2 Thessalonians 1:5

ἔνδειγμα τῆς δικαίας κρίσεως τοῦ θεοῦ, a plain token of the righteous judgement of God. Ἔνδειγμα, not exemplum, as in the Vulg.—this renders παράδειγμα; but indicium (Beza), or better still, argumentum et indicium (Estius). The sufferings of the righteous afflicted do not “exemplify” Divine justice; they seem to contradict it. They do not exhibit, but “point to” a future readjustment. In what sense? (a) By way of moral argument, on the principle of Luke 16:25; thus many interpreters, with Calvin, e.g.: “Nam si justus est mundi judex Deus, restitui oportet quæ nunc sunt confusa.” But this cannot be got out of the word ἔνδειγμα, which implies evidence to the point in question lying in the facts stated (2 Thessalonians 1:3 f.), not argument upon them; the affliction taken in itself affords no proof of retributive justice—rather an occasion for it. (b) The true answer is supplied by the parallel in Philippians 1:28 : μὴ πτυρόμενοι ἐν μηδενὶ … ἥτις ἐστὶν αὐτοῖς ἔνδειξις�, ὑμῶν δὲ σωτηρίας. The heroic faith of the Thessalonians shows that God is on their side, since He manifestly inspires it (cf. 1 Thessalonians 1:6); so it gives token of His final judgement in their case and is a kind of ἀπαρχή thereof (cf. Romans 8:15-23). This prophetic sign, joyously evident to the Apostles, ought even to impress the persecutors at Thessalonica; perhaps St Paul remembered some misgivings due to the like cause in Saul the persecutor! The joy of St Stephen before the Jewish Council (Acts 6:15), the triumph of Paul and Silas singing in the Philippian prison, the rapture of later Christian martyrs and the impression often made by it, are instances of such ἔνδειξις. Ἔνδειγμα then refers neither to the subject, nor even to the object of the verb ἀνέχεσθε—as though one should render, “which you endure by way of token (in exemplum, Vulg.) of God’s righteous judgement”; but to the main purport of 2 Thessalonians 1:4, viz. the ὑπομονὴ κ. πίστις ἐν τοῖς διωγμοῖς of the readers. The noun may be construed as accusative of apposition to the previous sentence (cf. Romans 12:1 : so Lightfoot; A. Buttmann, p. 153), or, better, as an elliptical nominative, for ὅ ἐστιν ἔνδειγμα, which in full expression would be awkward after αἰς� (cf. Philippians 1:28; Ephesians 3:13 : so Winer-Moulton, p. 669, Schmiedel, Blass, Bornemann). The verb ἐνδείκνυμαι (middle) signifies to point out (something) in oneself, to give ostensible evidence (see Romans 2:15; 2 Corinthians 8:24). Ἔνδειξις (Philippians 1:28; Romans 3:25) is the evidencing action, ἔνδειγμα the evidence in act. There may be in the term a lingering, to the persecutors an ominous, suggestion of its Attic legal sense of incriminating statement (see Lidd. and Scott, s.v. ἔνδειξις); the constancy of the Christians was, virtually, an indictment of their injurers before the Great Judge.

εἰς τὸ καταξιωθῆναι ὑμᾶς τῆς βασιλείας τοῦ θεοῦ, so that you may be accounted worthy of the kingdom of God. For εἰς τό with infin., see note to 1 Thessalonians 2:12. Here again the construction is somewhat loose. The adjunct, expressing half purpose and half result, belongs to κρίσεως—God’s “righteous judgement” aiming at the admission to His “kingdom” of its destined heirs (cf. Matthew 25:34), who are now giving “token” of “worthiness” by their faithful “suffering on” its “account.” The construction of ἔνδειγμα above adopted forbids our attaching this clause to ἀνέχεσθε, as though it expressed the aim of the sufferers (which would, moreover, render ὑπὲρ ἧς κ.τ.λ. superfluous). And to make the clause depend on ἔνδειγμα itself is to treat it as synonymous with τῆς δικαίας κρίσεως (“God’s righteous judgement … viz. that you be counted,” &c.), an apposition of which εἰς τό does not admit.

Κατ-αξιόω (cf. 2 Thessalonians 1:11; the intensive compound also in Luke 20:35; Acts 5:41) is a judicial term, like the Pauline δικαιόω, specifying a kind of κρίσις, and denotes “to reckon (not to make) worthy”; so in Luke 7:7; 1 Timothy 5:17, &c. There must be apparent a fitness of character in those admitted to God’s heavenly kingdom, if His judgement in their favour is to be recognized as “righteous”; see the opposite case in Matthew 22:8, and the warning of Revelation 22:10-15. God is “calling” the Thessalonians now to “His kingdom and glory”; they are “walking worthily” in the courage and patience of faith (cf. 1 Thessalonians 2:12); on such conditions, He cannot fail to “account” them “worthy” at the last. Acting otherwise, He would repudiate His own call (cf. 1 Thessalonians 5:24), and would be no longer a righteous God (cf. 1 Corinthians 1:9; Hebrews 6:10). “The kingdom of God” includes the “kingdom and glory” of 1 Thessalonians 2:12; His kingdom, already present in its spiritual principles and hidden operation (Romans 14:17; Luke 17:20 f.), is “coming” to its fulfilment and manifestation (Matthew 6:10; Luke 13:29; 1 Corinthians 15:24 f.).

In ὑπὲρ ἦς καὶ πάσχετε—for which sake indeed you are suffering—πάσχετε resumes τῆς ὑπομονῆς κ.τ.λ. of 2 Thessalonians 1:4, while ὑπὲρ ἦς indicates the motive of the Church’s endurance,—a further reason for the aforesaid κρίσεως: such suffering loyally endured out of faith in God’s kingdom, it is but just that God should approve and crown at last (2 Thessalonians 1:6); cf. 1 Thessalonians 3:4; 2 Timothy 2:12; Acts 14:22.