Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to 2 Thessalonians · About this commentary
Eternal Destruction, and a Day of Admiration
2 Thessalonians 1:8-10
8 punishing those who don’t know God, and to those who don’t obey the Good News of our Lord Jesus, · WEB
The penalty is separation from the face of the Lord, and the same day that empties one company fills another with wonder.
Those punished are described in two clauses that belong together: they do not know God, and they do not obey the good news. Ignorance and refusal are not treated as separate categories here, because the gospel had come to them and the not-knowing had a history.
The sentence is eternal destruction, and the phrase that follows it is a preposition of separation: away from the Lord's presence and from the glory of his strength. That preposition carries the weight. The penalty is stated as exclusion from a presence rather than as a duration of pain, and the ruin is eternal in what it accomplishes, as elsewhere with cities burned to ash and made an example Jude 1:7 2 Peter 2:6.
Then verse 10 turns the same day over. He comes to be glorified in his saints and admired among all who believed. Not admired for them or by them, but in and among them — the wonder of that day is what he will have made of ordinary people, and the Thessalonians are told they are already part of the exhibit, because our testimony to you was believed.
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