Charles Ellicott Commentary 2 Thessalonians 1:8

"rendering vengeance to them that know not God, and to them that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus:" — 2 Thessalonians 1:8 (ASV)

In flaming fire — Most critics agree to change the punctuation here by omitting the comma after “angels” and inserting it after “fire.” The flaming fire here is not the instrument of vengeance—that is, hellfire—but the common pictorial attribute of the Divine Presence (Exodus 3:2; Exodus 19:18; Daniel 7:9).

Taking vengeance — The expression in the original is said to be found nowhere else in Greek literature, except in Ezekiel 25:14 (though an almost exact equivalent exists in Hebrew in Numbers 31:3), making its precise meaning difficult to determine. It certainly does not mean “taking vengeance” in the sense of “taking His revenge,” as if our Lord held a personal grudge and were wreaking it. Instead, it seems to mean “assigning retribution”: that is, appointing to each person the satisfaction of justice they must make. The word for “vengeance” itself can only mean vengeance exacted on someone else’s behalf (Compare 1 Thessalonians 4:6 and Psalm 79:10).

On them that know not God — According to the Greek, the word “them” should be repeated in the next clause. The effect is to distinguish the culprits into two classes: “those who do not know” and “those who do not obey.” A comparison of Ephesians 4:17–18 and 1 Thessalonians 4:5 shows that the first class refers to Gentiles. Similarly, a comparison of Romans 10:16 and Romans 10:21 (among many other passages) shows that disobedience is the characteristic of the Jews.

The Greek negative particle used here indicates that the ignorance of the one group and the disobedience of the other were the very reasons for their punishment. Therefore, the objects of wrath are only those Gentiles whose ignorance was voluntary—those who chose to remain separate from the true God when they could have been joined to Him (Romans 1:28). Here, as the context shows, St. Paul is primarily thinking of those Gentiles and Jews who actively persecuted the truth.

Obey not the gospel — This is a noteworthy phrase. The gospel, the “glad tidings,” contains not only a statement of facts but also a call to obey a law that results from those facts. Even accepting evangelical promises requires submission (Acts 11:18; Revelation 22:3). It is specifically called the gospel “of our Lord Jesus Christ” here because the sin of the Jews (who constitute this class of sinners) consisted precisely in the willful rejection of Jesus as the Christ.