2 Thessalonians – Week 1 – Day 4

Bringing Judgment 

READ 

2 Thessalonians 1:7-8 

7 And God will provide rest for you who are being persecuted and also for us when the Lord Jesus appears from heaven. He will come with his mighty angels, 8 in flaming fire, bringing judgment on those who don’t know God and on those who refuse to obey the Good News of our Lord Jesus. 

Paul had referred to believers being caught up to meet Jesus in the air in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18. This is known as the rapture of the Church. In 2 Thessalonians 1:7-8 Paul referred to the time when Jesus would return to the earth. At that time God will bring judgment on those who do not know Jesus as Savior. Paul had been persecuted as the Thessalonian believers were. Both could rest in the fact that God is just and would eventually bring judgment on the persecutors.  

REFLECT 

Whatever you are enduring for your faith today, you can be assured that God’s justice will someday be executed on those who persecute believers. 

RESPOND 

With your disciple, read Acts 9:3-5 that tells of Paul’s (also known as Saul) conversion on the road to Damascus. Jesus considers that those who persecute believers are really persecuting Him.