I Thessalonians 1:1-10
Paul says a lot in these first few verses of his first letter to the Thessalonians. First, there is one small literary item that I’d like to point out. In many of Paul’s letters we will see him speak in triads – three items typically tied together by the conjunction “and”. Here we see it right away in verse 3: …your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope… A faith, love, and hope triad – the first of many we will see in Paul.
A second triad: …how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven… (vv. 9b-10a) Turned, to serve, to wait. (My thanks to my Study Bible for pointing out this triad that I had not seen.) In these few words Paul repeats every Christian’s experience. We turn away from our former lives to Him; we serve Him by serving others; and we wait for His return.
For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you… (v. 9a) This sequence is a bit difficult to follow. Essentially Paul is saying that he gets reports from other congregations (v. 7, …all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia…) as to how he and Silas and Timothy were received by the Thessalonians. These are third-person affirmations…! Frankly, it’s one of the best affirmations we can get for us to know what is the truth. If anyone (the second person) tells us (the first person) that we have done well in what we did for them, then we may wonder if they are speaking the truth or simply being nice. But when an “outsider” (the third person) tells us that this second person had spoken well of us, then we know that it’s true – clearly the second person told the third person of our service, and that third person reported the same comment to us. Follow? Let me give you an example. If one of our Avanza tutors tells Carol or me that we do really well with the music and the reading/teaching, we accept their compliment and feel good about what we have done. But if someone else from our congregation comes to one of us and says that one of the Avanza tutors was telling him or her about how well we were serving the Avanza kids, then that is a compliment more warmly received – because this word had been passed from that “second person” to that “third person”, then on to us. In the end, all encouragement is good!! (Am I repeating myself…??!!)
Finally, another theme that we will see occasionally in Paul’s letters is imitation. Here we see it in verse 6 and 7: And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, (v. 6) …so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia (v.7). Paul even says it of himself on occasion – I Corinthians 4:16, 11:1; Philippians 3:17. Are we able to say that of ourselves to someone else?
Slava Bohu!
I like that triad analogy. I can hear Paul now!
My study Bible had a note that, because Paul had left quickly from Thessalonica, they hadn’t had time to answer all questions. And one misconception some had was that they would live forever – here on earth. So there are a number of references in this book clarifying. Much like thinking that we won’t have troubles and will always be happy and calm if we would just believe. We have to keep saying that the promise is to be with us, not that bad things won’t happen and we won’t grieve or weep.