Second Thessalonians 1:10

The Bible says in Second Thessalonians 1:10, “When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day.” The verses that came before this one tell of the judgment that Jesus will bring against those who hate God and His Christ. The coming of Christ will be a time of great judgment, but it will also be a time of great blessing. In their life upon this earth, the greatest blessing for any believer is the moment that they met Jesus Christ their Savior. Once a person becomes saved, they have the return of Christ to look forward to. Only the return of Christ will bring justice for all. Only the return of Christ will bring peace for all. Only the return of Christ will take away sin forever.

Of course, the return of Christ will be centered on Jesus. He will be revealed. He will be manifested as never before. He will be worshipped, and He will be glorified. Second Thessalonians 1:10 says that in this great future event Jesus will “be glorified in his saints.” There is a direct connection between the glorification of Christ and His “holy ones.” That is because He took guilty sinners, and He made us saints. We deserved nothing and He gave us everything. We deserved hell and He gave us heaven. We were in darkness and He gave us light. We needed love, and Jesus gave to us God’s great eternal love. Yes. Jesus will be glorified in His saints.

Evidently because Christ will be glorified in us at His coming, Paul wrote in Second Thessalonians 1:11, “Wherefore also we pray always for you, that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfill all the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work of faith with power.” Jesus did something for you. He made you a saint. That is a spiritual reality and because of grace, nothing can change that. The King is coming, and you will be there to enjoy it with the rest of the saints. But that is not all of the story. There is something else. There is the practical reality of what is happening in your life. You are called a saint, but does your life measure up to that of a saint? Are you worthy of the calling? You should be. Your goal should be to strive to be worthy of the calling. God called you to Christ. He will fulfill His promise. Jesus will come again. Jesus will take you to heaven, if you believe. But He still wants you to fulfill your calling. He wants you to become everything that a human being can be and should be: a saint of God.

He wants you to “fulfill all the good pleasure of his goodness.” What is going on in this life is a battle between good and evil. God is on the side of good. He loves that which is good, and He hates that which is evil. Always choose the good and reject the evil, and you will be on the same side that God is on. Whenever you choose the good, He will be pleased with you. When you face a decision ask these questions: “What is the good thing to do?” “What is the right thing to do?” Do the good thing, do the right thing, do the kind thing, and do the loving thing. That is God’s will for those who are His saints.

Of course, human responsibility only goes so far in the life of faith. If all that you have is the fulfillment of human responsibility, then you will have man-centered humanism and self-righteousness and legalism. None of these things have anything to do with serving God. That may very well be why the last phrase of Second Thessalonians says, “and the work of faith with power.” It must be a work of faith, or it is nothing. “Without faith it is impossible to please God.” When it is a work of faith, it means that you are trusting in God and not in your own efforts. “Except the Lord build the house, they that labor, labor in vain.” Divine enabling comes from true faith in Christ. This enabling happens at the time of salvation, and it happens every day if we are living by faith. We become attached to the power of God, not through effort, but through faith. Every thing is possible through faith, because God can do anything. That is why Jesus said in Luke 17:6, “If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you.” Above all things make sure that you are involved in the work of faith, and then you will see the power of God in the path that He has given you to take.

One of the most important results of a Christian living a life of faith is given in Second Thessalonians 1:12, “That the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and ye in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.” We were told in verse ten that Jesus will be glorified in us when He returns. He will also be glorified in us in this world if our lives become a work of faith. This will only happen “according to the grace of God.” The difference will be what God does by grace, not what man does by his own efforts. Notice that it is called “the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.” Once again Jesus is put on an equal level with God.

The Bible says in Second Thessalonians 2:1-2, “Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.” It is always good to recognize the attitude that Christians had for each other in the first century, and especially to recognize the attitude that the apostles had for other Christians. Of course, the apostles were the leaders of the church. They were chosen by Christ and gifted by Him to do that work. The apostles had power and authority, but they did not abuse that authority. They were not dictators. Paul did not command: he beseeched and implored. Paul was not aloof from other Christians. He called them all “brothers.” The leaders of supposed Christian organizations of our day should learn from the apostles. Leaders of today have much less authority and fewer gifts than the apostles, and yet the leaders of today create hierarchies and an arrogant clergy that is not at all like the apostles. Believers have a tremendous equality even though they have various gifts or calling. All are sinners saved by grace. And all of us will be gathered together unto Jesus at His coming.

Jesus will come again. The next great prophetic event that every believer should look forward to is the coming of Christ. What a wonderful and victorious day it will be when Jesus the Savior comes for His sheep. He will take away all sorrow. He will change all things. He will give grace and glory, and He will share it all with us just because we believe in Him. If you believe in Jesus, do not let anyone rob you of the joy of looking forward to the coming of Christ. False teachers had tried to steal this joy from the believers in Thessalonica by telling them that Christ had already come. That is what Paul was referring to when he wrote in Second Thessalonians 2:2 that they should not be shaken in mind nor troubled “that the day of Christ is at hand.” This means literally “that the day of Christ has come:” in other words past tense.

In the verses that follow Paul is explaining why Christ could not have yet come. In Second Thessalonians 2:3 Paul gives two things that must take place before Christ returns to the earth. The Bible says in Second Thessalonians 2:3, “Let no man deceive you by any means, for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition.” Before Christ returns to the earth, there will be a falling away from the truth. We can see that the falling away is progressing very well. The false teachers are doing their work. The carnal Christians are ignoring the Word of God to the point that they are easily led down one wrong path or another. The congregations have itching ears and seek teachers who will tell them what they want to hear instead of what they need to hear. The preachers fit right into this situation because they have learned to entertain without expounding the Word of God. The supposed Christian leaders are arrogant, and they are either weak-kneed compromisers or they are harsh, legalistic control-freaks. Yes, the falling away has gotten off to a very good start, but it will get much worse. Jesus said, “As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man.” In the days of Noah the whole world was ungodly except for one family. Jesus also asked the question, “When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?” This implies that just maybe there will be no faith on the earth when Christ returns. There will be a terrible falling away, but the final phase of that falling away from the truth has not yet happened.

The condition of “official Christianity” and the rest of false religion at the time of the return of Christ is described in Revelation 1-6 that says, “And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters: With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.”

We know that Jesus has not yet come because according to Second Thessalonians 2:3 that “man of sin,” “the son of perdition,” must first come. Before Christ comes, the antichrist must come. If you are spiritually minded, you will know when the antichrist comes because the antichrist will be “revealed.” If Christ returns soon, that means that the antichrist is already alive and on the earth. Who is the antichrist? First John 2:18 says, “Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.” We do not yet know who is “the” antichrist, but we do know what he will be like.

First of all, we know something about him because of what he is called in Second Thessalonians 2:3, “that man of sin,” and “the son of perdition.” With the phrase “that man of sin,” immediately we are given the great difference between the Christ and the antichrist. The Christ was perfect on the earth and in heaven. Jesus Christ did not sin ever. Pontius Pilate judged Jesus and said, “I find no fault in this man.” The antichrist will be characterized by sin in everything that he does. Human selfishness and self-will will find its greatest fulfillment in the antichrist because he is “that man of sin.”

The antichrist is also called “the son of perdition.” This phrase is an interesting use of words and very revealing also. The word that is translated “perdition” literally means “destroying or destruction.” The antichrist will be the son of destruction. To be the son of something means that you have a close relationship to that thing. It is interesting that the word “perdition” is also used for the devil himself in the Bible, and a word with a similar derivation that means “destroyer” is translated in the book of Revelation as “Apollyon”. It says about the devil in Revelation 9:11, “And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue has his name Apollyon.” The antichrist is a destroyer because the devil who gives him power is a destroyer.

Revelation 18:11 speaks of the antichrist and says, “And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition.” In this verse the word “perdition” is used to present the fact that the antichrist will be destroyed. He will cause much destruction on the earth, but his time will be limited. He will be destroyed.

It is a very good thing to be a follower of Jesus. Wickedness will have its day, but it is limited, and it will have its judgment. Those who believe in the King of Kings will reign with Him forever.

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