2 Thessalonians 1:3-12
The Problem of Vengeance

We are bound to always give thanks to God for you, brothers, even as it is appropriate, because your faith grows exceedingly, and the love of each and every one of you towards one another abounds; so that we ourselves boast about you in the assemblies of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions which you endure.

This is an obvious sign of the righteous judgment of God, to the end that you may be counted worthy of the Kingdom of God, for which you also suffer. Since it is a righteous thing with God to repay affliction to those who afflict you, and to give relief to you who are afflicted with us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, giving vengeance to those who don't know God, and to those who don't obey the Good News of our Lord Jesus, who will pay the penalty: eternal destruction from the face of the Lord and from the glory of his might, when he comes to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired among all those who have believed (because our testimony to you was believed) in that day.

To this end we also pray always for you, that our God may count you worthy of your calling, and fulfill every desire of goodness and work of faith, with power; that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

World English Bible

This passage from Paul may make us uncomfortable. Most of us have not experienced persecutions similar to those Paul's readers were experiencing, so we might feel unworthy of putting ourselves in their position as we read Paul's encouragement. However, we can trust in the timelessness of God's Word expressed in this letter from Paul and gather truth from this passage even though we have not shared in the sufferings of this particular fellowship.

What is more likely to make us uncomfortable is reconciling the concepts of vengeance and love. At times, we all take "guilty pleasure" in the concept that those who have hurt us will be punished, and we recognize this attitude directly conflicts with the command to love our enemies. We cannot wish both evil and good on our tormenters, so our natural response is to repress these desires for revenge.

We need to consider the difference between revenge and justice. We generally think of vengeance as an act that takes place when justice fails, but Paul would never agree that justice will not ultimately be fulfilled. The Greek word translated above as "vengeance" is better translated as "retribution" and refers to a sentence handed out by a court. This thought is consistent with the phrase in verse six that God will repay unrepentant sinners for their sins. Our modern concepts of vengeance are influenced by stories of lawmen and rustlers in the Wild West, but the Biblical concept of justice does not require a "white hat" cowboy to save the day. Paul encouraged the Thessalonians to be patient and to trust God to save them.

In Paul's understanding, Justice and the Law were integral to the nature of the world. The Biblical concept of the Law is not a set of rules written by authority figures, but the inherent nature of the world, much the same as the laws of physics. We might wish that someone would trip and fall, but it is not the law of gravity that is the problem but our selfish desire.

We are created with a sense of justice because we are made in the image of God. Just as we are reassured by gravity's consistency that keeps the ground below us and the sky above, we find comfort when right prevails and wrong is subdued. This analogy starts to crumble because the law of justice can be defied more easily than the law of gravity. Gravity will instantly pull us down if we jump, and it takes great engineering feats to counter gravity's pull in order to fly. Justice, on the other hand, can take more than a lifetime to act, and so much of our emotion in this topic comes from the urging to see evidence that the law of justice is maintained.

My point is that we should not deny our sense of justice. We are made to recognize the good and reject the evil, while at the same time we are made with the independence that urges us to selfish rebellion. We long for justice, but we have all rejected justice, and in that contradiction is eternal separation from God. Salvation in Jesus Christ does not do away with justice—it reconciles us to God by paying the penalty required by justice for our rebellion. We are redeemed at a very high cost.

We are saved because the law of justice is not instantaneous like the law of gravity. It is because God allows us time to repent that we are saved. Because we have been given the gift of salvation, we need to have faith that God will bring about justice at the right time. Evil will be defeated and good will win because this is woven into the fabric of all creation, but God's Grace is delaying the completion of justice so that more people can be saved. Until that time, we are to hold on to our faith in God's timing.

It is Love that causes God to delay justice so that we have time to find and accept salvation. Love compels us to do the same. Of course we hurt when we are wronged, but our pain is not cured by retaliation, but by God. God equips us and trains us to seek what is Good for those who have hurt us—to love our enemies. How God chooses to use us in expressing that love to those who have hurt us varies by the situation, but God always provides what we need, especially the Grace, to be vessels of Love.