2 Thessalonians 1:5-10

“This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, and is intended to make you worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering. For it is indeed just of God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to give relief to the 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. These will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, separated from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might, 1when he comes to be glorified by his saints and to be marveled at on that day among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed” (2 Thessalonians 1:5-10).

Question:

Is this just Paul’s personal view of the situation on how the God of his understanding works?

Comment:

Well, it's definitely Paul's attempt to reassure a fragile new group of early Christians that there will be an end to the discrimination they are experiencing—and a better experience ahead. Paul's followers in Thessalonica were being persecuted, not only by the Roman authorities, but by the local Jewish synagogue, whose leaders had driven Paul and Silas out of town. Paul's assurance in this passage is that choices have consequences, and fear-based choices will have severe consequences. True, he sounds more intense in his anger than we might feel comfortable with—as theologian Matthew Fox has said, Paul had his good days and his bad days, just like the rest of us. But the spiritual Truth, freed from the passions of the moment, is still valid and important. If we allow ourselves to embrace negative, judgmental, and fear-based beliefs, we can know without question that we are creating situations in our own lives that will mirror those beliefs. It's not about an angry God—it's about the creative power of our own thoughts.

Blessings!

Rev. Ed