The Faith of a Thessalonian: 1 Thessalonians 1:2-10

Before you go any further in this post, I would like to strongly recommend that you ask the Holy Spirit to come alongside you as you read. The Bible makes it clear that we need only ask for His guidance and we will receive it. Jesus said so in John 16:13 like this: "When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own but will tell you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future."

By asking for guidance from the Holy Spirit, it won't matter how much I muck up this post. You'll still get what God intended for you to get from it. ;)

Here are today's verses that we'll look at together:

"We always thank God for all of you and pray for you constantly. As we pray to our God and Father about you, we think of your faithful work, your loving deeds, and the enduring hope you have because of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We know, dear brothers and sisters, that God loves you and has chosen you to be his own people. For when we brought you the Good News, it was not only with words but also with power, for the Holy Spirit gave you full assurance that what we said was true. And you know of our concern for you from the way we lived when we were with you. So you received the message with joy from the Holy Spirit in spite of the severe suffering it brought you. In this way, you imitated both us and the Lord. As a result, you have become an example to all the believers in Greece—throughout both Macedonia and Achaia.

And now the word of the Lord is ringing out from you to people everywhere, even beyond Macedonia and Achaia, for wherever we go we find people telling us about your faith in God. We don’t need to tell them about it, for they keep talking about the wonderful welcome you gave us and how you turned away from idols to serve the living and true God. And they speak of how you are looking forward to the coming of God’s Son from heaven—Jesus, whom God raised from the dead. He is the one who has rescued us from the terrors of the coming judgment." (1 Thessalonians 1:2-10)

The first thing I feel I need to point out here is all the way down in verse 6. I don't know how you're supposed to say "Achaia," but I can't help but pronounce it like "Ikea" the store. And that makes me think of mass produced shelves and beds. But that isn't what we're talking about at all. According to the notes on biblegateway.com, Macedonia and Achaia were "the northern and southern regions of Greece."

Now that I have that out of the way, let's look again at the first two verses in this section:

"We always thank God for all of you and pray for you constantly. As we pray to our God and Father about you, we think of your faithful work, your loving deeds, and the enduring hope you have because of our Lord Jesus Christ." (1 Thessalonians 1:2-3)

Why does it say "we?" If you'll remember to yesterday's introduction, we learned that this letter is written by Paul but he is including Silas and Timothy in his greeting. It's much like when our family writes a letter to our sponsored child. Shaun does all the writing (sometimes we don't even know he did it until it's all done), but he includes all of us as though we are writing too.

I love that Paul then goes on to mention the Thessalonians' faith, love, and hope in the next verse. These are like the big three things you think of when you think of a stereotypical "good Christian" and they are mentioned fairly often throughout the New Testament- often by Paul. We saw these big three in Galatians when we went through it back in June. And now here they are again.

I want to look a little bit closer at that word "hope." This isn't wishful thinking. It's not pie in the sky, unicorns pooping rainbows kind of hope. Instead, this is firm confidence in Jesus. It's solid belief in his return. And in this case, Paul refers to it as "enduring hope," so it's a firm confidence and deeply held belief that never ends and holds up through the good and the bad.

"We know, dear brothers and sisters, that God loves you and has chosen you to be his own people. For when we brought you the Good News, it was not only with words but also with power, for the Holy Spirit gave you full assurance that what we said was true. And you know of our concern for you from the way we lived when we were with you. So you received the message with joy from the Holy Spirit in spite of the severe suffering it brought you. In this way, you imitated both us and the Lord. As a result, you have become an example to all the believers in Greece—throughout both Macedonia and Achaia." (1 Thessalonians 1:4-7)

So, I have Shaun's Study Bible sitting here with me and I'm reading the notes at the bottom because they are awesome and super helpful. Seriously. If you don't have a Study Bible, get one. They are Bible Gold. They are amazing. Every house should have one. I'm a little jealous of Shaun's Study Bible, but that is another post for another time.

Ahem. "Brothers" appears no less than 28 times throughout 1 and 2 Thessalonians. 28 times! Clearly Paul loved and valued this church of new believers. He uses that word to remind them of his love over and over again in his letters to them.

"God loves you and has chosen you." Those words aren't just for the Thessalonians reading this letter. No, they are for us too. God loves me and has chosen me to be his daughter. He loves YOU and has chosen YOU too, dear reader. You are valuable to him. You are loved by him. He needs you and wants you on his team. He is pursuing you with extravagant love (check out Ephesians 5:1-2).

From there, Paul goes on to say that the Thessalonians "received the message with joy from the Holy Spirit." In the New International Version (NIV), it actually says that they "became imitators of us and of the Lord." We are called, as believers, to imitate God (look again at Ephesians 5:1-2). Unfortunately, in doing so, Paul says that the Thessalonians faced severe suffering for it. If you read Acts 17:5-14, you can get an idea of what he was referring to in this verse. Apparently the Jews of that time instigated persecution that was carried out by the Gentiles in the region.

"And now the word of the Lord is ringing out from you to people everywhere, even beyond Macedonia and Achaia, for wherever we go we find people telling us about your faith in God. We don’t need to tell them about it, for they keep talking about the wonderful welcome you gave us and how you turned away from idols to serve the living and true God. And they speak of how you are looking forward to the coming of God’s Son from heaven—Jesus, whom God raised from the dead. He is the one who has rescued us from the terrors of the coming judgment." (1 Thessalonians 1:8-10)

What stands out to me in these last three verses for today is the fact that the news of the Thessalonians' amazing faith traveled far and wide. Obviously in this time, there were no phones, no texts, no social media, no email. Nothing but letters carried very slowly. It could take weeks, months even, to get a letter. And if it had to travel overseas? You might never get it! What if the ship sank or they encountered a storm that required a "lightening of the load?" The letter could be at the bottom of the sea, unread. It's amazing to me that anyone knew anything, let alone that the news of their faith spread so far. They were clearly being true examples of faithful followers. Shaun's Study Bible goes on to tell me that Thessalonica was also a busy sea port. It's like the ancient times water cooler. All the news travels there.

On Monday, we'll look at chapter two where Paul remembers his visit to Thessalonica. I look forward to seeing what God will show us there! In the meantime, have a blessed weekend and a blessed day today!