2 Thessalonians 1:7, commentary and pictures

Paul wrote to encourage his troubled brethren in Thessalonica that they would share rest with fellow believers when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels. That rest is relief from opposition, persecution, tribulation, cares and perplexities, given together with Paul and all faithful believers at Christ's return. He comes then in glory and majesty with His holy angels in flaming fire, which is His second coming, to take vengeance on those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel while bringing deliverance, vindication and glory to His despised followers. Until that day the troubled are not to grow discouraged when they cannot tell which way to turn, but to rest the matter with God in faith that works by love and purifies the soul, knowing trials bring them nearer that reward.

Setting and Promise

Paul wrote to encourage his troubled brethren in Thessalonica that they will have rest with believers when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels. That rest points forward to the second coming of Christ, when troubled believers rest from all their cares and perplexities. It was given to correct the mistaken idea that Christ would come in Paul's own lifetime or was immediately at hand. It was meant to steady believers who had become excited and neglectful of duties by that error, and to set before them his true position.

It is addressed to believers commended for integrity, for strong and unfailing faith, and for abounding love for one another and for their Master. Paul expresses confidence in their integrity and gratitude that their faith is strong and their love abounds. He holds them up to other churches as an example of patient, persevering faith that bravely withstands persecution, tribulation, and enemies of God. It promises that those who are troubled by opposition, unbelief, persecutions, tribulations, cares, and perplexities will receive rest and relief. That rest will be shared together with Paul and the apostles and faithful believers when Jesus is revealed.

The revelation brings relief to the faithful at a joyful and triumphant return, while bringing judgment on those who reject God and the gospel. The promise applies to faithful believers who face oppression for their faith in a later age, including those who will suffer persecution then. The same oppression and persecution suffered by the saints in Paul's day will soon come to all who believe in this age. This will be in the Sunday-law crisis where Sunday is exalted and human inventions take the place of God's holy day, in connection with which the second epistle should be read.

Coming in Glory

Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty and holy angels in glory and majesty, descending in flames of fire and flaming fire at his return, which is his second coming. That revelation brings rest to those who are troubled, with joy and triumph to those who believe. The scene is one of fiery judgment on the wicked and vengeance on those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel.

His revelation comes by leaving the heavenly sanctuary and descending from heaven with angels and trumpet before the saints are raised and gathered. He does not remain on the throne in heaven and call the elect up to the temple, nor does a voice from Jerusalem raise them to meet him in Jerusalem. First he comes down, then he commissions the angels to gather his elect from the four winds while his voice calls them forth to meet him in the air. This descent is distinct from and comes after the voice of God out of Zion, from Jerusalem, out of the temple of heaven from the throne, which shakes heaven and earth.

At his revelation in flaming fire he takes vengeance on those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel. They shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power, banished from his presence and destroyed by fire. At the same coming he brings deliverance, relief, and vindication to his despised and reviled followers whose faith was rejected. He gives life to the righteous dead and ransoms them from their graves, is glorified in his saints and admired in all who believe, and crowns the righteous with glory and honor.

He will come from heaven after a short wait to vindicate his authority and the laws of his kingdom. Before he comes a proclamation of God's law gives disloyal people opportunity to return to allegiance. Those who persist in rebellion have no place in heaven, just as Satan had none after his rebellion. His revelation from heaven in majesty and glory thus brings relief to the troubled and vengeance on the rebellious.

Faith and Endurance

The second coming promised to the troubled is high authority for faith in the Lord's soon coming. It was taught by Jesus himself, and to believe in it is to believe the word of Jesus and his disciples. It is a very old doctrine bearing no taint of heresy, not a new and strange belief. Jesus and his apostles and the holy angels dwell upon it with joy and triumph for the comfort of believers, who will have rest with the faithful when he is revealed and who will see him glorified in his saints and admired in all who believe while vengeance in flaming fire and everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power fall on those who know not God and obey not the gospel.

Until that day those troubled by opposition, unbelief, persecutions, tribulations, and perplexities in the churches are not to become discouraged. When they cannot tell which way to turn they are to rest the whole matter with God. They are to encourage in the heart the faith that works by love and purifies the soul. Prayer is to be that God would count them worthy of this calling and fulfill all the good pleasure of his goodness and the work of faith with power, so that not human agencies but the name of the Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in them and they in him according to grace, sharing rest with the apostles when he is revealed.

Trials and persecution are steps bringing faithful sufferers nearer that rest and reward. That rest belongs to witnesses for Jesus who keep faith unsullied under fiercest persecution even when deprived of every comfort and earthly blessing. Shut away from sunlight in dark underground homes, enduring privation and distress without complaint and without renouncing belief, they encourage one another with words of faith, patience, and hope. Selfish conduct and disregard for holy things do not reveal God's glory and do not belong in those united to Christ, who will be glorified in his saints and in all who believe when he is revealed in flaming fire to bring both glory and vengeance and everlasting destruction on those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel.