2 Thessalonians 1:9

‘Who will suffer punishment, even eternal destruction from the face of the Lord and from the glory of His might.'

This is their greatest punishment, that they will not see His face or observe and experience His powerful glory. That they will be separated from Him and what He is for ever. Those who deliberately ‘knew not God' will now for ever not know Him. The word for destruction is not that which means final destruction (apoleia - in contrast with ‘life' - Matthew 7:13; ‘vessels fitted for destruction' - Romans 9:22; in contrast with ‘ the saving of the soul' - Hebrews 9:22; the result of the day of judgment - 2 Peter 3:7) but olethros, which indicates ruin and loss, but here is very similar in meaning. The two words are paralleled in 1 Timothy 6:9. Thus here it means total ruin and darkness, and loss of that which is above all to be desired. It is ‘the destruction of the age to come', heavenly destruction. We do wisely not to expand upon it for we cannot even conceive of it. Scripture always leaves the idea in suspense when it speaks of it, neither elaborating on it nor analysing it. Awful it will certainly be, but that is all we can say.

We can consider how the beings cast ‘alive' into ‘the lake of fire' (Revelation 19:19; Revelation 20:10) are spiritual beings, and alone are said to suffer positive and continual torment, probably due to the hugeness of their loss. The ‘lake of fire and brimstone' there is therefore spiritual. It represents the awful judgment and punishment of the One Who is a consuming fire. His awful holiness is stressed by the fire, His awful judgment is stressed by the brimstone. The remainder are cast in as ‘dead' (Revelation 20:15 with Revelation 20:13 and Revelation 19:21) and there is no mention of torment. Compare Isaiah 66:24 where the idea is also of being excluded, in that case from ‘Jerusalem', and the dead bodies are maggot eaten and destroyed by fire. As death and Hades were also cast into the lake of fire the idea in Revelation 20:13 would seem to be of final total destruction after the agonies of judgment (torture at trial was a regular feature of justice - Revelation 14:10), for such things as death and Hades cannot be punished. We do well to leave to God's understanding the final punishment of the wicked.

‘Punishment.' Literally the paying of a deserved penalty. Because of their unwillingness to know and respond to Him they will be receiving what they deserve.