The
Second Epistle of the Apostle Paul to the Thessalonians Chapter 1:6,
8-9
6
For it is a righteous thing with God, to recompense tribulation to
them that trouble you
8
In flaming fire, rendering vengeance unto them, that do not know God,
and which obey not unto the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, 9 Which
shall be punished with everlasting perdition from the presence of the
Lord, and from the glory of his power,
Study
Notes
That
which is righteous in itself, is righteous in the sight of God, but
it is not always so with men; men may think it a righteous thing that
they should be rewarded for persecuting the followers of Christ,
supposing they hereby do God good service; but on the contrary, with
God, and in his sight and account, it is a righteous thing, or a
point of justice, to recompence tribulation to them that trouble you:
persecution is an affliction, or a trouble to the saints; persecutors
trouble them in their minds and bodies, in their persons and
property; they trouble their minds by casting reflections and
reproaches upon them, by severe revilings, and cruel mockings, which
all are not alike able to bear; and they trouble and afflict their
bodies by imprisonment and bonds, by scourging and beating, and
various cruel and torturing deaths; and they disturb them in the
possession of their estates, by spoiling their goods, and
confiscating them to their own use; and it is but according to "lex
talionis", the law of retaliation, to render tribulation to such
troublers of God's Israel; and to them it is recompensed, either in
this world, or in the world to come: sometimes in this world
persecutors are manifest instances of God's judgments and wrath upon
them, as Herod, who stretched out his hands to vex certain of the
church, killed James the brother of John, and imprisoned Peter, and
was smitten by the angel of the Lord, and was eaten of worms; and the
Jews, who were now the only and the implacable persecutors of the
saints, in a short time had the wrath of God come upon them to the
uttermost, even upon their nation, city, and temple, upon their
persons and property. And if not in this life, it is a certain thing
that hereafter such shall have indignation and wrath, tribulation and
anguish; they shall be cast into outward darkness, into the lake of
fire; and the hottest place in hell will be their portion, even
devouring flames, and everlasting burnings; and are what is designed
by tribulations here.
In
flaming fire Which may either refer to Christ, who will be revealed
from heaven in such a manner; and whose coming will be as the
lightning, not only sudden, but glorious, illustrious, and visible;
he will be seen and easily discerned; there will be such a light and
flaming fire about him, which, as it will serve to make him visible,
will greatly add to the majesty of his appearance, and strike terror
to his enemies, and burn them up round about; see (
Daniel 7:7-10 ) ( Psalms 97:3-4 ) or else it may refer to the
angels, who shall descend in fiery forms, which is agreeably to their
nature, ( Psalms
104:4 ) and so they appeared in the forms of horses of fire, and
chariots of fire, when Elijah was carried up to heaven. And it is a
tradition of the Jews, that the angel Gabriel descended, "in a
flame of fire", to burn Moses, as he was in the inn, when upon
his journey from Midian to Egypt: or this clause may be read in
construction with the following, as it is in the Vulgate Latin and
Syriac versions, "in flaming fire taking vengeance"; and so
expresses the manner in which vengeance will be taken on the wicked
by Christ, the Judge of all, to whom it belongs: and the punishment
of ungodly men is often signified by fire, and flames of fire, by the
fire of hell, and a lake which burns with fire and brimstone, by a
furnace of fire, everlasting fire, and fire that cannot be quenched,
to set forth the endless torture and inconceivable misery of the
damned; and it may be, some regard is had to the general
conflagration, which will be at the coming of Christ, when the
heavens, being on fire, shall be dissolved, the elements shall melt
with fervent heat, and the earth, and all that is in it, shall be
burnt up, when the bodies of the wicked, then living, will be
consumed in flames of fire, and their souls feel the wrath of the
Almighty. The persons who will then be punished, and on whom
vengeance will be taken, are described as follows on them that know
not God; which is a periphrasis, or common character of the Gentiles,
( 1
Thessalonians 4:5 ) who know not the one, true, and living God;
or know him not so as to glorify him as God, and be thankful to him
for the mercies they receive from him, and still less know him in
Christ Jesus; which ignorance of theirs is not without sin, nor will
it excuse from punishment; for though vengeance will not be taken on
them, because they have not a spiritual saving knowledge of God, in
the Mediator Jesus Christ, who never was revealed to them; yet
forasmuch as they had the light and law of nature, by which the being
of God, and the invisible perfections of his nature might be seen and
understood, and much of his will, with respect to moral good and
evil, be known, against both which they have rebelled, and having
sinned, will perish without law: though it may also include all such
persons, who having been favoured with an external revelation, have
professed to know God, and yet in works have denied him. And that
obey not the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ; of which Christ is the
author, was the preacher, and is the sum and substance; which is good
news and glad tidings of the grace of, God, of peace, pardon,
righteousness, life, and salvation by Christ; which may be said to be
obeyed, when it is received and embraced by faith, with and from the
heart, and confession is made of it with the mouth, and the
ordinances of it are submitted to; and which is called the obedience
of faith, because faith without obedience is not right, and obedience
without faith is of no avail: but all that hear the Gospel do not
obey it; there are some that disbelieve and reject the doctrines and
ordinances of it, and others that, do profess it, and do not yield a
cordial and cheerful obedience to it; both may be reckoned among the
disobeyers of it: and though the unbelieving Jews may be chiefly
designed here, yet deists of every age and place, where the Gospel
revelation has come, and carnal professors, and profane despisers
everywhere, may be included; whose condemnation will be aggravated by
the external light which has shone around them, and they have hated;
the severest punishment will be inflicted on them; it will be more
tolerable for Tyre and Sidon, Sodom and Gomorrah, than for such
persons; see ( 1
Peter 4:17 ) .
With
destruction both of soul and body, though not with the annihilation
of either; their gnawing worm of conscience will never die, and the
fire of divine wrath will never be quenched; the smoke of their
torment will ascend for ever. Sin being committed against an infinite
and eternal Being, will be infinite in its duration; nor will it
cease to be in the persons punished, who will not be in the least
reformed or purged from sin by punishment; which will make the
continuance of it just and necessary. And these will be driven from
the presence of the Lord; as the former clause may express the
punishment of sense the wicked will feel in their own breasts, this
may intend the punishment of loss; or what they will be deprived of,
the presence of the Lord, in which the happiness of angels, and of
glorified saints lies; and may also signify how sudden and terrible
their destruction will be. As soon as the Lord appears, they will
perish at his presence like wax before the fire; and so awful will be
his appearance, they will flee from it with the utmost terror, and
call to the rocks and mountains to hide them from the face of the
Lord,( Revelations
6:16, Hosea 10:8 ) and to screen them from his wrath and from
the glory of his power; or his glorious power, in which he shall
come, and which will be exerted, and shown in raising the dead, and
gathering all nations before him, in passing sentence on them, and in
executing it. For he has the power, as to save, so to does he have
the power to destroy, as to glorify the bodies and souls of his
saints, so to destroy the wicked, both body and soul, in hell; and
the glory of his power will be seen in the one, as well as in the
other. And now it will be, that tribulation will be rendered to the
troublers of the Lord's people.
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