August 26

Thessalonians is written to the Christians of a city we label as Thessalonica.  The locals call it Thess-a-lo-NEE-ki.  It is among the first of the 13 letters that Paul wrote to the first century churches – if not the first. Most who’ve studied the matter date the letter at 51 A.D. Paul wrote it to encourage the believers there and to settle questions they had about the Second Coming of Christ. Their puzzlement was about faithful Christians who had died and they were wondering how the deceased were going to enjoy Jesus’ Return if they weren’t here….legitimate and fair question, I’d say.  Paul had not been in the city long but the result of his visit was such a wave of conversions that his enemies perceived that Paul’s visit was “destroying everything”, so to speak. Prominent women were converting, plus such a large number of Grecians were getting saved that the whole country was hearing this news from Thessaloniki.  It was a city of 200,000 in Paul’s day (just over 310K today with a metro area exceeding 1M). And it’s intriguing how this book still pertains to them now – as well as the rest of us.  The Thessalonian Christians were being persecuted.  So Paul writes to comfort, strengthen, encourage, and instruct.  He instructs them to remain godly and dutiful in their daily discipleship.  He saw that their persecution could add tremendous power to their testimony as they persevered in Christ.  And you probably noticed that Paul closed each chapter with a word about The Return of Our Lord

1 – Silas and Timothy helped found the church here so they are included in the greeting.  Highlights of this short chapter are the reminders about the power in the Holy Spirit and the testimony they had in this influential city. It was merely made more powerful by the manner in which they persevered through the struggles.

2 – talks much about Christian conduct. This was more than needed as the persecution was thickening and the attempt to destroy Paul’s character, reputation, and his work in this town was at a furious pitch come A.D. 51.  In this reticent atmosphere, Paul urges that they “Preach good news, keep motives godly and pure, and do it all for God, avoid greed and being burdensome, be gentle and loving and industrious and holy and encouraging. Paul gave them a great run of pastoral instruction about conduct.  Paul explains the significance of their suffering and reminds them that they are in good company since Jesus was persecuted for living and speaking the truth. Paul adds to the affection of the moment in his statement of his desire to visit them again.

3 – Paul/Silas/Timothy had left Thessalonica, gone to Berea, south to Athens (this from Acts 17&18), and by the time they reached Athens, the news came that persecution had turned awful back in Thessalonica, so Paul sent Timothy back to be an encouragement.  Timothy went and later returned to Paul with the report of the Thessalonian Christians’ steadfast commitment, devotion, and character and it made Paul as joyful as he could possibly be !!

4 – People are always wondering what is God’s will for their lives.  Well here’s a memo.  Five times in the Bible, it says what God’s will is and all five of them are in these next two chapters. Catch these. 1] Be holy (like God) and to do this one must, 2] avoid sexual immorality. It isn’t mentioned here but our prayer life and our love life is intimately linked. An immoral person is an intrinsically dishonest person, and such a person cannot walk with God.

Other vitals in this chapter is to love each other as family. The giving to help the poor was commendable, yet there were some on the receiving end who were taking advantage and using the occasion to maximize the opportunity for laziness. He wanted admirable, productive, charitable, forthright Christians to be their trademark. This chapter ends with the typical theme ending each chapter.  The salient matter here is the clear assertion that there is going to be a rapture where Christ where all Believers (everywhere and from every era are gathered and together and conscious and overjoyed to be with Jesus.  This is by no means the end of history, but the end of this age. We’ll stop there before opening a colossal discussion that is still be talked through 19+1/2 centuries after the doctrines were laid forth…that being “eschatology”; the study of the End Times.

5 – the eschatology teaching continues from Paul. His revelation about the End Times is coming rapid fire and it’s exciting material that is intended to keep us on the edge of our seats and eager. It ought affect how we interpret the news, invest, minister, plan, live, love: everything.  He reminds them to respect Pastors and then Paul stacks together a quiver full of advice -15 loving orders-  that, were it all obeyed, [vv. 14-22] stop and ponder the countless changes that would happen for the good on earth! God’s will issues #3,4,5 were in that list: always rejoice/pray/be thankful.         Paul’s conclusion is golden. What else can be said?  For all to be godly and holy, for all to have undying hope, to revere and celebrate one another, to read the Bible together. It’s how to offer the world a foretaste of heaven.

The Thread Through the Streams