1 Thessalonians 2:15-16

1 Thessalonians 2:15-16

[15] Who both  killed  the Lord  Jesus,  and  prophets,  and  have persecuted  and  they please  not  God,  and  are contrary  to all  men:  [16] Forbidding  to speak  to the Gentiles  that  they might be saved,  to  fill up  their  sins  alway:  for  the wrath  is come  upon  them  to  the uttermost. 

What does 1 Thessalonians 2:15-16 Mean?

Contextual Meaning

The Thessalonians" opponents seem to have been mainly Jews ( 1 Thessalonians 2:14). Paul desperately wanted unbelieving Jews to come to faith in Christ ( Romans 9:1-3; Romans 10:1). Yet they were some of his most antagonistic persecutors (cf. 2 Corinthians 11:24; 2 Corinthians 11:26). Their actions were not pleasing to God and were not in the best interests of all men who need to hear the gospel. By their opposition the enemies of the gospel added more transgressions on their own heads with the result that they hastened God"s judgment of them (cf. Genesis 15:16). God had already focused His wrath on them for their serious sin. They not only rejected the gospel themselves, but they also discouraged others from accepting it. It was only a matter of time before God would pour out His wrath in judgment. In view of the eschatological emphasis of the letter, Paul seems to be alluding primarily to the judgment coming on unbelievers during the Tribulation. We should probably understand "utmost" (Gr. telos) in a temporal sense. [1]
This is the only place in his inspired writings where Paul charged "the Jews" with the death of Jesus (cf. 1 Corinthians 2:8). Elsewhere in the New Testament it is the sins of all people that were responsible. Therefore, Paul was just identifying a segment of humanity that was responsible. He was not blaming the Jews in some special sense for Jesus" death. [2] The Apostle John frequently used the term "the Jews" to describe those Jews who actively opposed the Lord and the gospel (cf. John 5:18; John 7:1; John 18:14; John 18:31; cf. John 11:45; cf. John 11:54).
Why did Paul describe this outpouring of divine wrath as past ("has come," aorist tense ephthasen) if it was future? Jesus spoke of the arrival of His kingdom in comparable terminology ( Matthew 12:28; Luke 11:20). The verb connotes "arrival upon the threshold of fulfilment [3] and accessible experience, not the entrance into that experience." [4] The messianic kingdom was present in Jesus" day only in that the King had arrived and could have established it then, but the Jews did not enter into it because they rejected Him. Likewise God"s wrath had come on the Jews to the utmost in Paul"s day for their rejection of Messiah, but they had not entered into it"s full manifestation yet, namely, the Tribulation.
"This indictment implies that Paul saw a continuity in the pattern of Jewish rejection of God"s agents from OT times to his own." [5]
"The Thessalonians" persecution lasted a long time, and so did their steadfastness. Some six years later Paul can still speak of the churches of Macedonia (not least, the church of Thessalonica) as enduring "a severe test of affliction" and continuing to give evidence of the reality of their faith in that "their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of liberality" ( 2 Corinthians 8:1-2). The "extreme poverty" might well have been the result of mob violence and looting; elsewhere in the NT members of another Christian group are reminded how, in the early days of their faith, they "joyfully accepted" the plundering of their property in addition to other forms of brutal maltreatment ( Hebrews 10:32-34)." [6]