First Thessalonians: 1 Thessalonians 2:14-The Thessalonians Imitated the Jewish Christian Community in Judea By Suffering Persecution Lesson # 31

1 Thessalonians 2:13 And so we too constantly thank God that when you received God’s message that you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human message, but as it truly is, God’s message, which is at work among you who believe. 14 For you became imitators, brothers and sisters, of God’s churches in Christ Jesus that are in Judea, because you too suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they in fact did from the Jews. (NET)

1 Thessalonians 2:13 marks a transition from a discussion regarding the conduct of Paul, Silvanus and Timothy, which appears in 1 Thessalonians 2:1-12 to a discussion regarding the Thessalonian Christian community’s positive response to the gospel and resultant godly conduct.

This verse asserts that Paul, Silvanus and Timothy always made it their habit of giving thanks to the one and only God, which is a reference to the Father.

It then identifies the specific reason why they did so by asserting that when each member of the Thessalonian Christian community received a message which they obediently heard from these men, each of them for their own benefit never received it as a message originating from human beings.

There is then an emphatic contrast with this assertion which states that for their own benefit, the Thessalonians accepted this message which was communicated to them by these men, as truly being a message originating from God.

Verse 13 ends with the assertion that for God’s own benefit, His message to the Thessalonians was also working in their lives.

The first assertion in 1 Thessalonians 2:14 is emphatically advancing upon and intensifying this last assertion in 1 Thessalonians 2:13.

It states that each member of the Thessalonian Christian community entered into the state of imitating God’s congregations living in Judea in union and fellowship with Christ Jesus.

The advancement and intensification is that the Thessalonians not only accepted the gospel by faith which was working in their lives but also, they were imitating the Jewish Christian community in Judea by suffering persecution like they did at the hands of their own countrymen.

The connection between these two assertions is implied, namely that, both the Jewish Christian community and the Thessalonian Christian community were in union and fellowship with Jesus Christ.

1 Thessalonians 2:14 makes this explicit that this was the case with the Jewish Christian community in Judea, but this is not the case with the Thessalonian Christian community.

However, this is clearly implied by the last assertion at the end of 1 Thessalonians 2:13.

The fact that the Thessalonians accepted by faith the gospel communicated to them by Paul, Silvanus and Timothy as a message originating from God rather than from human beings demonstrated they were in union and fellowship with Jesus Christ since this is how it is accomplished.

Justifying faith entered them into union and fellowship with Jesus Christ and their post-justification faith maintained that fellowship with Jesus Christ and demonstrated they were in fact in union with Jesus Christ.

The clause which follows the first assertion in 1 Thessalonians 2:14 defines specifically for the reader how the Thessalonians entered into the state of imitating the Jewish Christian community in Judea.

It asserts that they suffered the same things from their own countrymen as the Jewish Christian community did from their countrymen.

1 Thessalonians 2:14 describes the Thessalonian Christian community and Jewish Christian community in Judea as suffering, which is a reference to persecution.

This is indicated by the fact that 1 Thessalonians 2:14 is asserting the Thessalonians suffered at the hands of their own unregenerate countrymen like the Jewish Christian community experienced at the hands of their own countrymen and 1 Thessalonians 2:15 asserts that the latter was persecuted by their countrymen.

Persecution can take various forms in different countries and in different ages.

Some persecution is blatantly overt, and some persecution is very subtle taking the form of rejection which can include as social ostracism involving being ignored, patronized or mocked and can take the form of condescension as well.

Both forms express the hostility of those who are enslaved to sin and Satan and his cosmic system.

Therefore, 1 Thessalonians 2:13-14 is teaching that not only did the Thessalonians accept by faith the gospel message from God and which message was working in their lives as individuals and as a corporate unit but they were also as a result imitating the Jewish Christian community in Judea.

They were imitating them by suffering persecution from their own countrymen just as the Jewish Christian community in Judea did from their own countrymen.

Both the Thessalonian Christian community and the Jewish Christian community in Judea were suffering persecution because of their union and identification with Jesus Christ and fellowship with Him.

Both groups were being persecuted because they were obeying the Word of Jesus Christ which was a fulfillment of Jesus Christ’s promise to His disciples that they would be persecuted like He was because of being identified with Him and obeying His teaching.

John 15:20 “Remember what I told you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they obeyed my word, they will obey yours too.” (NET)

1 Thessalonians 2:14 is not only place in 1 Thessalonians which asserts that the Thessalonian Christian community was imitating someone since the first time appears in 1 Thessalonians 1:6 since it asserts that the Thessalonians entered into the state of imitating Paul, Silvanus and Timothy.

In 1 Thessalonians 2:14, the phrase “your own countrymen” is a reference to unregenerate Gentiles in the city of Thessalonica.

This is indicated by the fact that the text of 1 Thessalonians 2:14 is clearly marking a contrast between the Jews who persecuted the Jewish Christians in Judea and the Thessalonians’ countrymen.

If the writer was thinking of both Jews and Gentiles with this phrase “your own countrymen” then he would not have described those who persecuted the Jewish Christian community in Judea as simply Jews and he would have used the phrase “their own countrymen.”

The fact that he uses the term “the Jews” makes clear that he is contrasting the unregenerate Jewish community in Judea with the unregenerate Gentile community in Thessalonica.

Further supporting this interpretation is that the statement in 1 Thessalonians 1:9, which asserts that the Thessalonians turned to God from idols to serve the true and living God, is a clear indication that Thessalonian Christian community was in fact primarily Gentile rather than Jewish.

The Jewish people were no longer practicing idolatry upon their return from Babylon in the fifth century B.C.

The gospels make clear that the practice of idolatry was no longer found among the Jewish people.

However, the pagan Gentiles living in the first century A.D. were totally and completely immersed in the practice of idolatry.

Therefore, if the Thessalonians were Gentiles, then their forsaking of the practice of idolatry as a result of worshipping Jesus Christ instead would have resulted in persecution from the unregenerate Gentile community since this would have brought about significant problems between the two groups.

Also, supporting the idea that unregenerate Gentiles were persecuting the Thessalonian Christian community rather than unregenerate Jews is that the Jews were on shaky group with the Roman Empire and Thessalonica was a very important city to the Empire.

1 Thessalonians was written in 50 A.D. and the Jews were expelled from Rome by the Emperor in 49 A.D.

If the Jews attempted to persecute Gentiles in Thessalonica, this would have surely caused the governmental authorities in Thessalonica who were friendly with Rome to report this abuse to the Emperor.

So, to avoid official investigation, interference and even imprisonment, the Jews of Thessalonica would have avoided any attempt to persecute Gentiles.

Paul chose to assert that the Thessalonian Christian community was imitating the Jewish Christian community in Judea because he was attempting to build unity between the Jewish and Gentile communities throughout the Empire.

Both groups were suffering persecution because of their identification with Jesus Christ.

Paul also wanted to encourage the Thessalonian Christian community that they were not alone in suffering persecution because of their faith in Christ and identification with Him and obedience to His teaching.