[1:10]
After discussing the relief that will be granted to those who are suffering and the punishment of their afflicters, Paul concludes the description of the return of Jesus by stating that the purpose of his coming is his glorification. Paul describes this event using parallelism, a poetic device that is ubiquitous in the Old Testament. Jesus
comes to be glorified among his holy ones
and to be marveled at on that day among all who have believed.
“On that day,” a phrase used often in the Old Testament to describe the time when God will finally put the world right (e.g., Isa 2:10–22), Jesus will receive glory from his people. They are described as both “his holy ones” (or “saints”) and those “who have believed.” They are those who believed Paul’s testimony and have lived correspondingly holy lives. Paul typically uses the present tense to describe faith, but here faith is considered from the perspective of the Lord’s return. When Jesus is present to the Church, they are those who “have believed” because they now see face-to-face.
Reflection and Application (1:5–10)
The idea that Jesus would consign some people to eternal punishment makes many modern Christians uncomfortable.18 Even those who defend some form of the traditional doctrine of hell tend to avoid the suggestion that God actually damns anyone, preferring instead to say that people damn themselves by closing themselves off to divine love. Though misgivings about hell have perhaps reached their apex in our era, previous generations also struggled to reconcile divine love that desires “everyone to be saved and to come to knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim 2:4) with biblical descriptions of God consigning some portion of humanity to eternal perdition.19 In his homilies St. John Chrysostom occasionally chides the congregation for avoiding talk of eternal hell. While preaching on this passage he encourages his reluctant congregation to contemplate the day when they will stand before the judgment seat of Christ:
Are you alarmed by the heaviness of these words? If you remain silent do you extinguish hell? If you speak about it do you light hell’s fires? Whether you speak or not, the fire belches forth. Let hell be spoken of often so you will not fall into it. . . . “Remember,” Scripture says, “your last days” and you will not sin [Sir 28:6].20
For Chrysostom, Christians who avoid talk of hell are like those who ignore the signs of a fatal disease. Better to get to the doctor and address the problem head-on.
One might well object that Chrysostom begs the central question. He assumes that eternal perdition is real and encourages his congregation to ensure they avoid it, but is it really true that “we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive recompense, according to what he did in the body, whether good or evil” (2 Cor 5:10)? It is of course impossible to “prove” the reality of divine judgment, but from within the perspective of faith it is possible to see its fittingness. One way of conceiving of retributive justice is as a minimum requirement for God to be good. A good God cannot remain forever silent in the face of evil. As Joseph Ratzinger puts it, God’s judgment of humankind
implies that the unrighteousness of the world does not have the last word, not even by being wiped out indiscriminately in a universal act of grace; on the contrary, there is a last court of appeal that preserves justice in order thus to be able to perfect love. A love that overthrew justice would create injustice and thus cease to be anything but a caricature of love. True love is excess of justice, excess that goes farther than justice, but never destruction of justice, which must be and must remain the basic form of love.21
Of course, no one knows the fate of anyone else. The Church never asks us to accept that any particular individual is in hell, and indeed many Catholics are in the habit of praying the Fatima prayer, which includes the words “Bring all souls to heaven, especially those in most need of thy mercy.” But the “judgment of the living and the dead” means that, whatever surprises of divine mercy may be in store, God will not pass blithely in silence over the unjust acts by which we defy the gospel and hurt one another.22
Worthy of the Calling (1:11–12)
11To this end, we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and powerfully bring to fulfillment every good purpose and every effort of faith, 12that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, in accord with the grace of our God and Lord Jesus Christ.
NT: Matt 22:1–14
Catechism: merit, 2006–11
[1:11]
At the conclusion of the thanksgiving section Paul explains how the return of the Lord described in 1:3–10 shapes the way he prays for them. Verses 11–12 are not a direct prayer, as is 1 Thess 3:11–13, but a summary or report of how he prays for them. To this end refers to the preceding description of the revelation of Jesus from heaven. In light of this coming event, Paul and his associates always pray for the Thessalonian church (see comment on “always” praying in 1 Thess 1:2 and 5:17). The purpose and content of the prayer extends to the end of verse 12. First, they pray that God will find them worthy of his calling. Scholars disagree on whether the divine calling (klēsis) is the invitation to enter the kingdom at the last judgment or the initial call that the Thessalonians received when they heard the gospel message. Pauline use of the word elsewhere tilts the scales in favor of the latter: for Paul, the “call” typically refers to the initial invitation to life in Christ (with the verbal cognate kaleō; see 2 Thess 2:14; 1 Thess 4:7).
Paul prays that on “that day,” meaning the day of judgment, God would find the Thessalonians worthy of the call they had received. Unfortunately, however, Paul’s point is obscured in most English translations. The NABRE and some other major English translations (e.g., NRSV, NIV) say that Paul prays for God to make you worthy (axioō) of the calling they received. This is a very odd translation: according to the major Greek lexicons, axioō can mean “find worthy” or “deem worthy,” but not “make worthy.”23 Recent commentators have also supported the translation “make worthy,” claiming that axioō was sometimes used this way.24 These scholars offer little if any evidence in support of this claim because there simply isn’t evidence of axioō being used to mean “make worthy,” which is why the Greek lexicons do not mention it as an option.25 Nevertheless, commentators allege that the context demands the translation “make worthy” because it wouldn’t make sense for God to test people to see if they are worthy of the call. But this is an example of bad exegesis: starting with what we think the text must mean and then cramming Paul’s Greek into that framework. When confronted with the use of a word that one finds confusing, rather than suggesting that it is used in a unique, idiosyncratic way (which would have made it unintelligible to the Thessalonians), it is better to reexamine our assumptions. What would it mean to be found worthy of the calling?
There is no doubt that according to 2 Thessalonians and throughout the Pauline Letters, God empowers the faithful to do the good, and so it is true for Paul that God “makes” people worthy of the kingdom. But by mistranslating the first part of Paul’s prayer report, the NABRE misses an important part of what Paul is saying: when Jesus returns, there will be a judgment of people’s deeds. God will assess whether people have obeyed the gospel to see if they have become “worthy” of the kingdom of God. God “calls” the Thessalonians and in the final assize expects to find them living worthily of that call. Some commentators have objected that it makes no sense for God to evaluate whether Christians have lived lives worthy of their calling, but this is exactly what Paul says on other occasions. In 1 Thess 4:7, for instance, he says that God calls them to live holy lives and warns of judgment if they do not (see also 1 Thess 2:12; 5:23–24; 2 Thess 2:14). Similarly, in this passage Paul reports that he prays that the Thessalonians would be found worthy of the call they received (for more New Testament examples of the concern to be found living worthily of God’s call, see sidebar, “St. John Chrysostom on Living a Life Worthy of God’s Call,” p. 155).
In addition to p
raying that God would find the Thessalonians worthy, Paul prays that God would powerfully bring to fulfillment every good purpose and every effort of faith. These words would be clearer if Paul had added an explanatory pronoun or two: will God bring to fulfillment God’s good purpose and effort of faith or theirs? The latter sense is more probable. The rest of the prayer focuses on the Thessalonians’ lives, and the same seems to be true here as well. The phrase “effort of faith” (ergon pisteōs) also appears in 1 Thess 1:3 as “work of faith,” where it refers to the deeds by which the Thessalonians enact their faith. Chrysostom suggests that the work of faith that Paul has in mind is “the patient endurance of persecutions.”26 The verb translated as “bring to fulfillment” (plēroō) could mean “fulfill” in the sense of bringing something to its fitting end (e.g., Luke 7:1). Paul prays that God would bring their good deeds to their intended outcome. In context, one would think especially of their recompense when Jesus returns. Plēroō frequently refers to payment, and, given the context of the last judgment, one might understand this passage similarly to Phil 4:18–19, where plēroō refers to God’s repayment for good deeds.27 If this is correct, then Paul is praying that God would find the Thessalonians worthy and recompense their work of faith.
LIVING TRADITION
St. John Chrysostom on Living a Life Worthy of God’s Call
In 2 Thess 1:11 Paul reports that he prays that God will find the Thessalonians worthy of the calling they received. While preaching on this passage, John Chrysostom notes that Matthew’s Gospel also speaks of the necessity to be found worthy of God’s call.
The one who was clothed in filthy garments was called, but he did not remain in the calling and for this reason was cast out [Matt 22:10–13]. . . . The five virgins were also called [Matt 25:1–13] . . . but they did not enter into the wedding banquet.a
In Matthew’s parable of the wedding banquet (22:1–14), those who are initially invited (literally, “called”) to the wedding of the king’s son refuse to come and are so deemed not worthy (axios). The king then “calls” others to come to the wedding, and they come, but then one of them is found without a wedding garment—usually thought to represent good works—and is also cast out (see also Matt 10:37–39). Similarly, in the other Matthean parable (25:1–13), the five foolish virgins are called to join the bridegroom, but they are not ready and so remain locked outside. In these passages, as in 2 Thess 1:11, there is an invitation from God to enter the kingdom, but the invitation or calling is not a guarantee that those invited will be found worthy.
a. Homiliae (PG 62:481 [my translation]).
[1:12]
Paul prays that God would find the Thessalonians worthy and fulfill their deeds so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you. The “name” of Jesus refers to his reputation, the general report about him. The first petition of the Our Father asks God to hallow the divine name, which means making its holiness known. The prophet Ezekiel says that when God’s people fail to live up to their calling it brings dishonor to God’s name, but when God’s purposes are fulfilled in his people it brings him glory (36:22–32).28 Here Paul prays that the name of Jesus would be glorified by the Thessalonians’ being found worthy of their call. While Paul no doubt expects Jesus to be glorified in the Church in the present day (1 Cor 6:20; 10:31), the focus here is on Jesus’s return, when he will be glorified by the holy ones (see 2 Thess 1:10). Even more surprising, Paul adds and you in him, presumably meaning that “you” (plural, referring to the Thessalonians) will be glorified in Jesus just as he is glorified in them. In what sense are the Thessalonians to be glorified? They would certainly expect to be vindicated before those who currently persecute them. In other letters Paul speaks of humanity lacking God’s glory because of sin (Rom 3:23) but being transformed by the Holy Spirit to share in God’s glory (2 Cor 3:18), culminating in the general resurrection, when Jesus “will change our lowly body to conform with his glorified body” (Phil 3:21).29 This fuller understanding of the glorification of the faithful is not spelled out here, however. Paul concludes this section with another reminder that all of this is due to the grace—or, one might say, the “gift” (charis)—of our God and Lord Jesus Christ.
Reflection and Application (1:11–12)
Second Thessalonians is one of the lesser-known letters of Paul. Historians of Christian origins tend to focus on letters about which there is more confidence in Pauline authorship. Theologians, at least since the Reformation, have given disproportionate attention to Romans, Galatians, and other letters that seem relevant to the theology of “justification.” Nevertheless, Paul’s prayer in 2 Thess 1:11–12 has echoed down the centuries in the Church’s prayers to become worthy of the kingdom (1:5, 11). Since antiquity, Greek liturgies have used the very language found in this passage (kataxioō, axioō) to pray that God would make it possible for the people to be found worthy to serve him and enter eternal life.30 In the liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, when the people enter the church it is prayed, “O Benefactor and maker of all creation . . . lead all your church to perfection and make us worthy [axios] of your kingdom.”31 Similarly, in the Liturgy of St. James it is prayed, “Lead all to perfection and make us worthy [axios] of the grace of your sanctification, gathering us in your holy, catholic, and apostolic church.”32 The Presanctified Liturgy of St. James includes a prayer that “we would be counted worthy [kataxioō] of the kingdom of heaven.”33 Another Greek prayer says, “Give to us grace and power so that we would be found worthy [kataxioō] to sing with understanding, and to pray without ceasing [1 Thess 5:17], in fear and trembling working out our salvation [Phil 2:12] through the help of your Christ.”34 Latin liturgies contain many similar prayers, though they translate the biblical axios-language with dignus and meritum and their cognates. In the Novus Ordo Mass one Advent prayer asks that “we may be found worthy [dignus] of the banquet of eternal life and merit to receive heavenly nourishment from his hands.”35 Another Advent prayer asks God to rescue us from our sins so that “with you to set us free, we may be worthy of salvation.”36
Close attention to the language of human worthiness in these liturgies reveals another way they reflect Paul’s Letters: like Paul, the great liturgies show a keen sense that humans are in themselves utterly unworthy to worship God. Paul’s hope that the Thessalonians would be counted worthy of the kingdom was based not on anything impressive about them but rather on God’s faithfulness to them and on signs that God’s grace was taking effect in their lives (see 2 Thess 1:12). The great liturgies acknowledge that, in the strict sense, Christ alone is “worthy” (Rev 5:12) and that humans become worthy to worship God by grace. Here are a few examples from the Novus Ordo:
Since we have no merits to plead our cause, come, we pray, to our rescue with the protection of your mercy.37
Admit us, we beseech you, into their company [i.e., of the saints], not weighing our merits, but granting us your pardon.38
Lord Jesus Christ . . . look not on our sins, but on the faith of your Church.39
Lord, I am not worthy [dignus] that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.40
Paul is not the only biblical author to emphasize humanity’s desperate need for grace, but no one stresses this idea as forcefully and influentially as he did, and yet he is perhaps also the most eloquent proponent of the hope that the faithful would become worthy of the kingdom. The liturgy offers training in understanding these two aspects of his thought, which are so often pulled apart.
1. Paul’s authorship of 2 Thessalonians is debated. See the discussion of authorship and circumstances of the letter’s composition in the introduction. In the commentary I occasionally consider how a passage would be interpreted if Paul were not the author.
2. See introduction on the similarities between the two letters.
3. See commentary on 1 Thess 1:1.
4. See also Rom 1:1–7, where the length of Paul’s self-introduction is worthy of the emperor Commodus. See Dio Cassius
, Roman History 73.15.5.
5. 1 Thess 1:1 simply states “grace to you and peace.” The NABRE brackets “our” in 2 Thess 1:2 because it is missing from some important ancient manuscripts. See the arguments in favor of its original absence in Gordon D. Fee, The First and Second Letters to the Thessalonians, NICNT (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2009), 244.
6. On the Holy Spirit 1.12.127, in Saint Ambrose: Theological and Dogmatic Works, trans. Roy J. Deferrari, FC 44 (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1963), 80.
7. E.g., Victor Paul Furnish, 1 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians, ANTC (Nashville: Abingdon, 2007), 132.
8. In the Greek it is not clear how v. 5 relates to the preceding. The words This is have been added to the NABRE for clarity.
9. E.g., I. Howard Marshall, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, NCBC (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1983), 173.
10. The NABRE assumes that worthiness is the result of the judgment rather than its content (“so that you may be considered worthy”). For a refutation of this interpretation, see Béda Rigaux, Saint Paul: Les Épitres aux Thessaloniciens, EBib (Paris: Lecoffre, 1956), 621. See commentary on 2 Thess 1:11 against translating axioō as “make worthy.”
11. See Tertullian’s comments regarding Marcion’s discomfort with 2 Thess 1:5–10 in Against Marcion 5.16.
12. See 2 Cor 2:13; 7:5; 8:13; Acts of Thomas 39.
13. RIChrM 180 (my translation).
14. In many important manuscripts of 2 Thessalonians it is actually identical to the phrase in Isaiah.
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