2 Thessalonians 1:1-12
1 Paul, and Silvanus, and Timotheus, unto the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:
2 Grace unto you, and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
3 We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is meet, because that your faith groweth exceedingly, and the charity of every one of you all toward each other aboundeth;
4 So that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure:
5 Which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer:
6 Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you;
7 And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with hisa mighty angels,
8 In flaming fire takingb vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ:
9 Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power;
10 When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day.
11 Wherefore also we pray always for you, that our God would countc you worthy of this calling, and fulfil all the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work of faith with power:
12 That the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and ye in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Faithful through Faith in a Righteous God
Notice the remarkable couplets of this chapter. Grace and peace, 2 Thessalonians 1:2; faith and love, 2 Thessalonians 1:3; faith and patience, 2 Thessalonians 1:4; tribulation for those who trouble, and rest for those who are troubled, 2 Thessalonians 1:6; know not, obey not, 2 Thessalonians 1:8; the presence of the Lord, the glory of His power, 2 Thessalonians 1:9; glorified and admired, 2 Thessalonians 1:10; the good pleasure of His goodness and the work of faith, 2 Thessalonians 1:11. Like mirrors that face each other, these words flash back and forth their depths of sacred significance.
What marvelous scenes the future conceals for believers!-such as rest for the weary, palms of victory for the defeated, glory for the name and cause of Christ, and, above all, the revelation of that dear Presence with which we have been so constantly in touch. But how inexpressibly awful and terrible, on the other hand, the fate of the willful rejecters of the love of God!
The final prayer has always been highly prized by God's people. If they shall ever be worthy of their high calling, it is for Him to make them so. His being glorified and admired in His saints is not a far-off event, but one within the possibilities of the present hour; and the name of Jesus may be magnified here and now in us, as it will be finally and more perfectly. Compare II Thessalon ians 1:10, 12.