Retribution
For after all it is only just for God to repay with
affliction those who afflict you … dealing out retribution to those
who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our
Lord Jesus. These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away
from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power,
(1:6, 8–9)
Ekdikēsis (retribution), meaning “to
give full punishment,” is variously translated “justice,”
“punishment,” “retribution,” “vengeance,” and “avenging
of wrong.” In his defense before the Sanhedrin, Stephen said, “And
when he [Moses] saw one of them being treated unjustly, he defended
him and took vengeance [ekdikēsis] for the oppressed by
striking down the Egyptian” (Acts 7:24). Just as Moses brought
retribution to the Egyptian for mistreating his fellow Israelites, so
also will God bring retribution to those who reject Him and
mistreat His people.
God’s retribution, however, is not like the
unruly, hostile, selfish, sinful passion that causes people to
retaliate against others, since “the God who inflicts wrath is not
unrighteous” (Rom. 3:5). But because sinful humans are not
perfectly holy, completely just, and omniscient, they cannot render
perfect judgment. Therefore, God reserves vengeance for Himself. In
the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus forbade personal vengeance (Matt.
5:38–48), and Paul wrote in Romans 12:19, “Never take your own
revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is
written, ‘Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,’ says the Lord” (cf.
Deut. 32:35; Isa. 66:15–16; Heb. 10:30).
The Bible repeatedly teaches that God will deal out
retribution to sinners. The imprecatory Psalms (7; 35; 40; 55; 58;
59; 69; 79; 109; 137; 139; 144) presuppose and even exalt God’s
retribution. In strong, even shocking language, the psalmists cry out
for God to take vengeance on their enemies:
The righteous will rejoice when
he sees the vengeance;
He will wash his feet in the
blood of the wicked. (Ps. 58:10)
Surely God will shatter the head
of His enemies,
The hairy crown of him who goes
on in his guilty deeds. (Ps. 68:21)
Add iniquity to their iniquity,
And may they not come into Your
righteousness. (Ps. 69:27)
And return to our neighbors
sevenfold into their bosom
The reproach with which they
have reproached You, O Lord. (Ps. 79:12)
Let there be none to extend
lovingkindness to him,
Nor any to be gracious to his
fatherless children. (Ps. 109:12)
How blessed will be the one who
seizes and dashes your little ones
Against the rock. (Ps. 137:9)
Do I not hate those who hate
You, O Lord?
And do I not loathe those who
rise up against You?
I hate them with the utmost
hatred;
They have become my enemies.
(Ps. 139:21–22)
Such forceful calls for God’s just vengeance on His
enemies disturb some, as John Wenham notes:
Earlier this year [1962] 14
church study groups in Woodford looked at the Old Testament psalms
and concluded that 84 of them were “not fit for Christians to
sing”; and J. C. Wansey, compiler of the useful collection of New
Testament passages which have been printed for congregational
chanting under the title A New Testament Psalter, commented:
“These psalms and parts of many others are full of tribal
jealousies, bloodthirsty threats and curses, whinings and moanings,
which are shocking in themselves and time-wasting to God and man. The
New Testament psalms are Christian through and through.” But to
jettison half the Psalter is a dubious expedient, for, as C. S. Lewis
realizes, the harsh passages and the tender passages are hopelessly
mixed up, and it is not possible just to ignore the unpleasant
sections. (The Goodness of God [Downers Grove, Ill:
InterVarsity, 1975], 149)
But imprecatory language is not restricted to the
Psalms. Warned by God that the men of his hometown sought his life
(Jer. 11:18, 21), Jeremiah prayed, “O Lord of hosts, who judges
righteously, who tries the feelings and the heart, let me see Your
vengeance on them, for to You have I committed my cause” (11:20).
In response, God promised, “Behold, I am about to punish them! The
young men will die by the sword, their sons and daughters will die by
famine; and a remnant will not be left to them, for I will bring
disaster on the men of Anathoth—the year of their punishment”
(Jer. 11:22–23).
Later, in an even more forcefully worded prayer,
Jeremiah cried out,
Do give heed to me, O Lord, and
listen to what my opponents are saying! Should good be repaid with
evil? For they have dug a pit for me. Remember how I stood before You
to speak good on their behalf, so as to turn away Your wrath from
them. Therefore, give their children over to famine and deliver them
up to the power of the sword; and let their wives become childless
and widowed. Let their men also be smitten to death, their young men
struck down by the sword in battle. May an outcry be heard from their
houses, when You suddenly bring raiders upon them; for they have dug
a pit to capture me and hidden snares for my feet. Yet You, O Lord,
know all their deadly designs against me; do not forgive their
iniquity or blot out their sin from Your sight. But may they be
overthrown before You; deal with them in the time of Your anger!
(Jer. 18:19–23)
In Jeremiah 19:3–9 God answered the prophet’s
prayer:
Thus says the Lord of hosts, the
God of Israel, “Behold I am about to bring a calamity upon this
place, at which the ears of everyone that hears of it will tingle.
Because they have forsaken Me and have made this an alien place and
have burned sacrifices in it to other gods, that neither they nor
their forefathers nor the kings of Judah had ever known, and because
they have filled this place with the blood of the innocent and have
built the high places of Baal to burn their sons in the fire as burnt
offerings to Baal, a thing which I never commanded or spoke of, nor
did it ever enter My mind; therefore, behold, days are coming,”
declares the Lord, “when this place will no longer be called
Topheth or the valley of Ben-hinnom, but rather the valley of
Slaughter. I will make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in
this place, and I will cause them to fall by the sword before their
enemies and by the hand of those who seek their life; and I will give
over their carcasses as food for the birds of the sky and the beasts
of the earth. I will also make this city a desolation and an object
of hissing; everyone who passes by it will be astonished and hiss
because of all its disasters. I will make them eat the flesh of their
sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they will eat one
another’s flesh in the siege and in the distress with which their
enemies and those who seek their life will distress them.”
Some, hearkening back to liberal theology’s false
dichotomy between the supposedly harsh, cruel God of the Old
Testament and the gentle, meek, loving Jesus of the New Testament,
might be tempted to reject such strongly worded language as
uncharacteristic of Jesus. But Jesus and the New Testament writers
used equally strong language. Paul wrote to Timothy, “Alexander the
coppersmith did me much harm; the Lord will repay him according to
his deeds” (2 Tim. 4:14), while in Revelation 6:10 the Tribulation
martyrs cry out, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, will You refrain
from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth?”
In Matthew 3:12 John the Baptist said of Jesus, “His winnowing fork
is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clear His threshing floor; and
He will gather His wheat into the barn, but He will burn up the chaff
with unquenchable fire.” In contrast to a popular evangelical
cliché, Jesus has a horrible plan for the lives of those who reject
Him.
In the parable of the wicked vinedressers (Luke
20:9–19), which pictures God’s judgment on those who reject His
Son, Jesus declared,
“What, then, will the owner of
the vineyard do to them? He will come and destroy these vine-growers
and will give the vineyard to others.” When they heard it, they
said, “May it never be!” But Jesus looked at them and said, “What
then is this that is written: ‘The stone which the builders
rejected, this became the chief corner stone’? Everyone who falls
on that stone will be broken to pieces; but on whomever it falls, it
will scatter him like dust.” (Luke 20:15–18)
In Matthew 23:13–36 Jesus denounced the scribes and
Pharisees and declared that they would be condemned to hell (v. 33).
He promised Chorazin and Bethsaida a more fearful judgment than Tyre
and Sidon (Matt. 11:20–22), whose destruction God decreed in the
Old Testament (cf. Ezek. 26–28). He threatened Capernaum with a
stricter judgment than even the grossly wicked city of Sodom (Matt.
11:24). Jesus declared of those who cause believers to sin, “Whoever
causes one of these little ones who believe to stumble, it would be
better for him if, with a heavy millstone hung around his neck, he
had been cast into the sea” (Mark 9:42). In Mark 14:21 Jesus
pronounced His own curse on Judas Iscariot: “For the Son of Man is
to go just as it is written of Him; but woe to that man by whom the
Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he
had not been born.”
Jesus referred to the events surrounding His second
coming as the “days of vengeance” (Luke 21:22), when He will say
to those who reject Him, “Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the
eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels.…
These will go away into eternal punishment” (Matt. 25:41, 46). In
John 5:29 He taught that there will eventually be a resurrection to
judgment for all unbelievers. No passage outside of Revelation
portrays so poignantly and powerfully the retribution that awaits
sinners at the Second Coming as does that final New Testament book.
There is, then, no contradiction between God the Father
and Jesus the Son, or between the Old and New Testaments concerning
the vengeance of God; Jesus and the apostles strongly reiterated it.
The subject of divine retribution leads to three questions: why will
Jesus deal out retribution, to whom will He deal it out, and how will
He deal it out.
why?
For after all it is only just for God to repay
(1:6a)
Every culture, no matter what its laws, ethics, or
morals, punishes criminals. People have a sense of justice, including
capital punishment, because they are made in God’s image. What is
imperfectly true in the human realm is perfectly true in God’s
realm. When Paul wrote that after all it is only just,
fitting, and proper for God to repay with retribution those who
violate His law (as it is right for God to reward believers with the
kingdom; v. 5), he was stating a self-evident truth. In fact, the
word translated “retribution” in verse 8 is related to a word
that means “just,” or “right.” God’s retribution is not
petty vindictiveness or an emotional frenzy; God does not reach a
certain level of exasperation or frustration, lose self-control, and
explode in rage against wrongdoers. His retribution is the calm,
controlled, just punishment meted out by the perfectly righteous
Judge to those who have willfully violated His perfect law. It is not
possible for God to be unjust, for “shall not the Judge of all the
earth deal justly?” (Gen. 18:25).
Isaiah 45:20–25 illustrates God’s just dealing with
those who reject Him:
Gather yourselves and come; draw
near together, you fugitives of the nations; they have no knowledge,
who carry about their wooden idol and pray to a god who cannot save.
Declare and set forth your case; indeed, let them consult together.
Who has announced this from of old? Who has long since declared it?
Is it not I, the Lord? And there is no other God besides Me, a
righteous God and a Savior; there is none except Me. Turn to Me and
be saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no
other. I have sworn by Myself, the word has gone forth from My mouth
in righteousness and will not turn back, that to Me every knee will
bow, every tongue will swear allegiance. They will say of Me, “Only
in the Lord are righteousness and strength.” Men will come to Him,
and all who were angry at Him will be put to shame. In the Lord all
the offspring of Israel will be justified and will glory.
God, as it were, summons people into court and demands
to know why they should not be punished for violating His law and
rejecting His commandment to repent and seek His gracious forgiveness
(Isa. 55:6–7). No one, of course, can offer any viable reason for
having done so. Therefore, God’s judgment is just and sinners are
justly condemned for rejecting Him.
Ezekiel 33:17–20 also declares God to be just when He
condemns unrepentant sinners:
Yet your fellow citizens say,
“The way of the Lord is not right,” when it is their own way that
is not right. When the righteous turns from his righteousness and
commits iniquity, then he shall die in it. But when the wicked turns
from his wickedness and practices justice and righteousness, he will
live by them. Yet you say, “The way of the Lord is not right.” O
house of Israel, I will judge each of you according to his ways.
God cannot be unjust in dealing out retribution to
sinners, for “the Almighty … will not do violence to justice and
abundant righteousness” (Job 37:23); He is “great in counsel and
mighty in deed, whose eyes are open to all the ways of the sons of
men, giving to everyone according to his ways and according to the
fruit of his deeds” (Jer. 32:19).
When the Lord Jesus Christ brings vengeance on those who
reject Him, He will be acting in perfect harmony with God’s pure
justice, for He is “Faithful and True, and in righteousness He
judges and wages war” (Rev. 19:11). Those who accuse the absolutely
holy God of being unjust are in fact unjust themselves. He has given
His law and called people to obey it and will judge those who do not.
The truth is that God would not be righteous if He did not.
Antapodidōmi (repay) means “to give
back,” or “recompense.” It is a strong, compound word that
conveys the idea of a full and complete repayment. The God who said,
“Vengeance is Mine, and retribution” (Deut. 32:35), will justly
repay sinners for violating His law.
An incident in Luke 13 illustrates that principle. Some
people told Jesus “about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed
with their sacrifices” (v. 1). Apparently, Pilate had chosen to
execute some Jewish rebels at a most inopportune time—while they
were offering sacrifices. Naturally, that act outraged the Jews,
hence their comment to Jesus. But His reply was startling. Instead of
commiserating with them or expounding on why bad things happen to
good people, He solemnly warned them,
Do you suppose that these
Galileans were greater sinners than all other Galileans because they
suffered this fate? I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will
all likewise perish. Or do you suppose that those eighteen on whom
the tower in Siloam fell and killed them were worse culprits than all
the men who live in Jerusalem? I tell you, no, but unless you repent,
you will all likewise perish. (vv. 2–5)
The fate of the victims was exactly that which all
sinners deserve—divine judgment. All sinners deserve death and
hell; therefore, Jesus twice warned His hearers that they would
suffer a similar fate unless they repented. The threat of God’s
vengeance, retribution, and judgment is not only just but also a
deterrent, a roadblock on the way to hell. Those who ignore that
roadblock are without excuse (Rom. 1:18–20).
who?
with affliction those who afflict you … to those
who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our
Lord Jesus. (1:6c, 8b)
Those who afflict believers is a broad category,
including all who attack the people of God. In Genesis 12:3 God
promised Abraham, “The one who curses you I will curse,” while
Zechariah 2:8 warns that “he who touches [God’s people], touches
the apple of His eye.” Those who trouble God’s people in effect
poke a finger in His eye. In Matthew 18:6–10 Jesus warned:
Whoever causes one of these
little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him
to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in
the depth of the sea. Woe to the world because of its stumbling
blocks! For it is inevitable that stumbling blocks come; but woe to
that man through whom the stumbling block comes! If your hand or your
foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; it is
better for you to enter life crippled or lame, than to have two hands
or two feet and be cast into the eternal fire. If your eye causes you
to stumble, pluck it out and throw it from you. It is better for you
to enter life with one eye, than to have two eyes and be cast into
the fiery hell. See that you do not despise one of these little ones,
for I say to you that their angels in heaven continually see the face
of My Father who is in heaven.
Paul further describes those who will face God’s
retribution by using two phrases. First, he describes them as those
who do not know God (cf. Judg. 2:10; 1 Sam. 2:12; Job 18:21; Ps.
9:17; Jer. 2:8; 9:3, 6; 10:25; Hos. 4:1, 6; 5:4; John 7:28; 8:54–55;
Gal. 4:8; 1 Thess. 4:5; 1 John 4:8); that is, they do not have a
personal relationship with Him (cf. John 17:3; Eph. 2:12; 4:17–18;
Titus 1:16). They may know the facts about Him, and even imagine that
they are serving Him by persecuting His people (cf. John 16:2), but
they are in reality “separate from Christ … having no hope and
without God in the world” (Eph. 2:12).
The reason they do not know God is not ignorance but
wickedness that causes them to suppress the truth that they do know:
For the wrath of God is revealed
from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who
suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known
about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them.
For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His
eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being
understood through what has been made, so that they are without
excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God
or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and
their foolish heart was darkened. (Rom. 1:18–21)
God has planted the knowledge of Himself around and
within every person, so that all are without excuse (Rom. 1:20–21).
He has written His law on every heart and in every conscience (Rom.
2:14–15). As a consequence of their sin-darkened hearts,
unbelievers, though “professing to be wise,” in fact “became
fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image
in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals
and crawling creatures” (Rom. 1:22–23). Despite the abundant
evidence all around them (and within them) that should lead them to a
true knowledge of God, people refuse to believe. Hell will be
populated by the willfully ignorant. The last words those who reject
God will hear will be the Lord Jesus Christ’s chilling, terrifying
pronouncement, “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice
lawlessness” (Matt. 7:23).
Paul further defines those who will face God’s
retribution as those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
This description intensifies their guilt. It is damning to reject an
innate knowledge of God; it is to incur severer judgment to openly
reject the gospel. The hottest hell, the severest punishment,
is reserved for those who do not obey the gospel. In Luke
12:47–48 Jesus taught that there are varying degrees of punishment:
That slave who knew his master’s
will and did not get ready or act in accord with his will, will
receive many lashes, but the one who did not know it, and committed
deeds worthy of a flogging, will receive but few. From everyone who
has been given much, much will be required; and to whom they
entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more.
The writer of Hebrews clearly states that rejecting the
gospel intensifies unbelievers’ guilt:
If we go on sinning willfully
after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a
sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the
fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set
aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or
three witnesses. How much severer punishment do you think he will
deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded
as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and
has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know Him who said,
“Vengeance is Mine, I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will
judge His people.” It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands
of the living God. (Heb. 10:26–31)
Whereas salvation is a gift to be received, the gospel
is a command to be obeyed. “Therefore having overlooked the times
of ignorance,” Paul declared, “God is now declaring to men that
all people everywhere should repent” (Acts 17:30; cf. 26:20). For
that reason, Paul wrote that his apostolic mission was “to bring
about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for His name’s
sake” (Rom. 1:5; cf. 15:18; 16:19, 26; 1 Peter 1:22). Therefore,
those who remain disobedient to the command to believe the gospel
will face God’s retribution.
This judgment is not rendered by God because He is angry
at unbelievers for hurting His children but rather because the
persecutors did not come to the Lord Jesus Christ and embrace the
gospel. Specifically, this Day of the Lord judgment comes in two
phases on the ungodly: First, at the close of the seven-year
Tribulation (Rev. 19:11–21), and second, at the end of the
millennial kingdom (Rev. 20:7–10). It will then be the fate of all
the ungodly of all ages to be judged at the Great White Throne and
sentenced forever to the lake of fire (Rev. 20:11–15).
how?
with affliction.… These will pay the penalty of
eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the
glory of His power, (1:6b, 9)
Fittingly, God will repay the disobedient unbelievers
who afflict His people with affliction. Thlipsis
(affliction) can mean “trouble,” “distress,”
“difficult circumstances,” or “suffering.” Paul specifically
defined it in this passage as the penalty of eternal destruction.
Aiōnios (eternal) refers in the overwhelming majority
of its New Testament uses to things of endless duration, such as God
(Rom. 16:26), the Holy Spirit (Heb. 9:14), heaven (Luke 16:9),
salvation (Heb. 5:9), redemption (Heb. 9:12), the covenant (Heb.
13:20), the gospel (Rev. 14:6), God’s kingdom (2 Peter 1:11), hell
(Matt. 18:8; 25:41, 46; Heb. 6:2; Jude 7), and, most frequently,
eternal life (Matt. 19:16, 29; 25:46; Mark 10:17, 30; Luke 10:25;
18:18, 30; John 3:15, 16, 36; 4:14, 36; 5:24, 39; 6:27, 40, 47, 54,
68; 10:28; 12:25, 50; 17:2, 3; Acts 13:46, 48; Rom. 2:7; 5:21; 6:22,
23; Gal. 6:8; 1 Tim. 1:16; 6:12; Titus 1:2; 3:7; 1 John 1:2; 2:25;
3:15; 5:11, 13, 20; Jude 21). Like all of the above-mentioned things,
the destruction of the wicked will have no end but will last
forever.
Olethros (destruction) does not refer to
annihilation, but to ruination. It does not mean the cessation of
existence but rather the loss of all that makes existence worthwhile
(cf. 1 Tim. 6:9). The lost will not cease to exist but will
experience forever a life of uselessness, hopelessness, emptiness,
and meaninglessness, with no value, worth, accomplishment, purpose,
goal, or hope. They will be ruined forever; “They pass into a night
on which no morning dawns” (Leon Morris, The Epistles of Paul to
the Thessalonians, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries [Grand
Rapids: Eerdmans, 1976], 120).
Two conditions under which the lost will serve their
eternal sentence reinforce the horror of their punishment. First,
they will be forever away from the presence of the Lord (cf.
Matt. 7:23; 25:41; Luke 13:27; Rev. 22:15). There is a great chasm
fixed between the eternal realms of the blessed and the cursed (cf.
Luke 16:26), separating the cursed from all that represents God’s
presence. And since “every good thing given and every perfect gift
is from above, coming down from the Father of lights” (James 1:17),
there will be no vestige of goodness in hell.
The lost will also serve their eternal sentence away
… from the glory of His power. Jesus described hell as a place
of darkness (Matt. 8:12; 22:13; 25:30; cf. 2 Peter 2:4, 17; Jude 13),
cut off from the visible display of God’s splendor and majesty.
There will be no relief from hell’s horrors; nothing of God’s
glorious presence to bring any shred of beauty, pleasure, joy, or
peace. The lost will share hell with the devil and his angels; it
will be a place of “weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matt. 8:12;
13:42, 50; 22:13; 24:51; 25:30; Luke 13:28), where “the smoke of
their torment goes up forever and ever; they have no rest day and
night” (Rev. 14:11). Yet no words can adequately express the misery
of this reality.1
B. “It is indeed just of God to repay with
affliction those who afflict you”—The Destiny of the Persecutors
(1:6–10)
6 Verse 6 begins with a word that the NIV
leaves untranslated (eiper, “if indeed” or even “since”),
which introduces additional information about the “judgment of God”
declared in v. 5. Paul returns to the theme of the just judgment of
God and assures the Thessalonians that God is just: He will pay
back trouble to those who trouble you. Rather than presenting a
frank statement about God’s just character, the Greek text suggests
that it is just in God’s sight (dikaion para theō̧) to
recompense the persecutors with divine chastisement (vv. 6, 8–9)
and to grant rest to the persecuted Thessalonians (vv. 7–10). God
is all about just outcomes. Over and over biblical and extrabiblical
literature declares that God’s judgment is in accordance with his
justice (Gen. 18:25; 1 Kings 8:31–32; 2 Chr. 6:22–23; Pss. 7:8–9,
11 [7:9–10, 12]; 9:4, 8 [9:5, 9]; 35:24 [34:24]; Tob. 3:2; 2 Macc.
12:6; Sir. 35:18; 2 Tim. 4:8; Rev. 18:6–7; 19:1–2). God is not
capricious but rather judges justly. Hence those who mount the
opposition against the church will suffer for their opposition, while
the community of God will receive its rightful recompense. God
considers it a just thing to pay back trouble to those who
trouble you. Scripture addresses frequently the theme of divine
recompense, at times using the same verb that the apostle employs in
this verse (antapodounai; see Ps. 137:8 [136:8]; Isa. 66:4, 6;
Rom. 12:19; Heb. 10:30 [Deut. 32:35]). The author claims that it
would be unjust for God to allow the persecutors to escape their
deserved judgment.
In Romans Paul contrasts the vengeance a person may wish
to extract with the retribution God brings on the enemies of his
people (Rom. 12:17–19). But Paul’s purpose here is not to call
the Thessalonians to abstain from revenge by giving place to divine
vengeance. Rather, the emphasis on the vengeance of God is calculated
to encourage the brothers and sisters in the face of great adversity,
supplying them with an eschatological perspective that will enable
them to evaluate their present situation rightly. As they, the
Christians, presently suffer (see v. 4 and commentary), so in the
future God will pay back trouble to those who trouble you.
This is one of the few texts that calls the result of God’s
judgment “suffering” (thlipsin, translated trouble
in the NIV; see Zeph. 1:15; Rom. 2:9), although the idea is
commonplace enough. The author graphically details the nature of this
suffering in the following verses (vv. 8–9), and so returns to a
theme that the church already understood due to the previous
apostolic instruction (1 Thess. 2:14–16; 5:3, 9). The NT knows
nothing of the Epicurean denial of future divine judgment nor of its
rejection of providence, but affirms strongly both God’s
providential care of his own and the inevitable execution of his
wrath. Christians will escape the oppression of their persecutors in
that day (v. 7), but those who are disobedient to the gospel will
find no relief (vv. 8–9). In a world that clamors for justice, the
present teaching continues to serve as a source of hope. But our
modern glib rejection of the notion of divine intervention and
judgment stands corrected by these words.
7 The second part of that which God considers
just (v. 6) is presented in this verse. Having explained what will
happen to the persecutors in the previous verse, the apostle turns
his attention to the believers and assures them that they will
receive liberation from their oppression when the Lord Jesus is
revealed. The assurance offered the church is that he will give
relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. The promise
given to these believers who have suffered so much at the hands of
their persecutors (see v. 4) is that God will reward them with relief
at the time of the revelation of the Lord Jesus (v. 7b). The
principal verb is carried over from the previous verse
(antapodounai), a term that is there linked to divine
retribution or punishment but here points to the divine reward. The
word that describes their promised reward could be translated “rest”
(the KJV rendering of anesin), but in the NT it
commonly denotes relief from some type of affliction. The
apostle holds out the promise of the longed-for relief from
persecution and affliction. These believers will not be disadvantaged
in any way but will experience the same relief that Paul and
his companions will enjoy (and to us as well). As the apostles
suffered, so did the Thessalonian believers (1 Thess. 2:1, 16; 3:7; 2
Thess. 3:2). So, too, they could anticipate sharing with them in the
liberation (cf. 2 Cor. 1:7). This liberation is an aspect of the full
Christian hope that included resurrection and rapture (1 Thess.
4:13–18) as well as the glory or honor they will enjoy when Christ
returns (2 Thess. 2:14; 1:10). The expectation of this eschatological
relief in no way implies that Christians may not rightly pray
and hope for the intervention of God in the present to ameliorate
their situation (3:2; Phil. 1:19–26; 2 Tim. 4:16–18). What is
more, in the present believers know that their lot includes
affliction and that they can rest in the firm promise that God will
empower them to overcome even in the midst of the adversity they
face, whatever its source (Rom. 8:31–39). In the end, God’s
guarantee is that the injustices they presently endure will reach
their conclusion. Hope sends its roots deep into this soil.
In the second part of the verse, the apostle elaborates
on the time when the events described in vv. 6 and 7a will come to
pass: This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven
in blazing fire with his powerful angels. In the other texts in
these letters that speak of the coming of the Lord Jesus, the author
refers to the event as the parousia (1 Thess. 2:19; 3:13;
4:15; 5:23; 2 Thess. 2:1), but here it is described as his
“revelation” (apokalypsei; see 1 Cor. 1:7; 1 Pet. 1:7, 13;
4:13; and the verb in Luke 17:30). The term means “the removal of
the veil” and is frequently employed in those contexts where the
biblical author wishes to talk of some kind of divine “revelation,”
such as the unveiling of truths previously hidden (Luke 2:32; 1 Cor.
14:6, 26; 2 Cor. 12:1, 7; Gal. 1:12; Eph. 1:17; 3:3). But the present
declaration is not about the unveiling of some aspect of the mystery
of God but of a person, the Lord Jesus. This affirmation was
of great importance for these Christians who had neither a temple nor
a visible god as did their pagan contemporaries. He whom neither they
nor their pagan persecutors could see will be revealed in all his
glory and power, and on that day all will see him (Matt. 24:30; cf. 1
Pet. 1:8). The Lord Jesus is hidden, but not absent. The hope
they held was that he would be revealed from heaven, the place
to which he had gone in his ascension and from which he would come
upon his return (1 Thess. 1:10; 4:16 and commentary). Marshall
rightly adds that the declaration that he will be revealed from
heaven “does not merely indicate his origin but also stresses
his authority. He comes from the dwelling place of God with the
authority of God to execute judgment and recompense.”
This revelation will be in blazing fire (words
that relate to the following verse but are part of this sentence in
the Greek text), a further point that highlights the consequences of
the unveiling for the Thessalonians’ persecutors. These words,
which literally mean “in flame of fire,” constitute an
intertextual allusion either to the revelation of the presence of God
(Exod. 3:2–3) or to his judicial power (Isa. 66:15–16). The
repeated references in this passage to Isaiah 66 and the description
of judgment in v. 8 direct the reader’s attention to the fire of
judgment. In this theophany the Lord Jesus “will punish those who
do not know God” (v. 8).
In his revelation, the Lord Jesus will be accompanied
with his powerful angels, or “the angels of his power”
(angelōn dynameōs autou). A number of texts describe how
these beings will accompany the Lord in his coming (1 Thess. 3:13;
Matt. 16:27; 24:30–31; 25:31; Mark 8:38; and Zech. 14:5). Although
they are powerful in themselves (2 Pet. 2:11), the point of the
present verse is that they are the executors of the Lord’s judicial
power. Paul is not thinking about some special class of angels such
as those that occasionally appear in the intertestamental literature
(e.g., 1 Enoch 61:10; T. Judah 3:10). The Lord Jesus,
who was so despised in Thessalonica, will come with great authority
and judicial power, accompanied by the those who will aid in the
execution of divine judgment.
8 In v. 8 Paul explains the purpose of the Lord
Jesus’ powerful judicial revelation: He will punish those who do
not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. The
language of the verse is taken from Isaiah 66:15 in the Greek version
(“he will return vengeance in wrath”) in combination with Isaiah
66:4 (“Because I called them and they did not obey me”), which
describe the wrath Yahweh visits on the disobedient. The expression
translated he will punish (didontos ekdikēsin) may refer
either to divine punishment (2 Cor. 7:11; 1 Pet. 2:14) or, as here in
1:8, to divine vengeance or retribution (Luke 18:3, 5; 21:22; Acts
7:24; Rom. 12:19; Heb. 10:30 [Deut. 32:35]; and 1 Enoch 25.4).
This “vengeance” is the result of a judicial decision and
disposition against those who have rejected God and his gospel. The
nature of God’s vengeance is described more fully in the following
verse. Those who have rejected God and his message will not escape
judgment—God is the Avenger (1 Thess. 4:6 and commentary). This
vengeance is not simple retaliation nor an irrational outburst of
anger but an execution of God’s just judgment (vv. 5–6).
The ancients understood that the coherence of society
was in part due to the promise of rewards and the threats of
punishment. In these societies, where reciprocity was at the heart of
both private and public social intercourse, the notion of retribution
and reward was deeply embedded in their ideas of justice. The
frustration of the Thessalonian believers would have been to suffer
such injustices without any hope of recourse or vindication. But the
promise held before them is that those who are presently under no
threat of human justice will not escape the just vengeance of God,
because the root cause of the believers’ suffering is the
unbelievers’ rejection of God himself. The issues at stake go well
beyond the personal.
Those who are the objects of divine vengeance are
described as those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel
of our Lord Jesus. Marshall and others have suggested that two
groups are in mind: the Gentiles (those who do not know God)
and the Jews (those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus).
Although Marshall is correct in pointing out that sometimes the
Gentiles are described as those who are ignorant of God (see 1 Thess.
4:5; and Ps. 79:6 [78:6]; Jer. 10:25) and the Jews as those who are
disobedient (Isa. 66:4; Acts 7:39; Rom. 10:16), Paul also accuses
both groups of being disobedient (Rom. 11:30–32). Also, both the OT
and the NT occasionally describe the Jews as those who are ignorant
of the true God (Jer. 4:22; 9:3, 6; Hos. 5:4; John 8:55). A
preferable reading of the second part of v. 8 would be to understand
the statement as a two-part description of those who are subjects of
divine vengeance. They are, in the first place, those who do not
know God. In the OT, God declares his judgment on those who do
not know him (Jer. 10:25; Ps. 79:6 [78:6]). This ignorance is not
merely failing to recognize his existence but rather the rejection of
his person as he is revealed to both nations and individuals (see 1
Thess. 4:5 and commentary; Rom. 1:18–32). As the knowledge of God
is linked with obedience to his law (Ps. 36:10 [35:11]), so also the
ignorance of God is understood as disobedience to his call. What
follows is therefore closely parallel to the preceding thought. Those
who suffer divine vengeance are, secondly, those who do not obey
the gospel of our Lord Jesus (cf. Rom. 2:8; 1 Pet. 4:17). The NT
frequently describes the act of conversion as obedience to the gospel
(Acts 6:7; Rom. 1:5; 6:17; 10:16; 15:18; 16:26; Heb. 5:9; 1 Pet. 1:2,
14, 22). Such a description of the event cues us to the fact that the
gospel is both the promise and offer of salvation and the
demand of obedience to its call. It calls humans to respond to the
good news of God, but if the divine initiative is rejected, the very
same gospel becomes the criteria by which God will judge the person
(Rom. 2:16). In fact, in the judicial sphere the word obey
(hypakouousin) means “strict obedience to an order or a law.”
God calls humans through his gospel (2:14), and those who do not
respond can only hope for judgment. In the divine scheme,
disobedience to the gospel is elevated to the status of a criminal
offense, a thought quite different from the modern notion that the
gospel should be received simply for personal benefit. Those in
Thessalonica who had rejected the gospel were like those of Isaiah
66:4 (LXX), “Because I called them and they did not obey me, I
spoke and they did not hear.”
9 Paul continues with a description of the
character of the Lord’s vengeance against those who have rejected
God and the gospel of the Lord Jesus: They will be punished with
everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord
and from the majesty of his power. The words translated they
will be punished (NRSV, “These will suffer the punishment,”
hoitines dikēn tisousin) come from the world of jurisprudence
and mean “to pay the consequences” for some action. This is the
“punishment” that the guilty suffer for the evil they have done.
Jude speaks of “those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire”
(Jude 7); in the present passage the apostle understands the
execution of the final judgment in a similar way (v. 7b). He further
describes this as everlasting destruction. The term
destruction (olethron, the same word encountered in 1
Thess. 5:3) frequently appears in those texts that speak of
eschatological ruin or destruction (1 Tim. 6:9; Jer. 25:31 [32:31];
48:3 [31:3]; Hag. 2:22; Wis. 1:14–15; 4 Macc. 10:15 [in combination
with “eternal”]; and see Jer. 22:7; Ezek. 6:14). The duration of
this destruction is everlasting or “eternal,” a
terrible reality that is highlighted in other NT texts (cf. Matt.
18:8; 25:41 [“eternal fire”], 46 [“eternal punishment”]; Jude
7 [“the punishment of eternal fire”]). The apostle by no means
implies that those who have rejected God will be annihilated
eternally, a notion that appears to take the edge off the severity of
divine judgment. Rather, the punishment will endure and will not end.
While the gospel brings the promise of “eternal encouragement”
(2:16) to those who receive it, rejection of God’s initiative will
bring eternal perdition. This state to which the judged are assigned
is variously described in the NT as a place of “unquenchable fire”
(Matt. 3:12), a “fiery furnace” (Matt. 13:42, 50), the “blackest
darkness” that “has been reserved forever” (Jude 13), and a
“fiery lake of burning sulfur” (Rev. 21:8). The graphic language
appears inadequate at each point to describe the horrid nature of
this state. No hope is held out for a second opportunity to escape or
obtain salvation. The verdict, as its execution, will be final.
This punishment with everlasting destruction,
beyond being permanent and irrevocable, also means being shut out
from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power.
While the preposition that begins this clause in the Greek text (apo)
is construed in the NIV as signaling that the judged will be
excluded from the presence of the Lord, the thought is rather
that the presence of the Lord is the source from which the
judgment proceeds. This part of the verse is a nearly exact citation
of Isaiah 2:10, 19, and 21 from the Septuagint (“And now go into
the rocks, hide in the ground, from the presence of the terror of the
Lord and from the glory of his strength”). The Lord in the
Isaiah texts is Yahweh, who executes his judgment in the “day of
Yahweh” against those who worship idols instead of the Lord
himself: “Their land is full of idols; they bow down to the work of
their hands, to what their fingers have made. So man will be brought
low and mankind humbled—do not forgive them” (Isa. 2:8–9). The
pride and arrogance of those who have rejected Yahweh is the cause of
this horrible judgment (2:11–12, 17). They did not exalt Yahweh,
but “the Lord alone will be exalted in that day, and the idols will
totally disappear” (2:17b–18). In no way will anyone escape that
judgment (Isa. 2:10, 19–21). The apostle presents the terrible
promise that those who disobey the call of the gospel, the
persecutors of the Thessalonian Christians, will by no means escape.
Their hubris and pride, linked to their adherence to false worship,
will in the end cause their demise.
As in 1:9, the presence of the Lord is associated
in a number of texts in the OT and the book of Revelation with the
judgment of God (Num. 16:46; Judg. 5:5; Pss. 34:16 [33:17]; 96:13
[95:13]; Jer. 4:26; Ezek. 38:20; Rev. 6:16; 20:11), and, as Isaiah
notes, his presence is fearful. John was given a glimpse of the final
judgment and exclaimed, “Then I saw a great white throne and him
who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from his presence, and there
was no place for them” (Rev. 20:11). The idea that 1:9 conveys is
not merely that the disobedient will be excluded from the Lord’s
presence but that from this presence the everlasting
destruction comes forth. Moreover, the destruction they
suffer will be from the majesty of his power. This majesty
is the visible “glory” (doxēs) of God and is synonymous
with his presence (Rom. 1:23; Jude 24). Christ is himself
called the “Lord of glory” (1 Cor. 2:8), while on the other hand
“glory” at times describes God’s power (Rom. 6:4; Col. 1:11).
The present verse highlights precisely this idea (ischyos, power,
speaks of the power of God in Eph. 1:19; 6:10). The Lord Jesus
comes in the divine power and is able to execute judgment. The
majesty of his power is both the measure and the source of this
judgment.2
Joys
and Sorrows in God’s Final Judgment
5 which is manifest evidence of the righteous
judgment of God, that you may be counted worthy of the kingdom of
God, for which you also suffer; 6 since it is a righteous
thing with God to repay with tribulation those who trouble you, 7
and to give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is
revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, 8 in flaming
fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who
do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
9 These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, 10 when He comes, in that Day, to be glorified in His saints and to be admired among all those who believe, because our testimony among you was believed.
9 These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, 10 when He comes, in that Day, to be glorified in His saints and to be admired among all those who believe, because our testimony among you was believed.
—2 Thessalonians 1:5–10
This
section begins in the middle of a long sentence, but moves into a
separate theme: the divine punishment of the unjust and the rewarding
of the faithful. Paul sees their faith, love, and endurance as
“manifest evidence” of God’s righteous judgment. It is
not the persecutions and tribulations that are the proofs of God’s
righteousness. In the deepest sense, they could be regarded as
contradictions of a righteous universe. But the fact that such things
can be overcome by faith, love, and endurance is the manifest
evidence to which Paul appeals. There is an underlying theme that our
sufferings are part of the process by which God counts us worthy of
His kingdom. Just as righteousness is imparted to us by God through
faith in Jesus, so worthiness of the kingdom is declared to us by God
through our sufferings for His kingdom. We must make clear the
distinction between suffering in order to gain the kingdom and God’s
declaration of our worthiness through the suffering. Nowhere is the
former even implied by Paul. We cannot leave this statement without
recognizing that the “manifest evidence” of God’s
righteous judgment through their faith, love, and endurance is not
intended to be a “proof” in the sense of a mathematical exercise.
What follows, beginning with verse 6, is a passage of
great difficulty for those who wish to avoid the haunting questions
of eternal punishment and hell. I have before me one respected
commentary which makes no comment on verses 6 through 9. I might wish
to place these verses in the category of “things I wish Paul hadn’t
written.” I also have a list of things I wish Jesus hadn’t said.
We begin a section like this by pointing out that the Scriptures were
not written to tell us what we want to hear. They are given to us to
reveal the truth. And in this case, the truth may not be to our
liking.
There are three basic issues presented in verses 6–9:
(1) divine retribution, (2) eternal punishment, and (3) the
glorification of Christ.
Divine retribution. Two rewards are set forth—to
the troubler of the faithful, tribulation; to the believers who are
being troubled, rest. The rewards are not meted out during this life,
but when the Lord Jesus is “revealed.” Here, the word is
not parousia but
apokalupsis,
another word used to denote the Second Coming. Apokalupsis
is rightly translated “revelation or revealing” and
portrays the return of Christ as the “revealing.” The title, of
course, of the last book of the New Testament is Apokalupsis
Iōannou, A Revelation of John.
We err if we think of divine retribution as an activity
of God in the present age. Many evil people prosper. Many good people
suffer. Christians in many times and places experience nothing but
persecution and suffering, while their oppressors, the rich and
powerful, live sumptuously. Take an example from Uganda. Idi Amin
engaged in widespread persecution and slaughter of countless
thousands of believers. To be sure, he fell from power, but still
lived lavishly in Syria. The Christians of Uganda continued to suffer
incredible deprivations because of his madness. There is no sense in
which divine retribution could be regarded as having fully happened.
The teaching here points beyond the return of Christ to
the full establishment of the kingdom of God. The righteous, those in
Christ, shall be rewarded with rest and glory. The evil, “those
who do not know God,” and “those who do not obey the
gospel,” shall receive “tribulation” and
“vengeance.”
To be sure, many of us do not like to think in terms of
divine retribution. The thought of God returning evil for evil in a
realm beyond this life is not our idea of good news. But we have to
look at the alternative. What kind of a world is it if our actions
have no lasting consequences? If you grant that life does not end
with death—that life is eternal—can you make sense out of a
universe in which everyone receives the same reward, irrespective of
their lives here? Can God be just and reward Idi Amin and St. Francis
just the same? Are there no lasting consequences to our actions over
a lifetime? Do Adolf Hitler and Billy Graham receive the same
welcome?
The God of the Bible, present with us in Jesus Himself,
is the God who takes us seriously. Our lives do matter, and our
behavior does have lasting consequences. And Paul did not dream this
up out of some sadistic urges. It was Jesus Himself who taught this
quite early. Nowhere was He more specific than in His portrayal of
the final judgment in Matthew 25:31–46. Those who had fed the
hungry, clothed the naked, sheltered the strangers, visited the sick
and the prisoners were rewarded. Those who had ignored and neglected
such acts of kindness were sent away.
Divine retribution is another way of saying that this
life is significant. Our actions have lasting consequences. What we
do in this life might be likened to the introductory measures of an
endless symphony.
Eternal punishment. The second element of bad
news in this section is eternal punishment. “Those who do not
know God,” and “those who do not obey the gospel of our
Lord Jesus Christ… shall be punished with everlasting
destruction from the presence of the Lord.” Let us quickly come
to Paul’s rescue and recall that he was only transmitting what
Jesus had clearly taught. The last word of the scene portrayed in
Matthew 25 was “and these will go away into everlasting punishment,
but the righteous into eternal life”(Matt. 25:46). In the parable
of the rich man and Lazarus the picture is reinforced (Luke
16:19–31).
The philosophical argument for eliminating hell and
eternal punishment has great emotional appeal. It is based upon the
thought that God’s love cannot be defeated, and that somehow His
love will find a way to redeem every last sinner from hell. To hold
this view, one not only has to accept the fact that it is contrary to
what we are taught by Jesus Himself, but one has to ignore the
pervasive power of human sin and rebellion. It is my conviction that
hell is a matter of choice. One can only get there by pushing God’s
love aside. Paul’s phrase in verse 8 “those who do not know
God” does not imply passive ignorance. It refers to those who
have neglected and refused the knowledge of God that has been given
to them, even though they may not have knowledge of the gospel of
Jesus Christ. This was developed in greater detail in his later
letter to Rome (Rom. 1:18–32).
Eternal punishment is never indicated in the Scriptures
as meted out because of mere ignorance. It is a result of
disobedience. And again we are back to the reality that our behavior
does have lasting consequences.
The language describing heaven and hell, of necessity,
is always figurative and pictorial. We cannot know what they are like
in terms of our earthly categories. They transcend all of our
experience and knowledge. But perhaps Paul gives us the closest thing
possible to a description of hell in the words of verse 9, “punished
with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and
from the glory of His power” (emphasis mine). Separation
from the Lord’s presence and glory is the ultimate punishment. And
one chooses in this life to be present with God or to be separated.
C. S. Lewis, I think, suggested that one who had chosen to be
separated from Christ in this life is simply given the freedom to
continue in that choice. In that sense, heaven or hell begins in this
life. In death our choices are sealed.
The glorification of Christ. And now we move to
the good news. What joy is portrayed on that Day of the Lord “because
our testimony among you was believed” (v. 10). It’s as though
Paul is anticipating that happy reunion when he shall be forever
reunited with those Christians in Thessalonica to whom he cannot now
return. And all of the glory on that day will focus on Jesus! He will
be: (1) “glorified in His saints,” and (2) “admired
among all those who believe.”
Here are two fascinating ideas. The thought of the glory
of Jesus being seen in His saints suggests that we shall be
reflectors of His brightness. What a future for each of us! To be
with Him and each other on that day when His very glory will be seen
shining in us!
The admiration of Jesus among all those who believe
probably reflects a meaning of “admiration” no longer connoted in
English usage. The root of the Greek word gives a sense of
“marveling” or “wondering at.” Thus, the New English Bible
translates “to be adored among all believers.” Phillips uses “It
will be a breath-taking wonder to all who believe.” Another
dramatic picture of our future! To be a part of an awe-inspired
assembly caught up in wonder, love, and praise!
Paul has faithfully delivered the bad news and the good
news. The stark awfulness of the bad news makes the good news even
better. God’s offer of the good news is to every single human
being. No one need live by the bad news. And that’s the Good News3
9 These
shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of
the Lord and from the glory of His power,
Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction
from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power [2
Thess. 1:8–9].
The
Word of God actually says very little about heaven. One of the
reasons is that it is so wonderful we could not comprehend it. And
the Lord does not want us to get so heavenly minded that we are no
earthly good. He wants us to keep our eyes on our pathway down here,
and I think He wants us to keep our noses to the grindstone much of
the time. In other words, He has a purpose for our lives on earth,
and He wants us to fulfill that purpose.
Scripture not only says very little about heaven, it
says less about the condition of the lost. It is so awful that
the Holy Spirit has drawn a veil over it. There is nothing given to
satisfy the morbid curiosity or the lust for revenge. When God
judges, He does not do it in a vindictive manner. He does it in order
to vindicate His righteousness and His holiness. There is nothing in
the Scriptures to satisfy our curiosity about hell, but there is
enough said to give us a warning. It does not mean that it is less
real because so little is said. Actually, Christ Himself said more
about hell than did anyone else. Hell is an awful reality. I am not
going to speculate about it; I’m just quoting what is said right
here: He is coming “in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that
know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ:
who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence
of the Lord, and from the glory of his power.”
Hell is ridiculed today, but that does not mean it
doesn’t exist. Our beliefs are sometimes only wishful thinking. For
example, it was the popular notion that Hitler would not plunge
Europe into a war and turn Europe into a holocaust of flaming fire.
But he did. Chamberlain, the man with the umbrella, went over to meet
with Hitler and Mussolini, and he came back saying that we would have
peace in our time. Well, we didn’t have peace, and we don’t have
peace in the world today. Also, many people thought that Japan would
never attack America. Our government did not believe she would, and
the liberal churches at that time were teaching pacifism. Well,
whether they believed it or not, there was a vicious attack at Pearl
Harbor.
Friend, we might as well face the fact that there is a
hell. Christ is returning to this earth some day. First He will take
His own out of the earth, and then His coming will be a terror to the
wicked; it will be a judgment upon those who “know not God, and
that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.” “And this is
life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus
Christ, whom thou hast sent” (John 17:3). Do you want to work for
your salvation? Jesus said, “… This is the work of God, that ye
believe on him whom he hath sent” (John 6:29). That is what the
Word of God teaches.
I know that it is not popular to talk about hell and
judgment. Even the Christian testimonies that we hear and read are
filled with I, I, I—“I became successful in business. I saved my
marriage. My personality changed.” Nothing very much is said about
the Lord Jesus. How many testimonies have you heard in which it is
said, “I was a hell–doomed sinner going straight to hell, I was
lost, and He saved me”? The important thing to say in a testimony
is not what He has given you but from what He has delivered you. That
was the whole purpose for the coming of our Savior. He came to redeem
us! He didn’t come to give us new personalities or to make us
successful. He came to deliver us from hell! That’s
not popular to say. Folk don’t like to hear it.
There are too few people today who are willing to
confront folk with the fact that they are lost. Suppose you were
asleep in a burning building, and a man rushed into that building to
rescue you. He awakened you, picked you up, and carried you bodily
out of that burning building. He liked you; so he made you his son.
He brought you into his lovely home and gave you many wonderful
gifts. Now if you had the opportunity to stand before a group of
people and tell about this man and express your appreciation in his
presence, what would you thank him for? Would you thank him for
making you his son? I hope you would. But wouldn’t you really thank
him most for the fact that he risked his life to save you out of a
burning building? Nothing else would have mattered if he had not
rescued you from a flaming death.
Now, my friend, the judgment of the lost is coming. If
you want to stay in that class, you shall be judged. Somebody needs
to tell you the facts, and I am telling them to you right now.
Again, who are the lost? They are those who (1) “know
not God” and who (2) “obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus
Christ.” Let me repeat verse 9: “Who shall be punished with
everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the
glory of his power.”4
Recompense (vv. 6, 7b–9). God
will recompense affliction to the lost, but rest to the saved. To
recompense means “to repay.” Certainly, the wicked who
persecute the godly do not always receive their just payment in this
life. In fact, the apparent prosperity of the wicked and difficulty
of the godly have posed a problem for many of God’s people (see Ps.
73; Jer. 12:1; Hab. 1). Why live a godly life if your only experience
is that of suffering?
As Christians, we must live for eternity and not just
for the present. In fact, living “with eternity’s values in view”
is what makes our Christian life meaningful today. We walk by faith,
and not by sight.
This brings to mind the story of the two farmers, one a
believer and the other an atheist. When harvest season came, the
atheist taunted his believing neighbor because apparently God had not
blessed him too much. The atheist’s family had not been sick, his
fields were rich with harvest, and he was sure to make a lot of
money.
“I thought you said it paid to believe in God and be a
Christian,” said the atheist.
“It does pay,” replied the Christian. “But God
doesn’t always pay His people in September.”
What kind of a future does the unbeliever face? Look at
the dramatic words Paul used to describe it: tribulation, vengeance,
flaming fire, punishment, and everlasting destruction. The
Christ-rejecting world will receive from God exactly what it gave to
God’s people! When God recompenses, He pays in kind; for there is a
law of compensation that operates in human history.
Pharaoh tried to drown all the male babies born to the
Jews, and his own army was drowned in the Red Sea. Haman plotted to
wipe out the Jews, and he and his own sons were wiped out. The
advisers of King Darius forced him to arrest Daniel and throw him
into a lions’ den, but later they themselves were thrown to the
lions. The unbelieving Jewish leaders who sacrificed Christ in order
to save the nation (see John 11:49–53) in a few years saw their
city destroyed and their nation scattered.
It is a righteous thing for God to judge sin and
condemn sinners. A holy God cannot leave sin unjudged. People who
say, “I cannot believe that a loving God would judge sinners and
send people to hell” understand neither the holiness of God nor the
awfulness of sin. While it is true that “God is love” (1 John
4:8), it is also true that “God is light” (1 John 1:5), and in
His holiness He must deal with sin.
A Christian doctor had tried to witness to a very moral
woman who belonged to a church that denied the need for salvation and
the reality of future judgment. “God loves me too much to condemn
me,” the patient would reply. “I cannot believe that God would
make such a place as a lake of fire.”
The woman became ill and the diagnosis was cancer. An
operation was necessary. “I wonder if I really should operate,”
the doctor said to her in her hospital room. “I really love you too
much to cut into you and give you pain.”
“Doctor,” said the patient, “if you really loved
me, you would do everything possible to save me. How can you permit
this awful thing to remain in my body?”
It was easy then for him to explain that what cancer is
to the body, sin is to the world; and both must be dealt with
radically and completely. Just as a physician cannot love health
without hating disease and dealing with it, so God cannot love
righteousness without hating sin and judging it.
The word vengeance must not be confused with
revenge. The purpose of vengeance is to satisfy God’s holy
law; the purpose of revenge is to pacify a personal grudge. God does
not hold a grudge against lost sinners. Quite the contrary, He sent
His Son to die for them, and He pleads with them to return to Him.
But if sinners prefer to “know not God, and … obey not the
Gospel” (2 Thes. 1:8), there is nothing left for God to do but
judge them.
This judgment will take place when Jesus Christ returns
to the earth with His church and His angels (2 Thes. 1:7). This is
not the same event described by Paul in 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18. We
may contrast these two events:
1
Thessalonians 4:13–18
2
Thessalonians 1
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Christ
returns in the air
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Christ
returns to the earth
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He
comes secretly for the church
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He
comes openly with the church
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Believers
escape the Tribulation
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Unbelievers
experience Tribulation, judgment
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Occurs
at an undisclosed time
|
Occurs
at the end of the Tribulation period, the Day of our Lord5
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1
MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (2002). 1
& 2 Thessalonians (pp. 236–245). Chicago:
Moody Press.
2
Green, G. L. (2002). The
letters to the Thessalonians (pp. 286–293).
Grand Rapids, MI; Leicester, England: W.B. Eerdmans Pub.; Apollos.
3
Demarest, G. W., & Ogilvie, L. J. (1984). 1,
2 Thessalonians / 1, 2 Timothy / Titus (Vol. 32,
pp. 111–115). Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Inc.
4
McGee, J. V. (1991). Thru
the Bible commentary: The Epistles (1 and 2 Thessalonians)
(electronic ed., Vol. 49, pp. 110–112). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.
5
Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The
Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 2, pp.
194–195). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
