“Dear brothers and sisters, we can’t help but thank God for you, because your faith is flourishing and your love for one another is growing. We proudly tell God’s other churches about your endurance and faithfulness in all the persecutions and hardships you are suffering. And God will use this persecution to show his justice and to make you worthy of his Kingdom, for which you are suffering. In his justice he will pay back those who persecute you. And God will provide rest for you who are being persecuted and also for us when the Lord Jesus appears from heaven. He will come with his mighty angels, in flaming fire, bringing judgment on those who don’t know God and on those who refuse to obey the Good News of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with eternal destruction, forever separated from the Lord and from his glorious power. When he comes on that day, he will receive glory from his holy people—praise from all who believe. And this includes you, for you believed what we told you about him. So we keep on praying for you, asking our God to enable you to live a life worthy of his call. May he give you the power to accomplish all the good things your faith prompts you to do. Then the name of our Lord Jesus will be honored because of the way you live, and you will be honored along with him. This is all made possible because of the grace of our God and Lord, Jesus Christ.”
2 Thessalonians 1:3-12 NLT
In the western culture of Christianity, we often eschew the vengeance and wrath of God. It has been deemed a low theology and is viewed as appealing to the base senses. We avoid it as if the love of God is somehow incompatible with his vengeance and his judgment. In truth these things are part of the same God and they exist in equilibrium to each other. For the western world, Paul takes a fairly curious tact to encouragement. He notes that judgment is coming. The his judgment is something to depend upon, to prepare for and to be joyfully expectant of. When we are being persecuted, we can learn that we should look forward to the judgment of those persecuting us. This can be hard to reconcile with Christ’s final plea for forgiveness upon the cross. Yet, it is there and it must be reconciled. Our psyche is helped by the knowledge of God as a whole. He is love and he is vengeful. He is wrathful while also graceful. Knowing that he is this way gives us the impasse to pray for judgment while praying for forgiveness. This is an integral part of being a whole human being. We must acknowledge when something is wrong, pray for it’s resolution and be joyful when it is righted. We must also wish no harm upon other image bearers. This opening to the letter gives us a practical way to do both. We can call for God to be the judge as we seek to forgive. We can confidently look forward to his justice and wrath upon all the evil he finds on that day. This future needs more attention from those looking to give hope to those who are truly suffering.
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