2 Thessalonians 1

¹Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, to the assembly of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: ²Grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

³We ought always to thank God for you, brothers, as is fitting, because your faith is growing abundantly and the love of each and every one of you for one another is increasing. ⁴So we ourselves boast about you among God's assemblies for your endurance and faith in all your persecutions and the afflictions you bear. ⁵This is evidence of God's righteous judgment, so that you may be counted worthy of God's kingdom, for which you also suffer, ⁶since it is righteous for God to repay affliction to those who afflict you, ⁷and relief to you who are afflicted, together with us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels ⁸in flaming fire, bringing vengeance on those who do not know God and those who do not obey the good news of our Lord Jesus. ⁹They will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the face of the Lord and from the glory of his might, ¹⁰when he comes on that day to be glorified in his holy ones and marveled at among all who have believed—because our testimony to you was believed.

¹¹With this in view, we also pray always for you, that our God may count you worthy of the calling and fulfill every desire for goodness and every work of faith with power, ¹²so 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.

Translation notes 7

1:1–3 — Assembly and brothers. Assembly means the community, not a building. Brothers is the letter's family address to the believing community, including its women. The Greek has our Father in verse 1 but simply the Father in verse 2; many manuscripts also have our in verse 2.

1:5–7 — Counted worthy. This points back to the community's endurance amid persecution. The passage presents God's judgment as setting matters right, with affliction for the persecutors and relief for the afflicted. Counted worthy can also be understood as made worthy; the translation does not add a theory of suffering as payment for entry into the kingdom.

1:7–9 — Fire and destruction. In flaming fire can describe Jesus' revelation or the vengeance he brings. Eternal destruction is the judgment expression here; neither Gehenna nor Hades occurs. The wording does not itself give a detailed account of how that destruction is experienced.

1:9 — Away from the face. Face expresses the Lord's presence. Away from takes the destruction as exclusion from that presence; a substantial alternative is destruction coming from his presence. The language echoes Isaiah 2:10, 19, 21, where people flee before the Lord's majesty.

1:10 — Glorified in his holy ones. The holy ones are his people. In can indicate that his glory is displayed in them or that he is honored among them. The testimony clause includes the readers among those who believed; it does not make them the subject of the preceding destruction.

1:11 — Desire and work. The desires for goodness and works arising from faith most naturally belong to the readers, with God bringing them to fulfillment. God's own good purpose is another interpretation of the desire phrase. The calling is God's call to them.

1:12 — God and the Lord Jesus Christ. The reading distinguishes God and Jesus, as the opening greeting does. The Greek also permits the interpretation our God and Lord, Jesus Christ, applying both titles to Jesus. This is a question of grammar and reference, not a different underlying Greek text.