Intro to 1 Thessalonians

Finally, then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more. 
1 Thessalonians 4:1 

When you consider the content of Paul’s letters to the churches he wrote, you get the sense that not everything is going so well. To the church at Corinth, he wrote long letters to encourage unity and to call them away from worldliness, immorality, and pride. To the church at Colossae, he encouraged them to not fall to mysticism or legalism, but to be faithful to the Lord. The church at Ephesus was too proud and lacked in forgiveness, the Galatian church were tempted to fall into false gospels and the church at Philippi seemed worrisome and had two cantankerous women in the body. But the letter to the Thessalonicans has a much different tone, one of exceeding joy.

Paul and his mates (Silas [Silvanus] and Timothy) had planted this church during his second missionary journey, but, due to being driven out by the Jews (2:15-17; cf Acts 17:1-8)., were not able to stay and teach them as much as they would have liked. So, he writes this letter with a two-fold purpose: 1) to let them know how encouraged he is by them and their faithfulness to the Lord and 2) so that they would not be uninformed about certain things which he may not have had an opportunity to teach them on since he was driven away. And yet, despite only having been there for a short period, this community was one that was an “example to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia” (1:7), was one that became the “joy or crown of boasting” for Paul (2:19), and one that did not need instruction on brotherly love because they themselves had “been taught by God to love one another” and were practicing their love “to all the brothers throughout Macedonia” (4:9-10).

And their lives and practice ought to challenge us as today. We too have been given a very large storehouse of truth. We, like the Thessalonicans, have received the gospel and the question is whether we have become “imitators of…the Lord”, in the midst suffering we face, with joy (1:6)? Leonard Ravenhill asked the same question a different way when he asked, “are the things you are living for worth Christ dying for”? As Paul encouraged them to “walk and to please God” (4:1), we too are to walk in a manner that is pleasing to out Lord. Though there may be troubles in this life, we know that in the end Christ will come back and we will spend eternity with him (4:13-18) and that God has not destined us to wrath, but for salvation (5:9). So, Christian walk with hope and with joy and in a manner, which pleases God, “more and more” (4:1).

Grace and Peace,
Alex Galvez

To never miss an article, click on the "Subscribe" button at the top of the blog page (https://aogalvez.blogspot.com/)
****************************************************
These articles follow the current Bible Reading plan for Overflow Ministries. If you would like to join the reading plan, simply download the plan here: Overflow Reading Plan

You may follow Overflow Ministries @ https://faithlife.com/overflowtx/activity
or on Facebook @ https://www.facebook.com/OverflowChurchTX/ 

Question? Comments? Post in the comments or send me an e-mail: OverflowBlog@outlook.com

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Balance

Image
"For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come." 1 Timothy 4:8 (NIV) This past weekend (Month even) has been a very busy one. It often happens that when life ramps up, we cut the unimportant things out of our lives in order to accomplish the tasks we identify as most critical. To all my followers, I want to apologize for my having cutting this portion of my life out for a period of time and I will do my best to have more consistency. A years ago, the United States Army deployed a digital "fitness" test to its soldiers and certain respondents received a message that read, "Spiritual fitness may be an area of difficulty. You may lack a sense of meaning and purpose in your life. At times, it is hard for you to make sense of what is happening to you and to others around you. You may not feel connected to something larger than yourself. You may question your
Read more

Satisfaction

Image
“…for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.” Philippians 4:11b (NIV) This has been a very busy month for me in terms of traveling around. I returned home from Brazil after a long three weeks and, after two days, I now find myself back in a hotel in the great city of Duncan, Oklahoma. Although it is slightly inconvenient to me, in terms of my schedule for studying the word, prayer, and working out to live in a hotel for almost a full month, I have found great comfort in the words from the apostle Paul. A man who has murderous attempts on his life, been imprisoned on multiple occasions, beaten up, shipwrecked three times, and bitten by a snake was able to find a state of contentedness regardless of what situation he was in. Talk about finding complete joy. This is the same joy that the beloved disciple wrote of many times for other believers to embrace. And this is a joy that over the years I have learned to develop and enjoy. That no matter what situation I find
Read more

Light

Image
“And this is the message which we have heard from him and announce unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.” 1 John 1:5 (ASV) Darkness is not a real thing. Cold is also not a real thing. They are just words that we have made up to define the conditions of an environment or state of existence at a specific period or periods of time. What do I mean then when I say that they are not real things? Well, what I mean is that the darkness that we see (or cannot see because of) is not because it is overwhelming, but because it lacks light. Darkness is the absence of light. When light comes into existence, because light is something real, darkness is expelled. That’s the same with cold. Cold is simply the absence of heat. It is not that it is cold and then at some point it shifts to being hot. It is simply that the heat that exists is too miniscule that it cannot bring warmth to anything. In verse five, we read that God is light, but not a weak source of light
Read more