The Apostle’s Prayer for Their Progress (2 Thessalonians 1:11–12)

Such great promises has the Apostle spoken to the faithful! But their reception does not depend on faith alone; it is conditioned on faithfulness to the faith to the end and the precise fulfillment of its demands—of everything to which the Christian calling obliges. Since success in this is acquired not by human effort alone but is given preeminently by the grace of God, the holy Paul adds a prayer, that the Lord may deem the Thessalonians worthy of this.

2 Thess. 1:11. For this reason also we pray always for you, that our God may deem you worthy of the calling and may fulfill every good wish of goodness and the work of faith in power.

“For this reason”—“that God may also be glorified and wondrous in you” (Oecumenius). As verse 12 below indicates. “And we pray always for you.” Taking to heart both the temporal and the eternal lot of those he had converted, the Apostle prays tirelessly for them, as a compassionate father for his children, wishing that they may truly be deemed worthy of all good things in Christ Jesus our Lord.

“May deem worthy of the calling.” The calling, in Holy Scripture, is either the call to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ (1 Thess. 2:12); or the state corresponding to this call, when a person is such as the Christian calling requires (2 Pet. 1:10; Eph. 4:1); or the fruit of the calling—that to which the call leads—“the hope of the calling” (Eph. 4:4), “the heavenly calling” (Heb. 3:1). Since the Thessalonians are already called to faith, the Apostle surely desires for them here either that God may deem them worthy to prove themselves worthy of this calling—to maintain themselves to the end as it requires—or that He may deem them worthy to receive what is laid up in heaven for this calling, to bless them with the full abundance of good things that the goodness of God has deigned to prepare for those who believe. Both may be accepted—both what is required here and what is promised there. For in essence they are inseparable. What is required here is the necessary condition of what is there. When what we are obligated to here is present in us, what is there prepared will also be given; but when what is here is absent, do not expect what is there. Blessed Theophylact writes: “What then—were they not called? Indeed they were. But it is not of that calling the Apostle speaks, for by that many are called. Even he who lacked the wedding garment was called, and the five virgins were called, but they did not enter. The calling the Apostle here means is that which is confirmed by deeds and which is properly speaking the calling, just as true faith is active faith.”

And what is needed for the Thessalonians to walk worthy of the calling—this the holy Paul then desires: “and may fulfill every good wish of goodness.” “Good wish of goodness”—what the goodness of God wills for people, all the good things given to us in the Lord Jesus Christ: the grace of regeneration, sanctification, communion with God, adoption—which is directly called by the Apostle the “good will of the will” of God (Eph. 1:5). The Apostle desires that all this may be fulfilled in the Thessalonians—that, having received the forgiveness of sins, they may strive to cleanse themselves also from the passions, and, having developed in themselves good dispositions and feelings, may become a worthy dwelling of the triune God. Oecumenius paraphrases this passage thus: “We pray that God may fulfill in you His every good will. And the will and good will of God is that all people be saved and attain eternal blessedness.” Theophylact adds: “That every good will of God—that is, all that is well-pleasing to Him—may be fulfilled in you, and that you may prove to be such as God desires you to be, lacking nothing.” Both took these thoughts from St. Chrysostom, who says: “That God may be fully satisfied that you now lack nothing more in order to become such as He desires.”

And having raised the Thessalonians by His grace and good will to such moral perfection, God will fulfill in them also “the work of faith in power.” The work of faith—in general, that for which the faith of Christ was founded and established on earth. The Apostle desires that this may be accomplished in the Thessalonians. Or the work of faith—the demonstration of one’s believing by deed (St. John of Damascus) before others, regardless of their hostility for it; consequently, the work of faith—the fruits of faith in general and in particular the endurance of persecutions for the faith. In Theodoret we read: “We beseech the God of all that He may fill you, who have been deemed worthy of the calling, with all good things, and that you may bring forth the fruits of faith.” According to St. Chrysostom, the work of faith is the bearing of persecutions, and, according to Theophylact, the Apostle desires “that God may make perfect in the Thessalonians the endurance of persecutions. Endurance is the work of faith, so that he who has no endurance shows no work of faith.”

“In power”—either in all fullness, according to all the greatness of the good wish of goodness and according to all the significance of faith, in the most perfect manner. Or by His power, sent down from above—the power of grace, which strengthens people for all the works of faith and especially for endurance. “In power”—that is, having strengthened and fortified you (Theophylact). “That He may fulfill the work of faith in you by His own (divine) power. For from the latter the former is born. If He gives the power to fulfill the work of faith, He will certainly fulfill His good will in us as well” (Oecumenius).

Both—the good will of God’s goodness and the work of faith in people—encompass everything that is required in order for us to be deemed worthy of the calling, or to prove to be such as the calling requires us to be, or, what is the same thing, to walk worthy of the calling (Eph. 4:1). The first points to what is from God; the second—to what is from people. In the former is all the economy of salvation and the gracious powers; in the latter is our own activity, labor, and effort in the spirit of faith, or in the fulfillment of the obligations of faith—though all this has significance only when strengthened by power from above. The Christian calling is fulfilled not by grace alone and not by human effort alone, but by both together. St. John of Damascus writes: “The Apostle prays thus in order to make them more zealous. He does this not in order to remove from us what must come from ourselves, but that we may not think too highly of ourselves; and, on the contrary, that even in all those things for which we have received capability from the grace of God, we may call God to our aid—for if we rely on ourselves, all our labor will come to nothing. By the words ‘that He may fulfill’ he shows that they are not yet perfect. For perfection comes when the time of the contest has passed. But while one is still contending, let him fear, lest he fall. Therefore it is said: ‘before’ the end ‘do not’ call anyone blessed” (Sir. 11:28). St. Chrysostom concludes from this: “See how imperceptibly the Apostle humbles them. Lest they, as persons who have accomplished great feats, become proud from the abundance of praise and fall into sloth, he says that as long as they remain in this life, they still lack something. Similarly, in the Epistle to the Hebrews he says: ‘You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood, striving against sin’ (Heb. 12:4).”

2 Thess. 1:12. That the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

This is why the Apostle desires for the Thessalonians that all of Christ be realized in them—he desires for them full perfection in the Christian calling! For the glorification of the Lord in them and of them in Him.

This glorification is either here already, or there hereafter. If there, then the Apostle’s meaning is this: we pray for the fullness of your perfection in the Christian calling, so that when the Lord comes to be glorified and to be marveled at in His holy ones and in those who believe, He may appear glorious and marvelous also in you, having glorified you and displayed the wonder of His mercy upon you. So Oecumenius: “If it be so (that is, as we pray), then just as God is glorified in the saints, as said above, so also in you. He is glorified by accounting His servants worthy of such great blessings. And for them it will be glorious to be accounted worthy of this.”

If here, then, according to St. John of Damascus, “the Apostle’s words are like the Lord’s saying: ‘So let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven’ (Mt. 5:16). The Apostle speaks as it were: ‘If all that has been said is present in you, then even in this life the name of the Lord will be glorified in you and you in Him’” (Theophylact). How this comes about, St. Chrysostom explains: “In what way is the Lord glorified in us? — In this, that we prefer nothing to Him. In what way are we glorified in Him? — In this, that we receive from Him the strength not to weaken when misfortunes overtake us. For when any trial befalls us, at one and the same time God is glorified and we are glorified. Specifically, He is glorified because He has made us so strong, and we are admired because we have made ourselves worthy of this.” Theophylact resolves it in his own way: “When they see you enduring every trial out of love for your Master, this will be to His glory—that He is so good that His servants are ready to die for Him, and so powerful that He strengthens you to endure. And you too will be glorified in Him, in that you are found so faithful that you endure all things. For the glory of a servant is to be faithful to his Master.”

“By the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.” If we are accounted worthy that God be glorified in us and we in Him, all of this is God’s, not ours—all is the grace of Christ. “That is, God Himself has granted us this grace, that He be glorified in us and that we be glorified in Him” (Chrysostom). “We ourselves are not sufficient for this, nor are we worthy of it; but all is wrought in us by the grace of God” (Oecumenius). “It is the grace of God both when the Lord is glorified in us—in that we prefer nothing to Him as the sweetest of all things—and when we are glorified in Him—in that we receive from Him the strength to bear all trials” (Theophylact).

Along with news of the bright aspects of the Thessalonians, St. Paul received information about their failings as well, one of which darkened their Christian understanding and another their Christian conduct. The first consisted in their having allowed themselves to be carried away by the notion that the Day of Christ was already at hand; the second, in the fact that certain of them continued to give themselves over to idleness and to live at others’ expense. Such significant deviations from the truth the Apostle could not leave without reproof and correction. He corrects the first in chapter 2 and the second in chapter 3, inserting in both places other moral lessons and his benedictions for the Thessalonians. Let us distinguish them, calling one the doctrinal correction and the other the moral reproof.