The Last Judgment
THE LAST JUDGMENT
2 THESSALONIANS 1:5-10
How significant is the judgment of God in your thinking?
Paul urges the Thessalonians to penetrate beneath the opposition they are encountering and to perceive the righteous judgment of God (1:5). The fact that their faith has increased rather than diminished under adversity (1:3), and that they have been sustained in much affliction (1:4) is sufficient evidence that God is just and cares for his own people. God’s nearness to them in their suffering is the assurance that he will judge between believers and their persecutors. Until the time of that judgment, suffering has meaning precisely because it is endured for the sake of the kingdom of God.
But there must be no mistake; there is a retributive judgment of God (1:6). Retribution for sin is a necessary consequence of life in a moral universe over which God rules as Sovereign. With skillful strokes Paul paints a canvas on which is sketched the Last Judgment (1:7-10). The colors he chooses are dictated by the language and thought forms of the Old Testament when it speaks of the Day of the Lord (see Isaiah 2:10,19,21). Jesus Christ, the righteous Judge, is given central prominence. Before him are assembled two groups of people. The first consists of those who have recklessly disregarded God’s laws and have refused obedience to the gospel (1:8). Their rejection of God is further expressed in their affliction of the weak and their persecution of the righteous. Having refused the fellowship of the Lord during their earthly life they now experience exclusion from his presence and his glory for ever (1:9). This is the just and inescapable consequence of a deliberate defiance of God.
The second group consists of those who have served Christ faithfully and have enjoyed his fellowship. Their reward is to experience relief from the affliction of the world (1:7) and to enjoy in the fullest measure the immediate presence of God in Christ for ever. The reality defies the ability of language to describe all that is meant; the apostle depicts the company of the redeemed as openmouthed, filled with wonder at the glory of Christ. Paul’s point is clear. To be a son of the kingdom now, faithfully following Jesus the Christ, is to be with him always (see also 1 Thessalonians 4:17). To reject Christ, and stubbornly align oneself with the disobedient, is to suffer eternal loss.