To Encourage You

2 Thessalonians 1:6-10 “God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might, when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed.”

Does injustice bother you?  When you read about someone literally “getting away with murder” does it rankle your spirit?  When someone gets away with all kinds of wrongdoing simply because they can buy their way through “the system” with their wealth (which was likewise acquired unjustly) does it wear on you?  More than that, if someone treats you unjustly, don’t you pine for justice to make things right?  If not, you’re different than most people, for the desire for justice seems to be hardwired into our DNA. 

In those instances where we know things are unjust, it would help a great deal if we knew with certainty that justice would be served – eventually. Unfortunately, that’s not often the case, and some things seem never to be made right.  However, for the believer, this is never the case.  For the believer, there are the sure promises of God. For the believer there is the following wonderful rhetorical question: “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?” (Genesis 18:25).  Then this promise from Psalm 98:9: “He (God) will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with equity.”  “But when?” we may ask.  It is to this question that the verses above from 2 Thessalonians 1 speak.  There we are told that it is at the second coming of Jesus that all things will be made right.  It is then that God will repay with affliction those who have afflicted the believers for their faith.  It is a sure thing. The North Korean, Chinese, and Eritrean government officials will not get away with all the horrors they’ve inflicted on the believers there.  There will be justice and it will be sure.  In fact, every injustice against any believer will be made right in the end.  That’s one of the reasons we are told to turn the other cheek and return good for evil.  God has assured us that He will make all things right.  He has told us “Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord’” (Romans 12:19). 

But why the wait?  Why not inflict justice right here and now?  It is precisely at this point that the mighty mercy of God shows itself.  In 2 Peter 3, in another passage about the coming judgment of God upon all sin, Peter answers the very question of why the apparent “slowness” of the judgment of God. Here Peter reminds us to “not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (2 Peter 3:8-9).  You see, although God is just and God will judge all the earth with perfect righteousness, God is also full of mercy and grace, and He would rather that all men turn from their wickedness and live.  It’s this same heart of God the Father that we see in Christ, Who from the cross, in agony, cried out, “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.”  In other words, they don’t realize the fate that awaits those who reject You. They don’t fully realize the sure judgment of God on the unjust of this world.  And they don’t yet realize that what Jesus suffered at their hands was a suffering on their behalf. 

It was God’s love displayed for sinners by placing their sin on His only begotten Son Who suffered to free them that judgment if they would only turn to Him and believe.  Yes, that’s the heart of God, and it’s also the heart of those Who love God. It’s the mindset that injustice can be endured for justice will surely come in the end. But more than that, it’s the heart of compassion towards the sinner, praying that they, like us, would have their eyes opened to their condition and soon flee to Jesus from the wrath to come.