2 Thessalonians 1 Devotional

The Judge Who Sets Things Right

“After all, it is only right for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you,”2 Thessalonians 1:6 (BSB)

Paul thanks God that the Thessalonians' faith and love keep growing under persecution (1:3-4). Their perseverance is evidence of God's righteous judgment (1:5). God is just, and he will repay with affliction those who afflict his people and give relief to those who suffer (1:6-7). That will happen when the Lord Jesus appears from heaven in blazing fire (1:7-8).

This is hard to read. Those who neither know God nor obey the gospel will suffer eternal destruction, shut out from the Lord's presence (1:8-9). Paul does not soften it. Yet he writes not to stir up vengeance but so that suffering people can leave justice in God's hands, and he looks ahead to the day when Jesus will be glorified in his people and marveled at by all who believe (1:10). Meanwhile he prays that God will count them worthy of his calling, by grace (1:11-12). Because the Judge is just, you need not carry the burden of settling every score.

To think about: What wrong done to you or to others are you struggling to leave in God's hands, and what would it look like to entrust it to him?