2Th 1:11-12 “Wherefore also we pray always for you, that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfil all the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work of faith with power: 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.”
Paul points the church to all that he has just spoken in the previous eleven verses of this chapter with the use of the word “wherefore (as a result of).” He has spoken to us of the grace and power of God and the Lord Jesus Christ in keeping us in our tribulation. We have been admonished concerning the need to obey the gospel and concerning the righteous judgement of God that we are counted worthy (deemed entirely deserving – see Strong’s) of His kingdom.
We have been assured (and cautioned) that God will recompense those that trouble us according to His own will and purpose. His word tells us that in the day when we see Him in His power the He is glorified in His saints and admired by all them that believe. While the doctrine of the final preservation of God’s people is glorious, surely we (as the church) realize that we are not called on to wait on some undetermined future date to see His glory and to admire Him.
The true church should be well aware of the glory of her Husband. While we may not see it yet in its fullness, we are blessed through the Holy Ghost to see as much as we can contain in these mortal bodies. It is the sight of His glory that moves us to worship Him. We hold Him in great admiration because God has blessed us to believe that He is all in all and worthy of our praise.
As a result of all this, we who minister to His church should always be in prayer for the church. We as individuals have the grace to go to God in supplication that He would find us collectively worthy of His calling into the kingdom of God here; worthy of being called to believe that He is and that He is a rewarded of those that diligently seek Him (admirers); worthy of bearing tribulations and persecution for His name’s sake. We know (and Paul knew – Heb 1:3) that He sees all of His children as worthy of final preservation because that work was done by the hand of Jesus Christ alone.
Our faith and understanding, as the church of the Living God, is still something that is wrought by Him in Jesus and revealed to us by the Holy Spirit. However, there is an element of obedience that God takes into consideration when He “counts us worthy” of our calling into His kingdom here. It is in this light that we pray always for the church. We pray that our walk before the Lord be such as to see the fulfillment of all His virtuous delight.
If we are counted worthy of this calling by God, and He fulfills all the good pleasure of His goodness, He will also fulfill His work of bringing us to reliance on Christ for all our deliverance (faith) with miraculous force (power). It is impossible for the church to consider her members and not believe miracles. The simple fact that any of us ever come to worship Him and repent of our sins is the miraculous working of God…otherwise, it would never happen.
The outcome of all that has gone before is this: the name (character, authority) of our Lord is glorified in us. By the fulfillment of His promise that He and His Father would take up their abode in us, His glory is manifest in us. Furthermore, we are glorified in Him because He is in us and we are in Him and He is in the Father. Our knowledge of, and obedience in, all these things rests in the fact that it comes in compliance with the grace of our God: even obedience to God is by the grace of God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
May His grace humble us before Him that we would always be in prayer to be found worthy of this calling!
