#DailyDevotion It’s Not All Good News & Jesus Isn’t Barney The Dinosaur
2 Thess. 16it really is just for God to pay back with suffering those who make you suffer 7and to give relief to you who suffer and to us when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels 8in a blaze of fire, to take vengeance on those who don’t know God and on those who will not obey the good news of our Lord Jesus. 9They will be punished by being taken away from the Lord and from the glory of His power to be destroyed eternally 10when He comes on that Day to be glorified in His holy people and admired by all who believed (you did believe the truth we told you).
Good news or bad news? I guess it depends on who you are and what you believe about Jesus. If verses 1-5 apply to you, you are a Christian and you’re suffering for the sake of the good news of Jesus Christ, then 6-10 is more good news to you. If you are on the outside looking in, it’s not so much good news for you. In fact, these verses are very bad news for you.
It is just for God to pay back with suffering those who make Christians suffer. Yes, no one gets away with anything. Even St. Paul suffered for persecuting Christians. He was confronted with his sins by the glory of Jesus along the way and died at the hands of Pastor Ananias there in Antioch when he was baptized. But in the second, when he died with Christ in baptism, he was reborn to eternal life. This is still a hope now for those who persecute you and all of God’s children in Christ Jesus.
But for those who refuse to obey the gospel of Jesus, i.e. to trust he died for their sin and to die with him in baptism, theirs is not a fate anyone should desire. For now, it may seem as if wicked people who persecute the saints of God are getting away with it. It may seem as if you do evil you will be rewarded. To tell the truth, it does indeed look like this. Asaph says in Psalm 733“because I was jealous of those who are proud and saw how the wicked prosper. 4They suffer no pains. Their bodies are healthy. 5They have no drudgery like ordinary people and aren’t plagued like others.” Yet the LORD shows him, 18“Surely You will set them in slippery places and make them fall into ruin. 19How quickly they will be destroyed, completely wiped out in terrifying ways!”
Such as the same Lord Jesus Christ has revealed to Paul who reveals it to us as well. Those who make us suffer will suffer in the end for all eternity. When Jesus appears in his glory in blaze of fire, those who persecuted the Church and did not repent, did not believe the good news of Jesus, will have Jesus’ vengeance havocked upon them. Jesus isn’t Barney the dinosaur. Yes he loves these people. Yes he died for their sins. Yes it pains the almighty and merciful God to send people into the Lake of Fire to suffer for all eternity. But if they have refused his love, mercy, kindness and forgiveness in this life, all that is left is his wrath and fury. They will be taken away from the Lord Jesus Christ’s presence and the glory of his power to be destroyed eternally. This is good news for us who trust in Christ for we will no longer suffer at their hands or their hands of their father, the devil, any longer.
When Jesus comes on that day he will be glorified in you who believe the good news of his suffering, death and resurrection for all people but especially for those who believed. On that day Jesus will be admired by all who believe for he is their Savior, their Redeemer, their Righteous Judge, their Deliverer and their God. He will be glorified for you will see he will give to you all that his as the Bride who has been one with him by faith.
Heavenly Father, always give us your Holy Spirit so we may believe and obey the good news of your Son Jesus Christ, that we may see his vengeance upon those who make his people suffer and don’t obey his teaching. But even more so now Father, grant that those who do not believe now and cause us suffering, would have their eyes opened so they may be repentant of their sins, believe and obey the good news of Jesus Christ and join us in his glory. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.