“1 Thessalonians 1”

Wednesday, July 05, 2017

The church in Thessalonica was planted as a part of Paul’s second preaching journey (Acts 17:1-10). He spent three Sabbath days, teaching in the Jewish synagogue. He may have spent more time in Thessalonica, teaching some of the “devout Greeks” in places other than the synagogue.

But he had to leave prematurely due to persecution. Acts 17:5 tells us that “the Jews who were not persuaded, becoming envious, took some of the evil men from the marketplace” and started a riot against Paul and his companions. They accused them of “turning the world upside down.” Actually, the world was already upside down because of the influence of sin and Paul and others were trying to turn it right side up again. These wicked men were able to influence both the crowd of people and the rulers of the city with these false statements about the disciples. Paul and his traveling co-workers were forced to leave Thessalonica. They went on, in Acts 17, to preach the gospel and establish local churches in both Berea and Athens.

Naturally, having to leave these new Christians so quickly after their conversion was troubling to Paul and so he wrote 1 Thessalonians to strengthen these young Christians in the faith. According to 1 Thessalonians 1:9-10, many of them had been involved in idol worship prior to learning about the living and true God. That would not be an easy or automatic change for them to make. They needed further instruction.

In spite of their “newness” in the faith, they seem to have grown well in these early days, so that they showed their willingness to receive “the word in much affliction” and they were doing so “with joy of the Holy Spirit.” And he tells them that they had become “examples” of faithful devotion to God in a way that was motivating and encouraging others who had heard about their faith.

Their primary issue seemed to be some confusion about the return of Christ, which many of them believed to be in their very near future (people are still confused about that even in our day). So much of what he writes in this epistle had to do with answering some questions about the second coming.

--Roger Hillis

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