God even already wrought, to make thee by means of thy unjust suffering gradually worthy of salvation.—Starke: There is such a thing as the holy vengeance of God; Antiochus, Herod, Nero experienced it.—Heubner: To vex, afflict, oppress a man that loves God, and is loved by God, is in God’s eyes one of the most heinous offences.—Chrysostom: We would not vindictively rejoice over the punishment of others, but over our own deliverance from such punishment and torment.—God will assign to every one the position suitable to his inward state.—Berl. Bib.: The inward and outward and external will there be mutually reconciled.
2Th_1:7. There is such a thing as coming out of great tribulation, a Sabbath rest, a blessed liberty of the children of God.—Heubner: Like faith, like trial, like reward.—Calvin: Much greater deference is given to those who have had long practice in that which they teach; Paul does not stand in the shade, and bid the Thessalonians fight in the sun.—Heubner: The angels have power to execute the judgments of God; the mightiest villain is powerless against them; one glance of an angel smites him to the earth.
2Th_1:8. Chrysostom: By saying nothing about hell, wilt thou thus extinguish it?—The same: No one who keeps hell in view, will fall into hell.—The same: It is a great evil, to despise threatenings.—Theophylact: If those are condemned, who do not obey the gospel, how much more those who prevent the obedience of others!
2Th_1:9. Mark that terribly serious word, everlasting.—Rieger: To appear before Jesus, and to be unable to stand in the presence of His glorious power, will be just as intolerable for the ungodly as their punishment itself; even as the trial and court-day are often felt more keenly than the penalty.—Heubner: To be banished from the face of Christ is more than all torture.
2Th_1:10. [Leighton: Glorified in His saints, &c.;—how much more in the matchless brightness of His own glorious person!—J. L.]—Stockmeyer: It will one day be manifest, that sanctification is glorification; at present many dread it as being the death of the old man.—Roos: Every one will wonder that from an insignificant root (faith) has sprung the splendid flower of glory, or that faith in the preached gospel should have drawn after it such glorious results.—The same: That Christ should be glorified and admired in the saints requires that they too have glorified bodies, and appear with Christ (Col_3:4).—Stockmeyer: Many will be surprised, when too late, that many things which they pronounced impossible have yet come to pass.—[Lardner: The wisdom, power, and faithfulness of Christ, glorified in the perfect holiness, external glory, and great number, of His people.—J. L.]
2Th_1:3-10 is one of the Epistles for the 26th Sunday after Trinity (or else for the 27th). It proclaims to us the righteousness of Divine retribution, 1. as consolation for oppressed Christians, who are growing in faith and love: a. already in the midst of their affliction let them recognize the holy rule of the righteousness of God; b. let them confidently expect, in the day of revelation, not merely rest from their labor, but glorification; 2. as a serious warning for the adversaries, who are not merely a. driven now already from one degree to another of hostility to God, but are also, b. drawing upon themselves everlasting destruction; nor can they charge this on the gospel, but solely on their disobedience to it.
2Th_1:11. Stockmeyer: Whoever is able to suffer for the cause of God, so long as it is still despised and assailed, is worthy also to rejoice with it, when it comes to honor.
2Th_1:12. Heubner: Jesus is best glorified, and the honor of His name vindicated, in the life of Christians. Were this apology furnished by Christians, no written one would be needed, and their slanderers would be struck dumb.
2Th_1:11-12. Stockmeyer: In this section are two things deserving of all consideration: 1. that the Apostle feels himself impelled, even for such a Christian church as that was, still to make continual intercession; and 2. what it is that he asks for them. 1. The Apostles and Christ Himself lay great stress on intercessory prayer, whether it be the pouring forth of our heart’s sorrow for such as are still to us the occasion of sorrow, or whether it is because we reflect on how much is involved in a man’s persevering to the end in the right way. Of course, intercession is not a kind of convenient makeweight for laziness, which likes to do nothnig otherwise; but it seeks the blessing of God, without which we can do nothing. 2. The matter of the intercession is, that God would bring them to a point where He can count them worthy of the heavenly calling in its entire length and breadth; and, for this purpose, that He would grant them grace to remain faithful and obedient to the call to holiness. Thus will be fulfilled the saying: “I am thine, thou art mine.”
Footnotes:
[1]2Th_1:1.—[Sin.1 inserts καί before πατρί—the reading of two cursive manuscripts, but corrected in Sin.2—J. L.] 2Th_1:2.—ἡμῶν is wanting only in B. D. E.; it is found in the majority of uncials (also Sin.), versions, and Fathers. [It is bracketed by Lachmann, and cancelled by Tischendorf and Alford.—J. L.]
[2]2Th_1:3.—[Εὐχαριστεῖν; see 1Th_2:13, Critical Note 2.—Sin.1 omits πάντων.—J. L.]
[3]2Th_1:4.—For ἡμᾶς αὐτοὑς, Sin., with B. and a few cursives, reads αὐτοὺς ἡμᾶς.—Revision: “Grammatically, ὑμῶν belongs only to διωγμοῖς, and only ταῖς θλίψεσιν to αἷς ἀνέχεσθε.”—In the First Epistle E. V. always renders θλῖψς affliction, and often elsewhere.—J. L.]
[4]2Th_1:6.—[εἴπερ, hypothetical, not causal; see the Exegetical Note 4. Vulgate, si tamen; English Version in four out of the other five cases of εἴπερ, if so be (that), and so Alford and Ellicott here; De Wette and Lünemann, wenn anders.—J. L.]
[5]2Th_1:6.—[τοῖς θλίβουσιν ὑμᾶς θλίψιν. Ellicott, who retains the Greek order: “The change seems to preserve more clearly the antithesis, and also to bring more into prominence the ‘lex talionis’ that is tacitly referred to.”—J. L.]
[6]2Th_1:8.—πυρὶ φλογὸς is given by Sin. A. K. L., nearly all the minuscules, Chrysostom and others; φλογὶ πυρός, by B. D. E. E. G. [Scholz, Lachmann, Wordsworth, Ellicott]. Tischendorf prefers the former, because the other as being the more common might more easily arise from correction, and in other places where it is genuine there is never any appearance of change.
[7]2Th_1:8.—[Or: and to those who obey not. This construction, naturally suggested by the repetition of the article, is adopted by very many, and understood to designate a different class from the μὴ εἰδόσι θεὸν. See in opposition to this view Exegetical Note 4, and in favor of it the Revision of this verse, Note a.—J. L.]
[8]2Th_1:8.—Χριστοῦ is added in Sin., A. F. G., and many versions; it is wanting in B. D. E. K. L., Coptic and others.—[Riggenbach follows Knapp and Lachmann in bracketing Χρ.; it is omitted by Bengel in his German version, Tischendorf, Alford, Ellicott.—J. L.]
[9]2Th_1:9.—[προσώπου. Comp. Mat_18:10; Luk_1:76; 2Co_4:6; 1Pe_3:12; Rev_20:11—J. L.]
[10]2Th_1:10.—All the uncials [and critical editions] give πιστεύσασιν; only a few minuscules have πιστεύουσιν.
[11]2Th_1:11.—[πᾶσαν εὐδοκίαν ἀγαθωσύνης. See the Exegetical Note 6, and Revision, Notes q and r. Desire (Rom_10:1), though not precisely an equivalent for εὐδοκία, is in this instance convenient, and at least more readily intelligible than Ellicott’s phrase, every good pleasure of goodness. Am. Bible Union: all the good pleasure of goodness.—J. L.]
[12]2Th_1:12.—In this case Sin. does not stand with Codd. A. F. G., which add Χριστοῦ. [Riggenbach omits it, as do Tischendorf, Alford, Wordsworth, Ellicott. Knapp and Lachmann bracket.—J. L.]
[13]2Th_1:12.—[Or: our God and Lord Jesus Christ. So Riggenbach and some others. Generally, however, this case is regarded as an exception to the ordinary rule of grammar, on the ground that “Κύριος Ἰ. Χ. is a common title of Christ, and is often used independently of all which precedes it” (Middleton).—J. L.]
[14][Lünemann’s construction, however, is the common one, and is preferred by Alford, Ellicott, Webster and Wilkinson: “Added to introduce the special subject of thankfulness, as one that fully justifies the assertion, εὐχ. φείλομεν.”—J. L.]
[15][über die Erwartung. Better in the version: übersehr, exceedingly, beyond measure.—J. L.]
[16][mehrt sich; in the version, zunimmt.—J. L.]
[17][Rather to all that precedes from ὑπὲρ τῆς ὐπομονῆς to ἀνέχεσθν. So Fritzsche, De Wette, Lünemann, Alford, Ellicott. See the Revision, Note k.—J. L.]
[18][The above is scarcely an exact representation of De Wette’s view. He indeed parenthetically suggests as a possible explanation of εἰς τό the idea of the substance or purport (Inhalt) of God’s righteous judgment, as he does also that of Lünemann (Folge, result); but he himself plainly prefers allowing the Greek phrase its usual final force: der Zweck des göttlichen Rechstspruches. Nor does De Wette speak of the subjective worthiness being realized by means of the objective judgment of God; what he says is, that by the latter the Thessalonians shall be actually and in fact translated into God’s kingdom: das Rechtsurtheil Gottes, durch welches sie wirklich und in der That in das Reich Gottes werden versetzt warden. He errs merely in restricting the Divine judgment to its future manifestation.—J. L.]
[19][Lectures: “Such being the design and tendency, and such the certain result, of God’s righteous judgment concerning His afflicted saints.”—J. L.]
[20][I cannot but fear that the above elaborate discussion still leaves the matter somewhat obscure. Ellicott, perhaps too rigorously, confines the δικαία κρίσις to that which “will be displayed at the Lord’s second coming;” but he appears to be quite right in saying, that “to refer it solely to present sufferings, as perfecting and preparing the Thessalonians for future glory (Olsh.), is to miss the whole point of the sentence: the Apostle’s argument is that their endurance of suffering in faith is a token of God’s righteous judgment and of a future reward, which will display itself in rewarding the patient sufferers, as surely as it will inflict punishment on their persecutors.” In my Revision and Lectures the case was put thus: “The patience and faith of the Thessalonians under persecution indicated the righteous judgment of God, by which they were even now, and hereafter were to he still more gloriously, accredited as meet heirs of His kingdom; just because, and in so far as, there was thus indicated the realization in their character and condition, as God’s justified, sanctified, and at the same time suffering people, of the very grounds on which, by the laws of that kingdom, such a judgment must proceed.”—J. L.]
[21][Ellicott: “The καί with a species of consecutive force supplies a renewed hint of the connection between the suffering and the καταξιωθῇναι, κ.τ.λ.” Alford: “q. d ye accordingly,”—J. L.]
[22][And so the Peschito Syriac, Drusius, Michaelis, Koppe, except that they connect the αὐτοῦ with ἀγγέλων.—J. L.]
[23][So the Syriac, Beza, and many others.—J. L.]
[24][Ellicott, however, is of opinion that it renders that view “all but certain.”—Revision: “I see no reason in the present case to waive the operation, of the ordinary grammatical rule, especially as ignorance of God is frequently with Paul the specific characteristic of Gentilism; 1Th_4:5 (comp. Sept. Jer_10:25); Act_17:23; Act_17:30; Rom_1:28; Gal_4:3; Eph_2:12, &c.; and it is, moreover, probable that the present (2Th_1:4-5), no less than the previous (1Th_2:14; Act_17:6, &c.), sufferings of this church had a double source, in the blind ungodliness of the heathen in general, and the special malignity of all such as resisted the grace of the gospel.”—J. L.]
[25]
[Comp. 2Th_2:8; Exo_14:24; Psa_104:32; Hab_3:6. My Revision cites Shakespeare, Julius Cæsar, i. 2 Thessalonians 3 :
“Cæsar shall forth: the things that threaten’d me,
Ne’er look’d but on my back; when they shall see
The face of Cæsar, they are vanished.”—J. L.]
[26][Also Gen_4:16; Pro_15:29; Jer_32:31; Mat_22:13; 1Jn_2:28 (in the Greek;—and see the other references in my Revision of that verse, Note a).—J. L.]
[27][And then with the genitive, not, as here, the accusative.—J. L.]
[28][It is, however, taken for granted throughout, that the Thessalonians were of the number of the saved; and therefore the ultimate answer to the objection is that given in my Revision: “It is no part whatever of Pauline philosophy, that the gracious and unalterable purpose of God vacates the prayers and efforts of faith. Only by means of these could Paul and his brethren aspire to be co-workers with God toward the predestined result. See 1Co_3:9; 2Co_6:1; Php_2:12-13, &c.”—J. L.]
[29][Not exactly so. Εἰς ὅ refers immediately to the future glorification of the Lord in His saints; ἵνα, &c. to the preparatory sanctifieation of the Thessalonians.—J. L.]
[30][Alford: “We pray also (as well as wish).” Ellicott: “Besides merely longing or merely directing your hopes, we also avail ourselves of the definite accents of prayer, the καί gently contrasting the προσεύχ with the infusion of the hope and expectation involved in the preceding words, and especially echoed in the parenthetical member.” Lectures: “As that (2Th_1:10) was to be the result of the Advent in believers generally, so also, and with a view to the same consummation, Paul’s continual request at the throne was, that the necessary preparatory work might be completed in the members of this particular church.”—J. L.]
[31][τῆς κλήσεως;—not, your calling (Peile, Alford, Ellicott). Comp. 3Jn_1:7, ὑπὲρ τοῦ ὀνόματος.—J. L.]
[32][Ellicott:“κλῆσις, though realty the initial act; comp. 1Th_2:12), includes the Christian course which follows (Eph_4:1), and its issues in blessedness hereafter.” See Revision and Lectures. I am still inclined to refer ἵνα ὑμᾶς ἀξιώσῃ τῆς κλήσεως to God’s final judgment on the Thessalonians as having walked worthy of their vocation (ἀξίως τῆς κλήσεως ἧς ἐκλήθητε, Eph_4:1. Comp. the invariable New Testament use of ἀξίως, as in 1Th_2:12, and the import of ἄξιος in Mat_3:8; Luk_3:8; Act_26:20). But as those whom God counts worthy He first makes worthy, the rest of the verse describes this preparatory process.—J. L.]
[33][I am not aware of any sufficient scriptural evidence of the doctrine referred to. But just as little, so far as I can see, is it contradicted by our text.—J. L.]
[34][This seems to mean that none are in danger of eternal punishment but blasphemers of the Holy Ghost. Believing this doctrine to be thoroughly unscriptural, I shall be allowed here simply to express my firm dissent.—J. L.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv2–4 from God our Father--So some oldest manuscripts read. Others…
from God our Father--So some oldest manuscripts read. Others omit "our."
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1, 3 1. Paul—Introducing the same apostolic triad as 1Th_1:1, (where…
1. Paul—Introducing the same apostolic triad as 1Th_1:1, (where see notes,) with the same omission of apostolic title.
In God our Father and the (no article in Greek) Lord Jesus Christ—Not from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ; but from God, Father of us and of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4 Section I. Salutation and Thanksgiving. Ch. 2Th_1:1-4
Section I. Salutation and Thanksgiving. Ch. 2Th_1:1-4
1, 2. This salutation is nearly identical with that of Ep. I., see note. Only the Apostle writes here church of Thessalonians in God our Father (Father of us, whom He loves and calls to he His own: comp. ch. 2Th_2:16, Rom_1:7, Luk_12:32, &c.), instead of “the Father” (1 Ep); and the wish of grace and peace is followed by the words from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, wanting in the true text of the former Epistle, but which became from this time a regular part of St Paul’s epistolary greeting. So these great blessings are traced to their source,—twofold yet one: “God the Father” the ultimate spring, “the Lord Jesus Christ” the mediating cause of “grace and peace” to men.
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He associates Silas and Timothy with himself, just as before.
The Thanksgivings, 2Th_1:3 ff., while resembling that of the First Epistle, has a special character and fitness of its own. The Apostle dwells (1) on the signal growth of the Thessalonian Church in faith and love, 2Th_1:3; (1) on his own boasting over their faith and patience to other Churches, 2Th_1:4; and (3) on the token he sees in this of God’s righteous judgement as between them and their oppressors, which is to take effect at the approaching advent of Christ, 2Th_1:5-10. This third ground of thanksgiving assumes so much prominence in the Epistle, that it will be convenient to make it the subject of a distinct Section.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4 (1) Paul, and Silvanus, and Timotheus.—The company which despatched…
(1) Paul, and Silvanus, and Timotheus.—The company which despatched the First Epistle is not yet broken up. This proves that the Second Epistle was written before the end of the second missionary journey, for after that time we do not read of Silvanus being in the company of St. Paul. The salutation is precisely the same as in the First Epistle, save for the last clause of 2Th_1:2, which is wrongly added in that place, but stands rightly here.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1–4 Vers. 1, 2. Paul, and Silvanus, and Timotheus. This…
Vers. 1, 2. Paul, and Silvanus, and Timotheus. This Epistle, like the former, is written in their conjoint names, as all three were engaged in the planting of the Church in Thessalonica. Unto the Church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: grace unto you, and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
(For the exposition of these two verses, see remarks on 1Th_1:1, where the address and salutation are almost entirely the same.)
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HOMILIES BY B.C. CAFFIN Vers. 1-4.
The introduction.
I THE ADDRESS.
1. The description. St. Paul repeats the opening words of the First Epistle. He addresses the same Church; he describes it in the same sacred words. It is "in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." He could say of it nothing higher, nothing holier. To be in God, in Christ, is of all positions the loftiest, of all blessings the most precious. None are so highly exalted as those who are nearest to Christ; none have such rich store of heavenly treasure as those who abide in him, in whom dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead. There is but one slight variation. In the First Epistle he said, "the Father;" here it is "our Father." The pronoun implies a close, endearing, affectionate relationship. The Church is in God our Father, in the embrace of his fatherly love, chosen by his electing grace; in the Lord Jesus Christ, saved by his precious death, living in that life which flows from Christ, which is Christ.
2. The salutation. He uses the same words as in the First Epistle; he could find no more suitable terms to express his good wishes for his converts. He could desire nothing better for them than grace, and peace; grace, the origin, the source, of every highest blessing; peace, the sweet and holy end, the very crown, of the Christian life. It is from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ that these and all other blessings flow. St. Paul joins together the two Divine Persons; they could not be thus associated as the one ultimate source of grace and peace, were they not both alike Divine. Peace is the fruit of the Spirit; with the Holy Spirit whom the Lord Jesus sends unto us from the Father comes the sacred gift of peace. Grace and peace come from God the Father by the incarnation, atonement, intercession of God the Son, through the indwelling presence of God the Holy Ghost. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God flow into the Christian heart through the fellowship of the Holy Ghost. All that the Christian can desire for himself, for his friends, for the whole Church, comes from God; he seeks it of God in prayer; he knows that God will hear. "This is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us.
II THE THANKSGIVING.
1. The duty. Thanksgiving is a debt which we owe to God, a debt which we must always acknowledge, which we can never fully discharge. It is very meet, right, and our bounden duty, that we should at all times and in all places give thanks for all things unto God. We must thank him for his grace given to ourselves; and if that grace abides in us, we shall feel ourselves bound to thank him for the working of the same grace in others. We shall regard every true conversion, every increase of grace in others, as a blessing granted to the whole Church and to ourselves. We shall feel a keen, living interest in each soul that is gathered into Christ"s flock, and so share the angels" joy over one sinner that repenteth. For the welfare of each member affects the whole Church; when "one member is honoured, all the members rejoice with it." Such was the feeling of St. Paul. "We are bound," he says we owe it as a debt thank God always for you." He fulfils his own precept; he gives thanks always. The thanksgiving of the faithful Christian must be continuous, never ending.
2. The ground of St. Paul"s thanksgiving.
(1) The faith of the Thessalonians. He had gladly recognized their faith and love in his First Epistle; he had again and again exhorted them to abound more and more. Now, writing a second time after a short interval, he thanks God for the growth of their faith. It had increased "exccedingly;" he uses one of those strong words which his ardent feelings so often suggested. "Lord, increase our faith," is a prayer which we cannot make too often. Faith must grow if it is true and living; for it is the evidence of things not seen; it brings the cross of Christ, the presence of God, within the range of our mental view. That holy vision will draw us nearer ever by its constraining power, quickening and deepening in our hearts the faith which first brought us by the leading of the Spirit to the Saviour. The faith of the Thessalonians was growing exceedingly; so it will be with us, in spite of the unbelief and indifference which so fill the air, if we persevere in prayer, and try, in humble dependence on the grace of God to fashion our lives according to our prayers.
(2) Their love was abounding also. Love is the fairest ornament of a Christian Church. Faith is the root, love is the fruit. The tree that grows downwards will grow upwards also; the fair growth of foliage, flower, and fruit will bear some proportion to the unseen depth and strength of the root below. The Thessalonian Church was rich in the fruit of the Spirit. And their love was not only increasing in fervour, but in range also. It was not partial, not limited to this man or that man according to natural tastes and similarities of disposition. It extended throughout the Church; the love of each one of them all was abounding toward one another. It is a bright picture. Indeed, the Thessalonians were not without their faults, as we find in ch. 2. and 3.; but the apostle, in his love and thankfulness, gladly dwells on the spiritual progress of the Church before he proceeds to notice the shortcomings of individual members. It shows his love and his wisdom. The encouragement of the opening verses would dispose the Thessalonians to receive in a good spirit the few reproofs that follow.
3. The expression of his thankfulness. He not only gives thanks to God; he glories before men. "We ourselves," he says glory." Though his deep humility might have withheld him from glorying over a result which was due, under God, to his own zealous labours, the rapid growth of their faith and love so filled him with exuberant gladness that he could net refrain his lips. "God forbid," he says elsewhere, "that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." But he is really glorying in the cross now; he glories, not in his own achievements, but in the triumphs of the cross. It was the work of God in real truth, not his work; he knew it well. Indeed, he had laboured abundantly that he knew, he could not help knowing it; but he gladly explains the abundance of his labours by the abundance of grace that was vouchsafed unto him. "Yet not I," he says, "but the grace of God that was with me." The faith, hope, and love of the Thessalonians proved, as he said in the First Epistle, their election. God had chosen them to be his own; his grace worked mightily in them. And now St. Paul was glorying in the faith and patience of his converts. They were in great affliction; he sympathized with them, he comforted them; but yet he rejoiced over them. Their affliction by the grace of God was turned to a blessing; it proved the steadfastness of their faith and their patience, and it strengthened them.
LESSONS.
1. Thankfulness is the Christian"s duty; thank God always. 2, Especiallythank him for his grace working in his people.
2. Glory in the victories of grace, not in worldly successes.
3. Pray for continual progress in faith, love, patience. B.C.C.
HOMILIES BY R. FINLAYSON Vers. 1-12.
Manifestation of solemn interest.
Address and salutation. "Paul, and Silvanus, and Timothy, unto the Church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ; Grace to
you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." The address is the same as in the First Epistle to the Thessalonians, with the exception of the substitution of "our Father" for "the Father." The salutation is also the same, with the addition of the twofold source from which grace and peace are invoked, which is the same as in many of Paul"s Epistles, with the exception of the substitution of "the Father" for "our Father.
I RECOGNITION OF THE SATISFACTORY CONDITION OF THE THESSALONIAN CHURCH.
1. Before God. "We are bound to give thanks to God alway for you, brethren, even as it is meet, for that your faith groweth exceedingly, and the love of each one of you all toward one another aboundeth." We are to understand that information had reached Paul and his companions from Thessalonica since the despatch of their first letter to that place. It was information of faith and love on the part of the Thessalonian converts, of such a nature as to make Paul (taking him as representative)feel inwardly bound to thank God alway for them. This inward feeling answered to an outward fitness of circumstances. In the previous letter he had shown a deep interest in the perfecting of the lacking elements in their faith. We may think of a tree that has not come to its full proportions. It could now be said of them, after an interval of less than a year, that their faith was growing exceedingly. It was exhibiting such increase as a healthy faith always exhibits, and this in a marked degree. For such large realization of his wishes in the time it was only meet that he should thank God. He had also expressly prayed that the Lord would make them to abound in love one toward another. It could now be said that this was in the way of fulfilment. Their love was in process of enlargement as all love should be, and in a marked degree as the word would seem to imply. Their love was markedly individual. There was love toward the circle as a whole which was real and commendatory, but there was also personal attachment between the various members of the circle, individual toward individual. Their love was also markedly universal within the circle. The abounding was in the love of each one of them all toward one another. That testified to a harmonious circle. "When we love in part," says Theophylact, "this is not love, but division. For if it is for God"s sake thou lovest, see that thou love all." There is a symmetry in love which requires that, loving our heavenly Father, we should love all his children; that, loving Christ, we should love the whole Christian circle. In the Thessalonian circle no exception is made of the busybodies afterwards referred to as loved or
2. loving. In being busybodies they were not doing their duty by the other members of the circle; but the obstacle thus presented to their brethren loving them was commendably surmounted. As for the love of the busybodies themselves, it was not sufficiently characterized by wisdom, and did, therefore, contain something to be subtracted. Still, his prayer had been in so large a degree answered that it was only meet that he should give thanks to God for them. What obstacles there are to our loving in the Christian circle let us try to surmount, and let us not ourselves present any obstacles. And let us be thankful before God for what harmony is enjoyed.
3. Before the Churches. "So that we ourselves glory in you in the Churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions which ye endure." Formerly there was no need to say anything of their faith to God-ward. Their conversion to Christianity, with joyfulness in attendant persecution, was widely known. It was not now that others were behindhand; for they had warm friends, and these not a few, who gloried in them. But Paul and his companions were so overjoyed that they were moved to join with others in glorying in them. The sphere of glorying was the Churches of God, i.e. Corinth, from which this letter was written, and other Churches with which they had correspondence. What they especially gloried in was the patience of the Thessalonians. Persecution had come upon them after persecution; they were then enduring afflictions. But they had nobly stood their ground. Their patience was sustained by faith faith in a kind and wise Providence that was watching over them, that made use of their afflictions for the spread of the gospel, that would not leave them in the end unrewarded. This patience sustained by faith, Paul and his companions held up before the Churches for their encouragement in like circumstances. This being their motive, there was no breach of modesty in the instructors of the Thessalonians themselves glorying in them.
II RIGHTEOUS JUDGMENT OF GOD.
1. With reference to the Thessalonians. "Which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God; to the end that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer." The patience sustained by faith, which was held up for the encouragement of the Churches, is now used for the encouragement of the Thessalonians themselves. Let them think of the judgment of God that was coming. That judgment would be righteous in dealing with men according to character. The character they possessed left no doubt as to what the righteous judgment of God would be.
2. It looked forward to their being in the end counted worthy of the kingdom of God. For that kingdom they were suffering; but let them know that they who thus suffered would also reign.
3. With reference to their persecutors. "If so be that it is a righteous thing with God to recompense affliction to them that afflict you, and to you that are afflicted rest with us." The persecutors had no source of encouragement in their character. They also had to pass under the judgment of God; but what could righteous judgment mean to them? Their character was that of cruelly afflicting God"s people. Could it be a righteous thing with God to place them alongside of patient sufferers as worthy of the kingdom? That would be to have no regard to distinction in character, to make God the friend of cruelty as much as of patience, and in that way to contradict the very idea of righteous judgment. The incontestably righteous thing could only be that with what measure they meted it should be measured unto them; that, giving affliction, there should be given back to them affliction; while, to the afflicted Thessalonians, the righteous opposite would be release from the strain of affliction release in company with Paul and Silas and Timothy in like manner afflicted.
III JUDICIAL PROCEDURE UNDER WHICH DEALING WITH THE THESSALONIANS AND THEIR PERSECUTORS FALLS.
1. Toward the ungodly.
(1) Judge and time of judgment. "At the revelation of the Lord Jesus." The righteous judgment of God is now associated, as in other Scriptures, with the Second Person of the Godhead. It is as Jesus, or Saviour, that he is to fill the lordly office, and to exercise the lordly prerogatives of Judge. He is now concealed from human view, upon which the ungodly presume. But one day he shall appear upon this earthly scene, and not in the lowly form in which he before appeared, but in a form that shall mark his Divine sovereignty.
(2) Place from which revealed. "From heaven." When before he appeared there was no impression of his coming from heaven. He was born upon this earth; he wore the earthly form of our humanity until, having made atonement for our sin, he ascended into heaven and sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high. The heaven which then opened to receive him will again open, that he may reveal himself on earth for judgment. It will be observed that this revelation from heaven is identical with the descent from heaven described in 1 Thessalonians.
(3) Manner of revelation. First circumstance. "With the angels of his power." In the former description the Lord appeared, attended by the archangel and (by implication) his angelic host. The old translation here is "mighty angels." Their attendance, as of an army upon an earthly sovereign, is intended to give an impression of his power. This they give by their numbers; they may also give it by the personal might, more than human, with which they are endowed. Second circumstance. "In flaming fire." In the former description it is the clouds that are mentioned. Here the Lord appears encircled with a flame of fire. The clouds conceal and moderate for the saints that have been acknowledged. The uncreated splendour displayed before men in view of judgment is as fire. In 1Co_3:13 fire is associated with judgment: "Each man"s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it is revealed by fire; and the fire itself shall prove each man"s work of what sort it is." As separating from it all impurity this judicial fire must have a fearful aspect to the ungodly. The description here bears a close resemblance to what is found in Dan_7:9, 10: "I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him: thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand limes ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened." The description is here transferred from the Ancient of days to him who is there styled the Son of man.
(4) Judicial action toward two classes of the ungodly. "Rendering vengeance." Judgment is the manifestation of the justice of God. When men are convicted before a human tribunal they have to give an equivalent for the wrong they have done to others. Society in that way not only protects itself, but expresses its indignation against their crimes. The Lord is to take his seat as Judge, first convicting and then pronouncing sentence. In this there is implied no revengeful feeling; but there is implied holy indignation, in the name of the highest Authority in the universe, against all the ungodly for all their works of ungodliness which they have ungodly wrought. First class of the ungodly. "To them that know not God." This is a description of the heathen. And it is to be noticed that vengeance is to be rendered not merely to the wicked world rulers (Pharaohs and Neros), to those who have traded in their fellow men, to those who have been covenant breakers, to those who have taken away the life of the innocent, but to the heathen as a whole. On the other hand, it is to be noticed that they are not regarded historically, but from the point of view of the writers as those who have had to do with their not knowing God. In so far, therefore, as it can be justly said that, from their bad environments, they have not had to do with this not knowing God, vengeance shall not be rendered to them. But, in so far as they have not followed their light, there shall not any of them escape. Second class of the ungodly. "And to them that obey not. the gospel of our Lord Jesus." Our Lord Jesus is identified with gospel as well as with Law, with mercy as well as with judgment. What is the gospel but the good news of the Son of God coming into our nature, and suffering vengeance, just indignation and death, in room of the transgressors? And when he comes forward now in the ministration of the gospel, and commands men everywhere to repent of their sins and to accept of mercy, has he not a right to be obeyed? And will the most humanitarian maintain that he who obeys not should go unpunished?
(5) Their punishment in its contents. "Who shall suffer punishment, even eternal destruction from the face of the Lord and from the glory of his might." Such being their character (as "who" implies), they shall suffer punishment. The suffering of punishment by them corresponds to the rendering of vengeance by the Lord. The punishment is declared to be destructive. This may mean, and in some of its applications does mean, annihilation. But there is not good reason for supposing that it means annihilation in its application to the punishment of the ungodly. It seems to involve a low conception of the nature of man and of the moral government of God, to suppose that human beings are to be placed under trial, and to work out a moral history, and that after their failure they are in multitudes to be quenched in the darkness of nonexistence. It seems more reasonable to take the meaning to be that they shall be destroyed, in being consigned to a state of misery for which in their creation they were not intended. Their nature (unlike that of Christ"s people, (1Th 4:22) being disintegrated by sin, their peace shall be completely broken. The epithet "eternal" which is applied to destruction is of terrible import. It points to the punishment as stretching away into the eternal world. It may be doubted whether by itself it is decisive for the absolute eternity of future punishment. It is not so decisive as if the form had been endless. On the other hand, it is not decisive against the endlessness of future punishment that the word means age long. It needs to be considered in connection with the subjects to which it is applied. Eternal sin, as the right reading now is in Mar_3:29, apparently means sin for which there is no escape from punishment. Eternal punishment does not mean that judgment is eternally proceeding, but that its issues reach into eternity. The similar word which in the Old Testament is applied to the mountains from the nature of the case imports a limited eternity. The eternal times through which the mystery was hidden can only mean limited times into which the past eternity was regarded as divided. Applied to God, as the word is in the same sentence at the close of Romans, it indicates the absolute eternity of God.. Applied to life, as it very frequently is, from the nature of life and from the Divine guarantee, it means life that is endless and, as it is expressed in one place, indissoluble. It still remains a question whether, from the nature of spiritual death and from the character of God along with other teachings, destruction is to be regarded as eternal in the sense of being endless. It certainly is a word which is fitted to strike terror into the ungodly. The destruction is further represented as the greatest of all deprivations. It is to be away from the face of the Lord. The supreme pleasure of Christ"s people is to be their beholding his face of infinite benignity turned toward them. "As for me," says the psalmist, "I will behold thy face in righteousness." "And they shall see his face," it is said in the last chapter of Revelation. So the bitterest element in the case of the ungodly will be that no look of love, no look of the infinite benignity of the Saviour, will be turned toward them. As the earth without sunshine, so must it be to be away from the face of Christ. It is also to be away from his glory. Three disciples were taken up to the Mount of Transfiguration to see his glory. He also encouraged the eleven at the last by the prospect of their seeing his glory. "That where I am they also may be with me, that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me." It is particularly here the glory of his might. He who has the look of infinite benignity gives also in his appearance the impression of infinite might. How glorious a Being to be privileged, without fear, yet with solemn awe, to look upon! To be eternally destroyed, then, from the face of the Lord and from the glory of his might, such will be the terrible punishment awarded to them that know not God, and to them that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
2. Toward the saints. "When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and be marvelled at in all them that believed (because our testimony unto you was believed) in that day." Contemporaneous with his judicial action toward the ungodly, is to be his judicial action toward his own. They are here called his saints, answering perfectly to that description then as they only imperfectly do now. As his saints, they shall be acknowledged on the day of judgment; and their reward shall be to have their outward condition brought into perfect correspondence with their inward character. This is called their glorification. The Lord, having given grace, will also give glory. We may think of the glory as the blossoming forth of the grace. As the flower comes to beauty of form, so they shall be made beautiful to look upon in their higher order of being. Their glorification is here presented under the special aspect of the glorification of Christ in them. As Judge, he is to carry out his own word. "And the glory which thou hast given me I have given unto them." As he is in them as the source of their holiness, so is his beauty to shine forth in their outward form. From heaven we "wait for a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: who shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of his glory, according to the working whereby he is able even to subject all things unto himself." This glorification of Christ in the saints shall call forth the wonder of the assembled universe. They shall marvel at the infinite benignity and power of him who out of darkness has made light, who upon rebels against his Father"s authority has stamped his own glorious image. In connection with the marvelling, is brought in the condition of our future glorification. With a look back from judgment it is said, "in all them that believed." And believing is taken up and connected particularly with the Thessalonians our testimony unto you was believed." In keeping with this language, faith is defined by Bishop Pearson "as an assent unto truths credible upon the testimony of God delivered unto us by the apostles and prophets." Let us give cordial assent to the facts and truths of the gospel, which we have upon the best of testimony, that we may not come short of the glorification which shall be the marvel of the universe. There was not needed further predication of time, but it is emphasized by the addition of the words, "in that day." The day when the Lord is to render vengeance to the ungodly, that is to be the day when he is to be glorified in his saints, and to be marvelled at in all them that believed.
IV PRAYER IN CONNECTION WITH THE GLORIFICATION OF THE THESSALONIANS. "To which end we also pray always for you, that our God may count you worthy of your calling, and fulfil every desire of goodness and every work of faith, with power; that the Name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and ye in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ." Toward their glorification the wishes, and not only the wishes but the prayers also, of Paul and his companions were directed, and always directed. As believing, God was calling them to glory. Our God, say the petitioners, grant to the Thessalonians at the last to be counted worthy of their calling. For this end let power sufficient be granted to bring to completion every inward desire and the outward work appointed them. They had aspirations after goofiness; let these receive fulfilment. They had a life to live before the world according to the faith by which they were actuated; let it be as a finished piece of work. Thus, having real excellence, would they be adjudged worthy of glory. The final end of their glorification is emphasized by repetition, with some modification of form. There is brought in "the Name of our Lord Jesus," i.e. as he is revealed to men as Saviour, exalted to sovereignty. And, as they are to he the clement in which his Name is to be glorified, so reciprocally is he to be the element in which they are to find their glorification. Thus is identification with Christ in glory made cleat" as clear can be. This final end of glorification is looked for in prayer on behalf of the Thessalonians, not according to their deservings, but, say the petitioners, according to the grace (undeserved and rich) of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ (in his superabundant merits). R.F.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv1, 4 Paul and Silvanus and Timotheus (see 1Th_1:1-2)--The company which…
2Th_1:1-3
Paul and Silvanus and Timotheus (see 1Th_1:1-2)--The company which despatched the First Epistle had not yet broken up.
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This proves that the Second Epistle was written before the end of the second missionary journey, for after that time we do not read of Silvanus being in the company of St. Paul. The salutation is precisely the same as in the First Epistle, save for the last clause of 2Th_1:2, which is wrongly added in that place, but stands rightly here. (Canon Mason.)
Unto the Church of Thessalonica--
The use of the Church
But what an astronomer he would be who should sit at his telescope, watching the instrument, praising its lenses, magnifying the honour of its maker, cleaning, fixing, and adjusting it, and never seeing anything through it! It is what is beyond the telescope, it is what the telescope reveals and brings to you, that gives it its value. Without that, it is good for nothing. Now the Church is Gods telescope; and if it enables you to see through the visible to the invisible, if it brings you truth, if it brings your time--thoughts into the relations of eternity, if it brings God, as a veritable person--yea, as a Father--near to your heart and near to your moral sense, then it is the Church of God to you. Otherwise, it is the Church of man. If it be opaque; if it stop your thought with itself; if you have got only so far as that you are a Churchman, you have not started on the true Christian course. (H. W. Beecher.)
The value of the Church
What is summer worth in the desert of Sahara? It found it sand, and leaves it sand. The sun and the summer are worthless to the desert. And what is the Church worth to you? It is worth just what it develops in you, as an educating institution. Its whole design is to hold you up in weak hours; to inspire you with higher thoughts and with sweeter dispositions; and to give you power to lift yourself up to the invisible. The Church is neither to be worshipped nor to be rested upon. You are not safe because you are in it, any more than the child is learned because it has been at school. The school is of great value; there knowledge is gained more readily than it can be gained elsewhere: but we do not undervalue it when we say that you should not worship it. And the Church--should I disparage that--I, a minister, that have received its blessings, and that have seen them imparted to others? No; but its value is in this: that it teaches you to neglect the lower, and to centre your affections on the higher. For nothing less than God can satisfy the human soul--no ordinance, no service, nothing but love, down dropping from the everlasting Fountain of sympathy, of pity, and of compassion. The love of God can satisfy you; and the uniting with the Church is good to you just in proportion as you, through the Church, look up and see God. (H. W. Beecher.)
Peace--
The peace of the believer
Through the Middlesex Narrows, the Winooski River rushes with impetuous torrent. When nearly through the Narrows the waters dash with tremendous force against a great rock that rises majestically many feet into the air. On this rock, near the top, is a hollow place of considerable size into which the rain falling collects and so forms a beautiful pool. So tranquil this pool becomes that it lies there a mirror reflecting the blue sky, the fleecy clouds, and the glories of the setting sun. Below, at the foot of the rock, the waters are in wild commotion. So on the Rock of Ages, rising high above and withstanding the worlds wild rushing flood, peacefully rests the believer reflecting the glories of the world above--kept in perfect peace.
We are bound to thank God always for you--
The duty of thanksgiving
I. Thanksgiving is a debt that we owe to God for His benefits.
1. Justice requires it, for our mercies were given on this condition (Psa_50:15). We ourselves consent to this covenant. We seldom pray in distress without promising thankfulness (Hos_14:2). Yet how backward are we to perform (Luk_17:18). It is a kind of theft if we crave help in our necessities, and then act as though it came from ourselves.
2. God expects it--not de facto actually; He expects no more than is given--but de jure, of right He might expect (Luk_13:7; Isa_5:4; 2Ch_32:25). Therefore a good man should make conscience of his returns (Psa_116:12).
3. It keeps up our intercourse with God. By the laws of Ezekiels temple the worshippers were to go in at one door and out at another, that no back might be turned on the Mercy seat (Eze_46:9). God cannot bear to have men turn their backs upon Him when their turn is served. Prayer and praise should be our continual work (Heb_13:15).
4. It provides for the succession of mercies. The more thankful we are the more we receive; as a husbandman trusts more of his precious seed to a fruitful soil. The ascent of vapours makes way for the descent of showers (Psa_67:5-6; Col_2:7).
5. It exercises and promotes all spiritual graces.
(1) Faith, when we see the invisible Hand that reaches out our supplies (1Ch_29:14; Hos_2:8).
(2) Love (Psa_116:1-2). Self-love puts us more on prayers, but the love of God on praises.
(3) Hope, as Abraham built an altar in Canaan when he had not a foot of land in it (Gen_13:18).
(4) Humility. The humble are most delighted in the praises of God, the proud in their own (Gen_32:10; 2Sa_7:18).
6. It prevents many sins, as--
(1) Insensibility to Gods blessings.
(2) Murmuring (Job_2:10; Job_1:21).
(3) Distrust and carking cares (Php_4:6; Psa_77:10-11).
(4) Spiritual pride (1Co_4:7).
II. In thanksgiving spiritual benefits are to be especially acknowledged, because--
1. They are discriminating, and come from Gods special love. Corn, wine, and oil are bestowed on the world, but faith and love on the saints (Psa_106:4). Protection is the benefit of every common subject, but intimate love and near admission the privilege of favourites. Christ gave His purse to Judas, but His Spirit to the others.
2. They concern the better part, the inward man (2Co_4:16). It is a greater favour to heal a wound than to mend a garment. The soul is more than the body; and a soul furnished with grace than one furnished with gifts (1Co_13:1-3).
3. They are secured at greater cost than temporal blessings. The latter are bestowed by God as Creator and Upholder; saving grace He bestows only as the God and Father of Christ (Eph_1:3).
4. They are pledges and beginnings of eternal blessings (Joh_5:24; Rom_8:30; 2Co_3:18).
5. They incline and fit the heart for thankfulness. Outward benefits give us the occasion, these the disposition (Psa_63:5).
6. They are never given in anger, as temporal benefits sometimes are (Mat_13:11; Php_1:19).
7. They render us acceptable with God. A man is more accountable for worldly blessings, but not of greater account (Luk_12:48); but saving graces are acceptable (1Pe_3:4).
8. They should be acknowledged, that God may have the sole glory of them (Jam_1:17; Rev_4:10-11; Isa_26:12; 1Ch_29:14; 1Co_15:10; Luk_19:16).
III. Spiritual blessings vouchsafed to others must be acknowledged with thankfulness.
1. It suits with our relation as members in the same mystical body of Christ, and so is part of the communion of saints (1Co_12:26; Php_1:7; Rom_12:15; Col_1:3-4).
2. The glory of God is concerned in it. Wherever His goodness shines forth, especially with any eminency, it must be acknowledged (Rom_1:8; Gal_1:24).
3. Our profit is concerned in it, inasmuch as it conduces to a common good. The good of some is the gain of the whole; we are benefited by their example, confirmed in their companionship (1Th_1:7-8; 1Co_1:4-5; Rom_1:2).
4. If the salvation of our brethren be dear to us, whatever is given in order thereto we must reckon among our benefits, and we should rejoice in one anothers gifts and graces as our own.
5. We increase their faith and comfort by such thanksgiving (Php_1:3-6).
IV. In thanksgiving for spiritual benefits, whether to ourselves or others, the increase of grace must be acknowledged as well as the beginning of it. The degree is from God. He that begins perfects (Php_1:6).
1. Not our own free will (Joh_6:44).
2. Not the strength of our resolutions (Psa_73:2).
3. Not the stability of gracious habits (Rev_3:2).
4. But God only (1Pe_5:10; Luk_17:5). (T. Manton, D. D.)
The prosperity of the Thessalonian Church
In some of the Epistles we have the Church presented in a declining state, and suitable admonitions are given to her; in other Epistles we see her prospering, and hear the counsels of infinite wisdom proclaimed unto her. The Thessalonian Church was of the latter character, and seems to have been eminently favoured of her God. She was high in the esteem of the apostle; and deservedly so, because conspicuous among all the Churches of that age for high attainments.
I. The happy state of the thessalonian Church. In her infant state she was highly commended for her works of faith, and labours of love, and patience of hope; but here we view her in her adult state.
1. Her increasing faith. This had grown exceedingly, being daily more vivid in its apprehensions, more vigorous in its actings, and more uniform in its effects. Their faith had evinced its growth in that it had enabled them to see, almost as with their bodily eyes, the Saviour they loved, enthroned above all powers, invested with a fulness of spiritual gifts, ordering all things in heaven and earth, and, by His prevailing intercession at the right hand of God, securing to His believing people all the blessings of grace and glory. A corresponding energy, too, was felt through all the powers of their souls, accompanied with a fixed determination to live for Him who lived and died for them.
2. Her abounding love. In almost every Church there are comparative alienations of heart, if not some actual disagreements; but here the charity of every one of them all toward each other abounded. One spirit pervaded the whole body; and time, instead of giving occasion to the enemy to foment differences, had only cemented and confirmed their mutual affection, so that they were greatly assimilated to the very image of Him whose name and nature is Love. Happy people!
3. Her invincible patience. Great had been the trials of her members from the beginning (1Th_2:14-15); but they were not intimidated: they held fast the profession of their faith with out wavering, in nothing terrified by their adversaries; for they had respect unto the recompence of the reward. They even glorified in their sufferings; and so possessed their souls in patience, and allowed patience to have her perfect work. What an enviable state was this!
II. The light in which the apostle viewed this state.
1. He regarded it as a fit subject of thanksgiving to God. Of Him, and Him alone, was their fruit found. To Him therefore St. Paul gave the glory, as it was meet he should, and as he felt himself bound to do. So should we acknowledge God in all that is good, and glorify Him for it.
2. He regarded their state also as a fit subject of commendation to other Churches. He gloried of them in those where he ministered, in order to stimulate them to greater exertions, and encourage them to expect greater measures of Divine grace, in order to their own more exalted proficiency.
3. He further regarded their state as a fit subject of congratulation to themselves. Their graces, exercised under very trying circumstances, sufficiently demonstrated that there must be a future state of retribution, where the present inequalities of the Divine procedure would be rectified, and when they should be accounted worthy of that kingdom for which they suffered so much.
III. The lessons we should learn from this Church.
1. That opposition, how formidable soever it may be, is no excuse for our turning back from God. What are our persecutions in comparison of those which they endured? Yet they were stedfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. Should we then be intimidated? No; we should take up our cross cheerfully; and having counted the cost, should be content to pay it.
2. That whatever proficiency we have made in the Divine life, we should still press forward for higher attainments. The Thessalonians, through mercy, had attained a rare eminence in the Divine life: so should we, forgetting all that is behind, reach forward to all that is before. We should grow up into Christ in all things. Application:
(1) How different from the Thessalonian Church are the generality of those who call themselves Christians!
(2) How diligently should the most exalted Christians press forward in their heavenly course! (C. Simeon, M. A.)
The matter of thankfulness
Observe:
I. It is a comfort that our inward man is in a good state whatever it be with our outward. The Thessalonians were poor and afflicted (1Th_1:6). Yet their condition before God was prosperous, and matter of thanksgiving rather than lamentation (so 2Co_4:16). We should count this worlds goods well exchanged if by the want of them our spiritual graces are increased. If God by an aching head will give us a better heart; by a sickly body a healthy soul (3Jn_1:2); by lessening us in the world make us rich in faith (Jam_2:5), we should not barely submit, but be thankful (Psa_119:71; 2Co_12:9-10; Heb_12:11).
II. It is not enough barely to be good, but we must grow from good to better and be best at last.
1. Gods children wait on the Lord, and He is not wont to be sparing to those who attend upon Him (Isa_40:31).
2. They are planted in a fertile soil (Psa_92:13-14).
3. There are ordinances by which they receive a supply of the Spirit (Psa_84:7).
4. They find new encouragement in Gods ways (Pro_10:29).
5. Our reward should encourage us (Php_3:14).
6. The way is so pleasant that we have no occasion to tire in it (2Pe_3:18).
7. God expects it (Heb_5:12; Luk_12:48; Joh_15:2).
III. Their growth was considerable. Certainly they did not overgrow their duty, but it was a wonderful growth considering the difference between what they once were and what now, and between them and others, even their contemporaries in the faith. We should not only grow, but excel in grace. To this end we should be--
1. More humble (Jam_4:6).
2. Diligent in the use of gifts (Luk_8:18).
3. Thankful (Col_2:7).
4. Obedient to the Word of God as our rule, and the sanctifying motions of the Spirit as our principle (Jer_8:9; Eph_4:30).
IV. Their growth was in both faith and love.
1. These are inseparable (Col_1:4; 1Ti_1:13), the one concerning our personal, the other the Churchs benefit. We are to edify ourselves in faith, others in love.
2. This connection is necessary, because all religion is exercised by these graces. The mysteries of religion are received and improved by faith, and its precepts and duties acted by love (1Co_16:13-14).
3. The qualification which entitles us to the privileges of the new covenant in faith working by love (Gal_5:6). Faith without love is dead, and love without faith is but a little good nature.
4. Both graces are recommended by the same authority (1Jn_3:23).
5. The one refers to God, the other to man. The one keeps us from defection from God, the other from a schism with our fellow Christians.
V. This growth and proficiency was found is all. Not only some were eminent for faith and charity but all. (T. Manton, D. D.)
Growing faith
I. It is the Divine will that faith should grow. Growth is one of the characteristics of Gods work. The oak that breasts the storm, and fights in savage fury with the gale, is after all only the outgrowth of the acorn, once carried in a childs pocket, and thrown with childish glee down the ravine. The eagle, that looks with unblinking eye upon the sun, was once the tiny eaglet in the nest, who feared to spread the wing. The Goal of nature and the God of grace are one. Beloved, Gods trees, the trees of His right hand planting, attain not their full proportion in a moment. Think not because you have not yet attained the faith and joy of So-and-so that there has been no work of genuine grace in your heart. He who has commenced the work will carry it on by successive stages, for growth is our Lords method of working; perhaps some will ask the question Why? May we not venture to suggest that the growth of a believer is part of Gods joy? There is a pleasure in watching growth. Is it not your greatest joy to mark the tender growth of the body, and the gradual development of the mind, of the little light of the home? Shall He who implanted that joy lack it Himself? Moreover, it is by this process of gradual growth that we best learn our Lord. Were we to attain maturity at once, we should lose many a sweet experience; we should have but little knowledge of His lovingkindness, and know but little of His long suffering tenderness.
II. Growth in faith is Gods work. This we gather from the form of expression used in our text, we are bound to thank God. Paul recognized the growth of faith in the Church at Thessalonica as Gods doing. Man has never yet been able to place that secret thing into any of His works which will cause them to grow. The sculptor may chisel the marble block into a form of loveliness until it almost seems to breathe, but it has no inherent power of development, a century of time will find it, as his hand left it. The artist may fashion in wax, flowers that deceive the sight, but to impart that power which will cause the bud to open into a flower is beyond his skill. The prerogative to cause growth is Gods alone, and that growth is as much His work as the first implanting of the principle of life. The tree grows not by violent efforts of its own, but simply by living in the sunshine, and Gods children grow not by their own vows and resolves, but by dwelling in the light of His countenance, who is the Sun of Righteousness. Do you ask, how He makes our faith to grow?
1. By placing in faith itself, a principle that compels its growth. As in the infant so in faith there is that which naturally develops itself, a stillborn faith such as a devil may have can never grow, but a living faith, living because its God given, must grow.
2. But growth requires nourishment, and by nourishment God increases faith. The child grows by food, and the tree grows not unless it draws its nourishment from earth and air, and the author of our faith has provided for faith a continual banquet. I mean the promises. Now a child will not grow by nourishment alone, it wants exercise. Growth in bulk is not always growth in strength. It is not the sitting at the dinner table, but the running out of doors in healthy exercise that makes the child grow. The tree grows not alone through sunshine and soft summer breezes, but by the wintry gale. A weeks campaign in the battlefield will make a better soldier than a year of parade.
3. God makes His childrens faith grow strong by exercise. To Abrahams faith He gives a Mount Moriah; to Jacobs, the loss of a Benjamin. To Daniels, a den of lions; and to Jobs, a succession of messengers of evil; and think not believer that you will be an exception.
III. Growth in faith is a cause for rejoicing. We are bound to thank God, brethren, because your faith groweth exceedingly.
1. Because He knew that in proportion as their faith grew, so also would their happiness. Faith and happiness always walk hand in hand.
2. I think also Paul rejoiced because he knew that in proportion as their faith increased so would their capacity for labour. A great work is too much for the hands of weak faith, and a heavy burden would break its back. Weak faith walks in the rear, of the army only, strong faith in the van. Little faith can do a useful work in hoeing and raking and watering the plants of the garden, but only strong faith is qualified to go out as pioneer into the backwoods of sin, and with lusty blows make the first clearing.
IV. Faith should not only grow, but grow exceedingly. I do not think the apostle Paul so much thanks God in this text for the growth of faith in the Church at Thessalonica, as for the fact that it grew exceedingly. It was not a small but a great increase of faith He saw in them. Be not content with a mere canoe faith, only meant for fine weather, and swamped through a capfull of wind; but pray for a leviathan faith that sports itself in the deep when lashed in wildest fury. (A. G. Brown.)
A lecture for little faith
I. The inconveniences of little faith.
1. When faith begins it is like a grain of mustard seed, but as the Spirit bedews it with His grace it germinates, begins to spread and becomes a great tree. When faith begins it is--
(1) Simply looking unto Jesus, perhaps through a cloud of doubts, with much dimness of eye.
(2) When faith grows it rises from looking to coming to Christ.
(3) That done faith lays hold on Christ, sees Him in, His excellency, and appropriates Him.
(4) Then it leans on Christ, casting on Him the burden of its sins and cares.
(5) Next, faith puts in a certain claim to all that Christ is, and has wrought.
(6) Lastly, it mounts to full assurance, and out of heaven there is no state more rapturous and blessed. But there are some Christians who never get out of little faith. There are many such in the Pilgrims Progress. There is Ready-to-halt, who went all the way to the celestial city on crutches, and then left them when he entered Jordan; Feeble-mind, who only lost his weakness when he came to the same place where he buried it; Mr. Fearing, who used to stumble over a straw, and get frightened if he saw a drop of rain; Mr. Despondency and Miss Much-Afraid, who were so long locked up in the dungeon of Giant Despair that they were almost starved to death.
2. The inconveniences of this little faith.
(1) While it is always sure of heaven it seldom thinks so. Little-faith is as sure of heaven as Great-faith. When Christ comes to count up His jewels, He will take to, Himself the little pearls as well as the great ones. Little-faith cost as much as Great-faith. God loves Little-faith and will do so to the end. Yet he is so afraid--because he feels himself unworthy, doubts that he has been called aright, his election, and that he will not hold out to the end. But Great-faith is sure of all these points.
(2) Although he has grace enough he never thinks so. Great-heart wont have more than sufficient to carry him to heaven, and this is what Little-faith has. But see the latter in trouble--he says he will never be able to keep his head above water; in prosperity he is afraid that he will intoxicate himself with pride; when he meets with the enemy he fears defeat. How different with Great-faith!
(3) When tempted to sin he is apt to fall. Strong-faith can well contest the enemy, for his courage and strength are full and his weapons sharp.
II. Rules for strengthening Little-faith. If you would have your little faith grow you must--
1. Feed it, by meditation on the Word. He who deals largely with the promises will soon find that there is room for believing them.
2. Prove the promise. When in distress take the promise and see whether it is true. The older you are the stronger your faith should become for you have so many facts to support it. Every instance of Gods love should make us believe Him more.
3. Associate yourselves with godly and much tried people. Young believers will get their faith much refreshed by talking with well-advanced Christians.
4. Labour to get as much as possible free from self. Live above the praise and censure of self, and wholly on Christ. Self is like the sucker at the bottom of the tree which never bears fruit, but only sucks away nourishment from the tree.
5. Many can only get faith increased by great trouble. How do the old oaks become so deeply rooted? Ask the March winds and they will tell you. We dont make great soldiers in barracks. So with Christians. Great faith must have great trials.
6. Exercise what faith you have. The reason why the blacksmith does not tire is because he is used to it. It is no wonder that lazy Christians have little faith. It ought to be little; you do but little, and why should God give you more strength than you mean to use. If you want to get warm, dont rub your hands in front of the fires but run out and work. True works wont save you, but without works faith is frozen to death.
7. Commune with Christ, then you cannot be unbelieving. When you cannot see Him, then you doubt Him.
III. A certain high attainment to which faith may if diligently cultivated, certainly attain. A mans faith can never grow so strong that he will never doubt. He who has the strongest faith will have sorrowful intervals of despondency; but he may so cultivate his faith that he may be so infallibly sure that he is a child of God, that all his doubts and fears will not get an advantage over him. A man may in this life be as sure of his acceptance in the beloved as he is of his own existence. I know whom I have believed. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
A growing faith
St. John tells us that he had no greater joy than to hear that his children walked in the truth (3Jn_1:4); and surely next to the joy of seeing the sinner receive the truth, the next that can fill the heart of a minister must be to see him walk in the truth, but especially in these days when a profession of the gospel is so easily taken up and laid down. But a man may abide in the truth and not walk in it, have faith and not increase in it, and look back on past happy days of progress with regret.
I. There is such a thing as growth is the divine life. It is so in human life. The babe becomes a boy, a youth, a man. It is so in vegetable life--the seed becomes a tree; and so there are babes, children, men, and old men in Christ; and the command is, Grow in grace. Of this grace the central principle is faith, and in proportion as that grows all the rest will grow. There is weak faith, and it results in a weak Christianity; but as it strengthens all the virtues strengthen and flourish with it.
II. The symptoms of an increase of faith.
1. When Christ becomes more exceedingly precious; when we are taken more and more off self and reliance in the means to dependence on Christ. The question of questions is, What think ye of Christ? Many, if they spake honestly, would have to answer, Only what we have been told or have read, but nothing in the way of personal value and real estimation. But a child of God regards Christ as his all, and as Christ gradually fills up the circumference of thought and action do we grow in faith.
2. When we become more and more conformed to Christ--in spirit, in word, in deed. For faith is the assimilating power.
3. When we distinguish more and more clearly between faith and feeling. Many Christians are occupied too much with feeling. Every feeling that is not based upon faith is worthless. Learn to depend on faith whether feeling results or no.
III. The means by which faith is increased. Its source is the Holy Spirit, but He works through means. Amongst others we may note--
1. Secret prayer.
2. A constant looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of faith. (J. H. Evans, M. A.)
The necessity of a growing faith
To increase in faith is--
I. A subject for devout thanksgiving. Paul gave thanks because--
1. The blessing of increased faith is of unspeakable value. Little faith will save, but strong faith is that which builds up the Church, overcomes the world, and glorifies God.
2. The blessing came at a seasonable time--the time of persecution. Such a time tests the reality of faith. If sound it will grow in spite of obstacles, as Israel in Egypt. The present is a time of trade depression, abounding vice and grievous departure from the faith. What need to be rooted in the faith when the days are so evil.
3. If there be any growth in faith it is the work of Gods spirit. Faith is all through the gift of God. In nature we ought to admire Gods hand as much in growth as in creation. So progress in faith reveals the same power as its commencement. Let God have all the glory from its Alpha to its Omega. If thou be a strong man in Christ do not sacrifice to thine own net, glorify thine own experience as if thou madest thyself strong and rich in the things of God.
II. An object for diligent endeavor. If you have it not labour to attain it.
1. Why? Because--
(1) The proof of faith lies in the growth of faith. A dead faith will not grow. If you have not more faith it is to be feared that you have none.
(2) Gods truth deserves it; we, as children, ought to believe our Father by instinct even as the eyes see and the ears hear.
(3) It will be so much for our own spiritual health and joy. As your being an Englishman does not depend on your health or wealth, so neither does your salvation turn upon the strength and joy of your faith, but much does depend on it. Why not have foretastes of heaven. These you cannot have without growing faith.
2. How? By the Holy Spirit: but still He uses us for the increase of our faith. If we are to grow--
(1) Negatively--
(a) avoid continual change of doctrine. If you transplant a tree often it will yield scanty fruit. Those who are everything by turns and nothing long, are ever learning, but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth.
(b) Do not give up the ground in which your souls should grow. If you dig away the earth from a tree you impoverish it. So doctrine after doctrine is given up until nothing is held to be important. The experiment of the Frenchman who had just brought his horse to live on a straw a day when he died is being repeated among us, faith being literally starved to death.
(c) Do not overshadow your faith by worldliness, tolerated sin, love of riches, pride and care, and so prevent its growth. You cannot expect a sapling to grow under the shadow of an oak.
(2) Positively. Faith grows by--
(a) an increase of knowledge. Many persons doubt because they are not instructed--They doubt whether they shall hold on to the end: despair because they find evil in their hearts, etc. Study Gods Word, and you will find how vain they are.
(b) Experience. When a man has proved a thing his confidence is increased. When you have tested a promise again and again nobody will be able to shake you, for you will say, I have tasted of this good word.
(c) Meditation and walking with God. If you want to believe in a man you must know him. So with God: when your communion is close and stedfast your faith will grow exceedingly.
(d) Prayer with faith and for faith.
(e) Obedience. A man cannot trust in God while he lives in sin.
(f) Exercise. The man who uses the little faith he has will get more faith. Brick by brick up rose the pyramids.
III. The source of other growths. Increasing faith promotes--
1. Increasing love. If we are not filled with brotherly love it is because we are not firmly believing that truth which worketh by love.
2. Unity. Who shall separate men who are one in Christ by the grip of a mighty faith?
3. Patience. Some Christians make large demands on our patience; but faith in Christ and the possibilities of grace will work wonders. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Constant growth
The growth of trees is no less complete than it is constant; and, though it be little it is a little all over. An apt illustration of all growth, of all culture, which is real. It is not merely the growth of one faculty of the soul, but it is the cultivation of the whole soul itself; and, though it be not much, it should be more and more. Even so, the foliage shall be fuller, the flowers more numerous, and the fruit more plentiful; and, as in the case of the tree, every year shall leave its ringed record of expansion, and enlarged stem and lengthened branches shall tell of seemly and shapely growth. The trimly-cut pollard, on the one hand, and the stalk all awry, on the other, may tend to vary the view; but they are miserable warnings, after all! You are not growing unless it is you that grows. (J. Gordon.)
Abounding charity
I. The internal affection must increase (Php_1:9) to God and our neighbours, especially to those who are Gods. There are so many things to extinguish it, or make it grow cold, that we should always seek to increase this grace, that it may be more fervent and strong, and not grow cold and dead.
II. The external expressions should abound.
1. As to acts. In duties of charity we should not be weary. Now we may be weary upon a double occasion--
(1) because we meet not presently with our reward (Gal_6:9). Duties of charity have their promises annexed, which are not presently accomplished, but in their season; they will be either in this life or in the next;
(2) or because of continual occasions, when there is no end (Heb_6:10-11). As long as the occasion continueth, so long should the charity continue, that at length they might meet the reward, Ye have ministered, and do minister. This is tedious to nature and to a niggardly heart, but love will be working and labouring still, and ever bringing forth more fruit. Where this heavenly fire is kindled in the soul, it will warm all those that are about them. But love is cold in most; it will neither take pains, nor be a charge to do anything for the brethren; but Christian love is an immortal fire, it will still burn and never die; therefore we should continue the same diligence, zeal, and affection that formerly we had.
2. As to objects. Christ telleth us, The poor ye have always with you (Mat_26:11). As long as God findeth objects, we should find charity; and the apostle saith (Gal_6:10), As we have opportunity, let us do good to all men. Expensive duties are distasteful to a carnal heart. It may be they would part with something which the flesh can spare, and will snatch at anything to excuse their neglect; they have done it to these and these; but as long as God bringeth objects to our view and notice, and our ability and affection doth continue, we must give still. If our ability continueth not, providence puts a bar and excuseth; but if our affection doth not continue, the fault is our own. (T. Manton, D. D.)
Christian progress
This is the will of God, that we wax and increase in all holiness. Hereby we know whether we be of God, or no. We may not stand at a stay, but must be renewed. Whosoever mendeth not himself in the practice of virtue, he groweth worse. God hath placed us in a race to run: we must so run, that we may attain the prize. We are grafts of the Lords planting: we must grow to the height and breadth of a tree, and bring forth fruit. We are pilgrims and strangers, and pass by the wilderness of this world into our heavenly resting place; we may not stay by the way, but must remove our tents, and continually march on forward, until that day come, when we shall enter into the land of promise. (Bp. Jewell.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v1 Chapter 17
Chapter 17
SALUTATION AND THANKSGIVING
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2Th_1:1-4 (R.V.)
IN beginning to expound the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians, it is necessary to say a few words by way of introduction to the book as a whole. Certain questions occur to the mind whenever such a document as this is presented to it; and it will put us in a better position for understanding details if we first answer these. How do we know, for instance, that this Epistle is really the second to the Thessalonians? It has been maintained that it is the earlier of the two. Can we justify its appearance in the place which it usually occupies? I think we can. The tradition of the church itself counts for something. It is quite unmistakable, in other cases in which there are two letters addressed to the same people, - e.g., the Epistles to the Corinthians and to Timothy, -that they stand in the canon in the order of time. Presumably the same is the case here. Of course a tradition like this is not infallible, and if it can be proved false must be abandoned; but at the present moment, the tendency in most minds is to underestimate the historical value of such traditions; and, in the instance before us, tradition is supported by various indications in the Epistle itself. For example, in the other letter, Paul congratulates the Thessalonians on their reception of the gospel, and the characteristic experiences attendant upon it; here it is the wonderful growth of their faith, and the abounding of their love, which calls forth his thanksgiving, -surely a more advanced stage of Christian life being in view. Again, in the other Epistle there are slight hints of moral disorder, due to misapprehension of the Lords Second Coming; but in this Epistle such disorder is broadly exposed and denounced; the Apostle has heard of unruly busybodies, who do no work at all; he charges them in the name of the Lord Jesus to change their conduct, and bids the brethren avoid them, that they may be put to shame. Plainly the faults as well as the graces of the church are seen here at a higher growth. Once more, in 2Th_2:15 of this letter, there is reference to instruction which the Thessalonians have already received from Paul in a letter; and though he may quite conceivably have written them letters which no longer exist, still the natural reference of these words is to what we call the First Epistle. If anything else were needed to prove that the letter we are about to study stands in its right place, it might be found in the appeal of 2Th_2:1. "Our gathering together unto Him" is the characteristic revelation of the other, and therefore the earlier letter.
But though this Epistle is certainly later than the other, it is not much later. The Apostle has still the same companions-Silas and Timothy-to join in his Christian greeting. He is still in Corinth or its neighbourhood; for we never find these two along with him but there. The gospel, however, has spread beyond the great city, and taken root in other places, for he boasts of the Thessalonians and their graces in the "churches" of God. His work has so far progressed as to excite opposition; he is in personal peril, and asks the prayers of the Thessalonians, that he may be delivered from unreasonable and evil men. If we put all these things together, and remember the duration of Pauls stay in Corinth, we may suppose that some months separated the Second Epistle from the First.
What, now, was the main purpose of it? What had the Apostle in his mind when he sat down to write? To answer that, we must go back a little way.
A great subject of apostolic preaching at Thessalonica had been the Second Advent. So characteristic was it of the gospel message, that Christian converts from heathenism are defined as those who have turned to God from idols, to serve the living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven. This waiting, or expectation, was the characteristically Christian attitude; the Christians hope was hidden in heaven, and he could not but look up and long for its appearing. But this attitude became strained, under various influences. The Apostles teaching was pressed, as if he had said, not only that the day of the Lord was coming, but that it was actually here. Men, affecting to speak through the Spirit, patronised such fanaticism. We see from 2Th_2:2 that pretended words of Paul were put in circulation; and what was more deliberately wicked, a forged epistle was produced, in which his authority was claimed for this transformation of his doctrine. Weak-minded people were carried off their feet, and bad-hearted people feigned an exaltation they did not feel; and both together brought discredit on the church, and injured their own souls, by neglecting the commonest duties. Not only decorum and reputation were lost, but character itself was endangered. This was the situation to which Paul addressed himself.
We do not need to be fastidious in dealing with the Apostles teaching on the Second Advent; our Saviour tells us that of the day and the hour no man knows, nor angel; nay, not even the Son, but the Father only. Certainly St. Paul did not know; and almost as certainly, in the ardour of his hope, he anticipated the end sooner than it was actually to arrive. He spoke of himself as one who might naturally enough expect to see the Lord come again; and it was only as experience brought him new light that in his later years he began to speak of a desire to depart, and to be with Christ. Not to die, had been his earlier hope, but to have the mortal being swallowed up of life; and it was this earlier hope he had communicated to the Thessalonians. They also hoped not to die; as the sky grew darker over them with affliction and persecution, their heated imaginations saw the glory of Christ ready to break through for their final deliverance. The present Epistle puts this hope, if one may say so, to a certain remove. It does not fix the date of the Advent; it does not tell us when the day of the Lord shall come; but it tells us plainly that it is not here yet, and that it will not be here till certain things have first happened. What these things are is by no means obvious; but this is not the place to discuss the question. All we have to notice is this: that with a view to counteracting the excitement at Thessalonica, which was producing bad consequences, St. Paul points out that the Second Advent is the term of a moral process, and that the world must run through a spiritual development of a particular kind before Christ can come again. The first Advent was in the fulness of the times; so will the second be; and though he might not be able to interpret all the signs, or tell when the great day would dawn, he could say to the Thessalonians, "The end is not yet."
This, I say, is the great lesson of the Epistle, the main thing which the Apostle has to communicate to the Thessalonians. But it is preceded by what may be called, in a loose sense, a consolatory paragraph, and it is followed up by exhortations, the same in purport as those of the First Epistle, but more peremptory and emphatic. The true preparedness for the Lords Second Coming is to be sought, he assures them, not in this irrational exaltation, which is morally empty and worthless, but in diligent, humble, faithful performance of duty; in love, faith, and patience.
The greeting with which the Epistle opens is almost word for word the same as that of the First Epistle. It is a church which is addressed; and a church subsisting in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Apostle has no other interest in the Thessalonians than as they are Christian people. Their Christian character and their Christian interests are the only things he cares for. One could wish it were so among us. One could wish our relation to God and His Son were so real and so dominant that it gave us an unmistakable character, in which we might naturally address each other, without any consciousness or suspicion of unreality. With every desire to think well of the Church, when we look to the ordinary tone of conversation and of correspondence among Christians, we can hardly think that this is so. There is an aversion to such directness of speech as was alone natural to the Apostle. Even in church meetings there is a disposition to let the Christian character fall into the background; it is a sensible relief to many to be able to think of those about them as ladies and gentlemen, rather than as brothers and sisters in Christ. Yet it is this last relation only in virtue of which we form a church; it is the interests of this relation that our intercourse with one another as Christians is designed to serve. We ought not to look in the Christian assembly for what it was never meant to be, -for a society to further the temporal interests of its members; for an educational institution, aiming at the general enlightenment of those who frequent its meetings; still less, as some seem to be inclined to do, for a purveyor of innocent amusements: all these are simply beside the mark; the Church is not called to any such functions; her whole life is in God and Christ; and she can say nothing and do nothing for any man until his life has been brought to this source and centre. An apostolic interest in the Church is the interest of one who cares only for the relation of the soul to Christ; and who can say no more to those he loves best than John says to Gaius, "Beloved, I pray that in all things thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth."
It is in accordance with this Spirit that the Apostle wishes the Thessalonians not any outward advantages, but grace and peace. Grace and peace are related as cause and effect. Grace is Gods unmerited love, His free and beautiful goodness to the sinful; and when men receive it, it bears the fruit of peace. Peace is a far bigger word in the Bible than in common usage; and it has its very largest sense in these salutations, where it represents the old Hebrew greeting "Shalom." Properly speaking, it means completeness, wholeness, health-the perfect soundness of the spiritual nature. This is what the Apostle wishes for the Thessalonians. Of course, there is a narrower sense of peace, in which it means the quieting of the perturbed conscience, the putting away of the alienation between the soul and God; but that is only the initial work of grace, the first degree of the great peace which is in view here. When grace has had its perfect work, it results in a more profound and steadfast peace, -a soundness of the whole nature, a restoration of the shattered spiritual health, which is the crown of all Gods blessings. There is a vast difference in the degrees of bodily health between the man who is chronically ailing, always anxious, nervous about himself, and unable to trust himself if any unexpected drain is made upon his strength, and the man who has solid, unimpaired health, whose heart is whole within him, and who is not shaken by the thought of what may be. It is this radical soundness which is really meant by peace; thorough spiritual health is the best of Gods blessings in the Christian life, as thorough bodily health is the best in the natural life. Hence the Apostle wishes it for the Thessalonians before everything else; and wishes it, as alone it can come, in the train of grace. The free love of God is all our hope. Grace is love imparting itself, giving itself away, as it were, to others, for their good. Only as that love comes to us, and is received in its fulness of blessing into our hearts, can we attain that stable spiritual health which is the end of our calling.
The salutation is followed, as usual, by a thanksgiving, which at the first glance seems endless. One long sentence runs, apparently without interruption, from the third verse to the end of the tenth. But it is plain, on a more attentive glance, that the Apostle goes off at a tangent; and that his thanksgiving is properly contained in the third and fourth verses: "We are bound to give thanks to God alway for you, brethren, even as it is meet, for that your faith groweth exceedingly, and the love of each one of you all toward one another aboundeth; so that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions which ye endure." It is worthy of remark that the mere existence of faults in a church never blinded the Apostle to its graces. There was much in this congregation to rectify, and a good deal to censure; there were ignorance, fanaticism, falsehood, sloth, unruliness; but though he knew of them all, and would rebuke them all before he had done, he begins with this grateful acknowledgment of a Divine work among them. It is not merely that Paul was constitutionally of a bright temperament, and looked naturally on the promising side of things, -I hardly think he was, - but he must have felt it was undutiful and unbecoming to say anything at all to Christian people, who had once been pagans, without thanking God for what He had done for them. Some of us have this lesson to learn, especially in regard to missionary and evangelistic work and its results. We are too ready to see everything in it except what is of God, -the mistakes made by the worker, or the misconceptions in new disciples that the light has not cleared up, and the faults of character that the Spirit has not overcome; and when we fix our attention on these things, it is very natural for us to be censorious. The natural man loves to find fault; it gives him at the cheapest rate the comfortable feeling of superiority. But it is a malignant eye which can see and delight in nothing but faults; before we comment on deficiencies or mistakes which have only become visible against the background of the new life, let us give thanks to God that the new life, in however lowly and imperfect a form, is there. It need not yet appear what it shall be. But we are bound, by duty, by truth, by all that is right and seemly, to say, Thanks be to God for what He has begun to do by His grace. There are some people who should never see half-done work; perhaps the same people should be forbidden to criticise missions either at home or abroad. The grace of God is not responsible for the faults of preachers or of converts; but it is the source of their virtues; it is the fountain of their new life; it is the hope of their future; and unless we welcome its workings with constant thanksgiving, we are in no spirit in which it can work through us.
But let us see for what fruit of grace the Apostle gives thanks here. It is because the faith of the Thessalonians grows exceedingly, and their mutual love abounds. In a word, it is for their progress in the Christian character. Here is a point of the first interest and importance. It is the very nature of life to grow; when growth is arrested, it is the beginning of decay. I would not like to fall into the very fault I have been exposing, and speak as if there were no progress, among Christians in general, in faith and love; but one of the discouragements of the Christian ministry is undoubtedly the slowness, or it may be the invisibility, not to say the absence, of growth. At a certain stage in the physical life, we know, equilibrium is attained: we are at the maturity of our powers; our faces change little, our minds change little; the tones of our voices and the character of our handwriting are pretty constant; and when we get past that point, the progress is backward. But we can hardly say that this is an analogy by which we may judge the spiritual life. It does not run its full course here. It has not a birth, a maturity, and an inevitable decay, within the limits of our natural life. There is room for it to grow and grow unceasingly, because it is planned for eternity, and not for time. It should be in continual progress, ever improving, advancing from strength to strength. Day by day and year by year Christians should become better men and better women, stronger in faith, richer in love. The very steadiness and uniformity of our spiritual life has its disheartening side. Surely there is room, in a thing so great and expansive as life in Jesus Christ, for fresh developments, for new manifestations of trust in God, for new enterprises prompted and sustained by brotherly love. Let us ask whether we ourselves, each in his own place, face the trials of our life, its cares, its doubts, its terrible certainties, with a more unwavering faith in God than we had five years ago? Have we learned in that interval, or in all the years of our Christian profession, to commit our life more unreservedly to Him, to trust Him to undertake for us, in our sins, in our weakness, in all our necessities, temporal and spiritual? Have we become more loving than we were? Have we overcome any of our irrational and unchristian dislikes? Have we made advances, for Christs sake and His Churchs, to persons with whom we were at variance, and sought in brotherly love to foster a warm and loyal Christian feeling in the whole body of believers? God be thanked, there are some who know what faith and love are better than they once did; who have learned-and it needs learning-what it is to confide in God, and to love others in Him; but could an Apostle thank God that this advance was universal, and that the charity of everyone of us all was abundant to all the rest?
The apostolic thanksgiving is supplemented in this particular ease by something, not indeed alien to it, yet on a quite different level-a glorying before men. Paul thanked God for the increase of faith and love at Thessalonica; and when he remembered that he himself had been the means of converting the Thessalonians, their progress made him fond and proud; he boasted of his spiritual children in the churches of God. "Look at the Thessalonians," he said to the Christians in the south; "you know their persecutions, and the afflictions they endure; yet their faith and patience triumph over all; their sufferings only serve to bring their Christian goodness to perfection." That was a great thing to be able to say; it would be particularly telling in that old pagan world, which could meet suffering only with an inhuman defiance or a resigned indifference; it is a great thing to be able to say yet. It is a witness to the truth and power of the gospel, of which its humblest minister may feel justly proud, when the new spirit which it breathes into men gives them the victory over sorrow and pain. There is no persecution now to test the sincerity or the heroism of the Church as a whole; but there are afflictions still; and there must be few Christian ministers but thank God, and would do it always, as is meet, that He has allowed them to see the new life develop new energies under trial, and to see His children out of weakness made strong by faith and hope and love in Christ Jesus. These things are our true wealth and strength, and we are richer in them than some of us are aware. They are the mark of the gospel upon human nature; wherever it comes, it is to be identified by the combination of affliction and patience, of suffering, and spiritual joy. That combination is peculiar to the kingdom of God: there is not the like found in any other kingdom on earth. Blessed, let us say, be the God and Father Of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has given us such proofs of His love and power among us; He only doeth such: wondrous things; let the earth be filled with His glory.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4 1, 2. Paul, Silvanus and Timotheus. See note on…
1, 2. Paul, Silvanus and Timotheus. See note on 1 Thess. 1:1. The first two verses are nearly identical.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On vv1, 3 MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—2Th_1:1-2
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—2Th_1:1-2
Phases of Apostolic Greeting.
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Under this heading we have already treated homiletically the apostle’s formula of salutation, which is the same here as at the beginning of the first epistle.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain On vv1–2 1. The Apostolic Churches were all “in God the…
1. The Apostolic Churches were all “in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” That excludes the masses of modern claimants altogether.
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain On v1 2Th 1:1-7
2Th 1:1-7
I. This Epistle opens with the mention of the same Apostolic group as does the first. Paul was not alone: Silvanus and Timotheus were still with him in closest fellowship of toil and suffering. The Church, too, is described in the same way. Still further, the Apostle gives expression, as before, so again, to his devout thankfulness to God for the graces of the new life which his converts exhibit. So far from there being any decline in these graces, there was conspicuous progress. In the Christian life it ought always to be so. True steadfastness is a standing fast, but it can never be a standing still. Continuance in all the elements of prosperity of soul, as regards both the individual and the community, is insured only by advancement in them. While the Apostle contemplates the increase of these Divine graces in his friends, he also recognises it as a special token of Divine goodness to himself. The exhibition of these graces on the dark background of suffering was not merely an example—it was not only a spectacle which the heathen had never seen before (for their acts of heroic endurance had no root in patience and faith); it was distinctly a setting forth, an exhibition to all who had the eyes of their understanding enlightened, of the rectitude of God’s dealings.
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II. "Rest with us." By the word "rest" Paul directs the thoughts of his reader forward and upward, "All but opening heaven already by his word." There is, indeed, a power in the word to comfort and sustain those in whose hearts burns "the hot fever of unrest." It is a word of promise to all faithful but weary workers in every noble cause. Erasmus once wrote "No one will believe how anxiously, for a long time, I have wished to retire from these labours into a scene of tranquillity, and for the rest of my life (dwindled, it is true, to the shortest space) to converse only with Him who once cried and who still cries, ’Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.’ In this turbulent, and I may say, raging world, amid so many cares, which the state of the times heaps upon me in public, or which declining years or infirmities cause me in private, nothing do I find on which my mind can more comfortably repose than on this sweet communion with God." The pathetic longing of these words for a repose that comes not at man’s call is yet to attain to satisfaction. When earth and time be passed away, "there remaineth a rest to the people of God."
J. Hutchison, Lectures on Thessalonians, p. 252.
References: 2Th 1:3.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. iv., No. 205; vol. xxxi., No. 1857.
2Th 1:7-12
The rest awaiting Christ’s troubled saints is in the fullest sense to be their possession at the revelation of the Lord Jesus. He who is emphatically the coming One is to be revealed. There is a vividness in the word. He is now hidden. But when He comes again, every eye shall see Him.
I. The term "everlasting" qualifying "destruction," as it here does, shows that this destruction is not extinction of being. It is not loss of being, but loss of wellbeing: for as its opposite, life, is more than mere existence, so destruction is more than mere non-existence. The purpose the Apostle has in view in the description of the coming is the same here as in 1Th 4:15-17, the giving of comfort and encouragement to his readers in the midst of apprehensions and trials.
II. "And fulfil all the good pleasure of his goodness." There are structural objections to the rendering which makes "the good pleasure" to be God’s. It is rather His people’s moral goodness, and their good pleasure in it—every aspiration after goodness which they cherish within their breasts. Hence the Revised Version is to be preferred—"every desire of goodness." All genuine holiness, being a cheerful obedience to God’s law, is, indeed, the good pleasure of His will; but it is also on the part of His people their "good pleasure and goodness," and it is this which is signified here. The Apostle’s prayer is that his friends may have, by God’s grace, every desire after holiness brought to perfect realisation, so that they may become full of goodness, finding at last their perfect happiness in perfect sanctification.
J. Hutchison, Lectures on Thessalonians, p. 267.
References: 2Th 1:7-12.—Preachers Monthly, vol. iii., p. 361. 2Th 1:9.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. vi., pp. 327, 339.
2Th 1:10
I. All creation is one great illustration of Jesus. God has laid up everything, if we only see it aright, for the exhibition of His dear Son; so that, faithful to that great idea, when He comes He will come, indeed, to judge the world, but He will come yet more "to be glorified in His saints, and to be admired in all them that believe." And the Church—this poor, divided, feeble, unworthy, sin-stained Church—does it set forth the character of its Lord? does it make Him admirable? It is pleasant to be assured that if it does not now, it shall then. Be you only one of those who receive gladly the processes of the sanctifying Spirit into your heart—be you only, at this moment, a simple believer—"when He comes," He must be magnified in you. For He comes for no other purpose. "When He shall come to be glorified in His saints and admired in all them that believe."
II. There is a distinction between "glorified in the saints," and "admired in them that believe." We must trace the difference. "Saints" are either those in whom the great work of sanctification is going on in this world, or those in whom it is perfected in the world to come. In this passage it is the perfectly holy. Now, holiness, as regards man, is the final end. All else—election, redemption, grace—is only a means to the one end—that we may be holy. Therefore we are always taught to think of everything else as a first principle, and to go on to holiness. And the reason is this:—Holiness is the image of God; to see His own image is the will and purpose of God. That there might be an image of God was the first creation, that there might be an image of God is the second creation. The thick clay will have become the beautiful vessel—the rude ore will be the pure, fine gold. Out of the unlikeliest materials the hands of the Almighty will have made His masterpiece—the pearl from the shell, the diamond from the charcoal—and the whole world will marvel at that transformation; and God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, will be "glorified in His saints."
III. And "admired"—the word is taken in its original and truest meaning—"wondered at," wondered at in all them that believe—i.e., in all them that did believe when they were in the school of this present, probationary world. The whole world will be looking on, and they will see, with astonishment, the triumphs of faith; as all men see again the faithfulness of Jesus to His own Word, and the efficacy of His atoning blood, He will be "wondered at in all them that believe."
J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 4th series, p. 303.
References: 2Th 1:10.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxv., No. 1477; Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. ix., p. 279.
2Th 1:11-12
Worthy of your Calling.
In the former letter to the Church of Thessalonica, the Apostle had dwelt, in ever-memorable words—which sound like a prelude of the trump of God—on the coming of Christ at the end to judge the world and to gather His servants into His rest. That great thought seems to have excited some of the hotter heads in Thessalonica, and to have led to a general feverishness and unwholesome expectancy of the near approach or actual dawn of that day. This letter is intended as a supplement to the former epistle, and to damp down the fire which has been kindled. It, therefore, dwells with emphasis on the necessary preliminaries to the dawning of that day of the Lord, and throughout seeks to lead the excited spirits to patience and persistent work, and to calm their feverish expectations. This purpose colours the whole letter.
I. Notice first, here, the Divine test for Christian lives: "We pray for you, that God would count you worthy of your calling." Now, it is to be observed that this counting worthy refers mainly to a future estimate to be made by God of the completed career and permanent character brought out of earth into another state by Christian souls. So, then, we are brought face to face with this thought of an actual, stringent judgment which God will apply in the future to the lives and characters of professing Christians. Now, that is a great deal too much forgotten in our popular Christian teaching, and in our average Christian faith. Let no Christian man fancy that he shall escape the righteous judgment of God. An absolute correspondence, a complete worthiness or perfect desert, is impossible for us all, but a worthiness which His merciful judgment who makes allowance for us all may accept, as not too flagrantly contradictory of what He meant us to be, is possible even for our poor attainments and our stained lives. If it were Paul’s supreme aim, should it not be ours, that we may be worthy of Him that hath called us, and walk worthy of the vocation wherewith we are called?
II. Note, here, the Divine help to meet the test. Paul says, in effect, first, that God will fulfil every desire that longs for goodness. He is scarcely deserving of being called good, who does not desire to be better. Aspiration must always be ahead of performance in a growing life, such as every Christian life ought to be. To long for any righteousness and beauty of goodness, is, in some imperfect and incipient measure, to possess the good for which we long.
III. Note the Divine glory of the Worthy. This fulfilment of every desire of goodness and work of faith is in order that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you and ye in Him. Christ’s reputation is in our hands. Men judge of Him by us. The name of the Lord Jesus is glorified in you if you live worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called; and people will think better of the Master if His disciples are faithful. On the other hand, there is glory accruing to perfected saints in Christ. "And ye in Him." And the union will lead to a participation in His glory which shall exalt their limited, stained, and fragmentary humanity into the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.
A. Maclaren, Paul’s Prayers, p. 1.
Reference: 2Th 1:11, 2Th 1:12.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. i., Nos. 41, 42.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
F. W. Grant 1903 · Public Domain On v1 Division 1. (2Th 1:1-12.)
Division 1. (2Th 1:1-12.)
In the midst of persecution, the ground of peace for the saints in the righteousness of God.
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The present time is characterized by the presence of the Holy Spirit in the Church: this the closing discourses of the Lord before His death, as John has given them to us, with the opening of the Acts, make manifest. But the presence of the Spirit convicts the world of sin, because they have not believed in Him (Joh 16:9): "They have both seen and hated both Me and My Father," is His own declaration (Joh 15:24). On the other hand, as to the Spirit Himself, sent to represent the One whom they have driven out of it, He says again, "Whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him" (Joh 14:17). Thus the Spirit is not only the Witness of the rejected Christ, but Himself also rejected; and this double rejection is for opposite reasons: for infidelity is from the heart, and so all arguments suffice for it. But thus it is plain that from the beginning it was a foregone conclusion that the world was not, as still the dream is, to be converted by Christianity, and that for the Christian it would be ever a place of rejection, as for his Master, -a place of darkness, as from the absence of the Sun. So Scripture consistently treats it ever. God is now calling out of it a people for His Name, and that is all we are to expect until Christ comes again and brings the day.
It is plain indeed, that the opposition of the world is not always felt to the same extent, or in the same way. On the one hand, the providence of God may avert the open assault of the enemy; on the other, the enemy has found by large experience that, according to the proverb, "the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church;" and that the lure is in general more successful than the open attack. Attack he will still, in disguise; and has learned how in the name of Christ, and in zeal for Him, to destroy His followers. A time, too, is at hand in which he will persuade himself that the rule no longer holds; or, rather, being moved by ungovernable fury in the knowledge that he has but a short time, he will again, and more defiantly than ever, make war upon God and upon the Lamb. But this will be the time of his complete overthrow in that day of the Lord which the apostle here assures the Thessalonians is not yet come, and the character of which he unfolds to us in this epistle.
In the meanwhile the world is nevertheless in steadfast opposition to the life of faith; and in whatever form it may be, "all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution" (2Ti 3:12). The Thessalonians were suffering manifestly for Christ; and yet the enemy would persuade them, and by means of professing Christians themselves, that these very sufferings showed that they were in those times of divine judgment upon the earth which, being in righteous recompense for iniquity, could not be upon the saints, but on their adversaries. They might be at peace, therefore, and rejoice in being witnesses for their Lord, in sufferings which but demonstrated their worthiness of the Kingdom of God, for which they suffered.
1. The apostle, associating Silas and Timothy with him as before, greets them in the same manner as in the former epistle. As children of the Father, and owning Christ their Lord, he wishes and hails them with grace and peace from the Father and the Lord. Their sufferings altered nothing as to this, -only brought in the inexpressible comfort of it for the need in which they were.
2. The apostle then testifies his thankfulness for the increase of their faith and love. Faith grew in them exceedingly, love abounded. How good it is when we have not to look back to the happier times of a first love, but the vision brightens with the days that pass, under the beams of an unchanging sun that is ever rising into a more excellent glory! "From glory to glory:" that is the apostolic summary of progress, -the heart responding to the light that more and more shines in and gladdens it. "God who made the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts, for the shining forth of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (2Co 3:18; 2Co 4:6). This is no temporary or partial or interrupted display, as Paul speaks of it: "We all . . . are changed," he says. It is not of a few specially favored and exalted ones that he declares such things. He refuses to allow that of God’s will any there are among Christians who are not partakers of so great a blessing as the beginning in his soul of an eternal day. He does not, as it were, allow for retrogression, or alternation of light and darkness, of even cyclical changes of this kind. The typical Christian is he who goes on from glory to glory. If there be darkness with him, or aught but steady progress, this is the abnormal condition to be accounted for, when the path of the righteous is as the shining light, which shineth more and more unto the perfect day. But, thank God, Scripture in its description of the Christian refuses to mingle the abnormal with the normal; and thus to make, as it were, the abnormal condition a thing of course.
The Thessalonians were making evident progress; and the trials through which they were passing did not hinder this: did they not rather help it? For when in Corinthians the apostle has shown us how "this treasure" of the light is in an earthen vessel, he immediately goes on to speak of trials and persecutions, and the bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus; this, that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our body (2Co 4:7-10). Indeed, what can there be more helpful to the soul, than to be so openly and wholly identified with Him whom the world crucified that it may still ordain for us, (as it will ordain) His cross, and throw us upon the might of His arm, and the sweet consolations of His sympathy, who was Himself despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief"?
This was the case with the Thessalonians: all people knew of them that they had "another king" than the man the Roman world adored: "One, Jesus;" One whose sway was more absolute than Caesar’s, and which reached where Caesar’s could not, -to the inmost recesses of the heart; in which it yielded a delight, to those who knew it not, all but incredible. Insanity it might be, but the hold it had upon His followers was quite unmistakable; a people whose emblem was a cross, and for whom "crucified with Jesus" was a sufficient answer to the suggestion of every opposing interest.
Thus they suffered; not amid plaudits, but reproach and obloquy; yet in which there was no sting to rankle, no bitterness to harden or inflame the spirit: they rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer for His Name, and found in it all a fellowship with one another which sprang out of that first fellowship which was the bud enfolding every other. The apostle assures them that their sufferings for the King were but a manifest token, in the patience and faith sustaining them all through, of the righteous judgment of God, which counted them worthy of the Kingdom of God, for which also they were suffering. In Php 1:28, he argues similarly that the fearlessness of the disciples in view of their adversaries was an evident token of the perdition of the latter, and of their own final salvation. He who was already thus with them by the way would be found in corresponding attitude at the end of the way, both towards friends and enemies, whom His righteous judgment, as the apostle puts it here, could not possibly confound. He does not mean or say -it would be indeed out of the question for such as Paul to say -that suffering, any more than working, could give any title to acceptance on the part of the Righteous God. It was grace (as he says again to the Philippians,) that gave them even to stiffer for Christ’s sake. But grace had righteous title to count them worthy; and what it had wrought in them it was righteousness also to acknowledge. For the Kingdom of God they were already suffering, identifying themselves and identified too with it; and the result would show that it was no deception.
3. Paul goes on to the final recompense of that day in which God’s righteous judgment will be fully displayed. He puts in the strongest way, by making a question of it, that surely for them there could be no question as to the future: for those for whom God had already shown Himself, in the support He had given them through all their afflictions at the hands of men. There is no change in the Unchangeable; and with Him whose righteousness had so manifested itself toward them in the past there could be no failure ever to distinguish between friends and enemies. It would be righteous still to recompense affliction in the day of recompense, to those who had afflicted them; while to His suffering ones there would be rest, at the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven with the angels of His power, -the messengers who execute His will upon the ungodly, and upon those disobedient to the gospel of His grace.
Whether there are two classes here, or one in two aspects, has been much disputed. Hall men are included in the judgment spoken of, then it is evident that all have not had the gospel preached to them. The judgment of the dead, as the book of Revelation exhibits it, is certainly not intended; but only that of the living when the Lord appears. Whether this also is a judgment strictly universal may he questioned; and the question cannot be answered here without a long digression. Even so. it need not be that the apostle meant to bring in all into a statement manifestly designed as consolation for the persecuted Thessalonians. Their persecutors had certainly this double character: -they knew not God, and obeyed not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. The apostle speaks of some even of the Corinthian disciples as not having the knowledge of God (1Co 15:34); and when the Son of God was in the world -before men’s eyes, and preached of in their ears -"the world knew Him not." It was an ignorance with opportunity of knowledge; though this is, in fact, the condition of all the heathen. God could not hide Himself from men that sought Him, and all ignorance is, in its essence, of the heart rather than the mind. Man proves it, when the light comes, by his rejection of it. God’s vengeance, as the text before us declares it, could not fall upon mere helpless babes: that were impossible to His nature. But here plainly their ignorance is that which makes them culpable, not such as would even palliate their condition.
But the gospel! the sweet glad tidings of God, so divinely suited to all man’s need, and with its revelation of the incomparable God of our Lord Jesus Christ, made known in the depths of His nature by the love-gift of His Son -what must be the consequence, answering to the revelation of the depths of man’s own heart in it, of his disobedience to the gospel? Men, says the apostle, who shall suffer the judgment of everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His might. It is not any materialistic annihilation that is declared or implied in this. Banishment from the presence of that glory which he has turned his back upon and despised, -hardening himself into a final, awful incapacity for it, -what is it but the "destruction" of one made at the first in the image of God, -and for communion with Him?
Just then, on the other hand, the saints shine out in glory -their inheritance for evermore. It is the time of which we hear in Romans as "the manifestation of the sons of God." Such by creation, but redeemed and immeasurably exalted by new creation, they now are seen as the fruit of Christ’s work, their glory His glory: He is glorified in them, and marvelled at in all who have believed; -and believed the same testimony which had been given to the Thessalonians. These poor persecuted followers of Christ, who now need faith so much amid the trials surrounding them, will then be the marvel of the inhabitants of earth, and make men marvel at the grace bestowed on them.
The apostle closes with a prayer that they may now in the present time exhibit a character which shall answer to such a calling as is here shown to be theirs. He prays that God may count them worthy of it: that is, that He in the day of account may adjudge them to have walked as those governed by it; for this end, therefore, that God might accomplish in them all that was in His heart to do; which faith indeed would effect, as His instrument, but with a power, therefore, more than human. So would the name of Christ be glorified in them already; and they too in Him, for whom it was the highest glory to live, to suffer, and to die. It was the grace of God, and of the Lord Jesus bestowed upon them.
F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible (4th ed., 1903) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 Salutations. The Second Advent
Salutations. The Second Advent
1-4. Greeting and thanksgiving for their constant faith and love and patience under persecution: cp. 1Th_1:3.
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5-C. 2Th_2:17. The Coming of Christ to judgment. Much is to happen before Christ comes.
5. A manifest token] The words refer to their sufferings and their patience. If God is righteous there must come a time when wrongs such as theirs shall be righted, and patience like theirs be rewarded. Thus the sufferings and patience of the Thessalonians become a proof that there is a judgment to come (Php_1:8).
7. Rest] better, 'relief.' The true rest and relief comes to the faithful when Christ comes.
8. Taking vengeance] better, 'awarding retribution.' Them that know not God, and that obey not] better, (1) 'them that know not, and (2) them that obey not. 'Possibly (1) Gentiles and (2) Jews.
9. The everlasting destruction (only here) consists in exclusion from God's presence.
11. Calling] cp. Php_3:14, Heb_3:1. All the good pleasure of his goodness] better, 'all delight in well-doing.'
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. W. McGarvey 1914 · Public Domain On vv1–4 Paul, and Silvanus, and Timothy, unto the church of…
Paul, and Silvanus, and Timothy, unto the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ ;
J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 Analysis and Annotations
Analysis and Annotations
I. THE REVELATION OF THE LORD JESUS FROM HEAVEN
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CHAPTER 1
1. Salutation and thanksgiving (2Th 1:1-4)
2. The revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven (2Th 1:5-10)
3. The prayer (2Th 1:11-12)
2Th 1:1-4
The opening words of salutation are the same as in the first Epistle. Once more he gives thanks to God for them, because their faith increased exceedingly and love abounded, the result of an increasing faith. On account of this progress and spiritual condition he wrote, “So that we ourselves glory in you in the churches for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure.” The patience of hope, which was mentioned in the first Epistle, is omitted by him. Their hope had been dimmed through the false teachers and alarmists, who would have them believe that they were heading for all the tribulations of the day of the Lord. They endured persecutions and tribulations on account of which they were greatly disturbed, because of the insinuation that these were the judgments of the day of the Lord. They looked more to what was happening to them than to the Lord. They were more occupied with these conditions than with the blessed hope.
2Th 1:5-10
He quiets these fears. Satan was pressing upon them, terrifying their minds, and they were fearing everything, the enemy taking advantage of the persecutions and sufferings he had instigated to distress them. The Apostle tells them that all their persecutions and tribulations, far from having a punitive character, were “a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God” with this purpose, “to the end that ye should be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for the sake of which ye also suffer.”
They were children of God, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, and their path was to suffer with Him, that they also might be glorified together (Rom 8:17). A similar word he wrote later to the Philippians. “in nothing terrified by your adversaries, which is to them an evident token of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that of God” (Php 1:28). What was happening to them was a seal upon them of their being worthy of the coming kingdom. The persecutions they endured showed they were identified with the Lord, who was “despised and rejected of men.” Their sufferings were the sufferings of Christ.
And then the contrast. When the day of the Lord comes with the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven, it will bring the punishment of the wicked. Their persecutions were from the ungodly, who inflicted suffering on them because they believed on the Lord. But when the day of the Lord comes God will change all by recompensing those that troubled them. “Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you, and to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels.” In other words, in His day they would have rest and peace, while their wicked enemies will suffer the well deserved judgment. From this inspired declaration they learned that the day of the Lord had not come.
The day of the Lord brings the revelation of the Lord from heaven with His mighty angels, “in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall suffer the penalty of everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His might, when He shall come to be glorified in His saints, and to be wondered at in all who have believed (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day.” “In that day” is a phrase which we find many times in the Old Testament prophetic Word. In most cases it means the day of the visible manifestation of Jehovah to deal in judgment with His enemies and to deliver those of His earthly people Israel who wait for Him. “And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall punish the host of the high ones that are as high and the kings of the earth upon the earth” (Is. 24:21). “And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God, we have waited for Him, and He will save us” (Is. 25:9).
Judgment for the world is always connected with that coming day. Our Lord, in His earthly ministry, also spoke of that day, the day of the coming of the Son of man. “For the Son of man shall come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then shall He reward every man according to His works” (Mat 16:27). His visible coming out of heaven and bringing judgment is still more fully described in Rev 19:11-21. It will be the day of vengeance after the acceptable year of the Lord is ended (Isa 61:1-2). The apostle’s testimony tells us the same. Two classes are mentioned by him. Those that know not God, which means the idolatrous Gentiles and sinners in general, “and those that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (The text of the Authorized Version having omitted the word “those” makes it appear as if it were only one class; but that is incorrect.) These are the Jews and also nominal and apostate Christians. The latter class will suffer the great punishment. The destruction mentioned has been explained as meaning annihilation. But that is not true. It is banishment from the presence of that glory upon which man has turned his back and which he despised--hardening himself into a final, awful incapacity for it and for communion with Him. What else is it but the destruction “of one who was made at the first in the image of God?” They will live on in eternal separation from God.
The apostle mentions something else which is not found in the Old Testament prophetic Word. When the Lord comes in that day He will be glorified in His saints and then wondered at in all who have believed. When He comes thus in judgment upon the world the true Church is no longer on earth, but the saints, having been previously caught up to meet Him in the air, come with Him in glory. It is the time of the manifestation of the sons of God, transformed into His image, each reflecting His glory, who is the leader and the first begotten. And so these poor, persecuted, despised Thessalonians would then be the marvels for the inhabitants of the earth when they appear with Him. Blessed future for all the redeemed to come with the Lord in glory and to be like Him!
These explanations concerning the day of the manifestation of the Lord bringing judgment upon their enemies and glory to them, delivered them from the concision into which the false teachers were leading them, and they were now ready, after being put at rest in their mind, to receive the needed additional instruction about that coming day. A prayer concludes this chapter that, called with such a calling, God may count them worthy of it, that their walk may be of such a nature as to correspond with that calling and that the Lord might be glorified in them by the power of faith, and that afterwards they might be glorified in Him, “according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv1, 3 v. 1. Paul and Silvanus and Timotheus, unto the…
v. 1. Paul and Silvanus and Timotheus, unto the church of the Thessalonians in God, our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ:
v. 2. Grace unto you and peace, from God, our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.
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This opening greeting agrees almost exactly with that of the first letter. Paul again names Silvanus and Timothy, not as coauthors, but as companions and fellow-laborers, with whose persons and work the Thessalonians were familiar from their labor in their own city. To the church, or congregation, of the Thessalonians in God he addresses himself, calling Him our Father and placing Jesus Christ the Lord on a level with Him. All believers are united by faith in Christ through the mercy of God; in Christ they are all children of the heavenly Father. But they incidentally recognize Christ as their Lord, under whom they have enlisted, under whose banners they are fighting. The apostle’s salutation names the greatest gifts, the highest spiritual benefits which may ever fall to the lot of sinful men: grace, the free and unrestricted kindness and mercy of God which was earned for all men through the vicarious work of Christ; peace from God the Father, since the payment of all our guilt through the blood of Jesus has removed the cause of God’s displeasure toward us and given us a perfect reconciliation. Again, Jesus Christ the Lord is placed on the same level with the Father: He is true God from eternity with the Father, in every way the Father’s equal in majesty and power.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 3 General Information:
General Information:
Paul is the author of this letter, but he includes Silvanus and Timothy as senders of the letter. He begins by greeting the church at Thessalonica.
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General Information:
The words "we" and "us" refer to Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, unless otherwise noted. Also, the word "you" is plural and refers to the believers at the church of Thessalonica. (See: Exclusive and Inclusive "We" and Forms of You)
Silvanus
This is the Latin form of "Silas." He is the same person listed in the book of Acts as Paul's fellow traveler.
May grace be to you
Paul commonly uses this greeting in his letters.
translationWords
Paul
Silas
Timothy
church
Thessalonica
God the Father
lord
Jesus
grace
peace
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1–4 1:1-2 Paul follows ancient letter writing customs, but instead…
1:1-2 Paul follows ancient letter writing customs, but instead of the normal greeting (Greek chairein) he blesses them with grace (Greek charis) and peace.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.