1 Thessalonians: Genuine People, Genuine Change

Introduction:

This will begin our study of Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians.

From our study of the relevant passages in Acts, we know the opposition to the preaching of the gospel and to the presence of believers in that city became very hostile.

That hostility is important to understanding the content and tone of this letter.

Paul, indisputably, wrote this letter, probably immediately after he left the city in the year 49 or 50 AD.

It may be one of the very first New Testament letters written.

Paul wrote his letters with different motivations. For example:

Corinth: he wanted to correct divisions reported to him by those of the house of Chloe, and he wanted to answer questions they had presented to him.

Galatia: he wanted to express his outrage because those churches had questioned the authenticity of his apostleship and the gospel he preached.

Thessalonica: It is the only letter he wrote out of worry.

Over the genuineness of their conversion.

Their view of him and his personal character. We may see Paul at his most pastoral in this letter.

We will benefit from this study because it will raise significant issues that will challenge us to consider ourselves in light of the teaching of God’s word. Such as:

What evidence shows a group of people has genuinely converted to the truth? What shared characteristics will they exhibit?

What does a healthy, loving relationship between an apostle (preacher) and a church look like?

What spiritual characteristics do they show toward one another?

How does a representative of Jesus Christ, a bearer of his message, show himself to be genuine instead of a huckster of ideas?

How do you show a congregation that you have acted in good faith toward them and prove yourself to be concerned for their genuine spiritual welfare and development instead a fomenter of revolutionary or seditious ideas?

How are believers uniquely prepared not to be caught off guard by the second coming and the divine judgment that will accompany it?

What does true spirituality look like according to the Bible?

How should true believers conduct themselves in the world and why?

These questions are reminders of at least two important realities about this fallen world:

Preachers can be mere hucksters, fakes, that is snake oil salesmen. Telling the difference requires discernment and clear knowledge of biblical evidence.

Opposition to the preaching of the truth is varied and intense.

Personal safety is not a precondition to becoming a believer (guaranteed liberty).

Neither is it a precondition to practicing Christianity properly based upon sincere belief that it is true.

All of this brings us to the reality that the gospel has real transformative power through the work of the Holy Spirit.

Evidence of this work will be present.

The gospel doesn’t just change our future. It also changes our present.

1 Thessalonians 1:1 gives us two ways it is unique and changes us.

It Provides Equality in an Unequal World

One reality about our fallenness is conflict.

Gen. 3:16. Because of our fallenness we no longer have peace with God, but the presence of conflict with God means we also have conflict with one another even in our most personal and important relationships.

Anger is not a spiritual attribute (Col. 3:8).

Peace, forgiveness, love is.

Part of our conflict is the desire to set ourselves apart from each other, to be seen, to get credit.

James 3:14.

Paul preached the equality of the gospel.

Gal. 3:28 “οὐκ ἔνι Ἰουδαῖος οὐδὲ Ἕλλην, οὐκ ἔνι δοῦλος οὐδὲ ἐλεύθερος, οὐκ ἔνι ἄρσεν καὶ θῆλυ· πάντες γὰρ ὑμεῖς εἷς ἐστε ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ.”

All of Romans, all of 1 Cor., all of Philippians.

He lived it, as well, by downplaying, most of the time, his position and authority as an apostle.

Here is one such instance.

Paul places Silas and Timothy alongside himself in the nervous concern for the physical and spiritual well-being of the Thessalonians.

God’s Spirit enables us to have peace and to be peaceable toward one another.

The gospel transcends our social rank, our ethnic differences, and our cultures.

It Transforms Our Place and Brings Us into Relation with One Another.

Ecclesia: Paul uses language associated with citizenship.

An assembly is a group of people who share a common, heavenly citizenship based upon a shared trust in Jesus’ identity as the Son of God and of God’s redemptive work through his crucifixion and resurrection.

We also share a common baptism, view of the scriptures and their authority.

We share, like all citizens, a common behavior.

Biblical Christianity cannot be practiced alone.

We meet in an assembly.

You cannot do this by yourself.

We share common characteristics or traits.

There are no special behaviors just for the individual.

God’s wisdom is universal.

The characteristics of being his children are common to us, but they make us uncommon in the world (see Colossians 3 again for this).