1 Thessalonians 2

Firstly I want to thank aquillofGod for giving us an intro to the epistle to the Thessalonians in yesterday’s blog.

And the seemingly similar situations True Jesus Church members in Singapore are facing with the situations that the Thessalonians had to face then.

In today’s chapter, I see 3 groups of people that can give us some very good examples and also warnings for our considerations as we lead our Christian lives.

Bible Passage: 1 Thessalonians 2

The Evangelists/Apostles

All of us who belong to Christ should know that we are all being commissioned by our Lord to preach the gospel of salvation to the ends of the world.

And I thank God that many of us are obeying and carrying out this commission faithfully. But there is one thing that we need to always bear in mind as we do this divine bidding, and that is the heart that we must have when we preach the gospel to people.

Some people preach because they were compelled, some out to show off their gift of the gap, some out to gain applause from man, and there are also some who preach to spite those brethren who are timid.

So what kind of heart must we have?

For our appeal does not spring from error or impurity or any attempt to deceive, but

just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak,

not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts. For we never came with

words of flattery, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed-God is witness.

Nor did we seek glory from people, whether from you or from others, though we

could have made demands as apostles of Christ.

1 Thessalonians 2:3-6 (ESV)

The hearts and intentions of the apostles in preaching to the Thessalonians were truly very righteous and truthful; and they were also fully aware that their hearts were fully opened, hiding nothing, under the watchful eyes of God.

In a broader sense, when we do various divine works, what kind of attitudes and hearts are we holding on to?

Another trait that we must see and learn from the apostles/evangelists is their affectionate love for the souls of the people. This is the kind of love that flows out from the heart of Christ and filling their hearts, and then this affectionate love flowed from the hearts of the apostles/evangelists onto the Thessalonians; so much so that they were even ready to risk their lives for them.

So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the

gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us.

1 Thessalonians 2:8 (ESV)

Do we have this type of affectionate love for our brethren? How far are we willing to go for our brethren in Christ?

The Thessalonians

The Thessalonians received the word of God so readily that Paul praised them for their reverence and also constantly thank God for this.

Paul believed that the word of God was mightily working in them, because of their endurance towards the hostilities from their countrymen.

For you, brothers, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in

Judea. For you suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they did from

the Jews,

1 Thessalonians 2:14 (ESV)

I’ve heard comments that many of our church members have grown to be picky about the sermons spoken over the pulpit.

Some have even gone so far as to checking out who would be the speaker for the night services to decide whether or not to attend church. For these members feel that it would only be worthy to travel all the way to church after a tiring workday if the sermon speaker were to be an interesting one.

Is this the right attitude towards listening the word of God that we Christians should have? Of course not!

For whether the speaker is an interesting speaker or not, as long as he speaks according to the Bible, we must listen.

There was a brother who shared with me that there is a certain religion that the believers would gather every week to just listen to their holy book being read, and the congregation would listen attentively to the reading even though there were no explanation to what were being read!

I think we all must constantly reflect on our attitude towards the word of God. Whether be it reading the Word on our own or listening to the Word being preached over the pulpit, we must listen attentively, thus allowing the power of the Word to work in us, and also to let the Word take root in our hearts so that we can grow strong spiritually.

We may not meet with persecutions now like how the Thessalonians had to endure, but we must be prepared for it by taking the opportunity of the peace we have today to spiritually nurture and strengthen ourselves.

The Persecutors

For you suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they did from the

Jews, who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out, and

displease God and oppose all mankind 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 God’s wrath has come upon them at last!

1 Thessalonians 2:14b-16 (ESV)

These persecutors were their own countrymen, fellow Thessalonians who were gentiles that opposed the Church.

Paul drew a similarity between these Thessalonian persecutors with those in Judea; the Jews there also persecuting the Church by hindering them from reaching out to save the Gentiles.

This situation reminds me of the people whom I have come across, who were not willing to listen to the gospel of salvation, neither would they want people to go around preaching about Jesus.

These people have a “noble” concept about religion, i.e. we must all respect the religions of others, and we must not try to convert others to our own religion!

Very often these people do not want to give Christians a chance to preach to them, and they also refused themselves a chance to listen to the precious gospel.

These people, besides thinking their own religions are traditionally right, they are over confident in their own concept about religion, and maybe a fear of realizing their faults or mistakes in either their religious beliefs or their dark secrets after listen to the Christian gospel.

Now, lets look at ourselves, are we also refusing to listen to others when they have the good intentions to correct us from our wrongs, so that we would not sink deeper in our sins?

And do we start defend and even go into an offensive mode when our brethren try to correct us for our own good?

Self-righteousness and complacency are very dangerous, for they are stealthy prides that lurk within us without our knowledge.

In church do we purposefully malign others while they were actually admonishing us to take the right path? We all need humility and the realization that we all belong to Jesus.

Let us ponder over these matters, i.e. our attitudes towards our divine works, our attitudes towards the word of God, and our attitudes towards the people who meant good for us.

May God help us to grow in unity in the Body of Christ.

Shalom.

•