CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES
2 Thessalonians 1:11. And fulfil all the good pleasure.—R.V. “every desire of goodness.” “As much as to say, May God mightily accomplish in you all that goodness would desire and that faith can effect” (Findlay).
2 Thessalonians 1:12. That the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you.—A little mirror may not increase the sum-total of sunlight, but it may cause some otherwise unobservant eye to note its brightness. So Christ’s infinite and eternal glory cannot be augmented but only shared by Christians (John 17:22).
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— 2 Thessalonians 1:11-12
A Prayer for Completeness of Moral Character.
To meet Christ at His coming, and to dwell with Him in the bliss of the future, demands a moral preparedness. To promote this should be the constant, unwearied solicitude of both pastor and people. The possession of any measure of divine grace supplies the strongest motives for seeking the highest possible degree of moral excellence. In this passage observe:—
I. That completeness of moral character is really the attainment of the divine ideal.—“That our God would count you worthy of this calling” (2 Thessalonians 1:11). The tyro in religion pictures to himself a more or less definite outline of what he may become and what he may do. The charm of novelty, the enthusiasm of first love, the indefiniteness of the untried and the unknown, throw a romantic glamour over the Christian career, and the mind is elated with the prospect of entering upon grand enterprises and winning signal victories. But mature thought and experience and a more familiar acquaintance with the divine mind lead us to modify many of our earlier views, and to readjust the main features of our own ideal of the Christian character, so as to be more in harmony with the divine ideal. God calls us to purity of heart and life, and makes us worthy, and gives us power to attain it. We have no worthiness in ourselves or in our works. The fitness for heavenly glory is acquired by following out the God-given inspiration to “live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present world.”
II. That completeness of moral character consists in the delighting in goodness.—“And fulfil all the good pleasure of His goodness” (2 Thessalonians 1:11). Some are influenced to be good because they are afraid of the penalties attached to a life of sin. Others because of the substantial rewards and benefits found in a life of probity and uprightness. But the highest type is to love goodness for its own sake, and to delight in it as goodness; to be wholly possessed with a life-absorbing passion to find and to diffuse goodness everywhere. This approaches nearest to the divine ideal. “He hath pleasure in uprightness, and hath no pleasure in wickedness” (1 Chronicles 29:17; Psalms 5:4). There is no pleasure like that we find in true goodness. Severus, emperor of Rome, confessed on his deathbed, “I have been everything, and now find that everything is nothing.” Then, directing that the urn should be brought to him, he said, “Little urn, thou shalt contain one for whom the world was too little.”
III. That completeness of moral character is attained by the exercise of a divinely inspired faith.—“And the work of faith with power” (2 Thessalonians 1:11). We have no innate righteousness. It is God-given. It is received, maintained, and extended in the soul by faith in the merits of the all-righteous Saviour. “While faith itself is the gift of God, it is no less an exercise of the mind and heart of man. And because, like everything else about man, it partakes of his great weakness, it needs ever, as it walks in the light of the divine word, to stay itself on the divine hand.” Faith is the mighty instrument by which the divine life is propagated in the soul, and by which its loftiest blessings are secured.
IV. That completeness of moral character promotes the divine glory.—“That the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and ye in Him” (2 Thessalonians 1:12). It will be seen at the last that Christ has been more abundantly glorified by a humble, holy life than by wealthy benefactions or by gigantic enterprises. The name now so much despised, and for which those who now bear it suffer so much, shall be magnified and exalted “above every name.” The followers of Christ shall share in the glory of their Lord. Their excellencies redound to His glory; and His glory is reflected on them in such a way that there is a mutual glorification. “What a glory it will be to them before all creatures that He who sits upon the throne once shared their sorrows and died for them! What a glory that He still wears their nature, and is not ashamed to call them brethren! What a glory to be for ever clothed with His righteousness! What a glory to reign with Him and be glorified together!” (Lillie).
V. That completeness of moral character is rendered possible by the provisions of divine grace.—“According to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Thessalonians 1:12). The source of all human goodness, in all its varying degrees, is in the divine favour. It is worthy of note that Christ is here recognised as on an equality with the Father, and as being with Him the fontal source of grace. The glory which it is possible for sanctified humanity to reach is “according to grace.” The grace is “exceeding abundant”; so is the glory. There is a fathomless mine of moral wealth provided for every earnest seeker after God.
VI. That completeness of moral character should be the subject of constant prayer.—“Wherefore also we pray always for you” (2 Thessalonians 1:11). The Thessalonians were favoured in having the prayers of the apostles. It is a beautiful example of the unselfishness of the Christian spirit when we are so concerned for others as to pray for them. We value that about which we pray the most. We have need of prayer to help us to attend faithfully to the little things which make up the daily duties of the Christian life. Attention to trifles is the way to completeness of moral character. The great Italian sculptor, Michael Angelo, was once visited by an acquaintance, who remarked, on entering his studio, “Why, you have done nothing to that figure since I was here last?” “Yes,” was the reply, “I have softened this expression, touched off that projection, and made other improvements.” “Oh!” said the visitor, “these are mere trifles.” “True,” answered the sculptor; “but remember that trifles make perfection, and perfection is no trifle.”
Lessons.—
1. It is important to have a lofty ideal of Christian perfection constantly in view.
2. While humbled by failures we are not to be disheartened.
3. Earnest, persevering prayer wins great moral victories.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
2 Thessalonians 1:11-12. Genuine Religion illustrated.
I. Religion in its nature.—It is a worthiness into which we are called and with which we are invested.
II. Religion in its source.—The goodness of God.
1. All present religious views and feelings are the effect of divine grace.
2. Man has no rightful claim to divine grace.
3. Religion has its true source in the good pleasure of God.
III. Religion in its principle.—Faith. “The work of faith with power.” The producing and sustaining principle of religion.
IV. Religion in its end.—
1. The glory of the Redeemer. “That the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you.”
2. The glory of the redeemed. “And ye in Him.”
V. Religion in its measure or rule of dispensation.—“According to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.”—Zeta.
2 Thessalonians 1:12. Christ glorified in His People.—The bust of Luther was shut out from the Walhalla, or German Westminster Abbey. The people were indignant, but said, “Why need we a bust when he lives in our hearts?” And thus the Christian ever feels when he beholds many around him multiplying pictures and statues of Christ, and he can say, “I need them not, for He is ever with me; he lives perpetually in my heart.”