Main news for 14 March 2016

King James Version (en)

2 Thessalonians, Chapter 1, verses 11-12

¹¹ and therewithal useth diverse reasons for the comforting of them in persecution, whereof the chiefest is taken from the righteous judgment of God

¹¹Wherefore also we pray always for you, that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfil all the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work of faith with power:

¹²That the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and ye in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

NOTES

Beginning his second letter to the Thessalonian church, Paul thanks God for the witness that...

Beginning his second letter to the Thessalonian church, Paul thanks God for the witness his Thessalonian brothers showed the world during the persecutions they had to go through (vv. 3-5). At the same time, the apostle especially emphasizes that punishment for the persecutors and recompense for the persecuted must be awaited only at the end of time, on the day of Judgment (vv. 6-10). At first glance, such "deferred justice" looks like a kind of indulgence by God toward His enemies: after all, it gives them a certain freedom of action, limited but still rather broad. From the point of view of our world, which has not yet been transformed, a situation in which the sinner receives punishment for his sin as soon as possible, preferably immediately after the sin is committed, appears more logical.

But such justice would make sense only if God's plan were reduced to maintaining the status quo in the world. God, as we can see, has an entirely different design: He wants to transform and renew the world, not simply improve it. There is nothing surprising here: God wants to see our world as part of His Kingdom, and in that case no improvement will change anything radically; what is needed is a complete transformation of the very nature of creation, of the laws that determine its existence, including human life. And God, sending His Son into the world, concentrates all His strength on solving precisely this main task, temporarily setting all the others aside: after all, they cannot be fully solved within the existing order of things anyway. When, after the transformation of the world, that order changes radically, some problems will simply disappear, having lost their relevance, while others may be resolved in some other way that for now is completely unimaginable to us. That is why the Savior directs His followers not toward "putting things in order," which in our fallen world becomes an endless process that never reaches a final result, but toward life in the Kingdom and toward making that Kingdom spread through the world as widely as possible.

The world in its present state is incorrigible, and the task is not to make ever new attempts to do the impossible, but to offer an alternative to the existing order of things, an alternative as radical as the difference between the laws of the Kingdom and the laws of the world that has not yet been transformed. And if a Christian manages to remain a witness of the Kingdom even despite the injustice he suffers for his witness, he can consider that he has fulfilled the chief task God entrusted to him in this world.

These words of the apostle Paul about the calling of Christians contain exceptionally important things, which are not completely evident if we read the other translations. The apostle says that at the approach of the Lord’s day, when Christ will come in the glory, he prays for the Thessalonians Christians (and for all the rest) and asks God, that the Lord Himself bestow us the calling, so that people will be called by God to life and salvation. "The call" - from the Greek’s translation klesis, meaning "invitation", and having single-root with Ekklesia - "The Church". It is then not so much about calling as a unique road of man before God, as this invitation, by which the shepherd gathers the sheep, to preserve them from perdition. The words “that our God would count you worthy" are very exact: God's calling for each of us is an undeserved gift, which is given to us through the Church.

Continuing, the apostle prays so that God may fulfill (that is fill with His power) the good will of people to do good and do the work of faith. For the apostle, the calling and the fulfillment by power of the good will are two inseparably connected things, and this word is a tremendous hope for each person.

The will to do good and the work of faith - the apostle indicates by these words man’s answer to the invitation of God. But man by himself has no strengths to realize this answer in his life; each of us possesses a considerable experience of defeats on the paths of good and faith. And if God Himself didn’t fill by His power our answer to His invitation, the invitation itself would have turned out fruitless. But the apostle says that God Himself fills us with this life, when calling us to life.

The glorification of Christ's name in men consists particularly of this, the glorification, that apostle speaks of so deeply in the epistle to Philippiens: " Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Ph. 2:9-11).

The very possibility so that we don’t only hear God's invitation, but also find the strength to answer to this, this possibility is the fruit of the victim of the Cross and the Resurrection of the Christ. It is particularly in this that comes true the intention of the Creator about people’s salvation. And the apostle says again that we also obtain glory in God's call and our answer to it, and thus become partakers of His victory.

Paul’s words are severe, but are they really so cruel? He writes about the dreadful fate of those who...

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