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For the persecuted, hope of vindication sustains. This has always been so, from the OT to the modern experience of slaves in America, blacks in South Africa, and oppressed Christians in totalitarian regimes. The Thessalonians endure persecution because they have confidence in God’s righteous judgment. Present circumstances are not God’s final word.
Their perseverance is evidence that God’s judgment is just. It demonstrates the genuineness of their faith. Since they suffer for God’s kingdom, they will be judged worthy. Their good works are evidence of their salvation.
Paul believes in the lex talionis (see the wordplay in 1:6). But two points bear noting: First, God avenges, not Christians (see Ro 12:17-21); second, God’s judgment is the consequence of rejecting salvation. Persecutors suffer the consequences of their choices (see 1Th 2:13-16).
God’s righteous judgment at the Parousia is described in apocalyptic language connoting authority, judgment, and power. Judgment affects all those who do not know God and who reject the Gospel, including all who reject God’s freely offered love (see Bruce, 151).
Their punishment will be everlasting destruction and exclusion from the presence of the Lord. Paul’s understanding of the future depends on his belief in resurrection. Resurrection to life is the destiny of the “dead in Christ.” Those not in Christ will be raised to judgment, but Paul never speculates on the details of their fate. For him, the worst imaginable fate would be separation from the Lord. To be separated from God is to be without hope (see Eph 2:12). As Marshall observes, “This is the reality for which the other pictures used are merely symbols” (p. 180).
The contrast is striking. “If eternal life is the life of the age to come, the resurrection age, ‘eternal destruction’ is the destruction of the age to some [sic, read “come”] with a strong implication of finality. . . . Here the ‘eternal destruction’ consists in exclusion from the presence of him with whom is ‘the fountain of life’” (Bruce, 152).
The precise sense of “eternal” is uncertain. Best states, “so long as existence continues in the age to come persecutors will be separated from God. . . . The sense ‘everlasting, of infinite duration’ is to be rejected but the meaning ‘characteristic of the age to come’ may well be present; the punishment of persecutors belongs to the next and not to this age” (pp. 262-63).
Although the wicked will be excluded, Christians do not gloat. The Day of the Lord is the day of Christ’s vindication. By their redemption, Christians bring glory to the Lord and in turn share in his glory. When he comes, his majesty, power, and authority will be clearly seen by those who are his. For believers, the occasion will be marvellous because they have believed and remained steadfast despite persecution.