Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

2 Thessalonians 1:11

καὶ κ. τ. λ., we pray as well as render thanks (2 Thessalonians 1:3) for you. Unable any longer to give the Thessalonians their personal example and instructions the time for that had passed (ἐπιστώθη) Paul and his colleagues can still pray for them. The duties of a preacher or evangelist do not cease with the utterance of his message. ἀξιώσῃ : one proof that God deemed them worthy of His kingdom lay in the discipline of suffering by means of which He developed their patient faith (2 Thessalonians 1:4-5), but Paul here finds another proof of it in their broader development of moral character and vital religion (cf. 10). f1πᾶσαν includes ἔργον as well as εὐδοκίαν; the prayer is for success to every practical enterprise of faith as well as for the satisfaction of every aspiration and desire after moral excellence. Compare Dante's Paradiso, xviii. 58 60. κλῆσις is “the position you are called to occupy,” “your vocation,” as heirs of this splendid future a not unnatural extension (cf. Philippians 3:14) of its ordinary use (= 1 Corinthians 1:26, etc.). This implies that a certain period of moral ripening must precede the final crisis. In 2 Thessalonians 2:1 to 2 Thessalonians 3:5, Paul proceeds to elaborate this, in order to allay the feverish excitement at Thessalonica, while in 2 Thessalonians 3:6 f., he discusses the further ethical disorders caused by the church's too ardent hope. The heightened misery of the present situation must neither break down their patience (4 f.), nor on the other hand must it be taken as a proof that the end was imminent.

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Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

2 Thessalonians 1:11

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