Relief

All this is evidence that God's judgment is right, and as a result you will be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are suffering. God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well.

2 Thessalonians 1:5-7a

Paul has already referred to their patient endurance in persecutions. We do not know exactly how they suffered. Some had been arrested, thrown in jail and beaten. They were undergoing the same trials as Christians today who live under oppressive regimes. But whatever form this persecution took, their endurance during trials was evidence that God was at work among them! You cannot endure unless you are being strengthened by the Spirit of God. People under pressure give up very easily unless something is strengthening them. But the Thessalonians were enduring, and that was evidence of God's working among them.

Paul points out two things about their suffering: First, God was using it to prepare them for the kingdom reign they would shortly share with him. He was making them worthy of the kingdom of God. Actually this should be rendered, revealing that you are worthy. God is revealing by their endurance that they are worthy of the kingdom of God. The fact that they could stand up under pressure was evidence of this.

Second, God was using their suffering to reveal the world's condemnation. He's going to pay back trouble to those who trouble you. Hebrews 11 is the record of the great heroes of our faith. It says: Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were put to death by stoning; they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated — the world was not worthy of them (Hebrews 11:36-38a).

God's standard of value is quite different from society's. You may not be anyone in the eyes of the world, but if you are standing steadfast in your Christian faith during trials, you are someone in the eyes of God, and at the revealing of Jesus that will become evident to all. Thus, Paul assures us that God will afflict the ones who afflict God's people and bring rest to his own. I like the word relief. What do you do when you have a headache? You take a pain reliever and you get relief. When Jesus comes, there will be relief.

Once we visited the memorial in Jerusalem erected to recall the Holocaust. There, the terrible tortures — the concentration camps, the gas chambers — are remembered. The whole record is a testimony that none of it will ever be forgotten. But even more touching is the new memorial erected to the children of the Holocaust. The hall is almost totally dark, lighted only by a few candles, but there are hundreds of mirrors so that the impression is of thousands of candles burning. There in the gloom I felt as though I was standing at the judgment of God! Hidden voices endlessly call out the names of children who were tortured and murdered by the Nazis. It is Israel's way of saying that these children will never be forgotten. God is telling us the same thing here. He will bring affliction to those who afflict, and rest and relief to those afflicted.

Father, teach me to trust you in the midst of my own suffering. Thank you that you are preparing me for the kingdom reign I will one day share with you.