2 Thessalonians 1:8
lIn flaming fire 2taking vengeance on them that mknow not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ:
In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ:
ἐν πυρὶ φλογός, διδόντος ἐκδίκησιν τοῖς μὴ εἰδόσι Θεόν, καὶ τοῖς μὴ ὑπακούουσι τῷ εὐαγγελίῳ τοῦ Κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ·
Textual key: ‘Christ’
l:
Psalms 50:2 Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined.
Deuteronomy 32:22 For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains.
Deuteronomy 32:41 If I whet my glittering sword, and mine hand take hold on judgment; I will render vengeance to mine enemies, and will reward them that hate me.
Deuteronomy 32:43 Rejoice, O ye nations, with his people: for he will avenge the blood of his servants, and will render vengeance to his adversaries, and will be merciful unto his land, and to his people.
Nahum 1:2 God is jealous, and the LORD revengeth; the LORD revengeth, and is furious; the LORD will take vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his enemies.
Nahum 1:6 Who can stand before his indignation? and who can abide in the fierceness of his anger? his fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by him.
Romans 2:8 But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath,
Romans 2:9 Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile;
Hebrews 10:27 But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.
Hebrews 12:29 For our God is a consuming fire.
2 Peter 3:7 But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
2 Peter 3:10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
2 Peter 3:12 Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?
Jude 1:15 To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.
Revelation 1:7 Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen.
Revelation 21:8 But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.
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Or, yielding.
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Isaiah 27:11 When the boughs thereof are withered, they shall be broken off: the women come, and set them on fire: for it is a people of no understanding: therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them, and he that formed them will shew them no favour.
Hosea 4:6 ¶My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.
Psalms 79:5 How long, LORD? wilt thou be angry for ever? shall thy jealousy burn like fire?
Psalms 92:5 O LORD, how great are thy works! and thy thoughts are very deep.
Psalms 92:6 A brutish man knoweth not; neither doth a fool understand this.
Psalms 92:8 But thou, LORD, art most high for evermore.
Zephaniah 1:6 And them that are turned back from the LORD; and those that have not sought the LORD, nor enquired for him.
Galatians 4:8 Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods.
Proverbs 29:18 Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.
John 3:18 ¶He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
John 3:36 He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.
Hebrews 2:3 How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him;
Hebrews 10:29 Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?
Hebrews 12:25 See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven:
But his coming will be upon another account to many others, which is said here to be to take vengeance, for which purpose he is said to be revealed with his mighty angels, or angels of might; and elsewhere, with all his holy angels. They are said to excel in strength, Psa 103:20, or to be mighty in strength, and have the name of might, Eph 1:21. And here called mighty, because as the work Christ comes upon is great and difficult, so he will have instruments sufficient for it, and none shall be able to hinder.
And though he hath power himself sufficient, yet the angels must attend him to solemnize this great day, and to be serviceable to him in the work thereof, which, as it will respect the saints in their resurrection from the dead, and their gathering from the four winds, and separating them from the ungodly, as tares from the wheat and sheep from the goats, so the taking vengeance also in this day of the Lord’s wrath, which the apostle, especially, is in these verses speaking of, is the work they shall be employed in. As also in flaming fire, or the fire of flame, a Hebraism.
Fire is the most dreadful of all the elements, especially flaming, to denote the great wrath of that day, and its breaking forth, as fire when it flameth.
God’s wrath is often expressed in Scripture by fire, Deu 32:22 Psa 97:3, &c.; Jer 21:12 Heb 10:27; and as that which attendeth the great day of Christ, Dan 7:10 1Co 3:13 2Pe 3:7,12. And whether this flaming fire is material, or only metaphorical; if material, whether the present elementary fire, which shall descend, and be joined with that which shall break forth out of the bowels of the earth, as in Noah’s flood the waters were from above and from beneath; or whether it shall be some new created fire, and the action of it natural, or supernatural, I shall leave it to the schoolmen.
Yet it is generally conceived it is a material fire; else how can the elements be said to melt with fervent heat, and the world and the works thereof burnt up, as the apostle Peter speaks, 2Pe 3:10; and parallels it with the deluge in Noah’s time, which was with material water. But yet it is to be a manifestation of the fire of God’s wrath, and an instrument of it also in the destruction of ungodly men, 2Pe 3:7; for it is said in the text, Christ is revealed in it to take vengeance.
Vengeance is an act of justice; it is a retribution of evil for evil, the evil of suffering for the evil done: and God claims it as belonging to himself, Psa 94:1 Rom 12:19 Heb 10:27; and it is mentioned in the parable, Luk 18:7,8, as one great work of Christ, at his coming, to avenge the elect.
On them that know not God; these are the persons upon whom he will execute vengeance: by whom some think are meant the heathen, who had not the gospel. Those that had not the gospel, yet had means to know God, by the light of nature, and the works of creation and providence, which if they did not improve, but remained ignorant of God, will fall under this vengeance. And by knowledge here is not meant so much a speculative as a practical knowledge of God; and so such as do not fear, love, and honour God, may be said not to know him. As the Gentiles, who are said to know God, Rom 1:21, but yet not glorifying him as God, and living in idolatry, are said not to know him, Gal 4:8 1Th 4:5. And as God tells the king of Judah, that to do justice and judgment is to know him, Jer 22:16. And Eli’s sons, though priests, yet are said not to know the Lord, 1Sa 2:12.
which may be taken in conjunction with the former words, and then such as obey not the gospel are the same with them that know not God. As God is not known aright but by the gospel, so they only know God aright by the gospel who obey it. Some are ignorant and know not God, though they live under the gospel. Or, such as have knowledge, yet are not obedient. Knowledge and obedience ought to go together. And this obedience is called the obeying of the gospel. The gospel hath not only promises to be believed, but precepts to be obeyed.
Yea, faith itself may fall under its precepts, and then those that believe not the gospel do not obey it: as the same word in the Greek signifies to believe and obey. And as the gospel hath some peculiar precepts and institutions, so all the commands of the moral law are comprehended in it; and the equitable part of the judicial law, yea, and the ceremonial law also, where that which is moral is figured by it; and so far as the gospel commands, men ought to obey; and disobedience appears to be a great evil, when it will expose men to this great vengeance.
So Rom 2:8,9: To them that do not obey the truth, indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, & c. Not to obey the law of nature, exposed the heathen to God’s wrath, Rom 1:18; and to disobey the law of Moses, the Jew, Rom 2:2 Heb 2:3 10:28 Heb 12:25; much more not to obey the gospel. Christ is said here especially to take vengeance of such at his coming. Gospel sins are most heinous and most provoking, and will be most severely punished.