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- What attributes of God’s character does this passage reveal?
- How does the passage point to Jesus?
- How should the truth of this passage change me?
- How do the events of today’s reading help you better understand the grand narrative of Scripture?
1 Thes. 1-2
In his greeting, Paul thanks God for the way the Thessalonian Christians live. What he describes is a life that is free from sin and enslaved to God. Don’t let that word “enslaved” trip you up. This isn’t a picture of weary servants under an impossible task-master. No, that is the image of a life lived under the law; the life Jesus came to save us from. For those who receive God’s gospel as the Thessalonians did, “not as a human message, but as it truly is, the word of God, which also works effectively in you who believe” (1 Thes. 2:13b), however, life looks a lot different. When you live such a life it will display, “your work produced by faith, your labor motivated by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Thes. 1:2b).
1 Thes. 3-4
It’s nice to read a letter of encouragement from Paul, rather than his seemingly usual letters of reprimand and correction. His concern was that his afflictions would shake the young Thessalonian believers’ faith. What I hear Paul saying in this goes way beyond a “don’t give up” message. He actually told them to double down on what they were already doing. The more evil rears its ugly head, by way of persecution, corruption, deceit, or whatever, the more we need to share the love God gave us with one another.
1 Thes. 5
Paul seems to speak of two different forms of “asleep” and “awake” here. He speaks of those who have died as those who have fallen asleep. Yet he also seems to use the asleep / awake analogy to depict those who are going their own way versus those who are ready and waiting for Christ’s return. In a way, then, I guess you could say that Paul is speaking of the same thing in each case. Those who are asleep are the dead, whether physically or spiritually. In the same way, those who are awake are alive.
That perspective puts an interesting twist on the statement, “the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night.” (1 Thes. 5:2b). I always took that statement to mean that Christ’s return would come suddenly and unexpectedly. And to a point, it does. However, Paul goes on to say that, because we are not in the dark, this day won’t surprise us like a thief. What I’m seeing, then is that, because those who live in the dark are spiritually dead, Christ’s sudden return will steal the life they thought they had. For those of us who are alive in Christ, however, because we live in the day, Christ’s return won’t catch us off guard; He will not be like a thief to us. Instead, we know that He comes to give us ultimate salvation and true, eternal life, whether we are physically dead or alive.