2 Thessalonians 1:12

that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you Once more read Lord Jesus (R. V.), not Lord Jesus Christ.

For this end, "to be glorified in His saints," we were told in 2 Thessalonians 1:10, Christ is coming; the call by which God summoned the Thessalonians in the Gospel has this in view; with the same purpose, therefore, the Apostle prays for the fulfilment of the work of grace in them. There is nothing he desires in his own case so much as "that Christ may be magnified" (Philippians 1:20); nor anything that he covets more eagerly for his friends.

But now it is the Saviour's namethat is to be glorified; for their salvation, when complete, will set forth with astonishing lustre the Divine-human name of our Lord Jesus. This "name" is "glorified," when its full import is recognized, and the worship which it requires is paid to Him who bears it. So in Philippians 2:9-10, we read how the work and sufferings of Christ will have their consummation when "in the name of Jesusevery knee shall bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord!"

and ye in him This glorification will be mutual. It will be the honour of the Head to have such members, and of the members to have such a Head; of the "Firstborn" to have such and so many younger brethren (Romans 8:29), and theirs to have such an Elder Brother. This is the perfection of love, that each should see its own joy and pride in the other. Comp. 2 Corinthians 1:14, "we are your glorying, as you are ours, in the day of our Lord Jesus." For the glorification of the saints in Christ, its nature and conditions, see farther, Romans 8:17-23; Romans 8:28-30; Colossians 3:1-4; Philippians 3:20; 2 Timothy 2:10-13.

And this joyous and triumphant issue of the faith of the persecuted Thessalonians is according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus christ. "Our God" is the fountain, "the Lord Jesus Christ" the channel of this grace.

The "grace of God and of Christ" now named from one, now from another of its Divine Bestowers, seldom, as here, from bothhad from the first this issue of its working in view. And the glorious result is only what we might expect from such grace. It is "the grace of ourGod," as it shows Him to be ours and makes Him ours in experience. Our Godis a rare expression with St Paul, occurring twice here (2 Thessalonians 1:11), twice in 1Th (2 Thessalonians 2:2; 2 Thessalonians 3:9), and only once elsewhere, 1 Corinthians 6:11; more frequent is God our Father, or occasionally our God and Father. It is found often in St John's Apocalypse.

For the meaning of Grace, and its place in St Paul's vocabulary, see note on 1 Thessalonians 1:1, adding the following observations. There is no word in the N.T. more original and characteristic than this. Its usage springs from the nature of the Gospel of Christ, as that expresses the character of God and His relationship towards men. (1) The radical sense of Grace (charis) in common Greek is pleasingness. From the artistic feeling of the Greek mind, this came to be synonymous with loveliness(gracefulness), which was idolized in the three Graces (Charites), embodiments of all that is charming in person and in social life. Such was the connection of this word with religion in classical Greek. (2) It further signified pleasingness of disposition, favourboth in the active sense (a) of obligingness, graciousness; and in the passive sense (b) of acceptableness. In the Greek of the O.T., Psalms 45:2, "Grace is poured into thy lips," supplies an example of (a), similarly Colossians 4:6; while (b) is exemplified in the familiar phrase, to "find grace in the eyes of" so and so (comp. Luke 2:52). On 2 ais based the specific N.T. signification of Grace, so conspicuous in St Paul. It denotes, therefore, (3) the favour of God towards mankind, revealed in Jesus Christ. Hence, on the one hand, it stands in contrast with human sin and ill-desert("where sin multiplied, grace superabounded," Romans 5:20); and is the moving cause of man's salvation, embodied and acting in Jesus Christ, above all in His death upon the Cross (John 1:17; Titus 2:11; Galatians 2:21; &c.): God's grace is His redeeming love to sinners. On the other hand, it is the attribute of God's Fatherhood: "Grace to you … from God the Father" (2 Thessalonians 1:2, &c.; comp. ch. 2 Thessalonians 2:16; John 1:14). The revelation of the Grace and the Fatherhood of God go together. Grace acts in the way of forgiveness(St Paul's "forgive" in Ephesians 4:32; Colossians 2:13; Colossians 3:13, is derived from charis, and signifies to "show grace"), and in the free giftof the blessings of salvation (Romans 3:24; Romans 5:17, &c.). Hence, in the Apostle's teaching, Grace is opposed not only to sinwhich it conquers and destroys, but to human meritwhich it sets aside to "works of law" regarded as means of our salvation, and to everything that would make God's benefits conferred on us in Christ matters of "debt" on His part: see Romans 3:19-21; Romans 4:4-15; Galatians 2:15-21; Ephesians 2:1-10, for the establishment of this leading principle of St Paul's doctrine. It is the idea of mercy(not grace) that in the O.T. brings us nearest to this N.T. conception. But while the former expresses God's pitiful disposition as the Almighty toward man who is weak and wretched, this denotes His loving, forgiving disposition as our Father in Christ toward sinful and lost men. Two further uses of the word, arising out of this principal use, should be noted. Grace signifies (4) sometimes an act, or bestowment of God's gracethis or that manifestation of grace (Romans 1:5; Ephesians 3:8). (5) Sometimes, again, it denotes a state of gracein man, God's grace realized and operative in the Christian: "this grace in which we stand," Romans 5:2 (comp. 2 Timothy 2:1; 2 Peter 3:18; &c.). (6) Lastly, charisbears in the N.T. and in common Greek the sense of thanks, gratefulness.

The course of the Apostle's Thanksgiving has carried his readers far away from their present troubles into a region of heavenly rest and triumph; while for a moment, by the way, it lifts the curtain to reveal the judgement hanging over their tormentors. The "vengeance" that awaits the latter, and the "relief" that awaits the former, are in each case a just and inevitable recompense.