Suffering & Justice
Readings: 2 Thessalonians 1
What does it mean for us and our lives to be a citizen of God’s Kingdom? How should we live as members of a kingdom that is both now, it has come with the Lord Jesus, and not yet, awaiting its fulfilment at his return. These are themes that are key to this Kingdom Season which we now begin, and they are also themes which are core to Paul’s second letter to the Thessalonians which we are going to be reading through in this season.
And the first question posed and answered by this letter is this: what does being part of this kingdom mean for suffering? And how does this relate to God’s perfect justice?
A little bit of background before we dig in. The church in Thessalonica was planted by Paul along with Silas on his second missionary journey. We read in Acts 17 that they came to the city, and spoke for 3 days in the synagogue there, proclaiming Jesus as the promised Messiah, the Saviour. A number of Jews and Gentiles come to believe but others are deeply unhappy about this and gather a mob and start a riot. They go to drag Paul and Silas out before the city officials but can’t find them so drag out the people they are staying with. The city is in turmoil we’re told, and so, that night, Paul and Silas slip out of the city under cover of darkness.
The church at Thessalonica, and by church I mean the gathering of Christians rather than a building or formal institution, this is a church that right from the start has been persecuted, attacked for their faith in Jesus. And Paul has already written to them once, as you probably guessed from this being the second letter to the Thessalonians, and in it one of the things he addresses is their continued suffering for the faith. Persecution seems to define them as a people, their suffering for their faith in Jesus. And so, as here he writes his second letter, with Silas with whom he planted this church, along with Timothy, has anything got better?
Well, he begins by praising God for them, praising God that their faith is growing more and more, and that their love for one another is growing more and more. This is a people who love God, love one another, and are only increasing in that love and faithfulness. And these two are linked, as they are in many places in the Bible. The result of deepening faith in God is associated with, and directly linked to, a growing love for our brother and sister Christians. You can’t have one without the other, they flow into one another. Which means one of the signs of a healthy church is a people who love one another, sacrifice and care for one another. Pure doctrine without love is heartless, just as much as a love without faithfulness to God is empty. Growing faith in God and growing love for our fellow Christians go hand in hand.
Well, this sounds like an amazing church to be part of, a wonderful group of Christians to be amongst. And Paul agrees saying how they boast among the other churches about their ‘perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and trials you are enduring’. Oh. They’re still persecuted, still attacked, still enduring tribulation for their faith. And yet in the midst of this their faith and their love is growing.
And actually this suffering is baked into our faith. Everyone who is a follower of Jesus will experience tribulation, troubles and persecutions. Everyone, in one way or another. Jesus himself suffered and died to bring in this kingdom, he is the one who was first enthroned upon the cross. And servants are not greater than their master, why would we not suffer as his people? If even Jesus suffers, why would we expect not to suffer for his sake. This letter is thought to be among Paul’s earliest, and by his latest letters, particularly to Timothy, Paul makes this same link between his suffering and Jesus’. It’s an inevitability, and in some ways a joyful one. A drawing near to Jesus in his sufferings through our own sufferings for his sake.
We don’t like thinking about suffering, much less talking about it, and yet it is a daily reality even today for many of our brothers and sisters around the world. Persecuted and killed for their faith, and yet in many of these places the church is growing, increasing in faith, in number and in love for one another much like the Thessalonians. In many ways we in the West are the odd ones out, we’ve got used to a lack of suffering, of relative comfort, and yet the norm for the vast majority of our brothers and sisters has been and is suffering for Jesus’ sake.
So what does Paul make of this? Does he say that their suffering is due to a lack of faith? Quite the opposite he says that their suffering is proof of their faith, that they are counted worthy of his Kingdom. Does he tell them to get over it, suffering is a part of following Jesus? No, of course not. Does he pray that God would change their circumstances? Curiously no, he doesn’t, we’d probably be quick to pray that, but Paul doesn’t, he prays that even through this they would remain faithful, be fruitful, and that Jesus would be glorified in them, and them in him. But he doesn’t pray that things would change. Does Paul try to comfort them by reminding them that in their sufferings they’re drawing near to Jesus in his sufferings? No, he could, but he doesn’t.
No, instead Paul tells them that it will not always be this way. That as citizens of God’s Kingdom they can trust him to bring true justice. Whilst they may be tempted to say that God has abandoned them, or that he is unjust, or that he is slow to keep his promises, God will act, and he will act to bring justice, that the God whom they love and have put their faith in is still faithful, even in their sufferings, and will bring an end to them.
If we hate suffering in our world, how much more do we hate it when the innocent suffer. If we struggle when we suffer, how much more when we feel we have done everything right and yet it’s all still gone wrong. The suffering is compounded with the injustice of it all. And yet as these Christians suffer as citizens of God’s Kingdom, Paul reminds them who their king is: the God who is just. And so Paul reminds them that a day is coming when that now and not yet kingdom they are part of will at last become fully now, and with it perfect justice. And in a great reversal God will pay back trouble to those who trouble them, and give relief to they who suffer. This isn’t about them or us being pleased that these people will at last get their comeuppance, that we’ll have the last laugh, rather it’s the assurance that God truly is just and will bring perfect justice.
And Paul puts it in really stark terms, terms we may struggle with. He speaks of punishment, everlasting destruction, being shut out from God’s presence. And yet whilst this language may make us uncomfortable, Paul isn’t speaking of a God who is vindictive, or having an emotional outburst, or is seething with resentment and vengefulness. What Paul is speaking of is the God who brings justice, who pays back what is owed, who puts right what is wrong. The language of punishment isn’t about inflicting revenge but the just consequences of their actions. Everyone will at last receive the justice they deserve, God will put everything right in the end.
We may struggle with the language of God punishing, but perhaps that is because we have not experienced suffering for our faith as our brothers and sisters do. Is it that we have never really experienced injustice? For our brothers and sisters who suffer in Africa for instance, the knowledge that God will bring justice to those who attack and kill their family and friends is a great comfort. In it they know that God sees, and he will not allow the injustice to go uncorrected forever. And perhaps another aspect of our discomfort is that in the West we read these passages from the perspective of those with power. And as those with power we see things such as punishment and repaying trouble from the perspective of the powerful over the powerless. But this is not the reality of the situation for the Thessalonians or those around the world now. They are the powerless, oppressed by the powerful, and God in his justice defends and protects the powerless.
Whilst for the Thessalonians they are suffering and even killed for their faith in Jesus, it will not always be so, and on that day when God’s justice prevails at last, they will receive relief from their sufferings and be glorified amongst God’s people. Whilst the end for those who cause them troubles is the justice of God, for them it is glory and vindication.
And all of this brings into focus the seriousness of our choice of whether to follow Jesus or not. We can easily play it down, not want to think to hard about the seriousness of that choice, but it’s stark here in this passage. God will ‘punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus’. Those who reject God and the means he has provided through the cross of Jesus to be made right with him will receive the end result of that choice, receive what is deserved; separated from God, held liable for their sins, and justice will come. And yet for those who put their faith in God and live in response to the Gospel, we receive what we do not deserve, and yet God graciously gives; relief from our troubles and glory in his name. You cannot have dual citizenship in this kingdom, are you living for Jesus with your faith and hope in him? Or are you living for this world? A choice needs to be made.
As chapter 1 of this letter draws to a close we find that to be a citizen of God’s Kingdom is to invite suffering as we find ourselves with the world pitted against us, and it is to take the long view, that even in our suffering and affliction for our faith, we know that in God’s perfect kingdom is coming perfect justice, that it will not always be so that the innocent suffer and the strong do as they please. So as the citizens of that kingdom let us work to make that more truly the case in this world in the here and now, knowing that God will make it perfectly true in the world to come.
At the end of each chapter of this letter Paul ends with a prayer, and so as I finish I want to pray the prayer he concludes this section with for us:
May God make you worthy of his calling, that by his power he may bring to fruition your every desire for goodness, and your every deed prompted by faith, that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen.