Relief From Suffering - 2 Thessalonians

2 Thessalonians 1:6-8 (ESV)

since indeed 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.

The context of the above words of Paul to the church at Thessalonica are about the suffering the church has experienced (and for us who will experience it).   Paul is writing to encourage them by teaching them truth about the character and purpose of suffering for the faith.  The concept of redeeming our suffering for His glory is an important aspect of Christian living.  There will be suffering in this life.   We are to expect it:

2 Timothy 3:12-13 (ESV)

Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.

The issue is not if we will suffer.  The challenge is what we do with the suffering.   Will we use it (redeem it) for God’s glory.   In the above words of Paul we discover two important truths about redemptive suffering:

1).  God will avenge and repay those who cause our suffering.  Yes, it often looks like the wicked and evil of this world is winning.  That has been true for some time for believers.  But the believers hope is still tied in the fact that God is going to avenge the death of His Son and our suffering for belief in that Son.  

2).  While God may delay that vengeance for our suffering, He still promises to give us relief from our suffering.   Those who mistreat us for our faith and cause our lives to be more difficult as a result can’t replace or outdo God’s grace given to us in suffering.   Our leaning into Him for more and more grace in times of needs is a dynamic aspect of Christian faith.   Yes, as the above text reads, complete relief comes upon His return.  But we must lean into God granting us relief in the here and now, as well. 

The struggle believers have in this type of outward suffering is that we are doing good in Christ.  We should suffer if we are doing bad.  But when we are doing good why must we suffer?  It is because the world is evil and our living for Christ is going cut across the grain of the world’s evilness.  There is no greater suffering than when it comes from unjust treatment for living just.  But God will both reward those for treating us unjustly with His vengeance and by granting us relief from it.