Links for today’s readings:
Aug 27 Read: Jeremiah 21 Listen: (2:35) Read: 2 Thessalonians 1 Listen: (1:52)
Scripture Focus: 2 Thessalonians 1.6-10
6 God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you 7 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. 8 He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9 They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might 10 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.
Reflection: Hope for the Troubled
By John Tillman
The Thessalonian believers were “troubled.”
One trouble was being lied to by false teachers who spoke in Paul’s (and God’s) name. Another trouble was being persecuted by Jewish and Roman authorities. To those troubled with suffering, oppression, and confusion, Paul wrote of justice and hope.
Have you felt similar “troubles” as the Thessalonians? Most of us haven’t been persecuted, banned, or arrested for speaking or living out Jesus’ words but we may have been pushed into panic mode by perilous false prophecy. Jesus warned we would have troubles. (John 16.1-4, 33)
As Paul did for the Thessalonians, he does for us—Paul promises justice and holds out hope.
The troubled will be relieved of trouble and God will pay back trouble as justice to those who troubled them and did not “obey the gospel.”
The gospel commands humans to repent of wickedness, be forgiven and reconciled to God in Jesus Christ, and enter the presence and glory of our creator for eternity. (2 Thess 1.8-9) Disobeying the gospel is choosing darkness over light and separation over reconciliation. They demand darkness and destruction and God grants it. (Hosea 10.8; Luke 23:29-30; Revelation 6.15-17)
God’s justice means no one will “get away” with anything, ever. The gospel means anyone can be forgiven of anything forever. Any troublemaker can be saved. Any who reject the gospel will be destroyed.
There is encouragement from knowing our troubles are not overlooked and justice will be done. However there is a difference between being encouraged by justice and longing for vengeance.
Hope shapes our lives, but the wrong object of hope leads to a misshapen life. Hoping in God’s justice is encouraging. Longing for vengeance is embittering.
Placing hope in the gospel, not destruction, changes things.
It changes how you view your sufferings. They are opportunities for faithfulness.
It changes how you view your persecutors. They are lost children in need of reconciliation.
It changes what you desire. Salvation is greater than destruction or vengeance.
It changes how you define victory. Eternal things are greater than earthly things.
Our calling is the ministry of reconciliation, not retribution. (2 Corinthians 5.18-19) Therefore, do not hope for the destruction of those who trouble us but for their salvation. (Acts 26.28-29) Rather than be reactive, panicked, or vengeful, be active, peaceful, and restorative.
Our hearts, filled with the right kind of hope, rejoice in an enemy’s salvation more than in their destruction. In Christ, both outcomes are part of God’s good justice.
Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence
Save me, O God, for the waters have risen up to my neck. — Psalm 69.1
– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle.
Read more: When Truth Provokes Violence
Most of our readers live in places with legal freedoms of religious expression and speech. Jeremiah didn’t have that.
Read more: Mock, Mock. Who’s There?
In many cases of “mocking” in the Bible, the targets are God’s prophets, including Jesus and the mockers are God’s people.
