Skip to main content

1 Thessalonians, Active Waiting

On Paul's second missionary journey he made his way through Greece, preaching the good news of Jesus Christ as he went. He journeyed through such towns of Athens, Philippi, and Thessalonica. Many came to believe in Jesus because of Paul's preaching.

The journey through Greece climaxed in Corinth, where Paul ended up staying a year and a half. While there Paul would send Silas and Timothy out to the cities they had visited to check on the churches. They returned from Thessalonica with some interesting reports.

Background

1 Thessalonians was probably written by Paul around AD 50, early in his 18 month stay in Corinth. He had sent Timothy to Thessalonica to see how the new Christians were doing. Timothy returned with an interesting report; the believers weren't doing anything. 

Now when I say anything, I don't mean the way we typically think of it. Someone may not be doing anything with their life even though they have a job and a family. In our culture this means more of making an impact. The people of Thessalonica were literally doing nothing! Some were quitting their jobs and patiently waiting for Jesus to come back.

Themes

One theme above all others dominates the book of 1 Thessalonians; the second coming of Jesus. As stated previously, the church in Thessalonica had a waiting problem. They were convinced, as many of the early Christians were, that Jesus was going to return any day. So if Jesus was about to come back, why waste time in menial jobs?

Paul emphatically disagrees with this idea. While he too seems to think the return of Jesus is close at hand, he wholeheartedly disagrees with the notion that Christians should stop working. Paul argues that, instead of sitting around looking at the sky, the Thessalonians should live lives pleasing to God. 

Theological Point

While we should be eagerly waiting for the return of Jesus, it should be an active sort of waiting. It is wholly right for Christians to long for the day of Jesus' return. We yearn for the completion of the new creation and the final defeat of evil, but that should not get in the way of the task before us. 

God wants us to live in confident expectation of the return of Christ. We should be actively waiting; obeying his commands as we look forward to his coming. 

Conclusion

Next week we will look at 2 Thessalonians, which was written soon after 1 Thessalonians. We shall see that Paul is addressing many of the same issues, but with a slightly different emphasis. I pray that the Lord Jesus returns quickly, but in the meantime I ask for the strength to live out his commands every day.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Thankful

Today is Thanksgiving, the day that we are supposed to celebrate all the things we are thankful for. It is a time of family reunions, football, and turkey eating. I sincerely pray that each and every one of you has a good day today. I'll admit that being thankful has not been easy for me this year. As pretty much all of you know, my mother passed away December of last year. Though she had been in the hospital for months, we were not expecting it. In fact I was sure she would be finally able to come home within a matter of weeks. Instead she peacefully passed on into the arms of Jesus, whom she loved more dearly than anyone else. As you can imagine, the entire family was heart broken. After what can easily be described as the worst Christmas ever, I returned to home to Illinois. It was here that I finally broke down. I spent the next months doing everything except being thankful. I cursed God, wept, screamed, begged to have her back, and was generally not the nicest person to be...
3 comments
Read more

Proverbs, Wisdom

Wisdom is an essential part of living a godly life. The ability to make good judgments and identify potentially sinful situations are skills all Christians should have. The Bible repeatedly emphasizes that it is the duty of parents and older Christians to pass on these skills and train younger generations in wisdom. The book of Proverbs is a book all about wisdom. The various authors of the book are trying to pass on the things they have learned to a younger generation. They want all that come after them to know that true wisdom comes from God. Background Like the book of Psalms, the book of Proverbs is a collection of various sayings and proverbs from many different people. The primary author we associate the book with is King Solomon, who wrote the most out of any single author, but he is just one of several writers. It is a very interesting book in this regard. The book of Proverbs can be tricky because it isn't always consistent in how the text flows together. Some...
Post a Comment
Read more

Ordinary Means

The Bible is a book. Think about that for a minute. One of the primary ways God chose to communicate to humanity was through a book. Think about just how many books there are in the world. We have entire stores dedicated to selling books and government departments whose sole job is preserving books. Almost every culture on the planet, in some form or another, has used books.  I think we often forget just how ordinary something like the Bible is. Is it inspired by God? Yes. Is it authoritative? Yes. Is it also a book? Yes. It amazes me more and more the more I think about it that God chose to communicate to us not by some miraculous arrangement of the stars or a telepathic message but rather through a book.  Just like any other book, the Bible was written by ordinary people in their specific cultures, languages, circumstances, genres, styles, and purposes. God chose this ordinary, mundane thing to communicate eternal truth of the most fantastic sort. God took the ordinary and t...
Post a Comment
Read more