Deeper Reflection
THE GOAL OF PAUL’S PRAYER FOR THE THESSALONIANS is “the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in Him” (v.12) – in line with “when He comes to be glorified in His saints” (v.10). The context of Paul’s prayer was the Thessalonians’ faithful endurance of suffering anchored in the hope of Christ’s Second Coming in glory (2 Thess 1:4-10).Scripture often links suffering with glory. As for suffering, it is not suffering per se, but faithful endurance of suffering. And the glory is the Lord glorified in us and us glorified in Him (v.12). Jesus’s suffering and death on the cross is the glory of God (Jn 13:31-32). In rejoicing in “hope of the glory of God”, we are to “glory in our sufferings” (Rom 5:2b-3, NIV). We “share in His sufferings in order that we may also share in His glory” (Rom 8:17, NIV). In suffering, “the Spirit of glory and of God rests on” us (1 Pet 4:14). It is vital then, that we learn to see the glory of God in our faithful endurance of suffering.It is the “name” of Christ that is glorified in us (v.12). In biblical times, the “name” of a person “often became a symbol of all that person was, his or her qualities and power, and revealed that person’s fundamental character”²⁵. The glorification of Christ in us is Christ’s manifestation of who He is in us. The Lord is glorified in us when He imparted to us His character to endure in faith our suffering.²⁶ This is biblical discipleship.

---

²⁵ Gene L. Green, The Letters to the Thessalonians, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Apollos, 2002), 299 ²⁶ G. K. Beale, 197