The Thessalonian church was a remarkable body of believers making a striking impact on their world for Jesus Christ, despite their weakness and persecution. Seeing this causes us to ask, “What made the Thessalonians such dynamic Christians?” The same answer is repeatedly given by Paul: the Thessalonians “received the word” (1:6), the gospel’s having come to them “not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction” (1:5). These believers had been brought to life through the mighty working of God’s Word! And what was their chief conviction regarding the message they received? Paul states: “You received the word of God, … not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God” (2:13). This same question – is the Bible the word of man or of God? – will largely determine the vigor and fidelity of Christians today.

The first part of this question is much disputed today. Is the Bible merely the word of men? In answering this question, we must admit that in a number of important ways, the answer is Yes. This is why Paul refers to the Word “which you heard from us” (v. 13).

The sixty-six books of the Bible were written down by real men, with all their limitations and peculiarities. The Bible did not fall down from heaven completely written, leather-bound, with maps and concordance appended! Instead, the Bible came together through a process that took place over a thousand years. The human writers of Scripture possessed a wide variety of experience, personality, and character. Moreover, the full range of human characteristics is evident in the biblical materials. Using 1 Thessalonians as just one example, this letter was written because of the human circumstances described in it, with the personal experiences of Paul and his readers on full display, including joy, thanksgiving, anxiety, and relief. It is a letter written by a man to other men and women, with its humanity integrally woven into every verse.

In saying that God’s Word is not the word of men, therefore, Paul does not mean to deny the genuinely human process involved in its composition. Rather, his particular concern has to do with the origin of the Bible and its teaching. Does the Bible present ideas, convictions, doctrines, promises, commands, and precepts that merely reflect what man – the human author – has to say, or is it instead the Word of God, so that ultimately it is God who speaks to us through the very words of Holy Scripture? On this Paul is insistent: the Bible presents to us, through human means, the very Word of God.

When Christians are challenged to defend the assertion that the Bible is God’s Word, there are two main ways to do so. The first is to point out the Bible’s self-attestation, that is, what the Bible says about itself. Does the Bible present the ideas of fallible men, so that however well-meaning the human authors were, their ideas were limited, historically and culturally, and at least occasionally wrong? According to its own testimony concerning itself, the Bible is God’s revealed Word to mankind and not the word of man about God. It was God who providentially created, guided, and through the Holy Spirit inspired each biblical writer to give exactly the message that God had designed. Therefore, as Hebrews 1:1 teaches, “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets.”

The second and even more potent way of demonstrating the divine nature of Scripture is simply to read it and have the Holy Spirit press upon our hearts the awareness that God is speaking through His Word. The most compelling reason on which our full persuasion and assurance of the infallible truth and divine authority of the bible rests is from the inward work of the Holy Spirit bearing witness by and with the Word in our hearts. Paul wrote of this inward testimony to the Corinthians: “Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God” (1 Cor. 2:12).

The Thessalonian Christians became strong in the Lord not only because they received Paul’s teaching as the Word of God but also because of the mighty working of God’s Word in and among them. It is “the word of God, which is at work in you believers” (v. 13). The Thessalonians grew strong in grace not merely because they received God’s Word but also because of what God’s Word did in them as they believed it. Paul rejoices that God’s Word works “in you believers”, which reminds us that God’s Word calls us to a faith that believes and receives. Thankfully, it is God’s Word itself that produces the faith by which it works. As Paul wrote, “faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Rom. 10:17). Having believed God’s Word, we must further open our hearts and minds to the Scriptures, which not only are “breathed out by God,” but are also “profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work” (2 Tim. 3:1`6-17).

One result of God’s Word in every true believer’s life is the strengthening of faith that enables the Christian to persevere under hardship. Paul emphasizes this work in the Thessalonians: “For you, brothers, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea. For you suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they did from the Jews” (v. 14). Paul knew all about the persecution that the original believers had suffered in Jerusalem, since he himself had been their chief persecutor. After he was brought to faith by the resurrected Jesus. Paul himself shared in the suffering of the church. The unbelieving Jews, he said, “killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out” (v. 15).

Are you willing to endure persecution for your faith? Are you willing to remain faithful to Christ and live according to His Word even if it means being shunned, ridiculed, or wickedly injured? The only true faith is that which is willing to suffer with Jesus. He said, “Whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it? (Luke 9:24). Are you willing to miss out on worldly pleasures in order to live boldly for Jesus and offer your life for his gospel? True faith answers yes, because the Word has worked mightily through faith. This is how Christians today stand boldly next to Martin Luther, holding fast to the Word of God before the world, declaring, “Here I stand, I can do no other!”

Paul’s description of the persecution suffered by the Thessalonians contains a final word of warning that challenges anyone who hears God’s Word but does not combine hearing with faith. Paul said that unbelieving Jews “killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out, and displease God and oppose all mankind by hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles that they might be saved – so as always to fill up the measure of their sins” (vv. 15-16).

These verses describe what the unbelieving world has always done: having crucified Jesus under Pontius Pilate, the world continues to crucify Him in mocking unbelief, despising the cross on which Jesus died to save sinners. As unbelieving Israel so frequently slew the prophets who spoke God’s Word, Israel also refused to tolerate the apostles and the early Christians who preached the gospel of God’s grace through faith. Today, secular humanism devotes its energies to removing a witness to Christ from every public sphere and place. Since the gospel is God’s good news of salvation through Jesus, God is displeased by the persecution of His Word. Such persecution opposes the true well-being of all mankind “by hindering us from speaking…that they might be saved” (v. 16).

Paul did not hesitate to point out that for those who refuse the salvation offered in God’s Word and provided at such cost by God’s Son, there can be only divine wrath in the final judgment. God’s wrath equates to the just and violent punishment that will be inflicted from heaven on all who persist in sin and unbelief.

Yet Paul knew that God has saving grace even for persecutors who are living out the curse of God’s wrath against their sins. The apostle described himself as the chief of sinners (1 Cor. 15:9). Yet Paul had a testimony of saving grace that came to him through hearing the gospel. That grace came to him through the Bible’s message, which is not of men but of God. God’s Word declares God’s holy wrath on sin, especially for those who wickedly oppress Christ and His gospel. But that same Bible offers salvation to anyone who believes the Word of salvation that Paul loved to preach.

1 Thessalonians 2:13-17 Study Questions:

Suffering is a reality in our world today for believers. How does the church today react to suffering?

Believing passionately that God’s salvation was for them (Jews) only, these Jews regarded as blasphemous the message of a crucified Messiah who offered salvation on equal terms to Gentiles as well. What reasons do people have today for not wanting this message promoted?

We are often uncomfortable discussing God’s wrath. How do different churches or different people in the church today respond to the idea of God’s wrath?