“Judge not!” may be the most popular incomplete and incorrect quotation of Scripture by modern Westerners today. Our culture does not like the idea of judgement, and emphasises love and tolerance over it. In fact, they can be very judgemental about the whole thing! The cultural concept of a god, if one is acknowledged, is of a completely non-judgemental being. Not the God of the Bible.
Because while the God who reveals himself in his Word is indeed the most loving being that exists, God also is one who is fully and completely just, and will bring righteous judgement upon all who do not repent and believe. This view may not be popular with the world, and may bring us exclusion or persecution, just as the Thessalonians were afflicted and persecuted. But as Paul asserts in 2 Thessalonians, all will stand before God’s throne to give account and receive judgement.
Paul’s second letter to the church at Thessalonica opened with thanksgiving and boasting over the Thessalonian church’s faithfulness. This faithfulness was despite the various afflictions and persecutions they were enduring. The Thessalonians were growing in their faith and love, and this growth gave them the strength to endure.
This growth in faith and love, in the not-so-loving context of afflictions and persecution, was evidence that they were believers. “This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering” (v.5) Paul stated.
God was not punishing the Thessalonians through afflictions and persecution. Their lives of faithfulness and love in the face of affliction was evidence that God’s judgement was right. Instead, God had judged them righteously as deserving of membership in God’s eternal kingdom. It was because of their membership in the Kingdom that they were suffering. Their membership in God’s kingdom did not exempt them from suffering.
In other words, their status as believers marked them out as targets by the unbelieving world for affliction and persecution. They were “enemy combatants” and treated accordingly by the world, even though they showed love and care for the unbelieving world surrounding them.
But would the world get away with its mistreatment of the Thessalonian believers? No, they would not, “since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you” (v.6). Here, Paul states that God is a proponent of divine retribution for sin.
God’s righteous judgement includes vindication and justice for the citizens of his kingdom for the unjust treatment they received at the hands of an unbelieving world. Yet while we might prefer that this judgement occurs at the time of affliction, God works to his own timetable.
God will “grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus” (vv.7-8).
The day of vindication and relief for believers will be the day of Jesus’ return to judge the living and the dead. That point will be the one when believers will finally be relieved of their afflictions, and unbelievers will finally receive God’s vengeance for their sin.
This will not be a quiet appearing but a dramatic one, arriving with his angels in flaming fire. There will be no mistaking Jesus’ appearing, nor the reason he has returned.
While some may try and argue that they were not given a chance to change their ways, this judgement will also be shown to be entirely just. It is not arbitrary but based on rejecting God’s standard of righteousness. And it is not for lack of opportunity, but for rejecting God and the opportunity to repent and rely on the Gospel to escape the coming fire.
As with other passages which deal with judgement and Christ’s return, these verses are meant as an encouragement for us to persevere and endure.
The afflictions and persecution we may face are not God’s punishment, but are evidence that we are loved by him and members of his kingdom. We have passed through judgement by the power of the Gospel to enjoy God’s favour, not his anger. If we were not loved by God, those who oppose God would not attack us.
They are also afflictions which will end. Justice will be done at Jesus’ return. Evildoers will not get away with it. They will face God’s righteous judgement.
By knowing God as revealed in Christ and in God’s Word, and in resting in God’s Gospel, others may escape God’s righteous judgement, poured out on Jesus on our behalf, and theirs too. This is the one great decision for every person – whether to open your heart to God and embrace the forgiveness he supplies, or reject him and receive God’s righteous judgement in vengeance for sin.
In God’s righteous judgement, there are still many today who will escape God’s vengeance at Christ’s return through repenting and believing the Gospel.
Are you one of them?