PAUL'S FIRST LETTER TO THE THESSALONIANS
INTRODUCTION AND CHAPTER ONE
1 Thess. 1:1-10
INTRODUCTION (Acts 17:1-16; 1 Thess. 3:1-10)
Paul is in Corinth, anxiously awaiting news from Timothy and Silas regarding the status of the church in Thessalonica. Paul had been used to trouble during his first missionary journey. The Jews had run him out of Antioch and Iconium, and had even stoned him at Lystra. Yet for all the trouble he had experienced during his first missionary journey, he had still been able to visit the churches in those cities. In fact, at Lystra he had even returned to the city right after he had been stoned.
During his second missionary journey, Thessalonica proved to be a different matter. After establishing the church at Philippi, he along with Silas and Timothy proceeds on to Thessalonica. He is not forced to leave Philippi; in fact, he does the local magistrates a favor by leaving the city. The magistrates had scourged Paul which was a serious offense in light of the fact that Paul was a Roman citizen, a fact they did not know at the time they had him scourged. When they discovered their error, out of fear they asked him to leave Philippi. Although he now had the upper hand, he complied with their request. He then goes on to Thessalonica where he once more enjoys tremendous success in preaching the gospel.
At Thessalonica, he follows his strategy of evangelizing first the synagogue where a host of people who studied the OT congregated weekly—Jews, proselytes, and God-fearers. (God-fearers were those Gentiles who liked the moral teachings of the synagogue but did not want to become Jewish completely because they did not want to submit to the rite of circumcision.) After approximately 3 weeks of Paul preaching in the synagogue, the Jewish leaders shut the door of the synagogue in Paul’s face and refuse to allow him to preach there anymore. When Paul continues preaching to the people of the city with success, the Jews then stir up some rabble rousers to attack Paul. When they are unable to find Paul, they turn on Jason, one of the members of the newly established church. They haul him before the magistrates and accuse him of being associated with Paul, a man they claim to be guilty of treason. According to the rabble rousers, Paul is preaching sedition by claiming Jesus to be the king. (Now whereas it is true that Paul was proclaiming Jesus to be the king in the kingdom of God, Jesus was not a threat to the Roman Empire, as Pilate himself had asserted at Jesus' trial.) The magistrates then make Jason serve as guarantee that Paul would leave the city and trouble them no more. No longer is the issue between Paul and the magistrates; now Jason is involved. If Paul continues in the city, Jason and not he will suffer the consequences. In order to protect his flock, Paul with Silas and Timothy leaves the city.
Paul then heads for Berea, Athens, and finally Corinth. Leaving Berea, Paul naturally becomes very anxious about the flock at Thessalonica. Several of the prominent women of that city became attached to the faith. How are they being treated by their husbands now that the governing authorities are coming down against Paul? The Jews lied about Paul when he was in Thessalonica, charging him with sedition; what are they now saying about him now that he has left the city and cannot defend himself? These Jews do not care about the truth; they just want Paul and his movement crushed in Thessalonica, and nothing is going to prevent them from accomplishing that.
In order to discover about the situation in Thessalonica, Paul sends Timothy back to Thessalonica. Yet even that is not enough. Later, Paul sends Silas back to Thessalonica. Although he himself could not reenter the city at this time, the magistrates had said nothing about his 2 companions. Now look at this situation. Paul is completely alone here in Athens. He knows no one there and is headed off to Corinth by himself—a city he has apparently never visited. Although he is bringing great hardship upon himself by sending back Timothy and Silas, even endangering himself by traveling alone, he endures it so that he can take care of his flock at Thessalonica. Finally, Paul reaches Corinth where he anxiously awaits news from Silas and Timothy.
When Silas and Timothy meet Paul in Corinth, he discovers that his fears have been justified. The Jews have continued to attack both him and those from Thessalonica who embraced his gospel. First, the Jews claimed that Paul did not care about the Thessalonians. They said: "How can Paul claim to care about you when he deserts you the moment things get hot for him around here? That's not love!" The very ones who drove him out of Thessalonica and who made it impossible for him to return made that claim! Next, these Jews accused him of preaching the gospel out of greedy motives. They claimed that the money he was collecting was not for the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering as he pretended; he was actually lining his pockets with the hard-earned money of the Thessalonians. Third, they cast suspicion upon his relationship with the women of Thessalonica: "Did you see the number of women attaching themselves to Paul’s movement? There may be some sexual enticement going on between Paul and the women. I mean, look, he stayed with a woman (Lydia) in Philippi!"
Paul had other concerns too, though, about the church which were justified. There were naturally some doctrinal problems in the church at Thessalonica. It was natural that they had doctrinal problems because Paul had not been able to spend enough time with them to teach them all the different Christian truths. Some of the Christians were worried about those loved ones who had become Christians and had died before Christ returned. What would happen to these loved ones? Were they going to miss out on the benefits of the resurrection? Some of the Christians were having ethical problems in that they were not working. They might have misunderstood Paul's teaching about the second coming and thought they did not have to work because Christ was going to return at any moment. In the meantime, they had no income and were draining the resources of the other Christians in Thessalonica, Christians who were already in dire financial straits because of the economic persecution leveled against them by the Jews and civil authorities.
The main item in their report, though, is the most important one. Silas and Timothy report that although all these different elements are playing a role in the Thessalonian church, the Thessalonians are nevertheless faithful and loyal to the gospel of Jesus Christ. They are suffering persecution; however, God performed such a work in their lives through the gospel that they remained loyal to Jesus Christ. For this Paul is extremely grateful and now writes as a father to his spiritual children who may be experiencing troubles at home but nevertheless are faithful and loyal to what their spiritual father taught them.
Before we look at the letter itself, we need to bear in mind an important element operating here. Paul does not want the Thessalonian congregation to desert him for a very good reason. Like all pastors, Paul wants his flock to remain faithful to him as he has been faithful to them. Few people in a church realize the way their pastors feel about them. The pastors pray for their flocks continually. Nearly everything they do focuses on developing those the Lord has committed to their care. Sometimes a member of a flock leaves his pastor and joins the flock of another pastor; that proves to be painful to that pastor. In fact, Paul warns against other pastors proselytizing the flock of another pastor (2 Cor. 10:12-18). In this case, though, the flock is not simply in danger of leaving Paul for another flock but is actually in danger of leaving Christ. These Thessalonians are not engaged in church-hopping; they are in danger of church-rejecting. Rejecting the pastor of a church today is one matter; rejecting Paul is quite a different matter. No pastor today fills the role of apostle, designated spokesman for Jesus Christ, who writings are inspired. Rejecting Paul is tantamount to rejecting Christ. Their very spiritual life depends upon remaining true to the church Paul the apostle has established in Thessalonica.
SALUTATION (1:1)
When you come to 1 Thessalonians, you need to remember that what we have before us is a genuine letter. Although it will contain numerous theological points, it nevertheless is a real letter between Paul and his flock at Thessalonica. As such, this letter follows the format of other letters written by people in the first century. Normally, when we write letters, we include first the name of the person we're addressing, the contents of the letter, and finally our own names at the end of the letter. In the first century, people started their letters by writing their names, then the names of the recipients of the letters, followed by a formal greeting. For this reason, Paul writes: "Paul and Silvanus and Timothy [authors] to the church of the Thessalonians [recipients] in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace [greeting]." In other words, the authors of this letter include Paul, Silvanus (Silas) and Timothy, while the recipients are the church members at Thessalonica, and the greeting is "Grace to you and peace."
Now Paul does something creative with the greeting itself. When the Jews greeted someone, they said: "Peace," literally shalom. We see this in the second part of Paul's greeting. The Greeks, on the one hand, greeted people with "Joy!” the Greek word being chara. Paul, though, modifies the Greek greeting from chara to charis, which translated means "grace." For Paul, the basis of genuine joy is the grace God gives us in Jesus Christ.
What does Paul mean by this unique greeting, and why does he combine the 2 forms of greeting (the Greek with the Hebrew)? First, he may be combining the 2 greetings in order to stress the fact that God's people are no longer restricted to being Jews only, which would have been reinforced if he had just said: "Peace" (shalom). Instead, by combining the Greek and Hebrew greetings, he is implying that both Jews and Greeks/Gentiles are now welcome into God's people.
Second, by the word "grace" Paul means (1) God's favorable attitude towards mankind (2) which shows itself by sending Jesus to die on the cross for us so that we might have eternal life. In fact, Jesus is such the epitome of grace that Paul actually calls Him “God’s kindness” in Titus 3:4. In other words, God is not ticked off at us. He loves us and wants us to experience HIS life. Yes, He does have wrath; He directs that wrath against any and everything which destroys God's creation. By "peace," Paul is referring to the results of God's gracious attitude towards you and me. When we experience God's peace, we are not experiencing just a lack of hostility from God, we are actually experiencing a positive relationship with God which gives us the very life that God Himself experiences. By combining the 2, Paul means that the only way to experience God's peace is to experience God's grace. Many of us want to have God's life by doing our own thing our own way; that will NEVER happen. The only way to experience God's life is to receive the grace which comes only through Jesus Christ.
Just a side note here. Most Biblical scholars claim that "peace" is actually a synonym for "salvation." They claim that peace is such a part of salvation that it can actually come to stand for salvation.
THANKSGIVING (1:2-4)
Like other letters written in the first century, Paul follows his greeting with a word of thanks for the Thessalonians. When you read this thanksgiving, you need to understand that Paul is breathing a huge sigh of relief. He has just received news that the Thessalonians have remained faithful to Christ and have not been negatively influenced by the Jewish opposition in Thessalonica. This thanksgiving far surpasses just the regular word of thanks people would write in their letters. He is greatly relieved by the news he's received.
Three elements make up Paul's thanksgiving for the Thessalonians and all 3 relate to the situation in Thessalonica. First, he gives thanks to God for them while in prayer. Ultimately, this is not just a matter between him and the Thessalonians. The church he has established there is not your local YMCA; rather, it is the church of God. What is going on there involves none other than God Himself. Their very spiritual life depends upon their response to Paul because he accurately represents Jesus to them.
The second element he thanks God for is their (1) work of faith, (2) labor of love, and (3) steadfastness of hope in the Lord Jesus.
(Before we move onto the third element in the thanksgiving, note that in this second element Paul lists the 3 main ethical elements which should dominate a Christian's life: faith, hope, and love. Paul will periodically return to this triad because for him it is the essence of the Christian life.)
Third, the ultimate cause for him thanking God for the Thessalonians is that God has chosen them for salvation. God's election unfortunately has caused a lot of problems among Christians. Some, headed by Calvin, have made this an onerous doctrine. He portrays God as a capricious God who before the foundation of the world simply chose some for salvation and the rest for damnation. "You’re going to heaven, and you're going to hell!" If Christ is truly the ultimate revelation of God, then that view of election is simply not true because the Biblical Jesus would never engage in such activity. Rather it teaches that you and I left to ourselves will never come to Him for salvation. Instead, God out of His great love and mercy has reached down to us so that we might truly enter into salvation. As he will show us in just a moment, Paul is ultimately grateful that God has chosen them.
EVIDENCE OF THEIR ELECTION (1:5-10)
Paul has stated absolutely that God has chosen them for salvation. How can he be so sure that God has chosen the Thessalonians? He knows God has chosen them, because of what he experienced in Thessalonica and because of how they responded to his preaching of the gospel. First, when Paul preached the gospel to the Thessalonians, he sensed a real moving of God's Spirit. His message was not comprised simply of words. Words are necessary for communicating the gospel; however, words alone don't save a person. Power attached to those words is what saves a person. Not just any power though. It must be the power of the Holy Spirit, and that is exactly the power that was operating in Thessalonica. When someone wonders how can you be sure it is the power of the Spirit at work, then they are showing they do not really know and understand the Spirit. Those who have truly met Jesus through the Spirit readily recognize His moving in the hearts of people. (Paul parenthetically points to the way he and his companions conducted themselves among the Thessalonians; this is a subtle defense against those Jews who were attacking him in Thessalonica. He will return to address this more fully in chapter 2.)
On the other hand, the changed lives of the Thessalonians also pointed to God's choosing them for salvation. They became imitators not only of Paul but also of the Lord Jesus Himself by receiving the word not simply during times of ease but during times of much tribulation. The word "tribulation" has at its core the idea of being pressed, the pressing of olives in the olive press. The Thessalonians were severely pressed by the Jews who were ostracizing them, persecuting them economically, and even slandering them among their fellow Thessalonians. In fact, Jews were known to pronounce any of their loved ones dead and hold a funeral for them if they accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior. (The movie Fiddler On the Roof addresses just this very issue.) Now most people would collapse under such pressure. Not so the Thessalonians. Instead, they responded with joy. Not just any joy like we experience when everything goes our way. This is a joy not based upon any circumstances but rather based purely upon the presence of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer. He gives us the power to rejoice when there is no earthly reason to rejoice. He also impresses upon us the hope that only Jesus gives, the hope that one day He will return and save completely His people, that is, those who have persevered and remained faithful in their relationship with Him.
Verses 7-10 basically expand upon the way Paul knew that God had chosen the Thessalonians, the changed lifestyle of the Thessalonians. Not only did Paul experience an unusual movement of God's Spirit among the Thessalonians, not only did the Thessalonians themselves change, those around them also attested to the fact that God had moved in their lives. The Thessalonians did not silently receive the gospel. They became vocal advocates of the gospel: "For the word of the Lord has sounded forth from you, not only in Macedonia and Achaia but also in every place your faith toward God has gone forth." The word "sounded" literally means the blast of a trumpet. In spite of perseuction, they joyfully trumpeted the good news about Jesus. Their testimony about Jesus spread far and wide.
How could this be? First, Thessalonica was not a dinky little town in the backwaters of the Roman empire; it was the administrative seat of the Roman district of Macedonia, a major Roman province. Moreover, the main road which linked Rome to the eastern part of the Roman Empire, the Via Ignatia, ran right thorugh Thessalonica. Caravans and merchants passing through Thessalonica received news about this movement of God among the Thessalonians and spread this news wherever they went. Paul was in Corinth at this time, and 2 of his main associates there were Priscilla and Aquila who were from Rome. They had probably heard about the Thessalonians while in Rome and had shared this good news with Paul. The news about the Thessalonians had spread so far and wide that Paul had not even needed to tell anybody about their conversion.
The main content of their reputation was that (1) they had joyfully received Paul and his companions and (2) they had turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God and to wait for His Son from heaven. By reminding them of their reception of him, Paul is concretizing his relationship with them. He wants to encourage them to remain faithful to him.
Before we leave chapter one, we need to see what Paul has done in his greeting and thanksgiving. These are no normal greeting and thanksgiving. Rather, in these 10 verses Paul has basically outlined the contents of 1 Thessalonians. In the remaining chapters he will expand upon the kind of person he had been among the Thessalonians (chapters 2-3) and will also expand in chapters 4-5 the topic of the second coming of Christ. He will address other elements in this introduction; however, these 2 will dominate the letter.