1 From Paul, Silas, and Timothy.
To the church in Thessalonica, the people of God our Father and of the Lord Jesus Christ.
2 I pray that God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ will be kind to you and will bless you with peace!
3 My dear friends, we always have good reason to thank God for you, because your faith in God and your love for each other keep growing all the time. 4 That’s why we brag about you to all of God’s churches. We tell them how patient you are and how you keep on having faith, even though you are going through a lot of trouble and suffering.(1 Thes. 1:1-3) CEV)
We know from the previous letter from Paul that the Thessalonian Christians were suffering persecution
Acts 17:1-9 recounts Paul’s experience in Thessalonica. You might want to bear in mind that Paul and Silas had just left Phillipi where they had been beaten and imprisoned. Paul makes a number of converts and some of the Jews become jealous. They raise a mob and attempt to lay hold of Paul and Silas but are unable to find them so they dragged some of the new converts before the city officials and make an accusation:
“These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also, 7 and Jason has received them, and they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus.” (Acts 17:6-7)
For a while, Christianity was viewed by the Greeks and Romans as just another weird Jewish sect. But as the number of Christians grew, people started to get nervous. Imagine what it would be like in one of our towns if there was one person walking up and down Main Street or around the courthouse square wearing a robe and chanting in Hindu, just one. Most people would think, “I’ve heard of these weirdos” but no one would be too worried. What happens when there are 3? What happens when they start converting locals to their cult and now there are 50 or 100? Now we start to get worried.
And so in Thessalonica a persecution began. We don’t know exactly what forms of persecution were employed. Beatings, imprisonment and seizure of property are some of the possibilities. Paul praises these Christians for their faith in the face of their suffering. I am reminded of what Jesus said:
John 16 “I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away. 2 They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God. 3 And they will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor me. (John 16:1-3)
This second letter was probably written just a few months, maybe only a few weeks after the first one. Paul was extremely concerned and writes this short epistle to bolster the Thessalonians’ resolve in the face of persecution.
As I was preparing this lesson, I asked myself, “What is this chapter really about?” I know we can look at things from different viewpoints, but what struck me was Paul’s confidence in God’s Justice. The faithful may suffer in this life, but their tormenters will fall into eternal torment while God’s elect will live forever in God’s presence.
5 All of this shows that God judges fairly and that he is making you fit to share in his kingdom for which you are suffering. 6 It is only right for God to punish everyone who is causing you trouble, 7 but he will give you relief from your troubles. He will do the same for us, when the Lord Jesus comes from heaven with his powerful angels 8 and with a flaming fire.
Our Lord Jesus will punish anyone who doesn’t know God and won’t obey his message. 9 Their punishment will be eternal destruction, and they will be kept far from the presence of our Lord and his glorious strength. 10 This will happen on that day when the Lord returns to be praised and honored by all who have faith in him and belong to him. This includes you, because you believed what we said.(1 Thes. 2:5-10)
Paul was not offering platitudes from an ivory tower. He knew what it was to suffer for Jesus. But don’t we want to ask, “Why must it be this way for God’s people? Why must the faithful suffer to be fit for God’s Kingdom?” (v. 5)
First, Jesus was the perfect man. He kept the law in its entirety. And the law was not an arbitrary list of rules designed to test man’s obedience. It was the law of righteousness; the law of right relationships with God and man. And it is not possible to have a right relationship with God apart from a right relationship with other human beings. That is why Micah says “8
He has told you, O man, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:8)
Right relationships with others are built on justice, which means acting with fairness and honesty, combined with kindness. The law of Moses was the law of life: A guide to building healthy families, healthy communities and a successful nation that would bring glory to God in the process.
If you want to understand the Law of Moses, a good place to start is Deuteronomy 4:5-9 where Moses is repeating the law for Isreal as they prepare to enter the promised land. Moses explains what the law is intended to accomplish for the nation:
5 See, I have taught you statutes and rules, as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should do them in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. 6 Keep them and do them, for that will be your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’ 7 For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is to us, whenever we call upon him? 8 And what great nation is there, that has statutes and rules so righteous as all this law that I set before you today? (Deut. 4:5-8)
So, Jesus brought glory to God by a perfect life, yet the chosen people of God refused to join him in righteousness. In fact, wicked men tortured him and murdered him. If you want to follow Jesus, you must follow His example and take up your cross.
Second, God protected the nation of Isreal, at least when they were being reasonably obedient. How did that work out? I’m not accusing God of being a bad father. He has His own reasons and I prefer to think that He did the best He could with what He had to work with. That said, Israel turned into a bundh of spoiled brats: headstrong, rebellious and bent on self-destruction. In the case of Israel, the law served to demonstrate the weakness of human character and the need for a Savior.
Third, take a look at the prophets. Even Elijah, who was generally respected, even revered among the people, was subject to death threats and despaired over the nation he was trying to save. Jeremiah was falsely imprisoned, thrown into a well and left to die and put on trial for treason because he delivered the message from God to submit to Nebuchadnezzar. Isaiah is probably the one ‘sawn in sunder’ mentioned in Hebrews 11. The people who truly stand up for God will face opposition from people who reject God.
1 Peter 2:9-10. 9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy
We are God’s holy nation called to reveal to all the nations of the world the wisdom and kindness of God just as Isreal was supposed to do before. And so Paul writes to the Thessalonians:
11 God chose you, and we keep praying that God will make you worthy of being his people. We pray for God’s power to help you do all the good things that you hope to do and that your faith makes you want to do. 12 Then, because God and our Lord Jesus Christ are so kind, you will bring honor to the name of our Lord Jesus, and he will bring honor to you. (1 Thes. 2:11-12)
David Ford lives in Bruceville, Indiana and is an Elder at the Central Church of Christ in Vincennes, IN