II Thessalonians 1:1-12
I was having trouble with verse 6: …since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you. I wondered how Paul knew that the unbelieving tormenters in Thessalonica were being repaid with affliction. Did Silas and Timothy bring back word to that effect? Then I realized that the first half of verse 7 might really be a parenthetical phrase or an incomplete sentence set off in dashes. Let’s look at verses 6 and 7 with dashes: …since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you – and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us – when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. That is, in shortened form, …God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven… It makes a lot more sense that way! The tormenters will be repaid with affliction when Jesus returns!
There’s a lot of material in this reading about Jesus’ return: mighty angels, flaming fire, inflicting vengeance, eternal destruction, glorified in his saints, marveled at by believers. There’s not much I can say – or that I ever do say – about Jesus’ return. I leave that to end-times authors!
Slava Bohu!
Thanks, Fred. I was drawn to v. 11. It is God that fulfills BY HIS POWER every good resolve and work of faith. I/we need to emphasize that again and again!