CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES
2 Thessalonians 1:5. Which is a manifest token—“An indication.” The steadfast and resolute continuance in the profession and adornment of the Christian faith, in face of opposition, might suggest to persecutors, as to Gamaliel, the possibility of the divine origin of the faith, to oppose which was to fight against God.
2 Thessalonians 1:6. Seeing it is a righteous thing.—“There is no unrighteousness in Him.” However stern the retribution, none who suffers will ever be able to impugn the justice. To recompense tribulation to them that trouble you.—The R.V. comes nearer to the original, “affliction to them that afflict you.” This lex talionis is a sword that is dangerous to any hand but His who said, “Vengeance is Mine; I will repay.”
2 Thessalonians 1:7. And to you who are troubled rest with us.—The idea suggested by the words is that of poor, hunted fugitives with nerves tensely strung and a wild look of fear in the eyes. As the guardians of the infant Jesus were assured of safety by the death of him who sought the child’s life, so the strain of fear shall be relaxed in the case of the persecuted Thessalonians.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— 2 Thessalonians 1:5-7
The Recompense of Suffering for the Truth.
It is not an uncommon spectacle to see vice prosperous and triumphant, while virtue is ignored and oppressed. To a superficial observer it would seem that all the great prizes of the world—wealth, power, social status, gaiety, display, pleasure—were thrown indiscriminately and with lavish abundance into the lap of the wicked, and that the God-fearing few are left in obscurity to struggle with hardships, penury, and affliction. Nor is it always an easy matter to reconcile the sufferings of the good with the goodness and justice of God. But all things come round to the patient man. We must look to the future for the faithful redress of present grievances. In this chapter the apostle ministers consolation to the suffering Thessalonians by assuring them of a coming day in which they would be abundantly recompensed for all they had to endure, and in which the righteousness of God would be publicly vindicated. Observe:—
I. That the maintenance of the truth often entails considerable suffering.—“The kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer” (2 Thessalonians 1:5). They who will live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer persecution. The world is violently opposed to the Church, and that opposition is full of malignant hatred and cruelty. Socrates once said something like this—that if goodness were to become incarnate in one man, so that that man would be perfectly good, the world would put him to death. What Socrates said was realised in Christ. “If they have persecuted Me,” said Christ to His followers, “they will also persecute you.” It is not the least among the trials of the good that they are obliged to come in contact with evil in so many forms, and that they are so savagely assailed and oppressed with it. Athanasius regarded the suffering of persecution to be a special note of a Christian man, observing: “It is the part of Christians to be persecuted; but to persecute the Christians is the very office of Pilate and Caiaphas.”
II. That suffering for the truth has a morally educating influence.—“That ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God” (2 Thessalonians 1:5). The believer has no worthiness in himself, nor can he acquire any by the merit of his own works. This worthiness is but another word for meetness—that meetness of state and character, as sinners justified and sanctified, without which no man shall enter the kingdom. Only to such has the kingdom been promised. And the sufferings they endure on behalf of the kingdom, so far from impairing their title, serve rather to confirm and illustrate it. Every Christian grace is tested, developed, and trained by suffering. “The least reproach augments our glory. Every tear is not only noted and kept in the bottle, but made as varnish to add to our brightness and glorious splendour. No drop of our blood but wins us a river of glory; effusion of it the whole ocean of beatitude.” When Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, was cast to the lions, he exclaimed: “I am God’s wheat, and must be ground by the teeth of the wild beasts that I may be found His pure bread.”
III. That suffering for the truth will be divinely recompensed.—“Which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God” (2 Thessalonians 1:5)—i.e. their sufferings and the constancy with which they endured them proved God’s justice. A strange assertion! The people of God have often been staggered by the fact that the wicked persecute and prosper, and the poor saints are plagued and oppressed (Psalms 73:1-14; Jeremiah 12:1-4). But from this very fact the apostle derives consolation. It is a proof to him of a future state in which all this apparent inconsistency will be set right, in which the saint and the persecutor will each receive his own proper recompense.
1. Suffering will be divinely recompensed in the deliverance of the sufferer.—“And to you who are troubled rest with us” (2 Thessalonians 1:7). The word “rest” really means the slackening of strings that had been pulled tight. To the persecuted and afflicted Thessalonians the happiness of heaven is held out under the image of rest and relief after suffering. It is, as it were, the relaxing of tension after having been stretched on the rack. The keenest suffering for the truth is limited in its duration; and the righteousness of God is pledged to sustain and deliver His afflicted ones. The sweet rest of heaven will be all the more enjoyable because shared with those who have passed through a similar conflict.
2. Suffering will be divinely recompensed in the punishment of the persecutor.—“Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you” (2 Thessalonians 1:6). The punishment of the persecutor is as just as the relief of the oppressed; and God has both the intention and the power of accomplishing what He thinks just. The law of retaliation will be rigidly enforced. The very measure the persecutors have dealt they are to receive back again; and the retaliation will be all the more terrible because of its unanswerable justice. Truth must triumph over all its enemies. Its watchword is “no surrender.” The apostate Julian spent his strength in trying to destroy the true Church; but when he fell on the battle-field, as the blood was gushing from his breast and his eyes were closing in death, he hissed between his setting teeth, “Galilean, Thou hast conquered!” And the Galilean must and will conquer, and all His enemies shall receive their just measure of punishment.
Lessons.—
1. The sufferings of the good afford an opportunity for the display of divine justice.
2. Suffering is no evidence of the divine displeasure.
3. The glory of the future will infinitely outweigh the sufferings of the present life.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
2 Thessalonians 1:6-7. Rest in Heaven for the Troubled.
I. Our Lord’s coming is called a revealing of Him.—Here He is revealed in the outer world and in the gospel. There He will be revealed in glory, without disguise or veil.
II. Look at the troublers and their portion.—“It is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you.” Sorrow of the acutest kind without comfort or alleviation.
III. Look at the portion of the troubled.—“Rest.” A heaven of quietness and repose, and yet of ceaseless and tireless activity in praising God.
VI. The righteousness of the divine conduct.—“It is a righteous thing with God.” The Lord’s second coming is not on an errand of mercy; His main business is to dispense justice.—C. Bradley.