1 Thessalonians 1

Study Guide 148: 1 Thessalonians THE WORD: HEARD AND LIVED Overview Many believe that the Thessalonian letters are the earliest written by Paul. Though the apostle and his team had little time in Thessalonica (cf. Acts 17:2), the church he founded there grew rapidly, and reached out to promote the Gospel in the surrounding province. Paul’ s letter is one of warm encouragement, a restatement of many truths which he had already taught them. The book can be outlined simply, using the theme of the Word of God and response to it.

Outline I. The Word Heard1Th_1:1-10 II. The Word Shared2:1-3:13 III. The Word Lived4:1-5:28Two characteristics of this letter suggest a special study approach. First, it is rich in a variety of repeated themes. This suggests that a thematic study, rather than a verse-by-verse or paragraph-by-paragraph exploration can be helpful. Second, the book is personal, expressing beautifully how the Apostle Paul himself went about sharing God’ s Word with his converts. This suggests a special exploration of relationships in ministry. Each of these approaches is taken in our present study of this small, but exciting, New Testament letter. And each will prove especially enriching to those you teach, seeking as Paul to help them live lives worthy of our Lord.

Commentary We know from Acts that Paul did not stay long in Thessalonica. The disturbance described in Acts 17:1-34 forced the missionaries out of the city; later attempts by Paul to return were blocked (see 1 Thessalonians 2:17-18). Yet, looking at this early missionary letter, we see how quickly Paul communicated core truth to new converts, and the impact the truth had. “ You became imitators of us and of the Lord,” Paul reminded his Thessalonian readers. “ The Lord’ s message rang out from you . . . your faith in God has become known everywhere. . . . How you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead — Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath” (1 Thessalonians 1:6-10). Paul here pointed out the complete reorientation that came when people of the first century grasped the meaning of the Gospel’ s core. A personal God lives. The God of the universe calls us to know and serve Him. This God invaded history in the person of His Son, and through His Son’ s death and resurrection God rescues us from coming judgment. Jesus’ return testifies to the promise that the universe has an end as well as a beginning. Within the framework of the Gospel’ s glowing revelation of reality, individuals could once again find meaning, purpose, and joy. The underlying reality is God Himself. The life-transforming fact is that this God calls us into personal relationship with Himself! We get a clearer impression of Paul’ s exposition of core truth through Charles Horne’ s discussion (in the Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia) of the doctrines referred to in the two Thessalonian letters: First, as respects the doctrine of God, Paul indicates that there is one true God (1 Thessalonians 1:9). From this one true and living God the Gospel is derived (1 Thessalonians 2:2). To Him they submit themselves for approval of their labor (1 Thessalonians 2:4, 1 Thessalonians 2:10). He providentially directs their lives (1 Thessalonians 3:11), and He is the one who will perfect the Thessalonians at the coming of Christ (1 Thessalonians 5:23). He has both chosen them (1 Thessalonians 2:4) and is even now calling them unto His own kingdom and glory (1 Thessalonians 2:12). And this God is faithful; He will accomplish the work which He has begun (1 Thessalonians 5:24). Second, as respects the doctrine of Christ, the apostle so unites the Son with the Father that their essential unity is indicated (1 Thessalonians 1:1). He is described as “ the Lord,” the common term for God among the Jews of this time. Third, as respects the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, the apostle teaches that it is the Spirit who makes the message effective in the hearts of the hearers (1 Thessalonians 1:5). The Spirit gives joy in affliction (1 Thessalonians 1:6); the Spirit calls believers to a holiness like His own (1 Thessalonians 1:7). . . . Fourth, as respects the doctrine of eschatology, the apostle has considerable to set forth. From the futuristic perspective the “ obtaining of salvation” is principally conceived in the Thessalonian epistles (1 Thessalonians 5:9; 2 Thessalonians 2:14). The basic emphasis theologically in the Thessalonian epistles is eschatological. The definite announcement of the Second Coming rounds off each step in the apostolic argument. The new converts had been firmly grounded in core truth. A new view of reality, penetrating beyond the mists of illusion and empty human reasoning to the Person who made the universe for His own good and loving purposes, literally revolutionized the lives of first-century people. LINK TO LIFE: YOUTH / ADULT Ask your group to take the role of first-century pagans. Most believe in no gods, but think all is ruled by fate. Nearly all try to placate or manipulate whatever spiritual powers there may be by making offerings nevertheless. Some have turned to mystery faiths, which feature entry rituals much like the rituals of contemporary lodges. All view the material world as permanent; none foresees a resurrection; most fear a dark and empty half-life after death. Divide into teams, each of which is to read at least two chapters of 1 Thessalonians and to make a list of everything they learn about this God the apostle preaches. What is He like? What does He do? What are His concerns? What changes in one’ s view of life and its meaning would He make? Come together again to hear reports, and to begin to sense through each team’ s discovery just how revolutionary Christian truth we take for grated today was in the first-century world.

The Power of Love It would be a mistake to believe that the New Testament church captured the first-century world on the power of a “ better idea” alone. Paul did not preach a new philosophy. The response of new converts was, at heart, a response to a personal God who, in Jesus, offers forgiveness and an endless relationship with Himself. This is the Gospel’ s real power. The revelation of God as a Person who loves came as a jolting surprise in the first century. W.W. Tarn, in Hellenistic Civilization (London, Edward Arnold), notes that two vital elements in the new religion, quite apart from the figure of the Founder, had no counterpart in Hellenistic thought. The first was the revelation of personal immortality and resurrection. The second was the fact that: Of all the Hellenistic creeds, none was based on love of humanity; none had any message for the poor and the wretched, the publican and the sinner. Those who labored and were heavy laden were to welcome a different hope from any which Hellenism could offer. The mystery cults offered initiates a mystical association. Help was given in case of illness and with burial costs. But cult members were not family. Their god or goddess did not love them, nor were the initiate’ s fellows brothers and sisters bound together in a mutual commitment of love. And then the Gospel message came. God loved them. Christ died for them, according to the Scriptures. God invited them to receive forgiveness of sins and to become a member of His family, forever. The message of the Gospel was then, as now, the stunning word that God seeks to establish a permanent personal relationship with you!It was the personal dimension of the Gospel message, even more than its core truth, that captured hearts. When Paul addressed the Thessalonians and wrote, “ Brothers loved by God, we know that He has chosen you,” he was striking a totally new chord (1 Thessalonians 1:4) Essentially Paul’ s mission was to communicate not only the truth about God, but also the love of God. So, how did He communicate the love of God? And how does the New Testament indicate that we are to communicate today the wonder of personal relationship? Paul’ s time in Thessalonica. Paul and his companions had gone to Thessalonica early in his second missionary journey (about a.d. 49). Acts 17:1-34 tells us that he first approached the Jewish community and for three Sabbaths presented the Gospel. It’ s likely that he stayed in this Greek city for up to six months, until finally the Jews marshaled opposition and expelled him. Thus the Christian church there was largely composed of Gentiles (1 Thessalonians 1:9; 1 Thessalonians 2:14; Acts 17:4). Thessalonica, as was typical of the cities in which Paul chose to found new churches, was located on the main highway from east to west, had a good harbor, and was a trade center. It was also the largest and most important city in Macedonia, and its capital. The church founded there was a vigorous one; it grew rapidly, both in size and commitment. “ You became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. The Lord’ s message rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia — your faith in God has become known everywhere” (1 Thessalonians 1:7-8). Since this letter was written in a.d. 50 or 51, it is clear that the Gospel not only took root quickly but also that within a very short time this new church moved out aggressively to plant more churches through out the province of Macedonia. Paul had not only succeeded in communicating God’ s love and the reality of a personal relationship with Jesus. He had somehow equipped the new believers to communicate that same relationship to others. Perhaps this is what Paul meant in Acts 1:1-26 when he wrote, “ You became imitators of us and of the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 1:6). Turning from their empty idols, they joyfully committed themselves to know and to serve the “ living and true God” and were willing to “ wait for His Son from heaven” (1 Thessalonians 1:9-10). These new believers embraced both the relationship and the content of the Gospel. Reality. Looking at 1 Thessalonians 2:1-20, we begin to sense how Paul and others in the first century communicated the reality of this Gospel relationship. The means is so simple and so obvious that we might tend to overlook it when we read this epistle. Yet, it rests on a profound and basic principle. The Scriptures claim to reveal the truth about life and its meaning. We’ re told in its core truths about a God who created the universe in which we live. We’ re told that He created man in His own image, and that even though man sinned, God determined to redeem him. We’ re told that one day Jesus, who was born into the real world, who lived and died here and was resurrected bodily and ascended into heaven, where He now is with the Father, will one day return in triumph. The great questions about the origin, the meaning, and the goal of the universe are given a distinctive and positive answer. We’ re told that this is an accurate description of reality; that one day we will be present when God’ s Son returns from heaven. Then we will know, because we will participate in that great final denouement. But we must take all these affirmations on faith. We cannot test these realities personally. We cannot experience them directly now. The core truths of the Gospel are true. We believe them. But we cannot test them experientially. However, the Gospel also presents relational truth! The Bible affirms that God loves us and that, to Him, each person is a precious and valuable individual, worth even the ultimate sacrifice. The Bible claims that when you and I respond to Jesus, God draws us into His family; we become His sons and daughters, and we become brothers and sisters in a new and loving community. This Gospel truth is also presented as reality. And this reality we can experience now! We can test it experientially! We can know the love of God as He loves us through His family. This theme occurs so often in Scripture that it is hard to see how we sometimes miss it. “ Christ’ s love compels us” (2 Corinthians 5:14). “ You are a letter from Christ,” he explained, “ written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts” (2 Corinthians 3:3). The living personality of the Christian becomes the message as God writes His own character and personality on us. No wonder Jesus gave us the new commandment to “ love one another as I have loved you” (John 13:34). The reality of the love of God is communicated in our love, both for one another, and for the lost for whom Christ died. The Gospel claims about relationship are testable. And the test of that reality is love. The pattern. 1 Thessalonians 2:1-20, and particularly 1 Thessalonians 2:7-12, give us a picture of the intimate relationships which characterized Paul’ s own ministry in this new church. The picture is all the more striking when we realize how short a time Paul had with them. It is a picture of a person who validates his message of love by loving. We were gentle among you, like a mother caring for her little children. We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the Gospel of God but our lives as well because you had become so dear to us. Surely you remember, brothers, our toil and hardship; we worked night and day in order not to be a burden to anyone while we preached the Gospel of God to you. You are witnesses, and so is God, of how holy, righteous and blameless we were among you who believed. For you know that we dealt with each of you as a father deals with his own children, encouraging, comforting, and urging you to live lives worthy of God, who calls you into His kingdom and glory. 1 Thessalonians 2:7-12A stranger might come to town and propound new doctrines in order to gain a following. In the New Testament world, it was expected that such an itinerant teacher would come, and that he would make a living on the fees he charged his disciples before he moved on. But no passing philosopher or proselytizer would ever arrive, undergo hardships to support himself, and actually love those he taught! No one had ever before shared himself as well as his philosophy. No one had ever spoken of a father-child relationship with a loving God, and then gone on to actually treat his disciples with that same tender family love he insisted that God offers. Paul’ s communication of the Gospel characteristically involved building a personal relationship with new believers, in which the reality of God’ s love would be experienced, now. LINK TO LIFE: YOUTH / ADULT In a minilecture, briefly sketch the role of love in validating the Gospel message in the first century. Then have your group members break into teams. Each should study 1 Thessalonians 2:7-12, and answer the first — plus one of the next two — questions. If you were a new believer in Thessalonica, how would you know that Paul loved you? How might you demonstrate love to a non-Christian friend, and thus communicate the relational dimension of the Gospel? Or, how, in a modern local church, might this kind of love find expression? List at least 20 practical ways in which members might “ love one another.” The dynamic church of the New Testament — as well as the dynamic church of every age — is a church in which the twin thrusts of truth and love are understood and kept in balance. Just as there is a place in evangelism for the presentation of core truths, so there must be a place in evangelism for communicating the love of God, through building personal, loving relationships with others.

Transformation Hellenistic religions and philosophies did have moral content. Some were highly ethical and proposed strict standards, while others seemed actually to foster immorality. But none gave the adherent any real hope. Then the message of Jesus broke out on the world with the promise that not only would believers have a new relationship with God, but they would also become new and different people as well! Christianity promised the power to become righteous. True to this promise, believers in Thessalonica began to experience a progressive transformation that touched every aspect of their personalities. “ Your faith is growing more and more, and the love every one of you has for each other is increasing,” Paul wrote in his second letter (2 Thessalonians 1:3). The capacity to trust and the freedom to love were increasingly characteristic of these young believers. God was working an inner transformation. Looking yet again through the Thessalonian epistles, we gain a clear impression of the extent of the transformation that Christianity provides. Anxiety and fear marred many lives, then as now. Increasingly the Thessalonians were able to act in faith, trusting not only God but one another (see 1 Thessalonians 1:3, 1 Thessalonians 1:10; also 2 Thessalonians 1:3-4). Even when suffering affliction, these men and women were able to retain their confidence (1 Thessalonians 3:4). Isolation was as much a fact of first-century life as of our own. Individualism created the lonely crowd then as now. But when Christ entered a person’ s life, this changed. Increasingly the new believers developed the capacity to care. As a result, they reached out in love to others, and others drew close to them as well. Barriers between people of differing cultures were breached as Christ’ s transforming power brought a new freedom to love (1 Thessalonians 1:3; 1 Thessalonians 2:7-11; 1 Thessalonians 3:6-10, 1 Thessalonians 3:12; 1 Thessalonians 4:9-10; 1 Thessalonians 5:13). Love for God and man became a reality. Moral compromise was replaced by steadfastness and commitment. The courage to live by inner convictions, unswayed by circumstance, developed naturally with growth in the new faith (1 Thessalonians 1:3; 1 Thessalonians 2:14; 1 Thessalonians 3:4, 1 Thessalonians 3:8). Motivations also underwent an increasingly dramatic change. The self-interest, materialism, natural drives, and passions that once controlled thoughts and actions were replaced by new values and desires (1 Thessalonians 1:6; 1 Thessalonians 2:4-6, 1 Thessalonians 2:14; 1 Thessalonians 3:3; 1 Thessalonians 4:3-6, 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12; 1 Thessalonians 5:8, 1 Thessalonians 5:12). The very core of the personality underwent a gradual transformation as believers experienced more and more of the power of Jesus Christ. Personal failures, an inability to be what they wanted to be, must have nagged first-century men and women even as it does us today. But disappointment and shame were gradually replaced too as believers discovered a new power for holiness. God’ s transformation worked within to make these growing believers more and more like the Lord (1 Thessalonians 3:12; 1 Thessalonians 4:1, 1 Thessalonians 4:3, 1 Thessalonians 4:7; 1 Thessalonians 5:23). Lack of goals and meaning plagued many lives. With Christ, even this changed. The letters to Thessalonica show us that a new sense of purpose and meaning, which could be expressed practically in daily life, now gripped the believers. A commitment to good deeds, to honest work, and to right behavior took on fresh and deeper meaning as Christians recognized that every action could reflect credit on their Lord (1 Thessalonians 4:1, 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12; 1 Thessalonians 5:14-15). Daily duties as well as the privilege of serving others began to bring new satisfaction. The newness of this life did not come from improved circumstances or from sudden prosperity. The newness of these Christians’ lives was deeply rooted within the believers’ own personalities. The fulfilled promise of transformation is part of the secret of the early church’ s power. “ Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed” (Romans 12:2) lost all tinge of mockery, and brought a living hope. This transformation is not automatic. It wasn’ t in New Testament times, and it’ s not today. But transformation is uniquely provided in the Holy Spirit’ s working, through distinctive resources closely associated with God’ s Word. We saw in 1 Thessalonians 2:1-20 that God communicates His love through human beings. His truth about relationships is validated by love within the body of Christ. It is important to remember that church in the New Testament has an uncluttered meaning. Today we commonly associate the term with a building, Sunday morning services, or an organization with membership, officers, programs, and planned activities. None of these ideas was characteristic of the church of New Testament times. At that time, church meant something basic and clear, namely, community. The church was an assembly of people, called out of the world into the closest of all possible relationships. The church was and is the family of God. Thus church in the Scripture is a relational term. Always in view are the people, who share a common relationship with one Father and with one another as brothers and sisters. In the intimate context of family relationships, God chooses to work His transformation in human lives. It shouldn’ t be too surprising, then, to find that when a person is born again as a child of God, the Lord chooses to put him in this family. Here growth toward Christian maturity takes place. “ Therefore, encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing,” Paul urged the Thessalonians. “ Live in peace with each other. . . . Warn those who are idle, encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient with everyone” (1 Thessalonians 5:11, 1 Thessalonians 5:13-14). The Thessalonian letter helps us see the quality of relationships appropriate to the family of God. As believers strive together to be responsive to the Word, they provide continual examples for each other (1 Thessalonians 1:7; 1 Thessalonians 2:14). Within the family is an intense love, a love that reaches out and seeks to draw others close. “ You yourselves have been taught by God to love each other. And in fact, you do love all the brothers,” Paul praised the Thessalonians (1 Thessalonians 4:9-10). In the closeness of the family, we verbally exhort and instruct each other (1 Thessalonians 2:11; 1 Thessalonians 4:1). In our concern for each other, we comfort and encourage (1 Thessalonians 4:18; 1 Thessalonians 5:14). The love is so real, the belonging so sure, that we don’ t hesitate even to admonish or to discipline (1 Thessalonians 5:14). How wonderful to view the world in a fresh, new way shaped by the core truths communicated in the Word of God. How wonderful to experience even now the reality of God’ s love. And how wonderful to experience personal transformation, aided and encouraged by others in the loving family of our God.

Teaching Guide Prepare Read through 1 Thessalonians, marking both core and relational truths.

Explore Assign roles to your group members as first-century pagans. Then have teams examine 1 Thessalonians, to identify core truths that will change their view of God and the universe. See “ link-to-life” above.

Expand

1. Give a minilecture on the role of relationships in communication of the Gospel.
2. Still in their role as first-century persons, ask your group members to study 1 Thessalonians 2:7-11. How would they know that Paul loved them? How can we demonstrate the relational dimension of the Gospel in our own evangelism or church fellowships? See “ link-to-life” above.
3. Conclude with a minilecture on transformation, as illustrated in 1 Thessalonians. Stress the importance of Christian love as a context for this kind of growth.

Apply Thessalonians emphasizes the importance of core truth, of love, and of transformation. Ask each group member to share which of these has been most important in his or her spiritual journey, and tell how.