c. Paul’s prayer (1:11–12)
2. Prayer (1:3–12)
a. Thanksgiving (1:3–5)
3. As in the first epistle‚ Paul begins with thanksgiving for the Christian graces evident in his converts. He has used some flattering expressions about them in that letter‚ and it is not unlikely that in a subsequent communication they had modestly disclaimed being worthy of such praise. Paul insists that his praise was in order: We ought always to thank God for you. Some have seen in this a rather stiff and formal approach, quite different from that in the first epistle, but this is refuted by the warm expressions that follow. The Greek opheilomen, we ought, conveys the idea of personal obligation (dei, often used in similar contexts, would signify a compulsion arising out of external circumstances). And rightly so is not simply a repetition of the same thought, but means ‘It is no more than you deserve’. Paul insists that the merits of the Thessalonians are real, and that this imposes on him an obligation to recognize the fact.
He gives thanks for two points, the growth of the converts’ faith and the abundance of their love, two matters about which he had prayed (1 Thess. 3:10‚ 12). He had been anxious about their faith (1 Thess. 3:5–7) but now gives thanks for its vigorous growth. His verb hyperauxanei (only here in the New Testament) gives the idea of ‘growing beyond’. Is increasing (pleonazei) is another strong verb; it differs in that‚ whereas the previous verb applies strictly to organic growth (like that of a healthy plant)‚ this one points to wide dispersal. The love is exercised by the entire community and by each individual (the love every one of you has for each other). Paul has some salutary rebukes to administer, but he is glad to begin by paying his tribute to the Christian love that permeated the community.
In the first epistle he had given thanks for their ‘endurance inspired by hope’ (1 Thess. 1:3), as well as for their faith and love. But the omission here is not significant‚ for he uses the same word in the next verse (translated ‘perseverance’) as one of the things about which he boasts.
4. The result (hōste‚ therefore, indicates consequence) of the increase of faith and love was that Paul and his companions boasted of the Thessalonians to other Christians. Those who maintain that the tone of this letter is colder than that of the first have a problem with the emphatic expressions used here. Instead of the simple we, Paul has the emphatic ‘we ourselves’ (autous hēmas), while the verb translated boast (enkauchasthai, a compound here only in the New Testament) is not the simple verb Paul generally uses. The meaning appears to be that it was not the habit of the preachers to boast of their converts (in 1 Thess. 1:9 other people boast to Paul, not he to them); but in this case the merits are so outstanding that even the founders of the church are constrained to sing its praises.
They boast about the converts’ perseverance (see comment on 1 Thess. 1:3, where it is translated ‘endurance’) and faith. Faith is here understood by some as ‘faithfulness’, ‘fidelity’, because of its connection with ‘endurance’‚ but the reason scarcely seems adequate. Pistis can denote ‘fidelity’, but in the New Testament it nearly always means ‘faith’ (see comment on 3:2). In the previous verse it has been used in this normal sense and there seems no reason for a different meaning here. Amid their difficulties they had preserved their trust in God (cf. comment on 1 Thess. 3:5).
Persecutions are assaults made on Christians specifically on account of their Christian profession; trials (thlipsesin) are more general‚ any of the tribulations and troubles they might meet, whether persecution or any other. The present tense, you are enduring‚ shows that the troubles were not past history but present at the time of writing.
5. There is a difficulty in that the ‘persecutions and trials’ seem on the face of it to deny rather than to prove that God’s judgment is right. But we should not understand the evidence to be the sufferings (as Rutherford‚ ‘these sufferings attest the equity of God’). It is not the persecutions but the attitude of the Thessalonians in their troubles that is the decisive thing. Such constancy and faith could come only from the action of God within them, and if God has so inspired them this is clear evidence that he does not intend them to come short of the final attainment of the kingdom (cf. Phil. 1:28, and comment on 1 Thess. 2:12). Perhaps we should also notice Simeon’s view that we cannot think of iniquity as triumphing over a moral God: ‘The very existence of such enormities’ as persecution is then ‘ “a manifest proof,” or demonstration that there will be “a righteous judgment of God”.’1
Lightfoot understands the judgment (more exactly ‘the righteous judgment’‚ tēs dikaias kriseōs, only here in Paul‚ though Rom. 2:5 is similar and Bailey remarks ‘the idea is basic in his thinking’) in terms of ‘the law of compensation by which the sufferers of this world shall rest hereafter and the persecutors of this world shall suffer hereafter’. While this thought is certainly in mind (v. 6)‚ the idea here is bigger. It is part of God’s righteous judgment to use tribulations to bring his own people to perfection. The Greek construction (eis to with the infinitive) expresses purpose; the judgment is in order that they may be counted worthy of the kingdom. The verb kataxioō means not ‘to make worthy’ but ‘to declare worthy’‚ ‘to count worthy’ (like that other great Pauline word dikaioō, ‘to justify’ in the sense ‘to declare as just’). The apostle is excluding human merit even in a passage where he is drawing attention to a noteworthy piece of endurance; he is emphasizing that attainment to the kingdom is not the result of human endeavour, but is due to the grace of God.
For which you are suffering does not mean ‘in order to gain which’ but ‘on behalf of which’‚ ‘in the interest of which’. It is precisely the disinterested nature of their sufferings that afforded the evidence that God was in them.
b. Divine judgment (1:6–10)
Paul lays down the general principle on which judgment is based and proceeds to some truths about final judgment. Some have felt that there is too much of ‘an eye for an eye’ about this and they ascribe the words to a Jewish interpolator. Such a position cannot be sustained. There is no evidence and in any case the idea is fully Christian. In a moral universe sin cannot go unpunished. The sinner always hopes that he will escape penalty‚ but, because God is over all‚ this is quite impossible. ‘Punishment is the other half of sin’ (Denney).
6. Paul uses an ‘if indeed’ (eiper) construction, but this does not cast doubt on the proposition. It is a rhetorical understatement and is used of things as far beyond doubt as the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the believer (Rom. 8:9) and the existence of idols (1 Cor. 8:5). NIV has simply God is just‚ and this is the force of it. Paul grounds the certainty of final judgment in the righteous nature of God. Because God is just we must expect the ultimate righting of wrongs; that God will repay ‘seems an essential constituent of any teaching about God’s judgement’ (Best). Jesus taught that there would be ‘woe’ for some as well as blessing for others (Luke 6:20–26). The verb pay back (antapo didōmi) contains the notion of what is due (see comment on 1 Thess. 3:9, and for trouble see on 1 Thess. 1:6 where the same word is translated ‘suffering’).
7. The positive side of the retribution now succeeds the negative, as Paul thinks of relief (anesin‚ which means release of tension; it was used of the slackening of a taut bowstring) for the troubled. He points his friends to the prospect of relief from the afflictions that tormented them. Some object that this is an unworthy motive, but such objections usually emanate from the comfortable. It is a matter of history that those who are passing through suffering for the Lord’s sake do not, as a rule, despise the prospect of final blessedness. This is not the whole of the gospel, but it is an authentic part of it and we are not wise to overlook it. To us as well reminds us that Paul and his companions were likewise persecuted. It is ‘a sigh on his own account’ (Findlay, CGT).
From this point to the end of verse 10 the structure is so markedly rhythmical that some scholars feel that Paul is quoting from some Jewish psalm. Way calls it the ‘Hymn of the Second Coming’. Paul may be quoting‚ but the language is his and there is no real reason for denying the passage to him.
The first point is the coming of the Lord Jesus. Paul says literally ‘in the revelation of the Lord Jesus’; it is not only that the retribution will take place when Christ is revealed: the retribution is itself part of the revelation (‘Revelation includes the vindication of righteousness’‚ Ward). The final consummation is a parousia (1 Thess. 3:13, etc.); now we find that it is also apokalypsis (as in 1 Cor. 1:7; 1 Pet. 1:7, 13, etc.)‚ i.e. an uncovering‚ a disclosure. It is the revelation of a Person at present concealed. He will come in blazing fire‚ a concept not frequent in the New Testament. But fire is often associated with the divine presence in the Old Testament (e.g. Exod. 3:2; Isa. 66:15–16) and in Revelation (Rev. 1:13–14, etc.). Here it is the robe of the returning Lord. His powerful angels is better ‘the angels of his power’ (JB); the emphasis is not on the power of the angels but on that of the Lord. Indeed, Moore holds that, in the light of Mark 14:62, power ‘could be Paul’s way of referring to Jesus’ divinity … Jesus is to be revealed with angels appropriate to and underlining his divine nature’.
8. He will punish points to an activity that belongs to God alone (Deut. 32:35), and its ascription to Christ shows that Paul regarded him as divine in the fullest sense (in vv. 5–6 he spoke of God as judge). The word means not arbitrary punishment, but something like ‘he will do justice upon’ (NEB).
There are separate articles with those who do not know God and (those who) do not obey the gospel. The most natural understanding of this is that there are two groups of people. Some are so sure of this that they see the Gentiles in the former expression and the Jews in the latter (cf. Way, ‘on those heathen who ignore God, on those Jews who refuse obedience’). This, however, seems to be reading too much into the passage. Rather, those who do not know God means anyone, heathen or not, who is guilty of culpable neglect of such knowledge of God as God has made possible; it is the rejection of proffered light (as in 1 Thess. 4:5). Those who do not obey the gospel form a specific example of the foregoing; they reject the ultimate revelation of God’s saving activity. It is to be borne in mind, too, that this whole passage is markedly Hebraic; in the manner of many Old Testament passages the second expression may simply take up and fill out the thought of the first (cf. Jer. 10:25).
9. They translates the relative of quality (hoitines), meaning ‘who are of such a kind as to’; they are fit for the penalty they will receive. Will be punished is more exactly ‘will pay penalty’, the last word (dikē) being from the same root as ‘righteous’ (dikaios); it is not a mindless infliction of vindictive punishment, but the meting out of merited desert. The penalty is given in some detail. Destruction means not ‘annihilation’ but complete ruin. It is the loss of all that makes life worth living. Coupled with everlasting (better ‘eternal’, as RSV), it is the opposite of eternal life. The exact expression occurs again in 4 Maccabees 10:15 (and nowhere else in the Greek Bible), where it is the lot of the wicked tyrant and is set over against the ‘blessed death’ of the martyr. It is being shut out from the presence of the Lord. The final horror of sin is that it separates the sinner from God (cf. Isa. 59:2). The majesty of his power points to another aspect of the same thing, for majesty (better ‘glory’, doxa) means something like ‘the visible manifestation of the greatness of God’. Notice the almost incidental, but very telling, reference to his strength. The Thessalonians were feeling the power of human oppressors, but Paul reminds them that there is One mightier (cf. Isa. 2:10, 19, 21).
These solemn words make clear the utter finality of the lot of the wicked. As Denney says, ‘If there is any truth in Scripture at all, this is true—that those who stubbornly refuse to submit to the gospel, and to love and obey Jesus Christ, incur at the Last Advent an infinite and irreparable loss. They pass into a night on which no morning dawns.’
10. The ‘when’ that introduces this verse (see RSV) is the indefinite hotan; the coming is certain, but its time is not known. Whenever it takes place its distinguishing characteristic will be glory; a glory, Paul says, that will be in his holy people. The expression is not an easy one (see Bailey for a convenient summary of the possibilities). The verb is a compound found in the New Testament again only in verse 12; its meaning is ‘be glorified-in’, and it is followed by another ‘in’. The Lord will be glorious and his glory will be in his saints too (cf. 1 John 3:2, ‘when he appears, we shall be like him’). Masson, Thomas and others see the meaning that he will be glorified in the midst of his saints (cf. Ps. 89:7), but this seems less likely. The glory of the day will surpass anything we know (to be marvelled at); we will be lost in amazement.
The aorist participle, those who have believed, has caused some strange interpretations (Lightfoot notes one, ‘the past tense is used here to denote that faith would then have been absorbed in sight and ceased to be’). It is better to see the aorist as pointing to the initial step of faith; believing then is synonymous with becoming a Christian. Paul is talking about Christ’s people, those who have believed in him.
The construction at the end of the verse is awkward, some thing like ‘to be marvelled at in all those who have believed because our testimony to (or on) you was believed in that day’. Hort found this so difficult that he took the extreme step of making a conjectural emendation (a thing he rarely did). He read epistōthē, ‘was confirmed’, for episteuthē, ‘was believed’, and this was accepted by Moffatt, EGT. It is better to accept Lightfoot’s suggestion that the passage is elliptical and read ‘in all them that believed, and therefore in you, because our testimony was believed in you’ (better, ‘… our testimony to you was believed’). The preachers’ testimony to the Thessalonians produced the desired result.
c. Paul’s prayer (1:11–12)
This is not an actual prayer interjected into the argument as is quite common in Paul, but the apostle’s assurance that he prays for his friends constantly and in these terms.
11. With this in mind probably refers to the whole of the preceding section. Paul’s prayer for the Thessalonians grows out of his thanksgiving for them and his contemplation of the wonderful things to come. The prayer is that they may grow in things spiritual, and this is expressed in various ways. First, count you worthy. This is not a prayer that the converts will not fall away. Paul’s attention is fixed on the glory at the end time and he prays that they will then be adjudged worthy of having been called, i.e. that during the intervening period they will live in such a way as to ensure this commendation. Best holds that axioō here means ‘make worthy’ rather than ‘count worthy’, but we should take the word in its normal sense (cf. v. 5). Calling (klēsis) usually means the initial act whereby God calls people to be his own (e.g. Eph. 4:1; Phil. 3:14), and this is probably meant here. But it is also likely that Paul has in mind the final consummation of that call. He speaks of our God, uniting his converts with himself in contemplating their common Master.
By his power will apply to both the following: Paul prays that the power of God will be seen in the good purpose and also in the work of faith. Neither is to be done in merely human strength. There is no of yours in the Greek and some have thought that it is God’s purpose (cf. AV ‘his’). But NIV is surely right. The expression is more literally ‘good pleasure of goodness’ (eudokia agathōsynēs) and the word for ‘goodness’ is never used of God elsewhere in the New Testament. It refers to human goodness and is part of the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22). Paul prays that God will bring about the goodness of will (eudokia) that leads to goodness of action. It is like the Anglican collect for Easter Day, ‘We humbly beseech thee, that as by thy special grace preventing (i.e. preceding) us thou dost put into our minds good desires, so by thy continual help we may bring the same to good effect’, as several commentators point out. Coupled with this is every act prompted by your faith. Except that it lacks the definite article, the expression is identical with that translated ‘your work produced by faith’ (1 Thess. 1:3, where see comment). Faith is not passive; it is ceaselessly active, appropriating God’s blessings and using God’s power for God’s service.
12. The name in biblical times stood for the whole person; to ‘glorify the name’ was thus to exalt the person. Paul thus looks for the Thessalonians so to produce the qualities of Christian character that the Saviour who has produced such works of mighty power within them will be exalted. Some see in the glorification of the name of Christ a reference to the parousia (so Best), but, while the parousia is not out of mind, the primary emphasis at this point is on the quality of life produced in the Thessalonians by the indwelling Christ (Rigaux argues for the present). For being glorified in you, and you in him, cf. Jesus’ own words (John 17:1, 10, 21–23); they are to be glorified not ‘with’ him, but ‘in’ him, and he is to be in them. This is the closest of unions.
All this is according to the grace of God. Everything is ascribed to its basic cause in God. The Thessalonians do not have the power to bring glory to the Lord, but they can do this by grace (see comment on 1 Thess. 1:1). Grace emphasizes the favour God shows to the unworthy, a favour made available through the work of Christ, and further, the gifts he bestows on people. The purpose of such gifts is that people may live the life just spoken of.
It is grammatically possible to understand our God as synonymous with the Lord Jesus Christ, since one article covers both; indeed, Nigel Turner says bluntly, ‘ “Our Lord and God Jesus Christ” would be the correct rendering’2 (cf. GNB mg., ‘our God and Lord Jesus Christ’). But kyrios (Lord) often occurs without the article, like a proper name. Most commentators take this sense here and understand the expression to refer to both the Father and the Son. This is probable, but the other possibility cannot be excluded. And in any case we should notice the closeness of Christ and God.