2 Thessalonians 1

2 Thessalonians 1:1

I, Paul, that (Acts xiii. 7.) was sent out and constituted an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the designation of him, who, being God incarnate, is both our Saviour and Lord, to rescue us from the power of sin, and to rule and reign in our hearts, even he on whom all our trust and expectation and hope of good is founded and built;

2 Thessalonians 1:2

To my dearly beloved Timothy whom I first converted, and so begat to Christianity, I send my heartiest wish of all good from God our careful and loving Father, and Christ Jesus to whom he hath committed all power in his church unto the world’s end.

2 Thessalonians 1:3

We count ourselves bound to give God especial HAMMOND, VOL. II. U

This epistle I now send thee for thy directions in pursuance of that commission which I gave thee when I constituted and appointed thee to reside as bishop at Ephesus, at the time when I went thence to go to Macedonia, Acts xx. 1, that presiding and governing the church there thou mightest suppress the seeds of the Gnostic heresy sowed there, and keep men within the form of sound doctrine, that which in all churches was delivered by us,

2 Thessalonians 1:4

And accordingly we express our joy by boasting of you to other churches of Christians, that you have with great patience endured sore persecutions, and yet continued firm and constant in all.

And warn thy flock not to heed those fabulous pedigrees of the gods, which under the name of

2 Thessalonians 1:5

Which is a notable means of evidencing the great justice of God’s providence and dispensations of the things of this world, when all the persecutions that fall on you tend but to the trial and approving of your constancy and fidelity to Christ, and so to the making you capable of that glorious deliverance which Christ will shortly work for all that adhere to him, when the unfaithful and cowardly are destroyed with the persecutors. And indeed this is it for which they persecute you, as they have done us, that we profess to believe that Christ will shortly exercise this regal power of his for the destroying of his enemies, and rescuing the persecuted out of their calamities;

[b] kingdom of God] That the kingdom of God signifies the state of the gospel or Christian profession, appears oft in the Gospels, especially in the parables of Christ; when the kingdom of God is likened to a net, to a pearl, &c., and to that the addition of ὑπὲρ ἦν πάσχετε, for which ye suffer, may here seem to incline it, but the καταξιωθῆναι that goes before is not well applicable to that. For that signifying to be vouchsafed or thought worthy to have their parts in it, or to have it bestowed upon them, it must refer to somewhat yet future, which through the mercy of God should be bestowed upon them; and then that, whatsoever it is, being hoped for and depended on by them, it may well be said that they suffer for that, that is, either for the professing that hope of theirs, whereby the malice of others is provoked against them, or at least in hope or intuition of it. Two other notions therefore there are of the kingdom of God: first, that of reigning with Christ in endless bliss in another world; and, 2dly, the exercise of Christ’s regal power, which was then so oft foretold to be approaching, in destroying his enemies, and preserving his faithful subjects, according to that double office of a king, Rom. xiii, of avenging of offenders, and rewarding

2 Thessalonians 1:6

It being most just with God to punish your persecutors, to deal with them as they have dealt with you;

2 Thessalonians 1:7

And to give you, in proportion to your sufferings, a participation of ease and joy with the apostles of Christ at that glorious coming of his to the punishing of his enemies, foretold Matt. xxiv, with those notable messengers and ministers and executioners of his power (see note [d] 2 Peter iii.);

[c] revealed] Ἀποκάλυψις Χριστοῦ, the revelation of Christ, as the coming of Christ, is a phrase of a doubtful signification, sometimes signifying the coming to the final doom, but sometimes also that coming that was described Matt. xxiv, and was to be within that generation. And so sure it signifies in several places of St. Peter, 1 Pet. i. 7. 13, and ch. iv. 13; and the σωτηρία ἑνόμη ἀποκαλυφθῆναι ἐν ἰσχάτῳ καιρῷ, the deliverance ready to be revealed in the last time, ch. i. 5, the destruction of the Jews being the time of the deliverance and escaping to the Christians that were persecuted by them (see Rom. xiii. 11). So again, 1 Pet. v. 1, where St. Peter saying of himself that he was a witness of the sufferings of Christ, addeth, he was also τῆς μελλούσης ἀποκαλύπτεσθαι δόξης κοινωνός, partaker of the glory that should be revealed, that is, present at the transfiguration, where by Moses and Elias were represented and declared the glorious consequents of his crucifixion, that is, the destruction of his crucifiers, and deliverance of his faithful disciples; see note [a] on Matt. xvii, note [b] on Luke ix, and 2 Pet. i. 16. And so here it most probably signifies, where the vengeance on the oppressors, that is, the crucifiers of Christ, and persecutors of Christians, is described, and an appendix of that rest and release to the oppressed, which is that σωτηρία, deliverance, so oft promised to them that persevere and endure and outlast those persecutions, and that ἐν ἡμίρᾳ ἰκείνῃ, ver. 10, in that day, which is the notation of that time of vengeance upon the Jews; see note [a] on Heb. x. As for the mentions, 1st, of the angels, 2dly, of the flame of fire, 3dly, of the everlasting destruction, which may here seem to interpret this revelation of Christ, so as to signify the day of the general doom; it is evident, 1st, that the angels being ministers of God in executing his judgments on nations, this remarkable vengeance on the Jews may well here, and is elsewhere fitly expressed by his coming or revealing himself with or by his angels. So Matt. xvi. 27, and elsewhere often. See note [g] on Jude. Then, 2dly, for the πῦρ φλογός, fire of flame, or flaming fire, that is ordinarily the expression of the appearance of angels, (he maketh his ministers a flaming fire, saith the Psalmist,) and so adds little to the former; and,

2 Thessalonians 1:8

In rendering a most severe vengeance to all the obdurate Jews, and wicked, carnal, heretical, Gnostic Christians,

2 Thessalonians 1:9

Which shall be finally destroyed by the judgment of God at his powerful appearance in vengeance against his crucifiers.

2 Thessalonians 1:10

At which time also he will shew miraculous acts of mercy to all pious, faithful Christians, to deliver them (and so consequently you who have received the gospel preached by us) in the day of his vengeance on his enemies: (see note [a] Heb. x.)