II Thessalonians 1:1-12

I was having trouble with verse 6: …since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you. I wondered how Paul knew that the unbelieving tormenters in Thessalonica were being repaid with affliction. Did Silas and Timothy bring back word to that effect? Then I realized that the first half of verse 7 might really be a parenthetical phrase or an incomplete sentence set off in dashes. Let’s look at verses 6 and 7 with dashes: …since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you – and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us – when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. That is, in shortened form, …God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven… It makes a lot more sense that way! The tormenters will be repaid with affliction when Jesus returns!

There’s a lot of material in this reading about Jesus’ return: mighty angels, flaming fire, inflicting vengeance, eternal destruction, glorified in his saints, marveled at by believers. There’s not much I can say – or that I ever do say – about Jesus’ return. I leave that to end-times authors!

Slava Bohu!

I Thessalonians 5:12-28

We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work. (vv. 12-13) That short phrase, “in the Lord” is important. When I first read it, I thought Paul might be referring to employers and politicians as well as Christian leaders, but upon a re-read it’s clear Paul is speaking about their Christian leaders. At first glance it might also seem like Paul is a bit self-serving, since he is one who labors among them. But you may recall (Acts 18:3) his labor in Corinth with Aquila and Priscilla (and later he will justify his “paying his own way”), so he is defending other Christian leaders and not setting himself above anyone. One other item here – I wonder who it is in Thessalonica that is in leadership? Paul seems to have spent so little time there, having been run out of town. Did Timothy go back and appoint leaders? Or was it maybe converted Jews who knew the Old Testament scriptures well and were taught by Paul those essential prophetic verses that applied to Jesus? Then again, leadership may naturally have evolved. Just wondering…

…always seek to do good to one another and to everyone. (v. 15b) It’s good that Paul added “and to everyone”. Earlier in this reading he is speaking only of Christians. He follows that up with a bunch of commands in verses 16 through 22. It’s a good listing. I asked myself if I was obeying all those commands. Sadly, I fail miserably on “pray without ceasing”. But our Christian leaders today are saying the same thing, encouraging us to pray constantly for those many needs around us. I’m thankful for “prayer warriors”, but that does not dismiss me to being more active in my prayer life.

Now on to II Thessalonians!

Slava Bohu!

I Thessalonians 5:1-11

Instead of triads today, I saw two interesting duets. Here’s the first: …the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night … and …sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman. (vv. 2-3) The thief and the pregnant woman… The former comes completely unexpectedly, the latter at some unknown but relatively predictable time. [Naturally, there are exceptions – our grandson Matt came three months early!] However, for both the thief and the pregnant lady there is some sense of preparation – locking up the house at night against the thief and preparing the nursery for the upcoming birth. For both the warnings are there: be prepared!

The second duet is an intriguing pair – sleeping and drinking! Paul uses these two activities to highlight the contrast between night and day: So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night. (vv. 6-7) My Study Bible suggests that Paul’s reference to sleep is meant to reflect “spiritual insensitivity”. So he is telling the Thessalonian Christians not to be spiritually insensitive or drunk, but instead that they are to be …children of light, children of the day… (v. 5), people who seek the Lord and stay sober!

For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with Him. (vv. 9-10) A bit of a clarification on the word “asleep” in verse 10 – Paul is mixing his metaphors. Here the word “asleep” refers to our physical death. So, whether we are alive or dead (awake or asleep) we live with Him! I think too many Christians focus on salvation as a means to escape the fires of hell and are not living their full “alive life” in Christ. But it’s not just a matter of escaping hell. We can be with Jesus NOW, in our earthly life, then eternally when we leave this earth. NOW!! That’s a GLORY shout!!

Slava Bohu!

I Thessalonians 4:13-18

I get the feeling from today’s reading that Paul thought Jesus’ return was in the very near term. Now, almost 2000 years later we still wonder about His return – yet we still believe and wait. I appreciated Paul’s compassion for his readers, especially his regard for their concern for their fellow believers who had already died. His words were both encouraging (v. 13, But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope) and full of force (v. 15, …we declare to you by a word from the Lord…).

Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air… (v. 17) My Study Bible said that this is the only place in the New Testament where a rapture of living Christians is clearly stated. Yet so many people/denominations make such a big deal about it!

Today’s reading is a really hopeful message for all of us!

Slava Bohu!

I Thessalonians 4:1-12

Paul writes “more and more” twice, in verses 1 and 10. There are really different senses for what Paul is saying in different translations. For example, the NKJV has that you …abound more and more… and that you …increase more and more… (respectively). The words “abound” and “increase” have an evangelistic ring to them. Contrast with the ESV which says that …you ought to walk and please God … more and more (v. 1) and …to love one another … more and more. (vv. 9b and 10b) This translation is more a sense of personal growth. Although these two translations carry very different meaning, they each carry good messages – evangelism and personal growth. More and more…

Not because it’s a triad, but because it’s just good common sense: …live quietly, … mind your own affairs, and … work with your hands (v. 11) More and more…!

Slava Bohu!

I Thessalonians 3:1-13

I would have let you find your own triads today, but there is one that shows up in the NKJV only. Whereas the ESV has …we sent Timothy, our brother and God’s coworker in the gospel of Christ… (v. 2), the NKJV has …Timothy, our brother and minister of God, and our fellow laborer in the gospel of Christ… Minor, but interesting…!

Paul shows his concern for the Thessalonians in today’s first five verses and his joy at Timothy’s good news in the next four verses. It’s especially touching to see that he longs to see them face to face (v. 10). That phrase hit me this morning, when I thought about someone in our lives. You may remember a Slovak couple and their four-year-old son, Vlado and Maria and Oliver. They attended St. Andrew’s irregularly (they lived about 100 miles away), but St. Andrew’s effectively became their home church. During a Pastor’s Briefing in December 2016 they said good-bye to the church, thanking us for our reception of them and the strengthening of their faith that had occurred in their times with us. Slightly built, small Maria was especially touching – near tears as to how Father David and St. Andrew’s had brought her back to faith.

We visited them in Poland in the summer of 2017 and baptized them with Mark Bruner in a public swimming pool in Czechia. Then we also visited them in Slovakia in 2019, always desiring to encourage them and strengthen their faith. They have really missed our worship services and had been in the early planning stages to visit us when the CV pandemic hit. HOWEVER, with our worship services videotaped we were able to forward those links to them and they have been with us online for the past three weeks. Then we SKYPE’d with them each day after the service. So, we have mirrored (and imitated) Paul, with our concern and love for them and finally seeing them “face to face”. It has been as touching for us as I’m sure it was for Paul!

I can’t help wondering about Silas. In Acts 18:5 Luke reports that Silas and Timothy had come from Macedonia to Corinth where Paul was staying. But we only read about Timothy being sent on his round trip to Macedonia, to the Thessalonians – no word about Silas. Then I thought Silas might have been sent to Philippi, but only Timothy is mentioned in Paul’s letter to the Philippians (v. 1:1). Also, after the beating and jail time in Philippi I wondered about Silas’ desire to return!! But then I imagined, reading clearly outside the pages, that Silas might have been sent to Berea – I imagine a letter from Paul to the Bereans similar to I Thessalonians that has never been recovered. But I’m going too far afield…!! Please forgive…!

Slava Bohu!

I Thessalonians 2:13-20

Please forgive my focus on the triads! But when you look for the triads, you find them. The triad in verse 19 is clear: hope, joy, crown of boasting. But another is more hidden in verses 13 and 14: …you received … and accepted the word of God… (v. 13), you became imitators of the churches … in Judea (v. 14), and you suffered the same things from your own countrymen (v. 14). One thing worth noting about this second triad – whereas some triads are simply listings, as in verse 19, the triad in verses 13 and 14 is sequential: You received the word, you became imitators, you suffered.

In Paul’s letter he is affirming what Luke had written in Acts 17: …you suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they (Judean Christians) did from the Jews (v. 14b). You may recall that Judean Christians were being murdered (Stephen in Acts 8, James in Acts 12) and that in Acts 17 Jews from Philippi had come to Thessalonica to create [made] havoc for Paul, driving him out of town whereupon he headed to Berea. Paul has three references (vv. 14, 16, and 17) to their harsh treatment in Thessalonica. We’ve already seen Paul in Galatians 1, 2 affirm Luke in Acts 9. We’ll see this on other occasions in Paul’s letters.

Slava Bohu!

I Thessalonians 2:1-12

The triads… Once you are aware of them, you tend to see them quite often. I counted three today; the first two are obvious: …how holy and righteous and blameless was our conduct… (v. 10) and …we exhorted … and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God… (v. 11). But the third triad is hidden a bit in verses 5 and 6: For we never came with words of flattery, … nor with a pretext for greed (v. 5) … Nor did we seek glory from people… (v. 6).

This third triad is more interesting. Paul is talking about how he might be preaching – actually how his preaching could have been misguided. First he could have come trying to win coverts with flattery, making the Thessalonians feel good about themselves. Or he might have come preaching and asking for their support – I so remember a “teaching” that I attended in my early born-again years where the last half of the two-hour “teaching” was their need for support to maintain their ministry. Turned me off!! Finally, Paul could have courted praise from his listeners, winning them over with HIS (not the Lord’s) manner and elocution. Again, misguided. Instead Paul spoke as a person …approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel… not to please man, but to please God. (v. 4) There’s a bottom-line message in all that for us: we must be genuine when we share the Gospel. Our listeners will see right through any insincerity in our words or in our hearts. We are entrusted with Jesus’ Gospel. Don’t misuse it!

Slava Bohu!

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!

Acts 18:12-28

It was hard to organize today’s reading without breaking it up into smaller pieces. There’s a lot going on in these 17 verses. Paul starts in Corinth, moves on to Ephesus, then to Caesarea, then Jerusalem (maybe; see below), then Antioch, then Galatia and Phrygia – with more activity at Ephesus as we end our reading. But the real confusion comes in the likelihood that Paul wrote I and II Thessalonians while he was in Corinth. So where to split chapter 18 – how to fit all these things together? So we end up with Paul’s third missionary journey interrupted by his writings to the Thessalonians. We’ll just go with the flow!

So we begin with the Jews hassling Paul again: …the Jews made a united attack on Paul and brought him before the tribunal… (v. 12) The Roman proconsul would have none of it and dismissed them all. So then the Jews …seized Sosthenes, the ruler of the synagogue, and beat him in front of the tribunal. (v. 17) That sounds really strange, except for the introduction that Paul writes back to the Corinthians in his first letter: Paul, called as an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother… (NASB). Is this Sosthenes in Paul’s Corinthian introduction the same man who was beaten in front of the proconsul? And if so, when did he become a “brother”? So maybe the Jews beat Sosthenes because they were angry at losing their case before the proconsul and they took it out on Sosthenes because they suspected him of following Jesus? That’s the only reasonable explanation I can imagine! Strange!

Paul takes Priscilla and Aquila with him to Ephesus and leaves them there, which turned out to be a good move, since Apollos came to Ephesus and had to be instructed correctly by Priscilla and Aquila (vv. 24-26). One wonders why Paul did not leave Priscilla and Aquila in Corinth in the first place – why take them along at all? Clearly Paul was hearing from the Lord in all this!

There’s a lot of travel in verse 22: When he had landed at Caesarea, he went up and greeted the church, and then went down to Antioch. It’s very likely that the church he greeted was the Jerusalem church. Jerusalem is about 2500 feet above sea level – we’ve talked earlier about travelers going “up” to Jerusalem even when it was a journey to the south. In addition, Caesarea is much closer to Jerusalem (about 75 miles) than to Antioch (250 miles), and the verse continues with Paul going “down” to Antioch (to the north and at sea level again). Luke leaves out a lot of intermediate information in today’s reading!

Verse 23 begins Paul’s third missionary journey. We’ll pick that up again after we read through the Thessalonian letters.

Slava Bohu!