Iii. The Parousia (2:1-12) 212
i i With this in mind, we constantly pray for you, that our God may count you worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may fulfill every good purpose of yours and every act prompted by your faith. 12 We pray this so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.a
Paul has been holding before his friends the prospect of deliverance and glory at the coming of the Lord. But he is mindful that they still have to live out their faith in the hard world of people who oppose themselves to the things of God. This they can never do in their own strength, but only in the strength that God supplies. Easily and naturally, then, the apostle passes over into prayer that God will see his friends through to the very end.
11 "With this in mind" is rather loosely attached to the whole of the preceding section, and is probably not to be taken closely with any particular word or words. It refers to the whole of the salvation that Paul has been holding out before them. The expression conveys the idea of purpose. Paul is saying that in order that this may happen he prays for his friends. In his previous letter he had counseled them to be unceasing in their prayers (5:17), and he puts his precept into practice. The "also" (which NIV omits) may indicate that the Thessalonians were praying about this matter, and Paul joins them in this. But more probably it arises from the fact that the apostle has been thanking God for them (v. 3), boasting about them (v. 4), and assuring them of their place in the scheme of things at the last day (vv. 7, 10). Not only does he do this sort of thing, but he also prays for them.
The first point in his prayer is that48 "our God may count you worthy of his calling." The calling of God is a leading thought with Paul. Usually it denotes the decisive moment when God calls people out of darkness into his glorious light, and we might cite Romans 8:30 as the typical example of its use: "And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified...." The call is an effective call, and implies that the one who is called obeys that call. The prayer here that God would count the Thessalonians worthy49 of the call does not carry with it the thought that they might fall away from the status of called people. We must bear in mind that when people are called they are completely unworthy of this call (Gal. 1:13-15 is perhaps the classic instance of this). But God does not intend that they continue in such a state. They are to walk worthily of the calling wherewith he calls them (Eph. 4:1). It is this that Paul has in mind here. It is inspiring that God has called them, but they must not so exult in this thought that they grow slack in their Christian service. They must seek to be worthy. Since this is not something that can be accomplished in any human strength, Paul prays that God will count them worthy. That is to say, his prayer is that they may so live between this moment and the judgment that God will then be able to pronounce them worthy of the calling wherewith he called them. "You" is emphatic; it indicates Paul's special concern for the Thessalonians.
The next point is that God will "fulfill every good purpose." Some interpreters take this to mean that God is being asked to work out his good pleasure. While there is nothing unlikely in such a sentiment, the Greek here does not seem to mean this. The "act prompted by faith" that is parallel to this expression is something that people perform, and the natural understanding is that they are to work what is laid down in the first part also. Again, the word for "goodness" (the Greek means "purpose of goodness") in the New Testament is always used of human goodness. All in all, it seems clear enough that it is a work of God in the Thessalonians that is in mind. Paul is praying that God will produce a goodness of will in his friends. The parallelism with "work of faith" indicates that the meaning is "resolve proceeding from goodness," rather than "a resolve after goodness" or "a resolve to do good."
Parallel is "act prompted by your faith." "Every," which precedes "desire of goodness," is rightly taken with this phrase also (and NIV repeats the word). The expression reminds us that faith is not simply an intellectual attitude that does nothing. Faith is always busy. A true faith will clothe itself in works. So Paul prays that his friends will produce in their lives the works that spring from faith (see on 1 Thess. 1:3). When he asks that God will "fulfill" these things he implies that no human power is adequate. The divine is necessary. He reinforces this by adding "in power" with which the verse ends. Paul is not seeking some merely human reformation, nor some pious thinking. He wants to see that fruit of goodness which can come about only when the power of God is operative in human lives.50
12 The purpose of all this is now given: "so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you." The name in biblical times was much more than a means of distinguishing one person from another. It summed up the person's whole character.51 An instructive verse for an understanding of the name reads, "To him who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give him a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to him who receives it" (Rev. 2:17). To our way of thinking a name that nobody knows is useless. The whole purpose of a name is to designate a person. But in the Revelation the name nobody knows is very much in point. It signifies a new character that is given to the person in question, something that is a secret between his Lord and himself.
Thus when prayer is made that the Thessalonians may so live that glory may be brought to the name of the Lord, the meaning is not that the angels may name his name "with loud acclaims" (Frame). Rather, it is that there may be such virtues manifest in the believers that glory will accrue to him who is ultimately responsible for these virtues. The Thessalonians will be such a bright and shining testimony to the reality of their salvation that the Savior will be seen to be the wonderful Being he is. The character in which he will be glorified is the double one of Lord (appropriate in this context so full of allusions to the second advent) and Jesus (with all its association of the human Jesus who stooped so low for us). Then there is another aspect to this glory. The Thessalonians, too, will be glorified. Their glory will result from their association with the Lord, and thus Paul speaks of their being "in" him in this connection.52 On that day, just as he will be glorified in them on account of what they have become, so they will be glorified in him on account of what he is.53
Again and again Paul comes back to the great thought that Christians owe all that they have and all that they are to God. So now he adds to this picture of glory the thought that all is according to the grace of God. Grace is one of the great Christian words, and Paul uses it often (see on 1 Thess. 1:1). It carries with it thoughts of the joyous free favor of God, and of his unmerited kindness to people. This is operative in the whole process of salvation, and if it is more usual in the New Testament to find it used of the initial stages of salvation, there is no reason for thinking that it will be absent from the final stages. The glory of the last time will be due to God's grace to his people.
It seems that NIV is correct in its rendering of the closing words of this chapter. But since there is an article before "our God" and none before "Lord Jesus Christ," it is possible to understand the expression to mean, "our God and Lord, Jesus Christ"54 (GNB mg.). However, the expression "Lord Jesus Christ" occurs so frequently that it has almost the status of a proper name. Therefore, when "Lord" is used of Jesus it is not necessary for it to have the article. This being so, it seems likely that we should understand the present passage to refer to both the Father and the Son. At the same time we should not overlook the fact that Paul does link them very closely indeed. That there can be this doubt as to whether one or both are meant is itself indicative of the closeness of their connection in the mind of Paul. He makes no great distinction between them (see further on 1 Thess. 3:11).