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.
Evidently, this letter was intended primarily to correct certain mistakes which the Thessalonians were making concerning the Second Advent. They were failing to distinguish between the two phases, the Day of the Lord and the coming of the Lord. In his introduction the apostle again referred to their faith and their love, but not to their hope. The peculiar peril now threatening them was to be found in this matter.
The apostle proceeded to deal with "the revelation of the Lord Jesus." He is to be revealed "from heaven with the angels of His power in flaming fire." The revealing is to be for a definite purpose. It will exclude from His face and His glory all who are disobedient. The connection of the saints with that apocalypse is declared to be rest first, and, finally, they are to constitute the medium through which the Lord Jesus' glory will be manifested and marveled at. The terrors of His revealing are not for the saints, and in the age following His revelation the saints are to be associated with Him, and to be the channels through which the truth of His glory will be made known.
"To that end," that is, with such a consummation in view, the apostle proved that God might count them worthy of such calling, fulfilling every desire and good work, the deepest desire of his heart being that at last, in the fulness of interrelation, Christ might be glorified in them, and they in Christ.