To this end we always pray for you…
So that the Name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you.
(2 Thessalonians 1:11-12)
What is “the Name” of our Lord Jesus? Isn’t it, “Lord Jesus”?
“Name” here means reputation. Or, an accurate understanding of a person’s character and value, which understanding is increasingly communicated to more people.
In other words, more and more people know better and better who Jesus is and why He might be handy.
“So that the Name… be glorified.”
Since Jesus is glorious—since He generates all good things (“all things were made through Him,” John 1:3) and since all He does is good—the spreading of His reputation increases a general awareness of His glory. This is what the Bible means when God is described as “being glorified.”
This is different than, “beautification,” which is the act of taking something homely and bedecking it with beauty-aids. Then it might appear to be beautiful, though it isn’t really.
Jesus is really glorious. If we could see Him as He is (and when we do) all other competing objects of worship, affection, and hope either immediately fall away or reorder themselves properly.
So we do not “glorify Jesus” by adding our good works-glitter to His makeup or nip-and-tuck His image in a photoshopped-church life. We glorify Him simply by increasing an awareness of His character and value, which are infinitely glorious.
He is luminous in Himself. He simply is unappreciated.
“So that”: so…what?
What is it that glorifies Jesus? What Paul has been praying for: our worthiness and the fulfilling of our good resolves and our works of faith. (v. 11)
Here’s a strange thing. It’s Jesus’ reputation that spreads and His character that gets appreciated, but it’s our lives, our dreams, and our works that do it.
Because, as we continue to point out (i.e. harp on!), it’s Jesus working all this through us. (“By His power,” v. 11) It’s the Spirit of Jesus who makes us worthy of God’s calling. And it’s Jesus who stirs our holy imaginations. It’s Jesus who energies our works with faith, for faith.
One extraordinary consequence of the Gospel is that Jesus enters our lives. Here’s how fully He does this: He hangs His reputation on our sanctification.
This is more than just satisfied customers putting signs in their lawn. This is discipleship, becoming progressively more delighted with Jesus, and progressively more like Him.
Our lives bear witness to whether Jesus is as valuable and useful, as important and powerful, as lovely and loving, as we say He is. Scripture makes many such extraordinary claims. But it’s upon us that the spread of the glory of the Name of our Lord depends.
And that’s why Paul prays!
Because while, in a sense, it depends us—I mean, we’re involved—it doesn’t begin with us, nor is it driven by us, nor do we get praised as a result. It is the work of God. Not you or us alone. It’s God working through us.
And so Paul’s prayer. None of this happens apart from praying-friends.
Lone Ranger Christians are a figment of the Western imagination. Sauntering off into the sunset alone looks cool in a movie, but in real life the demons call that super-cool solo-person a “snack.”
In real life Jesus is glorified in His people’s good works and worthy lives. But this is born of their mutual praying-for. In real life, Jesus is glorified in the prayers of His people. In real life, Jesus is glorified, in other words, by His church. “Glorified in you”: the “you” there is plural. That “you” means “us.” And that “us” is your church.
I don’t want to overstress this point, but we tend to understress it.
Look, it’s like this: when the world sees a person doing a good thing and finds out that they’re a Christian, they attribute that to chance—of course some people doing good will end up being religious people, and statistically some of those religious sorts will be Christians! Of course. But when it’s a church banded together in the work, well, that’s much more interesting, extraordinary, and glorious.
Let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel… This is a clear sign ...of your salvation, and that from God. (Philippians 1:27-28)
So may the reputation of the Lord Jesus be appreciated more accurately because of you, me, and us—by His power in our prayers, lives, dreams, plans, programs, blisters, and steady endurance.
Photo by Keegan Houser on Unsplash
