For Charleston, as for Thessalonica: God’s Promise of Justice and Peace

I’ve been teaching a series on the Thessalonian letters at my church; last night we discussed the first half of Second Thessalonians. For much of the session, we were trying to figure out what to make of Paul’s very emotionally charged, viscerally apocalyptic language.

I had titled the teaching series, “A Love Letter to the Church.” But where is the love, Paul?

We find plenty of language about persecution and affliction (or tribulation), and promises of divine punishment of the persecutors. But we also find a promise of peace–of respite, or relief–for those who were being persecuted.

Paul’s language is steeped in apocalyptic imagery. The “Day of the Lord.” Fire. Angels coming down from heaven. The coming rebellion. The “Lawless One” (or, “Man of Lawlessness),” a precursor to the Antichrist persona. The Lawless One, who works through the mysterious powers of lawlessness and rebellion, is being used by Satan (the “Deceiver”) to work evil in the world.

But eventually, at the Day of the Lord and the Parousia (appearing) of Christ, the Lawless One will be unleashed to run rampant, but then defeated by Christ. The evildoers who have persecuted and afflicted God’s people will be punished for their wrongdoing. God wins; justice will be done.

Last evening we wondered what to make of all this punishment language, dripping with Old Testament imagery? Vengeance, punishment, fire. Persecution. Rebellion. Destruction. Cosmic war.

Lighten up, Paul!

But then it occurred to our group that the language feels so foreign to us not only because of the differing historical context and lack of familiarity with the images, but also because we have not and are not being persecuted. We are not really being afflicted or oppressed. Our group, a predominantly white, mostly privileged class of people, had a hard time relating to Paul’s emotionally charged language. The truth is, far too often we are the oppressors. Whether explicit or complicit, whether intentional or subconscious, perhaps by our silence and inaction, we have contributed to the affliction of others. This is, sadly, the way power works.

The Thessalonian Jewish and Gentile Christians though, would not have had much difficulty connecting with Paul’s words. Not only were they familiar with the Old Testament language (the Jewish Christians among them, anyway), they were also experiencing persecutions and afflictions. To them, Paul was saying: As difficult as your experience is, as tough as your afflictions are, God will handle it.  God will take care of those who oppress you–and God will give you relief from your afflictions. God is on your side, even when it appears no one else is. So, persevere in your faith, love, and hope.

And then last night, we heard about the a horrific unleashing of hate in a historic black church in Charleston–during a Bible study, no less. That horrible act likely surpassed the levels of hatred and violence experienced by those churches in Thessalonica. “Hate crime,” clearly an apt description for the shootings in Emanuel AME church, is the modern name for persecution–for affliction of the worst possible sort.

Paul’s letter, it seems to me, is a love letter not just to the churches at Thessalonica, but to the church at Charleston:

We ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love all of you have for one another is increasing. ⁴ Therefore, among God’s churches we boast about your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and trials you are enduring.

⁵ All this is evidence that God’s judgment is right, and as a result you will be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are suffering. ⁶ God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you ⁷ and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. ⁸ He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. ⁹ They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might ¹⁰ on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed. This includes you, because you believed our testimony to you.

¹¹ With this in mind, we constantly pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may bring to fruition your every desire for goodness and your every deed prompted by faith. ¹² We pray this so 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 (2 Thessalonians 1:3-12).

A concluding thought: Paul’s stringent warning of judgment for persecutors must also be seen through the lens of the call to repentance and the ever-present possibility of repentance. After all, it happened to Paul himself.