2 Thessalonians 1:8
Those who do not obey the gospel
- The gospel’s word εὐαγγέλιον euangelion · gospel
Original
Translations
in blazing fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ:
in flaming fire, giving vengeance to those not knowing God, and to those not obeying the good news of our Lord Jesus Christ,
하나님을 모르는 자들과 우리 주 예수의 복음을 복종치 않는 자들에게 형벌을 주시리니
하나님을 알지 못하는 자들과 우리 주 예수 그리스도의 복음에 순종하지 아니하는 자들에게 타오르는 불로 징벌하실 때에 그리하시리라.
Commentaries
Matthew Henry on 2Thess 1:5-10 as a whole
Religion, if worth anything, is worth every thing; and those have no religion, or none worth having, or know not how to value it, cannot find their hearts to suffer for it. …
Read the whole commentary →Wesley 2Thess 1:8
Taking vengeance - Does God barely permit this, or (as "the Lord" once "rained brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven," Gen 19:24) does a fiery stream go forth from him for ever? Who know not God - (The root of all wickedness and misery) who remain in heathen ignorance. …
Read the whole commentary →
Note
Writing to a church still under persecution, Paul speaks of God's righteous judgment. When the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven, those who afflict will be repaid, and those afflicted will find relief. This verse names, in two phrases, the ones who will face judgment on that day.
in blazing fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
2 Thessalonians 1:8The second letter goes to believers whose trials have not ended. Paul boasts among the churches of "your perseverance and faith in the face of all the persecution and affliction you are enduring" (2 Thessalonians 1:4), and tells them that "it is only right for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you" (2 Thessalonians 1:6) and to grant them relief. That repaying comes when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven, and this verse goes on from there. The next describes the penalty (2 Thessalonians 1:9); the one after it, the day the Lord is "regarded with wonder by all who have believed" (2 Thessalonians 1:10).
is in the dative, the object of , a verb built from "to hear" and "under": to hear and submit, to obey. It is a present participle, describing a settled way of life rather than a single act. The gospel, then, is not merely information to be noted; it is news that asks for the answer of a whole life. And it is the gospel of "our Lord Jesus", the same Lord who will be revealed on that day. Paul joins the verb to the gospel again in Romans, where the BSB has "not all of them welcomed the good news" (Romans 10:16) and the KJV, "they have not all obeyed the gospel". Welcoming and obeying are two sides of one response.
The KJV reads "the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ", and the LSV too ends with "Christ"; the BSB has "of our Lord Jesus". The manuscripts differ, and the word "Christ" stands only in some. "Vengeance" (ἐκδίκησις) is built on δίκη, justice. It is not private revenge but the outcome of a just judgment, as the context insists with its "only right".
Readers have divided over whether the two phrases name two groups or one. Wesley sees two: those "who remain in heathen ignorance", and those who obey not, which "refers chiefly to the Jews, who had heard the gospel" Wesley. Many others read the phrases as parallel, one group described twice in the manner of Hebrew poetry. Matthew Henry speaks of "the great crime of multitudes, the gospel is revealed, and they will not believe it; or if they pretend to believe, they will not obey it" Matthew Henry.
The verse is a hard one, yet it was written to comfort people who suffered, to assure them that God is just. That the gospel calls for obedience means that it is a living word: it does not leave its hearers where it found them.