Paul’s second letter to the church in Thessalonica begins with encouragement and love. Paul assures the church that they are widely respected and that he talks about their faithfulness in all of his travels.
Paul reminds the Thessalonians that all of us who follow Christ should expect tribulations in this world, and that we must always be ready to support others who suffer and ready to endure suffering ourselves.
Paul encourages them by assuring them that when Christ returns the wretches who are tormenting them will also be tormented and punished in hellish finality. Perhaps it is because I am not being persecuted that this does not sound appealing to me. I wonder why the demise of others -- even those that harm us -- is held up as a desired end to the struggle.
How often do I buy into the desire for vengeance instead of leaning into the mind of Christ and begging for their forgiveness and salvation? I know the context of Paul’s appeal is dire, and I know that I live in the lap of luxury, but I still want to see Christ as Lord of every life.
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2 comments:
I had some similar thoughts to you, UB. Why the comfort in thoughts of godly retribution? I guess after so much suffering, one can hardly blame anyone for wishing to see the enemy 'get theirs' for once, but I don't find a lot of comfort in this chapter personally.
Maybe there’s something in there that’s telling us not to try to seek vengeance on people ourselves, for those things will surely be taken care of by our God and Savior. We do like to get even here sometimes, which doesn’t usually help. I’ve been teaching the kids at school “The Code of Hammurabi” – you know, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth – Yeah, great stuff – you make me loose my teeth yours will surely be gone too! No how does that solve a problem? Maybe having that as a law kept people from doing it! We can only hope…
I do like the part that he assures us that there will be suffering, but we should encourage each other through it. That’s really the best we can do, isn’t it? Do our best and encourage each other – fellowship, and Know that what we are doing is good.
God bless,
Marshall
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