Philip Schaff's Popular Commentary (4 vols)

2 Thessalonians 1:6

2 Thessalonians 1:6. If indeed it is a righteous thing with God. The confirmation of what has been said is put hypothetically to suggest the impossibility of the contrary supposition, and so present the truth of the reason in the most convincing form. The reference is specially to the words ‘righteous judgment' of 2 Thessalonians 1:5.

To recompense tribulation to them that trouble you. This is the jus talionis, the law of retaliation, of meting to a man according to his own measure. ‘With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again;' this is the inviolable Divine order. And just as many instances of the punishment of sin in life startle us by the exactness of the retribution, so here Paul by the words he chooses designs to indicate pointedly that this exactness will characterize the final judgment. It is the doctrine also of James (2 Thessalonians 2:13), ‘He shall have judgment without mercy, that hath showed no mercy.'

Continues after advertising

BibliaPlus

Philip Schaff's Popular Commentary (4 vols)

2 Thessalonians 1:6

Old Testament

New Testament