2 Thessalonians 1:5

2 Thessalonians 1:5. A token of the righteous Judgment of God. The just judgment of God here referred to is that future and final allotment of rewards and punishments which is to take place at the second coming of Christ, as described in the following verses. And the present sufferings of the Thessalonians were a proof of this judgment to come: because they made it obvious that in this world men do not receive their deserts, and therefore demanded a future judgment which should harmonize condition and character. The success of falsehood and fraud, the prosperity of the wrong-doer, the sufferings of good men; in a word, the disorder of this present state has always most powerfully brought home to men's convictions the idea of a judgment to come. ‘If we hold this principle of faith, that God is the just judge of the world, and that it is His office to reward every one according to his work, this other principle must beyond dispute follow, that the present disorder is proof that there will be a judgment which does not yet appear' (Calvin).

That ye may be counted worthy. The sufferings of the Thessalonians served another purpose; they were not only suggestive of the judgment to come, they were also disciplinary. They tended to make those who endured them meet for the inheritance of the saints. ‘Their sufferings were a token that they were worthy or meet to be accounted Christians indeed, seeing they could suffer for Christianity. And the truth is, religion, if it is worth anything, is worth everything; and those have no religion or none worth having, or know not how to value it, who cannot find in their hearts to suffer for it. We cannot by all our sufferings, any more than by our services, merit heaven as a debt; but by our patience under sufferings, we are prepared for the joy promised to patient sufferers in the cause of God.'

For which ye also suffer. Not as if they expected to obtain the kingdom by their suffering, but they suffered for its sake, as a man willingly suffers for a cause he believes in and advocates.