2 Thessalonians 1:5

1:5-10 Religion, if worth anything, is worth every thing; and those have no religion, or none worth having, or know not how to value it, cannot find their hearts to suffer for it. We cannot by all our sufferings, any more than by our services, merit heaven; but by our patience under sufferings, we are prepared for the promised joy. Nothing more strongly marks a man for eternal ruin, than a spirit of persecution and enmity to the name and people of God. God will trouble those that trouble his people. And there is a rest for the people of God; a rest from sin and sorrow. The certainty of future recompence is proved by the righteousness of God. The thoughts of this should be terrible to wicked men, and support the righteous. Faith, looking to the great day, is enabled partly to understand the book of providence, which appears confused to unbelievers. The Lord Jesus will in that day appear from heaven. He will come in the glory and power of the upper world. His light will be piercing, and his power consuming, to all who in that day shall be found as chaff. This appearance will be terrible to those that know not God, especially to those who rebel against revelation, and obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is the great crime of multitudes, the gospel is revealed, and they will not believe it; or if they pretend to believe, they will not obey it. Believing the truths of the gospel, is in order to our obeying the precepts of the gospel.

Though sinners may be long spared, they will be punished at last. They did sin's work, and must receive sin's wages. Here God punishes sinners by creatures as instruments; but then, it will be destruction from the Almighty; and who knows the power of his anger? It will be a joyful day to some, to the saints, to those who believe and obey the gospel. In that bright and blessed day, Christ Jesus will be glorified and admired by his saints. And Christ will be glorified and admired in them. His grace and power will be shown, when it shall appear what he has purchased for, and wrought in, and bestowed upon those who believe in him. Lord, if the glory put upon thy saints shall be thus admired, how much more shalt thou be admired, as the Bestower of that glory! The glory of thy justice in the damnation of the wicked will be admired, but not as the glory of thy mercy in the salvation of believers. How will this strike the adoring angels with holy admiration, and transport thy admiring saints with eternal rapture! The meanest believer shall enjoy more than the most enlarged heart can imagine while we are here; Christ will be admired in all those that believe, the meanest believer not excepted.

2 Thessalonians 1:5 . ἔνδειγμα , in apposition to the general thought of the preceding clause; it does not matter to the sense whether the word is taken as an elliptic nominative or an appositional accusative. “All this is really a clear proof of (or points to) the equity of God’s judgment,” which will right the present inequalities of life (Dante, Purg. , x. 109 f.). Δικαία κρίσις is the future and final judgment of 6–10, whose principle is recompense ( Luke 16:25 ); there is a divine law of compensation which will operate. This throws back light upon the present sufferings of the righteous. These trials, it is assumed, are due to loyalty and innocence of life; hence, in their divine aspect ( 2 Thessalonians 1:5 ), they are the necessary qualification or discipline for securing entrance into the realm of God. They are significant, not casual. Paul begins by arguing that their very infliction or permission proves that God must be contemplating a suitable reward and destiny for those who endured them in the right spirit. εἰς τὸ κ . τ . λ ., is thus a loose expansion (from the common rabbinic phrase, cf. Dalman’s Worte Jesu , 97 f.; E. Tr., 119) of one side of the δικ . κρίσις . The other side, the human aspect of θλῖψις , then emerges in 2 Thessalonians 1:6 .

Since the Thessalonians were suffering at the hands of men ( τοὺς θλίβοντας , Isaiah 19:20 ), the two-handed engine of retribution (so Lamentations 3:64 f.; Obadiah 1:15 ; Isaiah 59:18 , for ἀνταποδ .) must in all fairness punish the persecutors ( cf. Sap. 11:9, 10). This is the only passage in which Paul welcomes God’s vengeance on the enemies of the church as an element in the recompense of Christians.— ὑπὲρ ἧς καὶ πάσχετε : to see an intelligible purpose in suffering, or to connect it with some larger movement and hope, is always a moral stay. “God gave three choice gifts to Israel—the Torah, the Land of Promise, and Eternal Life, and each was won by suffering” ( Berachoth , 5 a ).

{2} Which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer: (2) He shows the source of all true comfort, that is, that in afflictions which we suffer from the wicked for righteousness' sake, we may behold as it were in a mirror the testimony of that judgment to come, the end of which is most acceptable to us, and most severe to his enemies.

A manifest token (ἔνδειγμα) N.T.o. Comp. ἔνδειξις, Philippians 1:28. The token is the patience and faith with which they endure persecution and tribulation. It is a token of the righteous judgment of God, in that it points to the future glory which God will confer at the final judgment and the righteous award which will be dispensed to the persecutors. Similarly Philippians 1:28. That ye may be counted worthy The structure of the sentence is loose. These words should be directly connected with righteous judgment, and denote the purport of that judgment - their assignment to an inheritance in the kingdom of God. Of the kingdom of God (τῆς βασιλείας τοῦ θεοῦ) The phrase is not frequent in Paul. βασιλεία θεοῦ four times; βασιλεία τοῦ χριστοῦ καὶ θεοῦ kingdom of Christ and of God, once. Here in the eschatological sense - the future, consummated kingdom, the goal of their striving and the recompense of their suffering. See on Luke 6:20.

2 Thessalonians 1:5 . Ἔνδειγμα ) namely, ὄν [ It being a token , etc.] The Accusative absolute; comp. Acts 26:3 , note. The fact of your ἀνέχεσθαι , enduring , 2 Thessalonians 1:4 , is a proof or token .— δικαίας , just, righteous ) What is stated as a Proposition in this clause is discussed at 2 Thessalonians 1:6-7 .— εἰς τὸ καταξιωθῆναι , that you may be counted worthy ) This clause is connected (coheres) with ye endure .— ὑπὲρ ἧς ) for which . The suffering ( πάσχετε ) makes them worthy of the kingdom.

Verse 5. - Which is a manifest token. A sentence in apposition, so that the words, "which is," printed in italics, ought to be omitted. By "token" is here meant pledge or proof. The reference is not simply to the Thessalonians, but to the whole clause - to the fact of the Thessalonians steadfastly enduring persecutions and affliction; in other words, to their sufferings for the sake of the gospel. Of the righteous - just - judgment of God. Not to be referred to the present state, and particularly to sufferings perfecting the Thessalonians and preparing them for the kingdom of God (Olshausen); but to the future judgment. These words imply that the sufferings of the righteous and the prosperity of their wicked persecutors was a clear proof that there shall be a future state of retribution, when the inequalities of the present state of things will be adjusted, when the apparent violations of justice will be rectified, and when matters will be completely reversed - when the persecutors will be punished and the persecuted rewarded (comp. Philippians 1:28 , "And in nothing terrified by your adversaries; which is to them an evident token of perdition, but to you of salvation and that of God"). That ; in order that, indicating the purpose of God's dispensation. Ye may be counted worthy.

Paul here finds, in the faith and patience of the Thessalonians amid persecution, an evidence of a state of reward, as well as in the cruelties of their persecutors an evidence of a state of punishment. The idea that man can merit salvation as a reward from God is not contained in this passage. As all men are sinners, salvation can only be obtained through the merits and mediation of Christ. But with this grace of God, justice is not abolished; the righteous will be rewarded for their faith and patience (comp. Hebrews 6:10 ; also Hebrews 11:6 ; Luke 6:35 ; 1 Corinthians 3:8 ; 2 John 1:8 ). Of the kingdom of God; namely, the Messianic kingdom which Christ will establish at the advent: here the heavenly state. For which; for the sake of which. Ye also suffer; or rather, are sufferin g; the sufferings being continued down to the time when the apostle wrote this Epistle. 2 Thessalonians 1:5

5. Which—Your enduring these tribulations is a "token of the righteous judgment of God," manifested in your being enabled to endure them, and in your adversaries thereby filling up the measure of their guilt. The judgment is even now begun, but its consummation will be at the Lord's coming. David (Ps 73:1-14) and Jeremiah (Jer 12:1-4) were perplexed at the wicked prospering and the godly suffering. But Paul, by the light of the New Testament, makes this fact a matter of consolation. It is a proof (so the Greek) of the future judgment, which will set to rights the anomalies of the present state, by rewarding the now suffering saint, and by punishing the persecutor. And even now "the Judge of all the earth does right" (Ge 18:25); for the godly are in themselves sinful and need chastisement to amend them. What they suffer unjustly at the hands of cruel men they suffer justly at the hands of God; and they have their evil things here that they may escape condemnation with the world and have their good things hereafter (Lu 16:25; 1Co 11:32) [Edmunds]. that ye may be counted worthy—expressing the purpose of God's "righteous judgment" as regards you. for which—Greek, "in behalf of which ye are also suffering" (compare Ac 5:41; 9:16; Php 1:29). "Worthy" implies that, though men are justified by faith, they shall be judged "according to their works" (Re 20:12; compare 1Th 2:12; 1Pe 1:6, 7; Re 20:4).

Which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God - The word "which" is supplied by our translators, and there may be some doubt to what the apostle has reference as being "a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God." The general sense seems to be, that the fact that they were thus persecuted was an evidence that there would be a future judgment, when the righteous who were persecuted would be rewarded, and the wicked who persecuted them would be punished. The manner in which they bore their trials was an indication also of what the result would be in regard to them. Their patience and faith under persecutions were constantly showing that they would "be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which they were called to suffer." It is evident that a relative must be supplied here, as our translators have done, but there has been a difference of view as to what it refers. Some suppose that it is to "patience," others to "persecutions and tribulations," and others to the "whole sentence" preceding.