Wherefore also we pray always for you
The good pleasure of goodness
At the point where the intercession rises out of the text we see St.
Paul’s manner of giving a devotional turn to every subject. He had been contemplating the glorification of God in the punishment of the wicked and the salvation of the saints. Whilst assuming that the Thessalonians were among the latter a change passes over his mind. The language of exultation becomes that of hope; and hope takes refuge in prayer--
I. That God may count them worthy of so high a dignity. Here he thinks only of the condescending grace that will confirm to the end a vocation resting only on an imputed worthiness. The call is one; but it may be viewed in a threefold gradation, and in each the honour is conferred on man as unworthy in himself but reckoned worthy through the grace of Christ.
1. The first call to salvation is altogether independent of our merit. The gospel invites all alike to an equal place in the Divine favour. The first summons to God’s presence where mercy awaits the vilest is a distinction of which we are reckoned worthy for Christ’s sake alone.
2. We are also called unto holiness, and those who are accepted and renewed are termed specifically “the called.” But their name and place among the saints depend upon the gracious imputation of the Divine tolerance. The saint is always and only reckoned to be holy, not because his holiness is unreal, but because with all his sanctity he is only a sinner saved by grace.
3. We are called by God to His kingdom and glory; but that the consummate issue of the Divine purpose will be as much the conferring of an undeserved distinction as the first acceptance was. Their sanctity will be their garment of righteousness, unspotted from the world; but the judgment of God, which never forgets though it forgives the past, will bear witness that that garment was once stained. Their good deeds will follow them, but so will their forgiven sins. Hence we see the appropriateness of the term as introducing the prayer. It gives to God the glory of the full and complete salvation it supplicates.
II. That He may also make them worthy.
1. The combination of imputed and imparted worthiness. These always go together. The enemies of justification say that God never reckons a man to be what he is not, which is true. The Divine grace mercifully waits while the process is going on, and God is always making His justified ones worthy of their justification. Nor will He present them faultless and crown them until their sanctification is complete. The imputation of worthiness is complete at once, but the infusion is gradual. The reckoning awaits awhile for the reality, which will surely come; and then will the counting and the making be merged into one.
2. Hence we must regard the two phrases employed as embracing the entire compass of religion. “All the good pleasure of His goodness,” etc., is one of those striking summaries in which the apostle delights to throw out his views of finished godliness. “All that goodness can delight in and desire” refers to the formation of a perfect character within; whilst the “work of faith” must include as the antithesis, all that the external duties of religion involve.
3. We must, however, mark more specifically the union of the Divine and human in the perfect holiness prayed for. Not that the Divine part is the pleasure of His goodness, and the human our work of faith. No such distinction is in the words. They speak of the complacency our own souls feel in goodness as a desire satisfied by God; and our work of faith as fulfilled in Divine power. Both and equally unite the two ever necessary elements.
(1) Take the former. The apostle uses terms which make no distinction between the Divine energy in us and our own. The delight our regenerate souls feel in all kinds and degrees of goodness is no other than a fruit of the Spirit’s renewing grace. It is the desire of God beating in our own hearts. The unregenerate may admire all excellencies, and yet sigh to think of them as an unattainable ideal; it is only the renewed soul that takes a tranquil delight in the thought of the attainment of these things. Abhorring that which is evil they cleave to that which is good; and thus delighting themselves in God, and aspiring after holiness, they have their heart’s desire (Psalms 21:2).
(2) Take the latter. The work of man’s faith is his own work; but it is a work which God fulfils in us. Here again the prayer makes no distinction. Faith is man’s acting in the strength of God. The Divine blessing does not simply assist and reward our efforts. When the dejected disciples said, “Lord, increase our faith,” Christ told them that their faith, nourished by devotion, should be a principle of Divine power working within, and accomplishing wonders possible only to God (Matthew 17:20).
4. It remains to dwell upon the perfect attainment of worthiness during the present discipline of the Christian life. It is impossible to put too much strength into the words “fulfil with power,” which belong both to the external and internal life of grace. And whether we think of the power of God or the fulfilment in us, there is obvious no limit to attainment. What can be impracticable to that Power? And as for “fulfil,” that is a word always reserved for, very high service. The prayer is that God may accomplish in our hearts all that we desire, all that goodness finds congenial, all that we have set our heart on.
III. That He may crown imputed and imparted worthiness with glory (2 Thessalonians 1:12). These words are an echo of 2 Thessalonians 1:10.
1. The finished holiness of the saints, with every desire fulfilled and duty discharged, will redound to the glory of the name of Jesus. What they shall be He will have made them; and as the name of the Father is glorified in the Son, through the revelation of His redeeming Person and work, so the name of the Son is glorified in the saints in their full acceptance and sanctification through His atonement.
2. But we are also to be “glorified in Him.” The “name” is not now mentioned; because it is only through our most intimate union with Himself that we attain our supreme glorification. Here the prayer of the servant is like the prayer of the Master, but supplementing what He left unexpressed (John 17:24). When we remember all that is meant by being “glorified in Him,” we must needs feel persuaded that He whose name is thus spoken of is God. In God alone is the sphere of the creature’s blessedness and glory. (W. B. Pope, D. D.)
Experimental Christianity
All the great principles of our common Christianity are stated in these verses by St. Paul, so far as the experience of believers is involved.
I. Christianity in its nature. It renders Christians “worthy.” While we guard against self-righteousness on the one hand, we should be careful against a mock humility on the other. There is a worthiness with which God is well pleased, and which is the blessed result of the working of Christianity in the soul (Colossians 1:9-10; Revelation 3:4). Just as a tree is known by its fruits, so Christianity is known by the moral and spiritual effects it produces in those who profess it.
II. Christianity in its source. “The good pleasure of His goodness.” And this absolutely alone; for none could have merited it as system of restoration. In fact, there is no merit either in unfallen angel or unfallen man, much less in fallen creatures such as we are. Christianity, then, originated in “the good pleasure of goodness,” and that “goodness” was Divine.
III. Christianity in its activity. “The work of faith.” Faith is its active grace. This produces all religious affections, and this sustains all religious affections. It is as coal to the fire, as oil to the lamp.
IV. Christianity in its design. “That the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you and ye in Him.” A double glorification--that of the Master, and that of His servant. What, has not Christ glory enough in heaven with His Father and the holy angels? If He has, can He receive glory from such creatures as His saints? Yes. The original signifies that He can be inglorified in His saints; that is, by something within them--by the gracious work he has wrought in them.
V. Christianity in its measure. “According to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.” The Father and the Son are the givers of grace, and by their names being linked together we are to understand that they will give grace in all its fulness. There is more grace in them than there can be sin in us, or in the whole world. Some sinners are allowed to run mightily on the Divine score, to manifest that, though they are beggared, Divine grace is not. Grace always rises higher in its tide than sin, and bears it down by its flow, just as the rolling tide of the sea rises higher than the streams of a river, and beats them back, with all they contain in them. Divine grace neither knows measure nor end. (J. Burns, D. D.)