2 Thessalonians 1:3-12

September 21, 2008

 

The passage of Scripture we will examine this morning, 2 Thessalonians 1:3-12, outlines the general path that all Christians must follow on this earth and shows us the end result of following that path.  We can summarize this path with three commands: (1) Answer God’s call responsibly; (2) Make good choices; and (3) Follow those choices to their logical end.

 

Paul tells the Thessalonians, “We constantly pray for you, that our God may count you worthy of his calling” (1:11).  For us to be saved, all Evangelical traditions believe God does something first and then we respond to what God does. Our theological tradition uses the term “prevenient grace” to describe what God does first. 

 

Article VIII of the Articles of Religion from which John Wesley, the founder of our theological tradition, worked states, "The condition of man after the fall of Adam is such that he cannot turn and prepare himself, by his own natural strength and works, to faith, and calling upon God; wherefore we have no power to do good works, pleasant and acceptable to God, without the grace of God by Christ preventing [preceding] us." Thomas Oden of Drew University defines prevenient grace as, "...the grace that begins to enable one to choose further to cooperate with saving grace. By offering the will the restored capacity to respond to grace, the person then may freely and increasingly become an active, willing participant in receiving the conditions for justification." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prevenient_grace).

 

In other words, God’s grace is at work in our lives before we come to faith.  His grace works in our minds and in the events surrounding us to bring us to a point where we can hear God and respond to His call. When we respond to God’s call in faith the process that leads to our salvation continues.  In this passage, Paul is telling the Thessalonians that just responding to the call of God in a single moment of our lives and then living as if God never called us is not living responsibly.

 

Living responsibly means continuing to (2) Make good choices.  Paul summarizes the “good choices” the Thessalonians were making this way:  “We ought always to thank God for you, brothers, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love every one of you has for each other is increasing” (1:3). The standard, in proverb form, by which to measure whether a choice is a good choice or a bad choice is whether or not the choice(s) we make will cause our faith in God and/or our love for each other to grow.

 

The third point of this morning’s message will help us set up the standards by which we will know whether or not the choice(s) we are making are causing our faith in God and our love for each other to grow.  Paul says when we follow our choices to their logical end or conclusion we have enough perspective to know whether a choice is good or not.

 

The ultimate conclusion of all of our choices happens when Jesus returns the second time, the time when He will set up his kingdom on earth. Read with me:

 

“All this is evidence that God's judgment is right, and as a result you will be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are suffering. God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed. This includes you, because you believed our testimony to you” (1:5-10).  

 

When Jesus comes again, Paul says the world will finally understand that “God is just” (v.6). Right now, Christians and non-Christians alike often say something similar to, “How can a loving and merciful God let the things that go on in this world go on?”  Paul says when Jesus “is revealed from heaven in blazing fire and with powerful angels” some will be punished and others will be glorified.  Those who have caused others trouble will be paid back according to how they have treated other people. Specifically, “they will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power.”

 

Those who refuse to live their lives dependent upon the power of the Holy Spirit, the great gift Jesus sent us to enable us to live a life of faith, have automatically chosen to live their lives on their own terms.  They have, therefore, chosen to glorify themselves by their choices. When Jesus comes in His glory they have no points of contact with Jesus through the Holy Spirit, so none of Jesus’ glory will shine or manifest in them. They have chosen to shut themselves off from God’s presence on earth so they will be shut off from His presence eternally with all that entails.

 

Those who have chosen to live their lives dependent upon the power of the Holy Spirit have been persecuted and put through all kinds of trials by the forces that have set themselves in opposition to Jesus. Since everyone cannot have their own way, those who have forced their wills upon others will have that power taken from them.  Those who have trusted God in faith and allowed Him to do His work in this world to His glory will finally see the end results of their perseverance in the midst of trials and injustice. Those who live by what they see in this world will see their works come to naught.  Those who live not by sight but in faith will finally see what God was able to do with their works of faith.

 

When we really see and understand what God was up to all along, we will finally see the true glory of God.  We will understand how He worked with every situation and every person’s free choices and still brought about the salvation of those who responded to His call. Getting up every day and giving God free reign to do what He will with the events of our lives and following His leading empowered by the living presence of the Holy Spirit at work in us is living in faith.  Going to bed every night thanking God we were able to be used by God to bring His kingdom to earth in the time and manner in which He chooses is loving our brothers, and indeed, all men.