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11. Εἰς ὃ καὶ προσευχόμεθα πάντοτε περὶ ὑμῶν. To which end we are also praying always about you: see notes on 1Th 1:2; 1Th 5:17; and for the contents of the prayer, cf. 1Th 3:12 f., 1Th 5:23, and 2Th 2:16 f. below. Prayer rises out of thanksgiving (2Th 1:3), as in 2Th 2:16; 1Th 3:11; Eph 1:17; Php 1:9; Col 1:9. The καί indicates that the μαρτύριον is carried on into προσευχή.
Εἰς ὅ (cf. Col 1:29; also εἰς τοῦτο in Rom 14:9, 2Co 5:5, 1Pe 4:6) points to the Divine end of Christ’s advent (2Th 1:10), ἐνδοξασθῆναι κ.τ.λ., which is again recalled in 2Th 1:12; but it embraces the whole of 2Th 1:5-10, looking back through the immediate context to the δικαία κρίσις εἰς τὸ καταξιωθῆναι ὑμᾶς of 2Th 1:6. It is only through Christ’s verdict at the Judgement that God’s approval of the readers (ἵνα ὑμᾶς ἀξιώσῃ ὁ θεός) will be made duly manifest: “we pray that God may deem you worthy, so that you may contribute to the glory of the Lord Jesus, when He comes in judgement and finds you amongst God’s approved saints.”
ἵνα ὑμᾶς ἀξιώσῃ ὁ θεὸς ἡμῶν τῆς κλήσεως, that our God may count you worthy of (His) calling. For ἵνα after a verb of praying, cf. 2Th 3:1; 1Co 14:13; Php 1:9; Mar 13:18; and see note on 1Th 4:1. For the sense of ἀξιόω,—“to reckon,” not to make, “worthy”—see note on καταξιόω, 2Th 1:5; and cf. 1Ti 5:17; Luk 7:7; Heb 3:3; Heb 10:29. Καλέω, κλητός, κλῆσις, elsewhere (see particularly note on 1Th 2:12; also 1Th 4:7, 1Th 5:24; 1Co 1:2; 1Co 1:26; 1Co 7:18-24; Rom 8:28; Rom 11:29; Gal 1:6; Gal 1:15; Eph 4:1; 2Ti 1:9) point not to the Christian “vocation” as a continued state, but to the “call” of God which first makes men Christians, the invitation and summons to enter His kingdom. Of this “high calling” (Php 3:14) those who receive it are, to begin with, utterly unworthy (Gal 1:13-15); henceforth it is the rule of their life to “walk worthily” of it (1Th 2:12); their own highest aim, and the best hope of those who pray for them, is that “God may count” them “worthy,” through His grace taking effect in them (see the next clause). To be “reckoned worthy of God’s calling” is in effect to be “reckoned worthy of His kingdom” (2Th 1:5), to which He “calls” men from the first (1Th 2:12); and this “kingdom and glory of God” are realized in the glorification of the Lord Jesus, the goal now immediately in view: see note on εἰς ὅ above; and cf., in view of the identity assumed, 1Co 15:24 and Php 2:9 ff. The Thessalonian believers have been called to glorify their Saviour on the day of His appearing by the final outcome of their faith; “from the beginning God chose” them to be participators in the glory and honour won by the Lord Jesus (2Th 2:13 f.), and thus to add lustre to His triumph (see 2Th 1:12): this is a privilege of which the Apostles pray that “God may count” their disciples “worthy.” This estimate—God’s tacit judgement on the desert of individual men—precedes Christ’s public and official verdict pronounced at His coming (see 1Th 2:4 b; and cf. 1Co 4:5 with 2Co 5:10 f.).
The emphatic ὑμᾶς at the beginning of the clause explains the added ἡμῶν at the end. The personal relation of writers and readers prompts the prayer: cf. the juxtaposition of ἡμῶν ἐφʼ ὑμᾶς in 2Th 1:10; and the play on these pronouns in 1Th 1:5 f., 2Th 2:13; 2Th 2:17-17, 2Th 3:6-13; also Php 4:19; 2Co 3:2; 2Co 12:21.
καὶ πληρώσῃ πᾶσαν εὐδοκίαν ἀγαθωσύνης καὶ ἔργον πίστεως ἐν δυνάμει, and may fulfil every good pleasure of goodness and work of faith in power: in other words, “May God mightily accomplish in you all that goodness would desire, all that faith can effect.” This second half of the prayer links together the κλῆσις and the ἀξίωσις of the first. By the ἔργον πίστεως, in which they “walk worthily” (1Th 2:12 f.), Christian men carry out the call of God received in the Gospel, so that He counts them worthy of having received it and fit to contribute to the glory of His Son. But this very εὐδοκία and ἔργον of theirs, their consent and effort of obedience, are wrought in them by God—He must “fulfil” it all; see Php 2:12 f. For πληρόω with objects of this kind, cf. Php 2:2; Mat 3:15; Act 13:25. The best commentary on this prayer is the Collect for Easter Week: “That as by Thy special grace preventing us Thou dost put into our minds good desires, so by Thy continual help we may bring the same to good effect.”
The contents of the worth to be approved by God, as above implied, are defined by the parallel terms, πᾶσαν εὐδοκίαν ἀγαθωσύνης καὶ ἔργον πίστεως. Πᾶσαν covers both εὐδοκίαν and ἔργον; the latter interprets the former. Εὐδοκία is not therefore, as in most other places, God’s “good pleasure” (so the older commentators generally), but (as in Rom 10:1; Php 1:15) the “good-will” or “delight” of the readers,—of “goodness” itself in them. The parallelism suggests, if it does not require, that ἀγαθωσύνης be read as a subjective genitive (of source, cause)—“every delight of goodness,” rather than “delight in well-doing” (as Lightfoot, e.g., would have it, referring by contrast to Rom 1:32); cf. 2Th 2:12 (εὐδοκέω); Eph 1:5 : in Sir 18:31, εὐδοκίαν ἐπιθυμίας, “desire of lust,” supplies an apposite parallel (cf. πάθος ἐπιθυμίας, 1Th 4:5 above). The Apostles thankfully recognize the “goodness” of their readers (see 2Th 1:3 f.; 1Th 1:3; 1Th 2:13; 1Th 4:9 f.), and could say of them what St Paul afterwards says to the Romans (Rom 15:14), πέπεισμαι … περὶ ὑμῶν, ὅτι … μεστοί ἐστε ἀγαθωσύνης; they pray that every desire which such goodness prompts may by God’s help be realized. See also note on εὐδοκέω, 1Th 2:8; εὐδοκία connotes a hearty consent, good will added to good feeling. Ἀγαθωσύνη—used by St Paul besides in Rom 15:14, Gal 5:22, Eph 5:9—in each instance denotes a human quality; it is a broad N.T. expression for moral excellence, like the ἀρετή of the philosophers (once in St Paul, Php 4:8), but implies specifically an active beneficence; goodness is the expression of love. More narrowly taken, ἀγαθωσύνη, bonitas, is distinguished from χρηστότης, benignitas (cf. Gal 5:22; see Trench’s Syn. § 63), which denotes the kindly temper of the ἀγαθός. The abstract ἀγαθωσύνη becomes in the concrete πᾶν ἀγαθὸν τὸ ἐν ἡμῖν, τὸ ἀγαθόν σου, of Phm 1:6; Phm 1:14.
For ἔργον πίστεως, see note on 1Th 1:3. This double parallel repeats the triple parallel of that passage, with the order reversed, “goodness” balancing “faith,” as “love” and “hope” there balance it together. Ἐν δυνάμει belongs to πληρώσῃ, indicating the manner and style of God’s working in this behalf: see 1Th 1:5 (and note), 2Th 2:13 (ἐνεργεῖται); Col 1:29; Rom 1:4; 1Co 4:20. The prayer is addressed τῷ δυναμένῳ … ποιῆσαι (Eph 3:20).