2 Thessalonians 1:9
“Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power;”
King James Version (KJV)
Read this verse in context with translation switching:
Read Full Chapter →Those who reject God will suffer lasting ruin, shut out from the presence of the Lord and the glory of His power.
What Does 2 Thessalonians 1:9 Mean?
Paul names the terrible cost of refusing God: "everlasting destruction." The heart of this ruin is defined by what it removes, separation "from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power." To be cut off from the source of all life, light, and joy is the deepest loss imaginable, for everything good flows from God's presence.
Scripture does not let us treat the consequences of rejecting God lightly, and Paul does not soften them here. Yet the gravity of this warning is itself a mercy, for it is spoken so that none would have to face it. The same Lord whose presence the unrepentant lose is the One who has done everything to gather them in. The verse stands as a solemn boundary marker, urging every reader toward the One in whose presence is fullness of life rather than away from it.
In the Original Language
olethros (ὄλεθρος), "destruction" — ruin or undoing; not annihilation of being so much as the loss of all that makes life flourish.