Christianity is Serious (2 Thessalonians 1)

We are aware that there are many serious aspects to life. Usually there are serious details in the newspaper. When we read a biography, we will come across times of seriousness in the life of the person. If the person did not have serious moments, we might wonder about the depth of their lives. The Bible contains many examples of such occasions and it is possible to read passages looking for aspects of seriousness. Did we observe any areas of life mentioned in the chapter in which seriousness is expected?

Paul and his colleagues Silas and Timothy begin this letter by expressing their gracious desires for the church of the Thessalonians. They remind their readers that they now have a precious relationship with God the Father and a specific way of responding to the Lord Jesus Christ, which is that of submission. Senders and recipients are both sons of the Father and servants of the Saviour.

The writers also mentioned what their readers could expect to receive – grace and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. This brief statement affirms the equality of the Father and the Son, reveals the shared involvement of the Father and the Son, and specifies some of the sweet blessings connected to the Father and the Son that they delight to give to believers.

So the first serious matter for us to consider is that Christians are those who have contact with God. We are familiar with how biblical characters such as Abraham, Moses, Isaiah and the apostle John felt when they found themselves in the presence of the awesome God. We may say that we don’t have such profound experiences. Yet we are in contact with the same God, so we need to be serious.

Thanksgiving

Paul assures the believers in Thessalonica that he and his colleagues are praying for them. The section in his prayer in which his desires are found is in the thanksgiving section. Maybe this is a challenge to us because often the section in which we would put other churches would be in the intercession section. So the challenge comes to us to pray for other churches and to locate our details about them in our thanksgiving. What reasons can we deduce from Paul’s comments that explain his prayerful interest in the Thessalonians?

First, there is the fact that they were in the family of God, that they had been adopted, which is an illustration that stresses the high privilege that has been given to believers. We would find it odd if a believer did not express gratitude for those in his earthly family and it is equally odd for believers not to be grateful for other Christians. So status should cause us to be grateful.

Second, there was the abundant growth that marked their faith and love. Obviously, their faith was in God; the reference to increasing love could refer to how they loved God or to how they loved one another. What is striking about their growth was that they had not been Christians for long, perhaps about a year. Moreover, we can see that the growth is balanced between the graces of faith and love. In a healthy Christian life, graces grow together. We are told elsewhere that faith works by love, so we can understand why Paul would have had confidence to make this petition. Their sanctification caused him to be grateful.

Third, they were responding well to affliction caused by persecutions for their faith. Instead of diminishing their witness, the ferocious troubles helped to increase their determination to serve God. Prayer for others finds a great stimulation when we see them going on well for God despite their circumstances. Their steadfastness caused Paul to pray for them with thankfulness. In addition, he was able to mention them to others, which is an expression of confidence that they would be good witnesses even in persecution.

Christians often find it difficult to know what to say when they meet another believer who has obvious commendable features. They don’t want to give the impression that the individual developed those features by himself and neither do they wish to discourage the other Christian by ignoring what he is like. The solution in that situation is to pray intelligently for that believer.

So here we have further serious aspects of Christianity that we need to think about. Are we thankful for other Christians? Are we growing in grace? Are we serving the Lord whatever the opposition?

The Day of Judgement

Paul now gives a brief summary of what will happen on the Day of Judgement and he mentions what will happen to believers and to unbelievers. Obviously, this future event is marked by many serious elements. We can consider in turn what the apostle says about people and that great Day, taking first what he says about non-Christians, then about believers, and then about the Lord Jesus and his appearance.

Punished

Paul points out that God the Judge will repay the persecutors for their behaviour towards the followers of Jesus in Thessalonica. They would receive the payment their behaviour deserved. While the behaviour of other unbelievers may vary, the principle of the judgement is the same for them. They will receive what they have earned.

What will they receive? Paul writes that they will receive affliction, which indicates an active response from God. In this life, if someone afflicts us, we will feel it according to the strength of the person. What will it be like to receive affliction continually from an omnipotent God?

Moreover, Paul says that their affliction is actually a sentence of eternal punishment.  He uses the word ‘destruction’ to depict the experience they will undergo. Some commentators look at this word and suggest that it means annihilation. Yet the Bible’s message is that it is ongoing, continuous destruction. It is impossible for us to imagine what this experience will be like. What is obvious is that its certainty should make us serious in our Christian living.

Paul does say that the lost will be located in a place that will be ‘away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might’. This does not mean that God will be totally absent because he will always be omnipresent. Instead it means that they will never know the comforting presence of the Lord, which is a reference to the presence of Jesus the Saviour with his people. In contrast to what will be the experience of the redeemed, those who are lost will taste nothing of the amazing eternal goodness that will be shown continually to those who will be with Jesus forever.

Paul reminds the Thessalonians and us that this divine response at the Judgement is information that sin will not go unpunished. Perhaps the Thessalonian believers were tempted to think that God was indifferent to the pain that they were going through. Onlookers may have deduced the same. But Paul makes very clear that there is a day of accounting to come when everyone will receive from God exactly what they deserve. He is a God of justice.

Delivered

The believers in Thessalonica are promised relief from the pressures and persecutions that they were enduring. In order to appreciate the comfort of this promise, we have to recall that such forms of trouble were everyday experiences for those believers. Those problems were additional to those that they went through because they were living in a sinful, cursed environment such as illness, famine, and natural disasters. The reality of such experiences is mitigated a bit for us in our advanced materialistic culture. Yet we know that myriads of believers today are longing for the relief that is promised to them here from persecution.

No doubt, Paul delighted to mention to his fellow believers that on that Day there will be something beautiful about them because Jesus is going to be glorified in each of them, which probably means that they will be Christlike. In other places in the New Testament, it is said that they will be conformed to his image. What does it mean to be glorified? It means perfection of soul and body; it means to have the presence of the Spirit in his fullness; it means to have a place of great honour.

Moreover, we will share one response towards Jesus, which is that we will marvel at who he is. The admiration of Jesus is connected to what he will have done in the lives of each of his followers. All of them once were very sinful, but here they are now totally transformed. And the credit for the change will be attributed to Jesus by us with great joy and delight.

Judged by Jesus

Another aspect, indeed the most important one, that Paul refers to is the awesome impact that the arrival of Jesus will have. He will be revealed, a word that indicates his real identity cannot now be fully appreciated, but it will be then. It is easy for us to address him as Lord, but what will it be like to see him as the Commander of the heavenly armies?

Paul describes the Saviour in rather startling terms, stating that he is the avenger inflicting vengeance on unbelievers, whom the apostle describes in a twofold manner. Sometimes, when we see a person in a different role from what we are used to seeing him or her, we can be stunned by the position he has. Maybe we discover that our neighbour is actually a judge with power to pronounce a sentence! The effect of seeing Jesus as the Judge will have an incredible effect on those gathered before him.

The action of Jesus on that day will be directed against those who have refused to come to know him through the gospel. We should observe that here Paul describes the gospel as a command to be obeyed. It is the case that the gospel is an offer, but it is not an offer than legitimises a negative response. The makes of the various brands in a supermarket cannot punish me if I ignore their products. But if I ignore the gospel claims of Jesus, my response is highly insulting and an expression of great rebellion. It is obviously a very serious scenario for any of us to face Jesus in this way.

The appropriate response

How should we respond to such a serious prospect? Paul gives us the answer to this question when he says that we should engage in specific prayer connected to that future day when Jesus will be glorified in his people. This is a wonderful calling to have, but it is not automatic in the sense that even now we don’t have to be concerned about it.

There are three features of his prayer that we can observe. First, every activity in which we engage for him needs divine power – Paul stresses this necessity when he uses the word ‘every’ twice in the verse. It could be that resolve is the thinking stage of each action and work of faith is the practical outworking of it. But no matter how good the project, we need divine power.

Second, the completion of any activity does not occur until the Day of Judgement. We see an example in what has happened through this letter that Paul wrote to the church. It is still affecting people today. No doubt, Paul prayed for guidance as he wrote and for grace to be given to all his readers. When will the completion or fulfilment be? When Jesus returns. This scenario can be retold in other examples. Perhaps Paul is hinting here at the prospect of receiving rewards for faithful service. What is important is that we realise that there will be a completion.

Third, there is sufficient grace found in God and in Jesus to meet all the circumstances and needs that we will encounter. There is no need to imagine that grace will not be provided, but there is also a serious side to that reality because it means that we have no excuses as we serve him.

So what serious matters does Paul refer to in this chapter? We need to take seriously our contact with the living and true God, we need to take seriously our responsibility to express gratitude to God for other Christians, we need to take seriously the fact that we will appear at the Judgement Seat of Christ, and we need to take seriously the need for relevant prayer about that appearing.