2 Thessalonians 1:5-12

5 This is a ¹plain indication of God's righteous judgment so that you will be ²considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which indeed you are suffering.

6 ^[a]For after all ³it is only just ^[b]for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you,

7 and to give relief to you who are afflicted ^[c]and to us as well ^[d]4when the Lord Jesus will be revealed ⁵from heaven ⁶with ^[e]His mighty angels ⁷in flaming fire,

8 dealing out retribution to those who ⁸do not know God and to those who ⁹do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.

9 These will pay the penalty of ¹⁰eternal destruction, ¹¹away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power,

10 when He comes to be ¹²glorified ^[f]in His ^[g]saints on that ¹³day, and to be marveled at among all who have believed -for our ¹⁴testimony to you was believed.

11 To this end also we ¹⁵pray for you always, that our God will ^[h]16count you worthy of your ¹⁷calling, and fulfill every desire for ¹⁸goodness and the ¹⁹work of faith with power,

12 so that the ²⁰name of our Lord Jesus will be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

2 Thessalonians 1:5-12 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO 2 THESSALONIANS

This second epistle was written, not from Athens, as the subscription testifies, nor from Rome, as Athanasius {a} supposes; but from Corinth, from whence was sent the former, and where the apostle and Timothy, and Silvanus met; and which was sent about half a year after the other. The design of which is to comfort and support the Thessalonians under the afflictions and persecutions they endured for the sake of the Gospel; and to rectify a mistake they had gone into, and which might be occasioned by what the apostle had said in his former epistle, concerning the second coming of Christ, as though it was just at hand; which might lead them to neglect their worldly business, and duties of civil life, and give the enemies of the Gospel an advantage against the whole of it as false, should not this prove true; as also to exhort this church to take notice of disorderly persons such as were idle, and busy bodies, and withdraw from them, and remove them from their communion, as being not only burdensome to them, but a reproach to their profession.

{a} Synopsis Sacr. Script. Tom. ii. p. 129.

\\INTRODUCTION TO 2 THESSALONIANS 1\\

This chapter, besides the inscription and salutation, contains a thanksgiving for the flourishing condition in which the graces of the Spirit were in these saints, and consolation for them under their suffering circumstances. The inscription and salutation are in 2Th 1:1,2 and are as usual: the thanksgiving is in 2Th 1:3 for the growth of their faith, the abounding of their love, and their constant patience under persecutions and afflictions, insomuch that the apostle also gloried of them for these things among other churches, 2Th 1:4 and as an encouragement to them to continue patient under sufferings, he observes that this was a token of the righteous judgment of God, and that they were reckoned worthy of his kingdom for which they suffered, 2Th 1:5 and of which righteous judgment they might be assured, from the nature of God himself, whose justice required a retribution of vengeance to their persecutors, and rest to them with the apostles, 2Th 1:6,7 the time of which rest and ease is pointed at, as that it will be at the coming of Christ; which is described by the place from whence he comes, heaven; by his retinue, his mighty angels; by the manner in which he shall come, in flaming fire; and by the vengeance he will execute: the objects of which are also described, by their ignorance of God, and by their disobedience to the Gospel of Christ; and by the nature of the punishment inflicted on them, which will lie in an expulsion from the presence, power, and glory of God, and in an everlasting destruction of soul and body, 2Th 1:7-9 but as for them, the persecuted saints, and which is mentioned for their comfort, Christ shall at this day be glorified and admired in them, and by them, 2Th 1:10 wherefore the apostle prays for this perseverance of them, that the good work of faith might be performed in them, and they enjoy the glory they were called unto; and that Christ might be glorified in them, and they in him; not according to their works, but according to the grace of God through him, 2Th 1:11.

Cross References

• 1. Philippians 1:28
• 2. Luke 20:35; 2 Thessalonians 1:11
• 3. Exodus 23:22; Colossians 3:25; Hebrews 6:10
• 4. Luke 17:30
• 5. 1 Thessalonians 4:16
• 6. Jude 14
• 7. Exodus 3:2; Exodus 19:18; Isaiah 66:15; Ezekiel 1:13; Daniel 7:9; Matthew 25:41; 1 Corinthians 3:13; Hebrews 10:27; Hebrews 12:29; 2 Peter 3:7; Jude 7; Revelation 14:10
• 8. Galatians 4:8
• 9. Romans 2:8
• 10. Philippians 3:19; 1 Thessalonians 5:3
• 11. Is 2:10, 19, 21; 2 Thessalonians 2:8
• 12. Isaiah 49:3; John 17:10; 1 Thessalonians 2:12
• 13. Isaiah 2:11f; 1 Corinthians 3:13
• 14. 1 Corinthians 1:6; 1 Thessalonians 2:1
• 15. Colossians 1:9
• 16. 2 Thessalonians 1:5
• 17. Romans 11:29
• 18. Romans 15:14
• 19. 1 Thessalonians 1:3
• 20. Isaiah 24:15; Isaiah 66:5; Malachi 1:11; Philippians 2:9f

Footnotes

• [a]. Lit "If indeed"
• [b]. Or "in the sight of"
• [c]. Lit "along with us"
• [d]. Lit "at the revelation of the Lord Jesus"
• [e]. Lit "the angels of His power"
• [f]. Or "in the persons of"
• [g]. Or "holy ones"
• [h]. Or "make"