Bible Diary - 2 Thessalonians 1:1-12
February 15, 2008
Grace and peace. Isn’t that exactly what you and I wish for those we love? It starts with the gracious gift from God for all that we need for our well-being and ends with the peace of mind of knowing that everything is under control, even when it seems that chaos reigns. The flip side of grace and peace is anxiety and hopelessness.
Salutation
1:1 From Paul and Silvanus and Timothy, to the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 1:2 Grace and peace to you from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!
Thanksgiving
1:3 We ought to thank God always for you, brothers and sisters, and rightly so, because your faith flourishes more and more and the love of each one of you all for one another is ever greater. 1:4 As a result we ourselves boast about you in the churches of God for your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and afflictions you are enduring.
Encouragement in Persecution
1:5 This is evidence of God’s righteous judgment, to make you worthy of the kingdom of God, for which in fact you are suffering. 1:6 For it is right for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, 1:7 and to you who are being afflicted to give rest together with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels. 1:8 With flaming fire he will mete out punishment on those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 1:9 They will undergo the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his strength, 1:10 when he comes to be glorified among his saints and admired on that day among all who have believed – and you did in fact believe our testimony. 1:11 And in this regard we pray for you always, that our God will make you worthy of his calling and fulfill by his power your every desire for goodness and every work of faith, 1:12 that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
It sounds like the church at Thessalonica is suffering from persecution, not unlikely in those early years under Roman rule and the Jewish stubbornness which refused to see the place of Gentiles in God’s economy. It also sounds like they have not lost the hope of one day, perhaps soon, experiencing the return of Jesus and the comeuppance of their persecutors.
What does Paul mean by being counted worthy of a calling that sometimes brings suffering and pain? I have read a lot about the experience of combat in wartime, partly because I have escaped being tested in this way. Observers say that every man is born with a bottle of courage, Some with more; some with less. Sooner or later the bottle runs dry. How big is my bottle of courage? Until I am tested, I will never know, and somehow that bothers me. I think what Paul sayng here is courage to become worthy of suffering in Christ’s name is a gift - not given until the time of need. I don’t need to worry about “my” bottle of courage.
Dave
-sdg-
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