Charles Ellicott Commentary 2 Thessalonians 1:11

"To which end we also pray always for you, that our God may count you worthy of your calling, and fulfil every desire of goodness and [every] work of faith, with power;" — 2 Thessalonians 1:11 (ASV)

Therefore — Literally, whereunto — that is, to their being found among the blessed. The word “also” serves to emphasize the word “pray”: we do not content ourselves with merely hoping, but we direct actual prayer to that end. The word “whereunto” seems to grammatically depend on the word “calling,” as in the phrase: “of the calling whereunto, we pray also for you always, that our God would count you worthy.”

Count you worthy of this calling — The word “this” would, perhaps, have been better left out. The “calling” of which St. Paul is thinking is the calling “in that day,” such as is expressed in Matthew 25:34, and the act is the same as that of 2 Thessalonians 1:5. But had they not been called to glory already? Yes (1 Thessalonians 4:7), and they had obeyed the call. God was still calling them hourly (see Notes on 1 Thessalonians 2:12; 1 Thessalonians 5:24), but that was no guarantee that they would remain worthy of that last, decisive call.

As Scripture says, “Many are called, but few chosen.” In the original Greek, there is some emphasis placed on the pronoun: “count you.”

Fulfil all the good pleasure of his goodness — A better translation is, fulfil every purpose of goodness, or “everything which beneficence deems good.” Most modern commentators take “goodness” to mean the goodness of the Thessalonians themselves. This would make the clause logically precede the previous one, meaning: “May He count you worthy of His calling and, for that purpose, fulfill every good moral aspiration you may have.”

But this interpretation seems unnecessary. The “beneficence” is used in an absolute, almost personified sense. While it is, in reality, God’s beneficence, it is spoken of as beneficence in the abstract. Thus, the clause preserves its natural place as an explanation of the preceding one: “May He finally call you and there accomplish for you all that beneficence can devise.”

And the work of faith with power — This work, too, is God’s work, not the work of the Thessalonians. It is used in the same sense as a similar phrase in William Cowper’s well-known hymn:

“You shall see My glory soon,
When the work of grace is done.”

This phrase means, not “perfect your faithful activity” as in 1 Thessalonians 1:3, but “bring to its mighty consummation the work that faith was able to accomplish in you.” Faith, therefore, is here opposed as much to sight as to unbelief. The “beneficence” and the “power” thus exerted on (rather than through) the Thessalonians produces in all spectators of the judgment, both angels and men, the effect described in the next verse.