Read 1 Thessalonians 5:1-4

Community facebook pages are littered with posts from people wanting to know if anyone has evidence of thieves who unexpectedly broke into their property and removed items. It comes in waves, probably along with the wave of thieves sweeping through the neighbourhood before they are caught by the Police. But the first strike is never expected, and the later victims are often surprised that they were subsequently targeted.

So it has always been, which is why it is no surprise Paul uses the imagery of a thief’s unexpected arrival to speak of Christ’s unexpected return to judge. Paul had already addressed the issue of whether dead believers would miss Christ’s coming (they wouldn’t), now he addresses their return itself. He starts by reminding us of the sudden nature of Christ’s return, which will take unbelievers by surprise, but not believers.

From encouraging the Thessalonians to take heart that, whether dead or alive, Christians would rise from the dead or the earth to join Christ in his triumphant return, Paul moves to the next logical question – when?

That topic has been the subject of speculation throughout the last 2000 years, and certainly in our lifetimes (however old we are). Depending on how you have been taught to read and interpret Scripture (or parts of it, anyway), the question has been the subject of numerous attempts to pin down timeframes.

Chances are you know I respectfully disagree with some of these predictions and interpretations (happy to be corrected by Christ’s return of course!).

Paul speaks of the subject of Christ’s return which was introduced in the previous chapter as being “concerning the times and the seasons” (v.1) which is an idiom for “when”. Paul states that the Thessalonians do not need anything further written to them on it (v.1); evidently, he had already taught them.

Nevertheless, Paul in verse 2 (thankfully, for our benefit) described Christ’s return as “the day of the Lord” which will come “like a thief in the night.” Here Paul is referring to Jesus’ teaching on the Mount of Olives, where Jesus uses a similar idiom to talk about his return (Matt. 24:43).

The term “Day of the Lord” reaches back to Old Testament promises of a great and terrible day of judgement where God will come to judge the wicked and deliver his people (eg, Malachi 4, Amos 5, Ezekiel 30:3, Isaiah 13, and more). Paul is using this language deliberately to clearly state Jesus’ return fulfils these prophecies.

The Thessalonians wanted to know when Christ would return because they wanted to be prepared, just as Jesus himself had suggested was a wise course of action (Matt. 25). Paul’s answer was that Jesus’ return would be unexpected, just as a thief does not make a leaflet drop of the neighbourhood advising what time he expects to drop in and steal your television.

The Thessalonian church had the benefit of knowing that Jesus was coming back. Many around them, and around the world, were ignoring the inevitable end to the rebellion against God. For them, as they speak of living with peace and security “sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape” (v.3).

Again, this mirrored Jesus’ teaching (Matt. 24:37-39). While the world promised false peace and security, and a false utopia, they were teetering on the edge of a cliff. 

But in contrast, “you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief” (v.4). The Thessalonian believers were aware that Jesus was coming. Not the when, but enough for it to affect the way that they lived. That would be the point Paul would go on to develop further.

Like the Thessalonians, we look at the world today and see people claiming that the perfect utopia is just the next invention, product, election, or social change away. But the world is walking around in the dark, for it has rejected the light (John 1:9-11).

We are not like the world. We believe in Jesus, and we believe that he will come again. We know that Christ will come again. We do not know when, but we do know that it will happen. We should look at the world’s claims of peace and security with the same scepticism we show to miracle potions that will heal all our ills.

In the meantime, we live with the expectation of his return. Knowing Jesus will come back should influence the way we live. If you knew that someone important was coming to visit your house sometime tomorrow, would you dress in your roughest clothes and leave the house a tip face, trying to guess when they would arrive? 

In the same way, knowing Jesus is coming back soon, our response should be service to God and warning the unsuspecting world of the peril that awaits them if they do not repent of their sins and trust in Jesus.

Good news; Jesus is coming! As we are not in darkness, we have lots to look forward to.

Read 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

For any of us who grew up in 1990s and early 2000s broader evangelicalism, end times speculation was a hot topic. I remember highly anticipated yearly releases from one book franchise, then turned into a radio serial played on Christian radio each evening and one or two movies before enthusiasm petered out. One of the hot passages for their end times system was this passage. But what is it actually about?

In this passage, Paul certainly does address the end times – specifically the return of Christ. But he does so with a purpose in mind; to encourage and comfort the Thessalonian Church to grieve for fellow brothers and sisters in Christ who had died, but not without hope. Paul’s words encourage us to look forward to being reunited with fellow believers as Jesus returns to put a final full stop on sin and death in this age.

Paul’s letter to the Thessalonian Church has started to fill in possible “gaps” in teaching which appeared due to Paul’s unanticipated and sudden departure. Paul covered personal holiness and virtuous living. Now, he addresses a misunderstanding the Thessalonians had regarding the deaths of believers and the return of Christ.

Paul wrote to inform them “about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope” (v.13). Paul is not discussing sleep habits of course, but using a euphemism for death.

In the pagan world, death commonly represented a final full stop after which there was no new sentence. Similar sentiments are expressed by many today in our culture (though not all, of course). Therefore, the death of a loved one meant there was no hope of seeing them again.

Paul does not want the Thessalonians to be misinformed about the reality of death. As believers, we who die in Christ have the hope of resurrection (John 11:25). And since Jesus died and rose from the dead, “even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep” (v.14). Death is not an end for a Christian, but a transition to the next stage of life.

What does this mean for those who had already died? Paul made clear, not on his own opinion but declared “by a word from the Lord” that they would not miss out on the return of Jesus, because they did not survive to see that day (v.15).

If anything, they would have a slight advantage. “For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first” (v.16). The dead in Christ would take first place in the call of the troops. Or to use another analogy, they would have priority boarding of the plane.

Only then would “we who are alive, who are left… be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord” (v.17). So neither dead nor alive in Christ will miss out. All will be with Jesus for eternity.

But why caught up into the air? While a common evangelical (dispensational) interpretation is that this refers to a rapture of saints at some point before, during, or after a period of great tribulation, Paul is using an historic practice as an analogy. When a visiting ruler came to town, the local dignitaries would march out of the city gates to meet him outside and escort him in with rejoicing and fanfare.

Essentially, Paul is identifying Christ the King as coming to his realm, and his loyal followers (Christians, asleep or alive) as the escorting party to lead him in with rejoicing and fanfare!

The point though is not the process, but the outcome. All believers, whether alive at Jesus’ return or not, reunited with each other and united together in Christ’s presence. “Therefore encourage one another with these words” (v.18). The future, and death, is not something to mourn without hope, or fear, but something to find comfort in today.

I do not want to focus on the speculation around how this passage fits into particular systems of end times thought. Instead I want to point us back to the purpose Paul wrote this passage. Information, and encouragement. Both to affect the way we live today.

While our culture often hides from death or seeks to delay it for as long as possible for fear that nothing comes after, we do not have to live the same way. For death means the next stage of life begins, together with Jesus. We can look forward to the future, and not just live solely for the moment.

We must grieve our brothers and sisters in Christ who die, for death is not natural but a result of the fall. But we have the hope we will see them again. And we have the hope that when we die, those we leave behind will also join us one day, at Jesus’ side.

Read 1 Thessalonians 4:9-12

For a society which talks an awful lot about love (however ill defined) we are increasingly cold and distant. And I’m not talking about the weather. I have noticed in more recent months how pervasively people get sucked into their phone screens in all sorts of places, and cut themselves off from social connection. It has spurred in me a conscious desire to try and reduce my own usage, to better engage with people to whom I can show love.

Because showing love for one another is a vitally important part of being a Christian. For each other, as fellow adopted brothers and sisters of God, and for outsiders too, in the way we live. Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians encouraged them to deepen and broaden the ways in which they loved each other, and in reflecting God’s love for them revealed that love to the world.

After calling the church at Thessalonica to holiness, purity, and honour in their sexual lives, Paul turned to the expression of love for each other. Paul described this as “brotherly love” (v.9, Philadelphia) which originally described the sense of love felt for brothers or sisters, used as an analogy for the love which fellow-Christians should have for each other.

In raising this topic, Paul was emphasising Jesus’ teaching recorded in John 13:34-5. “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

It was a love that the Thessalonians already displayed, for Paul could state “you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another, for that indeed is what you are doing to all the brothers throughout Macedonia” (vv.9-10). God’s work in their lives had prompted them to love their fellow believers like their own flesh and blood, because of the overflow of love poured into their own lives.

That was not to say that the Thessalonians had “love” clocked, like a computer game. For Paul urged them “to do this more and more” (v.10). They could grow in love further. They could love Christians outside their own congregation or even region. They could love each other more deeply in their care and support for each other. And they could love each other ever longer as they looked past hurts and sought to forgive as they had been forgiven.

Their love could also be shown for each other by “liv[ing] quietly, and … mind[ing] your own affairs” (v.11). This could take two forms. Firstly, and more obviously, by not meddling in and disturbing each others’ lives. There are lots of practical things (like hobbies, alcohol, job choices) which can be enjoyed within moral boundaries even though not to certain Christians’ tastes.

But the second way is in refraining from seeking earthly glory and attention seeking. This has a nasty habit of blowing up not just on the individual but those associated, especially when it involves a Christian. In a suspicious culture like Thessalonica, this could invite persecution. Hardly loving to seek fame so your fellow-believers get beaten and imprisoned.

Another way they were to show love was “to work with your hands, as we instructed you, so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one” (vv.11–12). While Greeks traditionally looked down on manual labour (that’s what slaves were for), Paul reminded the Thessalonians that there was no indignity in quiet lives of busy work in whatever vocation God gifted you with.

Their hard work would have two effects. Firstly, they would not be relying on rich brothers or sisters in Christ to subsidise their lifestyle, ensuring funds were devoted to those who truly needed help. Secondly, their hard work would speak positively as a Christian witness to unbelievers.

These verses should cause us all to stop and think about the priority of love in our lives. Are we more concerned with ourselves and our own financial, social, or personal advancement, or are we concerned for others? Just as our sexual purity has an other-centeredness to it, love truly expressed is concerned with others, especially our fellow Christians.

Do our prayers, our funds, our time, and our abilities go to supporting and upholding each other, or to building up ourselves? Are we willing to be content with the jobs we have if it means we can show greater Christian love for each other? Are we willing to forego fame and fortune if it means greater gain, or lesser harm, for our fellow Christians?

Likewise, the way we work reflects on each other and on Christ. It is also loving toward each other to support ourselves rather than exploit the goodwill of others.

If we truly love God, then we will love and prioritise each other over ourselves. As Jesus and Paul remind us, that is how the world will see we are his disciples.

Read 1 Thessalonians 4:1-8

If ever there were any greater distinction between God’s standards and our culture’s standards today, it is certainly in the area of sexual ethics. While the difference appears starker today than in our youths, there has always been a difference even when culture more closely followed Biblical norms (including double standards). It was especially the case in Ancient Greece and Rome, to which our culture’s ethics are reverting.

The Thessalonian church, like ours today, was called to God’s standard of holiness. As people come to faith in Christ, or grow up in a world of very different standards, they need to learn the standards required of Christians, to live pleasing God, not self. That presents itself in many ways, but first of all, for the Thessalonians, in their sexual purity. Today, it is equally vital that our conduct reflects the holy calling of God, not of the world.

Chapter 4 of Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonian church begins a new section addressing issues which Paul would have preferred to discuss in person, but was providentially hindered from doing.

Paul begins with an encouragement to further development toward holiness. They should “more and more” please God as Paul had taught them and as they were doing (v.1). This was not because Paul had certain standards he wanted people to meet, but because they were instructions from the risen Lord Jesus which he in turn was passing on (v.2). Those instructions were deeply theological.

That it was deeply theological is emphasised by the next few words, which emphasise that Paul’s instructions were “the will of God” for the purpose of their sanctification – their being made holy (v.3).

While holiness and sanctification applies to all areas of our lives, Paul especially applied it to the area of sexual morality (v.3), which was particularly relevant for the Thessalonians. A wide range of activity was tolerated for both the unmarried in general and married men (but not married women…) in pagan culture, similar to today. For pagans converting to Christianity, the assumed behaviour standard was very different to Scripture’s teaching.

An important way of avoiding immorality was for each believer to “control his own body in holiness and honor” instead of indulging “the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God” (vv.4-5). Thinking of God (holiness) and treatment of others (honour) was more important than pleasing oneself.

On the horizontal level, moral sexual relationships serve the other, through faithfulness, self-giving, and restraint that views others as fellow image-bearers rather than objects to use. Immoral sexual relationships use others for self pleasure, abandon restraint, and betray faithfulness and trust in relationships (whether between married couples or family, friend, and church relationships affected by, for example, adulterous activity). They were not to “transgress and wrong his brother in this matter” (v.6).

Similarly, Paul expected the behaviour of the Thessalonians should stand out from the culture around them; to the extent it did not, it affected their unity.

God would view such a breach of his standards very dimly. If they transgressed and wronged God and each other in this way, “the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you” (v.6). Sooner or later God would judge them for their breach.

As if that was not enough, Paul gave another reason. “God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness” (v.7). God’s commands are not rooted in preference but his very nature, and as we seek to be like God, we should seek to reflect his nature.

Therefore, whoever rejects these commands is not rejecting human standards “but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you” (v.8). God is also the one who provides the power to increase in holiness.

This call to holiness was one that would have shocked the wider pagan culture of Paul’s day. Christians following God’s ethic would have been viewed with disdain as prudes, and intolerant of the established cultural ethic. As our own culture reverts back to pagan norms from its influence by a Biblical ethic, it is no surprise the same occurs today.

But this passage demonstrates the importance of Biblical sexual morality. Following God’s call to holiness places love of God and others ahead of our own desires. It is not based in Old Testament cultural norms which we can abandon in our more “enlightened” age but in the very holy nature of God.

This is not an easy task. It goes against our nature to deny the passion of self and pursue God’s standards. Especially in a world where such “pleasures” are merely a salacious romance novel or screen away. But we must also remember that moral sexual relationships rejoice in this expression of our humanity, within the bounds of monogamous Biblical marriage. And it is not a task we pursue alone, but with the help of God’s Holy Spirit and each other.

We owe it to each other, and to God our redeemer, to support and encourage each other to pursue God’s call to holiness.

Read 1 Thessalonians 3:11-13

If you asked a random selection of people today what acts would be the most helpful to aid someone, how high up the list do you think prayer would be? If we sampled a random selection of churchgoers, how much different would prayer rank? If we asked Paul, he would have it right at the top of the list. Paul was a big fan of prayer to the Living God, and his letters frequently contain powerful prayers for his recipients.

In Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians, we come across another of Paul’s powerful prayers. It reveals Paul’s view on the power of God, the progress of a Christian’s life, and the goal to which every Christian proceeds. Like Paul, our prayers can demonstrate our trust in God’s power to overcome our sin, draw us to God, and propel us kingdomward.

Paul’s prayer for the Thessalonians sprang out of the positive report that he had received from Timothy of their state. Far from succumbing to temptation as he feared, the Thessalonians held Paul dearly and his teaching even closer. This revelation caused Paul to express his thankfulness to God for their continued faithfulness.

Paul’s prayer demonstrated the high view that he had for the effectiveness of prayer for the Thessalonian church. Paul prayed “Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you” (v.11).

The first thing we should note is that Paul’s prayer is distinctly trinitarian. Paul prayed to both God the Father and Jesus (God the Son) in this prayer. Paul understood that Jesus was truly human, and truly divine. Because Jesus was divine, we can direct our prayers to him!

What this prayer also demonstrates is that Paul viewed God (and Jesus’!) as powerful and masterful over events. Paul deeply desired to make his way back to Thessalonica, to encourage the congregation there again. He prayed this wish to God, in the expectation that if God willed it, then it would happen.

Paul’s high view of the effectiveness of prayer, and the power of God, is also reflected in the two other prayer points that Paul raised heavenward for the Thessalonians.

Secondly, Paul prayed “may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you” (v.12). Paul wanted the Lord Jesus to pour out a love in that congregation for each other, not in terms of feelings but in terms of a reflection of their own lives being grounded in God’s love for them.

Because they had received richly of God’s love, Paul wanted that love to overflow into each others’ lives. In a world of self-gratification and selfish gain (often euphemistically mischaracterised today as “self-love”), their care for each other in seeking each other’s gain would reflect God’s love and heal many of the wounds they bore from their own pasts. This care was not just restricted to their congregation though, but “for all”, because others needed to hear the Good News too.

But this outpouring of love had a goal in mind, “so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father” (v.13). The outpouring of love was not the selfish, sin-loving love of this world, but the love which cleanses and purifies us, and makes us ever more like Jesus. A love which equips us for service in God’s Kingdom, now and in the future.

This is not a sinless perfection, because we cannot achieve that in this life, but a godly life which reflects the holy and blameless declaration which God has made about us because of Jesus’ sinless perfection and sacrifice for us.

The future-looking nature of this love is found in the final part of Paul’s prayer, because the declaration of blamelessness “at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints” (v.13). What is declared now, and by God’s power made more the case in our lives, will be finally the case when Jesus finally puts an end to this present evil age.

Thus Paul’s prayer recognised God’s power to accomplish what Paul was not able to, God’s power to pour out true love in their lives, and God’s power to cleanse the Thessalonians finally of all sin. A pastoral prayer for progress in their lives.

And what a prayer for us all, too! This passage encourages us to remember God’s power and control over all things. Far from writing prayer off as ineffectual, prayer can, if it is God’s will, cause what is not possible for us in our own strength to happen!

Paul’s prayer also reminds us of God’s power in declaring us holy through Christ, pouring Christ’s love into our lives so that we share that love with each other and the world, and working in our lives to make us more like Christ until his Christ’s return to consummate his reign in righteousness.

This powerful example of prayer from Paul teaches us the importance and the power of prayer in our daily walk. Let’s all pray with the same conviction!

Read 1 Thessalonians 3:6-10

How do you identify a church which is properly fulfilling the Great Commission? Is it one which is growing in numerical numbers by exciting entertaining services? A personally dynamic and engaging speaker with uplifting messages? Or is it less in dynamic services and more in biblical faithfulness, expressed through growing in faith and love?

While we long for, and pray for, God to grow our churches and make new converts and disciples, the truth is that biblical faithfulness was the sign of a prospering church that Paul sought for those he planted and cared after. The Corinthians ran after personality gimmicks and spectacle like their surrounding culture, but the Thessalonian church was identified by its faith and love. 

Paul’s distress at leaving the Thessalonian church alone and vulnerable after his hasty departure kept him up at night. Eventually, despite many prayers for them and attempts to return, he could bear it no more and sent Timothy to check in on them. Paul worried that they had been tempted to drift away from the faith, leaving his labours there in vain (v.5).

The relief practically pours off the page because Timothy returned with his report. “ But now that Timothy has come to us from you, and has brought us the good news of your faith and love and reported that you always remember us kindly and long to see us, as we long to see you” (v.6).

Far from a spiritual wasteland or a devotion to entertainment and gimmickry like Paul was dealing with in Corinth, Timothy’s report on the Thessalonians was all good news. The congregation there was biblically faithful. They were full of faith and love, and missed Paul as much as he missed them.

What a relief! Instead of a party at Kelly Browne’s place, the Thessalonians had devoted themselves to continuing the teaching and practices that Paul had put in place before he had been forced to leave his spiritual children behind.

This relief and encouragement was so powerful that it was a comfort to him even when he was experiencing distress in his own ministry. “For this reason, brothers, in all our distress and affliction we have been comforted about you through your faith” (v.7).

Knowing that the Thessalonians missed him, and had not had their views about him twisted by falsehoods and slander that floated around the churches in the wake of jealous false teachers seeking to destroy his good work gave Paul great heart. It did so even as he experienced a troubled time in writing this letter to them, perhaps in Corinth itself with all its difficulties.

Knowing that the Thessalonians persevered was enough for him to proclaim “for now we live, if you are standing fast in the Lord” (v.8). Their standing fast was like a foretaste of the joys of the resurrection, such was Paul’s relief.

It was so great, that deep in prayer, Paul could barely find the words of thanks to express towards God “for all the joy that we feel for your sake” (v.9). He was moved greatly, indeed.

That movement caused Paul to renew his prayers again “most earnestly night and day” (v.10) for the Thessalonians’ sake, with two requests. Firstly, “that we may see you face to face” (v.10) as he expressed previously in his letter. Secondly, that he would then be able to “supply what is lacking in your faith” (v.10).

There were still areas in the life of that church that needed further strengthening. Further theological education. Further strengthening of vulnerabilities. Further encouragement to witness and persevere whatever the reception.

Since he could not at that time be present with them in person, he was present with them through prayer, encouraged by their faith and love.

It was faith and love, not sheer numerical growth, that Paul appreciated. While certainly growth in numbers was good (Paul was busy planting churches and evangelising, after all), what he really wanted to see was faithfulness to the biblical teaching he had delivered, expressed in faith and deeds of love.

As a congregation in an entertainment culture that looks a little too much like Corinth at times, let’s continue to seek after faith and love like the Thessalonians. Let’s be a congregation that encourages others and our children to do likewise. God will bless a congregation that seeks to be faithful to him in that way.

How do we do that? By welcoming and encouraging people who visit. By encouraging each other, and the children in the congregation, to rest in Christ for the forgiveness of their sins, and treat others with the same love that God has shown us. 

We can also show it by allowing ourselves to be used by God in the home, the workplace, in play, as an instrument of his love. By blessing others with the knowledge of salvation, and the free gift of God in Jesus’ death on the Cross.

If we do this, no matter what our size, we too will be a congregation known for showing and growing in faith and love.

Read 1 Thessalonians 2:17-3:5

This morning as I delivered the children onto the school grounds, the Principal was standing at the main gate greeting those who walked in. Despite this being a school of hundreds of children, the Principal seemed to know the names of my children. Since to my knowledge they are not regular visitors for behavioural modification, this suggests that she has learnt the names of many of the children under her care. And thus, cares for them as individuals.

Where else might we expect that to be true but the Church? And not just with children, but with everyone too. Paul’s philosophy of ministry sought to care for each and every individual who was part of the churches he planted and shepherded too. That care reflects the care which Jesus, the Good Shepherd, has for us all. That care reflects the same care that each of us should have for each other.

Paul’s letter to the Thessalonian Church speaks lovingly of them, and of how their reputation for imitating the same love and care which Paul showed them in his time with them had spread throughout the congregations of their region. 

Even though events meant that Paul had to leave them, it did not mean that his care for them ceased. Paul had been torn away from them “in person not in heart” (v.17). Perhaps his sudden departure had left his spiritual children wondering if he truly loved them, or was orphaning them. That was certainly not the case.

Paul tried multiple times to return to Thessalonica to see them again, “but Satan hindered us” (vv.17-18). The way in which Satan did so is unknown, but showed that Satan sought to frustrate Paul’s ministry to the Church. We should be alert to the ways in which Satan may seek to frustrate our love for each other in the Church today, and pray earnestly for victory!

Because victory is indeed the goal of the love which Paul expressed for the Thessalonians. They were the fruits of his service of God. “For what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at his coming? Is it not you? For you are our glory and joy” (vv.19-20).

Like the expensive crown which towns in Rome would provide the emperor on his visit to their humble abode, the Thessalonians were the fruit of his own salvation born out at Jesus’ victorious return to bring to full realisation his eternal kingdom.

To demonstrate his love for them, even in his absence, Paul acted. When he could bear it no longer, he dispatched “Timothy, our brother and God’s coworker in the gospel of Christ, to establish and exhort you in your faith” (3:1-2). Paul was willing to labour alone in Athens, if it meant he could show love for them by equipping them further.

Paul did so knowing that the Church in Thessalonica was undergoing adversity. He knew they were suffering afflictions, as he had before being forced to leave, and just as Paul had warned them would happen (vv.3-4). 

Paul’s ministry did not preach a Christianity where trusting in Jesus solves all your problems, but where trusting in Jesus solves your biggest problem – your sin and rebellion against God. Since that puts you at odds with the world, he warned them that afflictions would come as well.

In God’s providence, those afflictions would help purify and sanctify those believers (cf Rom. 8:28). But that does not make it fun in the meantime!

Those afflictions played on Paul’s mind, along with his love for the Thessalonians. It was one of the things which pushed him to send Timothy to “learn about your faith, for fear that somehow the tempter had tempted you and our labor would be in vain” (v.5).

Paul’s love for the Thessalonians went far beyond words, it went to prayer and actions on their behalf. Paul loved the Thessalonians, just as he encouraged them to love each other, knowing that the world would not love them for their faith in Christ. So their love for each other would need to be deep and genuine to encourage each other to persevere.

Paul’s heart was that of the Good Shepherd, Jesus, for his sheep. Just as a good shepherd will leave 99 sheep to find the lost one, so too Jesus sought out us, lost sheep, to bring us into his fold. 

That love is the same love that we should show each other. It is the love that elders and deacons in the Church should show for all in the congregation, as under-shepherds of the Good Shepherd. It is the love that all of us should have for the children of our congregation. It is the love that each of us should have for one another.

We go through various difficulties and trials to sanctify us and fit us for heaven. Our love for each other helps us endure the difficulties and trials, and even afflictions and persecutions if they should come, that we too will stand victorious at our Lord Jesus’ coming.

Read 1 Thessalonians 2:13-16

What makes the Bible worth paying any attention to? Why would anyone be willing to suffer ridicule, persecution, or death for its sake? What makes the Bible so special that we would change the way we live to reflect its teachings? What causes men and women to stand up to powerful rulers, to mobs, or to crazed individuals?

The answer is that the Bible’s words are not ordinary words. This is not some made up position which Christians invented one day, but an important teaching of the Bible itself. The Bible is the Word of God at work in believers’ lives, giving them strength to endure suffering and persecution. No wonder that those who oppose the message seek to silence it. But for any believer undergoing suffering, there is comfort that God will judge those who oppose him.

Paul also expressed his thanks to God that the Thessalonians, “when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers” (v.13).

The word of God was proclaimed by men. It was written by men too, inspired by the Holy Spirit (2 Timothy 3:15-16). It did not fall down from the sky, or dug up from the ground on golden tablets. God moved ordinary, sinful men to write God-inspired words down over the course of 1500 years, to reveal his will to us. The words were written at the hand of men, and express their emotions and experiences, but they did so at the inspiration and the compelling of God.

It is because God is the source of the words that they are without error. Because of that, the words of Scripture are not as the word of men like any other book, but the word of God. They are not merely the political, philosophical, or practical preferences of people, but God revealing the way things really are to us, that we might properly honour and worship him.

And those words are not dead words but words which work in the lives of believers. Isaiah described the work of God’s word in our lives as being like rain falling to the ground causing seed to grow (Isaiah 55:10-11). God’s words do not just rattle around inside our brains like brainworm lyrics from today’s latest manufactured pop icon, they cause seeds of faith to sprout in our lives, bringing obedience and faith, and leading to a harvest of righteousness.

The power of God’s word displayed itself in the Thessalonian church because they “became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea” (v.14). Their imitation was that they “suffered the same things from your own countrymen as [the Judean churches] did from the Jews” (v.14).

Paul knew a little about this. After all, he was one of the original henchmen behind that very persecution. After Jesus himself called him to faith on the Damascus Road, Paul enjoyed the very same persecution he once had offered. What could cause such a change and such endurance? Not ordinary words, but God’s word revealed into his life.

That same word caused Paul to join the Judean church in its suffering at his former fellows, the unbelieving Jews led astray by their religious leadership “who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out” (v.15). All in God’s Plan, spreading the Gospel message as God’s Jewish remnant (Isaiah 6:13) were joined by God’s remnant from the Nations.

The act of that unbelieving group led to God’s displeasure, especially as they effectively opposed the rest of the Nations benefiting from God’s grace “by hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles that they might be saved—so as always to fill up the measure of their sins. But wrath has come upon them at last!” (vv.16-17).

Yet that opposition, expressed in persecution of Christ’s church, would not go unpunished. God’s wrath would come upon them in such certainty that Paul spoke of it as a present reality. God’s word is powerful not just to save, but to commit to condemnation those who reject its message.

That is why we make so much of the Bible in our congregations. They are not just nice poetry or stories, but powerful words that call us to salvation or condemn us, through rejecting those words, to judgement.

God’s Word works in you everyday, to make you more like Christ through the Spirit’s power. To prepare you to withstand opposition, if it comes, and to yield harvests of righteousness.

Take up God’s Word, and read.

Read 1 Thessalonians 2:9-12

Lots of us have goals in life. Things we would like to reach or attain. An achievement we would like to accomplish. Depending on how big the goal is, it can have a large impact on the way we live from day to day. We may also seek the views of mentors on how to help us achieve those goals, especially if they have accomplished it themselves.

For the Thessalonians, Paul and his comrades were mentors on their spiritual walk to the goal of glory with God. In previous verses, Paul has encouraged the church to love, care, and gentleness, following his own example in the Thessalonians’ midst. In these verses, Paul continues to encourage the church to pattern their life and outreach towards the end goal of the eternal kingdom and glory of the age to come.

In verses seven and eight, Paul described himself as being like a spiritual mother to the Thessalonian church, taking care of them, and showing them gentleness, love, and care. Paul had not taken advantage of the Thessalonian church as some wandering religious gurus did, but persisted in his message even though it came at a personal financial and bodily cost.

The Thessalonians had seen this with their own eyes. “For you remember, brothers, our labor and toil: we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God” (v.9). 

Paul had commonly worked for a living while on his missionary journeys, sometimes receiving financial support from other churches. It appears that in Thessalonica Paul had resumed his tentmaker trade, toiling away for many hours in a relatively lowly paid profession. Given the long hours, much of his teaching and outreach may have been done in the shop while sewing together leather skins. 

The Thessalonians literally saw Paul working to avoid taking a wage from them; a wage that he was fully entitled to (1 Cor 9:8-14). They saw Paul’s hard work for them, and for the Gospel. It might have involved sewing leather, but it was still work for the kingdom.

The Thessalonians could also attest to Paul’s personal holiness. “You are witnesses, and God also, how holy and righteous and blameless was our conduct toward you believers” (v.10). Paul did not mistreat the Thessalonian church but was blameless in the way he behaved with and to them. And as his labours showed, his whole life was holy or set apart for the service of God, whatever he put his hand to.

These two examples were ways in which Paul was a kind of spiritual mentor to the Thessalonians, showing them how they should live in a way which reflected the realities revealed to them and believed by them. His actions backed up his words.

Paul described this as similar to how “like a father with his children” he “exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God” (vv.11-12).

In the ancient world, children usually took their father’s career, and so fathers were responsible for teaching the child the ropes of the trade. In the same way, Paul through commands and encouragement called the Thessalonians to live in a way which would please God.

That is, while there was plenty of good news, there were also plenty of reminders about how to live as a result of that good news (not to earn it but to say thanks). The purpose of this was to encourage perseverance and persistence towards the end goal, which was entering into God’s “kingdom and glory” into which he called each of them (v.12). Paul was training them up for a career, so to speak, as servants of God in his kingdom.

So too the work starts now for us. We are also called, as the Thessalonians did, to live in a way which pleases God who is calling us into his kingdom and glory. We have the end goal in sight – eternity with God. In the meantime, we need to learn the ropes to ensure we are fit to serve God in his kingdom.

More than just words, actions must match rhetoric. Paul’s long hours of work, his blameless lifestyle towards his fellow believers, and how his whole life demonstrated he was set apart for God’s service showed that he had his eye on the goal. The Thessalonians could do well to follow his example. We would do well, too.

It does not matter what we are called to with our work. Whether in the pulpit (as Paul was), in the mines, at the office, in the home, or in a store, these are all opportunities to work unto the Lord. If your work is focused on enabling you to serve God in some way, whether in your example or your activities in spare hours, it is work for the kingdom.

Paul’s example reminds us to keep our eyes firmly on the end goal of eternity with Jesus, and live lives of thankfulness which are pleasing to God.

Read 1 Thessalonians 2:1-8

One of the more common complaints about churches as charities that you can hear today is how supposedly they are led by fat cats who fleece their flock to live a lavish lifestyle, and avoid paying taxes to boot! Sadly, the actions of televangelists and “prosperity gospel” preachers poison the views of many against churches and preachers who just want to quietly proclaim the Gospel.

While in Paul’s day the idea of registered charities and such were unusual, many of these sorts of charges against Paul’s ministry were not. In Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians, he upholds the nature of his ministry against charges which some could lay about its effectiveness and his motivation, charges which he argued the Thessalonians knew were false.

Previously in this letter to the church at Thessalonica, Paul had emphasised how word of their imitation of him had reached his ears and the ears of many other churches in the region. The Thessalonians were an example to these churches, and to us today, of how to live for Christ in the midst of a sometimes suspicious and hostile culture.

Paul continues this encouragement by reminding the Thessalonians that they knew that Paul and his ministry team’s labours for the Gospel were not “in vain” (v.1). They had seen with their own eyes Paul, Silas, and Timothy’s “boldness in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in the midst of much conflict” (v.2).

The conflict referred to was their previous treatment in Philippi where “we had already suffered and been shamefully treated” (v.2). Paul healed a young slave woman of her demonic possession, annoyed her masters, and was arrested and illegally beaten for the privilege (Acts 16:12-40).

Paul and Silas literally walked into Thessalonica still bearing scars and marks on their backs from their treatment in Philippi. Most people, pedalling a self-help message or swindling the gullible of their cash would give up at this point and take up some other pursuit. Ram raiding night markets with chariots perhaps. 

But Paul’s message was something of value, not springing from “error or impurity or any attempt to deceive” (v.3) that even arrest and beatings could not put them off continuing. They were approved by God “to be entrusted with the gospel” and so were speaking to please God, not men (v.4).

While other walk-about religious gurus might spout messages that sounded pleasant and let you indulge in what you wanted for a little cash, Paul’s good news had life altering consequences and its messengers were God-appointed rather than self-appointed.

This was demonstrated in the way Paul had treated the Thessalonians. Unlike many televangelists today with their prosperity gospel ramblings, “we never came with words of flattery, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed—God is witness” (v.5). There truly is nothing new under the sun.

In the same way, Paul never sought praise for himself as a man of God, even though he was an apostle and so could have made all sorts of demands under that authority (v.6). That included financial gain, which as we know from the Scriptures Paul often went without for the sake of the Gospel and his own witness. Can’t be on the take if you’re not taking.

Instead, Paul, Silas, and Timothy were a completely different kettle of fish to the run of the mill religious swindler. Their ministry was characterised by gentleness towards them, “like a nursing mother taking care of her own children” (v.7).

More than just gentle, they were also caring (“affectionately desirous of you”) and loving (“you had become very dear to us”) which was expressed through their Gospel ministry and sacrificial service to the Thessalonians.

The contrast between this model of ministry and one in which power, wealth, and privileges flow to the leaders is a sharp contrast. One reflects the sacrificial life and death of Christ, who even though in the form of and equal to God emptied himself of divine privilege to serve (Philippians 2:5-8). The other reflects the patterns and ways of this sinful world, seeking to satisfy self even at the expense of others.

You can see how this would be suspicious to outsiders. After all, it is different from the expected, usual pattern (thus the assumption that every preacher has a personal jet). But that is also what makes it so effective as a marker of Gospel Ministry. The minister is not the message. Jesus is.

So these verses speak of the importance of the leadership of the church demonstrating gentleness, care, and love, and not using their position to bring glory or wealth to themselves. Instead, the glory and wealth belong to the message.

But as it is good for the leaders, it is good for us all. Paul wrote these words to encourage all the Thessalonians to act likewise. It is good for us too. Many people will never meet your pastor. They will meet you though. 

May they meet God’s gentleness, care, and love expressed through Jesus, and through Paul, in your life too.