2 Thessalonians 1

1. PAUL, and Silvanus, and Timotheus, unto the church of the Thessalonians in God our 2 Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: grace unto you, and peace, from God our Father and 3 the Lord Jesus Christ. We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is meet, 4 because that your faith groweth exceedingly, and the charity of every one of you all toward 5 each other aboundeth; so that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God for your 6 patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure: which is a mani- 7 fest token of the righteous judgment of God, that ye may be counted worthy of the king- 8 dom of God, for which ye also suffer: seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recom- 9 pense tribulation to them that trouble you; and to you who are troubled rest with us, when 10 the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire taking 11 vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus 12 Christ: who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, 13 and from the glory of his power; when he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to 14 be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in 15 that day. Wherefore also we pray always for you, that our God would count you worthy 16 of this calling, and fulfill all the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work of faith with 17 power. that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and ye in him, 18 according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

If we quite believed about heaven all that the Bible tells us of it, how humility would clothe us, and zeal inflame us, and the thought of our inheritance ennoble us, making us calm and brave as the sons of God! We should live with men now, heirs with us of a common salvation, as those who hope presently to pass eternity together. Wherever we found souls without the divine knowledge, we should endeavor to say to them with zeal, and yet with wisdom, Come thou with us, and we will do thee good. We should pray, believing in prayer; we should work, for the time is short; we should hate and resist sin in, at least, something of the spirit in which we shall look back at it out of Paradise; sloth, and self-indulgence, and covetousness, and injustice to each other, would seem even a treason against the Lord that bought us with his blood. Then let us live for this glory, and wait for it, and do all we can to earn it, for our glory is our Master’s, and he is coming to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe. A. W. T.

It is a sequel to the previous Epistle, and prob- ably followed it in course of a few months. It is- sues from the same persons, Paul, Silas, and Timo- thy; and the joint origin is expressed throughout the Epistle more than in any other of the apostolic letters. D. F.—Since the sending of the first letter, some one had been imposing upon the Thes- salonians a letter in the apostle’s name, to the effect that the day of the Lord was close upon them, ex- citing them, and causing them to walk disorderly, and to disregard their own business in life. On be- ing informed of this at Corinth, where he remained for a year and a half, he sent this second Epistle, not contradicting, not even modifying, his former teaching, but filling it out and rendering it complete; informing them of those things which in the divine counsels were destined to precede the coming of the day of the Lord, and the manifestation of which was kept back by circumstances then existing. A. —He had already told them of these signs when he was with them, and this explains the extreme obscurity of his description of them in the present Epistle; for he was not giving new information, but alluding to facts which he had already explained to them at an earlier period. It would have been well if this had been remembered by those who have extracted such numerous and discordant prophecies and anathemas from certain passages in the follow- ing Epistle. C.

6-9. The Lord’s second coming in glory is a day of vengeance and a day of recompense. Which is not to be understood as if they were not to be pun- ished nor we rewarded before that day; but that then both will be more full and complete. The wicked that are now in chains of darkness are look- ing for a more terrible day; and souls in the rest of paradise, in the intermediate state of glory, are looking for a more full reward. T. M.—Within the shadow of that throne of judgment we all live, and the shadow deepens fast; for every hour of our dream-like existence is bringing us nearer and nearer to the awful reality. Not death itself is more in- evitable; for death is but the commissioned officer of this tribunal; he exists only that he may lead us to its footstool. Not heaven’s promised happiness is more assured; for this is the sole portal of heaven to man. Nay, the very being of our God is scarcely a more fixed truth; for even his being is not more certain than his justice, and his justice demands the judgment. Whatever is uncertain, or undecided, or controverted, this remains unquestionable: God shall “come to be glorified in his saints,” He shall be “revealed in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know him not.” To this all gathers; in this all is consummated. W. A. B.

9. There are many who cherish good hope, not on the ground of avoiding sin, but of thinking that hell is milder than the threatenings describe it, and temporary instead of eternal; and on this subject they speculate at large. But that it is not temporary we may learn from Paul saying, in this passage about those “who know not God, and believe not the gospel,” that they “shall be punished with eternal destruction.” How then can what is eternal be temporary? Chrys.—When we open the word of God, it is impossible for any honest man to deny that, whether its teaching be true or false, the fact of future punishment is an essential portion of what is taught. By no conceivable perversion of the words of Christ, so often repeated on this subject, and by no interpretation of his parables, can it be denied that it was his intention to give the very impression which the universal Church has received, that there is a “wrath to come,” and a state of being which to some is “cursed,” and so very dreadful that, with reference to one of his own disciples, who is called “the son of perdition,” the Saviour said that it would have “been good for that man had he never been born.” The apostles, who express in language as strong and unhesitating the certainty and dread nature of future punishment, were men also who, more than any who have ever lived, loved their fellow-men, wept like their Divine Master for their sins, and devoted their lives, with untiring unselfishness, to rescue them from present evil and future woe. N. M.

It can not be doubted that the character of ungodliness with which the lost spirit leaves this world is perpetuated to the state of being that follows it. But much more than this is too awfully probable. The total absence of all Divine grace leaving every evil propensity to rank luxuriance, the presence of all the accursed stimulants to desperate impiety, must surely combine to make the sinner, the punished sinner of this life, progressively, unceasingly, the everlasting sinner of the life that succeeds it. The sinner is to suffer for everlasting, but it is because the sin itself is as everlasting as the suffering. W. A. B.—We are made for the enjoyment of eternal blessedness; it is our high calling and destination. To fail of such an object, to defeat the end of our existence, and in consequence of neglecting the great salvation to sink at last under the frown of the Almighty, is a calamity which words were not invented to express, nor finite minds formed to grasp. If it be lawful to indulge such a thought, what would be the funeral obsequies of a lost soul? Where shall we find the tears fit to be wept at such a spectacle? or, could we realize the calamity in all its extent, what tokens of commiseration and concern would be deemed equal to the occasion? Would it suffice for the sun to veil his light and the moon her brightness; to cover the ocean with mourning, and the heavens with sackcloth? or, were the whole fabric of Nature to become animated and vocal, would it be possible for her to utter a groan too deep, or a cry too piercing, to express the magnitude and extent of such a catastrophe? R. Hall.

10. He assuredly comes to put that glory on his saints which the Father has put upon him, for it is written, “He comes to be glorified in his saints.” Not only admired in himself but “in his saints”; as if he counted the social glory which results to his person from the glory of his children a greater honor to him than his own personal glory! T. M.—That bright day when he shall shine forth in his royal dignity shall be to his saints the gladdest day that ever arose upon them; a day that shall never set or be benighted; the day they so much longed and looked out for, the full accomplishment of all their hopes and desires. Oh, how dark were all our days without the hope of this day! L.

11. Fulfill all. He who first wrought this work in the soul of his good pleasure carries on his grace in the same sovereignty of love and power. He refreshes the soul that is faint and weary, revives its graces, enlarges its views, and confirms its hold of divine truth; he calls into exercise the spiritual powers with which he has endowed his people, and sustains them therein, to the bringing glory to his name, and a rich treasure to them of present enjoyment and future recompense. Hence the apostle, desiring the complete salvation of his brethren, prays for it under this special view, “that God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfill all the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work of faith with power.” Blessed be his glorious name for such a view of that great work that needs to be perfected in our souls! It is the Lord’s own work; his own good pleasure. Goode.—Never does the believer work for God with so much confidence, and activity, and perseverance, and zeal, and success, as when he knows that all his works are wrought in God; that God is fulfilling in him all the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work of faith with power. J. W. A.