2Th 1:1-4  "Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:  Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing. Therefore we ourselves boast about you in the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions that you are enduring." 

You are a great example of what being called and set apart by God looks like. You have taken on the characteristics of The Lord of the Universe, Jesus Christ. You have been filled up through grace and filled with peace from the Prince of Peace. Our grateful hearts are rejoicing in how your faith has grown, flourished into love for others. You are a model of how faith endures in the midst of persecution and suffering. 

The persecution is further convicting evidence upon those who are in rebellion that God's wrath is right and just. It also proves to you that God is holding you up giving you strength and courage to walk through these persecutions right into the presence of His kingdom. 

God is going to avenge your unjust persecution and He will provide to you relief. When Jesus comes again judgement, wrath and righteous vengeance will be unleashed upon those who deny God. They didn't want to have anything to do with God and they despise God's commands given in love, so they will get what they wanted. They will eternally be separated from God. Not knowing the love and forgiveness they rejected in rejecting Jesus. The god news came to them and it was mocked and thrown away to their own destruction. This is what they chose for themselves, eternity outside of the only source of life and fulfillment. They will eternally be on fire with the desire to have what never satisfies, insatiable thirst and burning. This is what the coming of the Lord of love will be like for those who do not respond in faith and love to His good news. 

You on the other hand marveled at as you bask in the glory of how Jesus Christ has brought you through this persecution, this tribulation. All of this is because you believed and received the truth of Jesus Christ. 

2Th 1:5- 10  "This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering-- since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you,  and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels  in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might,  when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed." 

So we pray always with this end in mind, your resolve to show the worth of Jesus Christ in your hearts. Doing all things in His power, so that all glory goes to Him. His name is lifted up. You glorify Him in all things, and you are glorified by remaining steadfast in faith clinging to His power. All of this is a work of grace from God, through the intercession of the Lord. He is Jesus Christ, Isa Al Masih, Yeshua Messiah. He is Yahweh. He is Absolute Love. 

2Th 1:11, 12  "To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power,  so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ."

 Rev 8:1  "When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour." 

Addendum to blog; 

I prayed and thought about this passage for a long time. How could there be some who say there is no hell, there is no eternal punishment, that God's love is just a free pass. 

Some say that all will be party and rejoicing. Some say it doesn't matter what you do only believe. But what kind of heaven is there when there is no repentance that goes along with forgiveness. What kind of perfect world is there if evil is welcomed. 

I don't read my Bible or the truth of this life in that way. There must be an Absolute. An Absolute Love. That says here it is, here is the standard. I will not allow it to be compromised or impure. 

Yes God is a God of joy and love, but it seems love must include justice related to an absolute standard. 

So there is silence in heaven for a half hour. Have you tried to be silent in a group of people for half an hour. I imagine it would be a sight only seen in a group who are both deeply awed, deeply saddened and profoundly filled with love. I think of someone in a civil war coming across a loved family member who fought on the other side, dying and close to death. They are enemies, yet have a bond to one another. This might be the feeling we sense when judgement falls on others and we are pardoned through god's grace.