{"id":5626,"date":"2016-08-01T01:00:13","date_gmt":"2016-08-01T08:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ministryofgrace.org\/blog\/?p=5626"},"modified":"2016-07-31T17:12:17","modified_gmt":"2016-08-01T00:12:17","slug":"2-thessalonians-111-dont-complain-give-thanks-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/2-thessalonians-111-dont-complain-give-thanks-2\/","title":{"rendered":"2 Thessalonians 1:11 – Don\u2019t Complain, Give Thanks!"},"content":{"rendered":"

To this end we also pray always for you that our God would count you worthy of this<\/em> calling, and fulfill all the good intent of His<\/em> goodness and the work of faith with power,<\/strong><\/p>\n

Truth to Learn<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

Trials are good for Christians. Don’t complain – thank God.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Behind the Words<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

“To this end” is translated from the Greek words eis ho<\/em>. Eis<\/em> means “to, into, or unto” and ho<\/em> is a relative pronoun meaning “who or which.” So, we see that these two words literally mean “to which.”<\/p>\n

The words “would count … worthy” are from the verb axio\u014d<\/em>, which is based on the noun axios<\/em>, meaning “value or worth.” Therefore, axio\u014d<\/em> means “to determine the value or worth of something.” It is expressed here in the subjunctive mood indicating possibility or probability.<\/p>\n

Kl\u0113sis<\/em> is the Greek word translated “calling.” It is based on the verb kale\u014d<\/em>, meaning “a call or invitation to people, inviting them to come or to go somewhere.”<\/p>\n

The word “fulfill” is from pl\u0113ro\u014d<\/em>, meaning “to fill-up or to make completely full.”<\/p>\n

“Good intent” is translated from eudokia<\/em>, which is made up of eu<\/em>, meaning “good or well” and doke\u014d<\/em>, meaning “to think.” Thus eudokia<\/em>, means “good thoughts” or “good intent.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Meaning Explained<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

The apostle Paul would probably not get good grades in a Greek writing class because his sentences are often long and run-on. A good example is shown here in 2 Thessalonians. The sentence immediately preceding the current verse began back in verse three and doesn’t end until verse 10. As a result, it takes deep inspection to determine what he means by “to this end” at the beginning of today’s verse.<\/p>\n

The crux of what Paul has been talking about is “we thank God because your patience and faith are growing as a result of your persecution and suffering. And, this growth is evidence of God’s righteous good judgment toward you and His severe judgment against unbelievers.” Basically, he prayed that God would show them His goodness at His return and in the future kingdom.<\/p>\n

Now, Paul expresses another prayer. Instead of future blessing, however, he prays for their present blessing. He first prays that we might be found to be worthy of our calling to be a Christian. Trials do not make a person; they simply reveal what a person is really made of. A faithful, committed Christian will demonstrate his or her worth in the middle of trials. Weak or wishy-washy Christians in the midst of trials will only moan and complain, showing how little value their faith has. God knows our hearts even before we encounter trials, but we only recognize how strong our faith is when we are in the heat of battle.<\/p>\n

Right now, God wants you to know how much He desires to bless you. That’s one of the reasons He allows persecution and suffering of His children. Trials are not a bad thing for Christians, they are good for us!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Application<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

When you encounter trials in your Christian walk or when you suffer for being a Christian, don’t complain to God; instead, thank Him for showing His love to you.<\/p>\n

In God's service, for His glory,<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/strong><\/p>\n

Copyright © 2016 Will Krause. All rights reserved<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To this end we also pray always for you that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfill all the good intent of His goodness and the work of faith with power, Truth to Learn Trials are good for Christians. Don’t complain – thank God.   Behind the Words “To this end” […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3947],"tags":[1791,228,1179,2882,3955,1937,891,2636],"class_list":["post-5626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2-thessalonians-1-2","tag-axios","tag-calling","tag-eudokia","tag-fulfill","tag-good-intent","tag-klesis","tag-pleroo","tag-worthy"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd5geA-1sK","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5626"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5626\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5627,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5626\/revisions\/5627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}