The fledgling Christians had believed the gospel and trusted in Jesus. As a result, they immediately faced such violent opposition that some had been killed. It was essential for these Christians, therefore, to stand firm in their faith, relying on God to save them. If the Thessalonians sought a worldly solution to their problem, and especially if they betrayed their faith in Christ, the result would be eternal disaster. In this situation, Paul reminds them that God’s righteous judgment would destroy their enemies in due time and that their faith would ultimately win salvation when Christ returns.

One of the thoughts that undermines the faith of suffering believers is the idea that God doesn’t care or is uninvolved in their trials. In Romans 8:32, Paul countered this harmful idea by pointing out that God has already acted decisively for us in sending His Son to die for our sins. Since the cross, God can never credibly be accused of remaining aloof from the trials of this world. In 2 Thessalonians 1:5, Paul advances another reason why they should never believe that God had abandoned them in their suffering. In verse 4, he had boasted about their “steadfastness and faith” in affliction. Now, he adds that this very faith is “evidence of the righteous judgment of God.”

The fact that the believers were continuing to trust the Lord while suffering was a sign that God was working in them and was on their side, thus anticipating the final judgment of His and their enemies. Suffering Christians sometimes ask, “Why isn’t God doing something?” The first answer is that God has already done what is most needful in sending His Son to die for our sins. A second answer is that God is upholding our faith under trials so that we will be saved in the end.

Reading Paul’s treatment of persecution introduces us to the Christian understanding of suffering and trials. The non-Christian regards suffering as an utter disaster to be avoided at nearly all costs. It is likely that some believers in Thessalonica were thinking this way. If God is sovereign, how could they be experiencing persecution? If God loves His children, how could He stand by while they suffer and even die?

The Bible teaches, first, that suffering is inevitable for the believer. The Christian is never promised a care-free life but is in fact promised trials and affliction. Earlier Paul had reminded the Thessalonians that “we are destined for this” kind of trouble (1 Thess. 3:3). Christians are destined for tribulation just as certainly as we are destined for glory, both of which result from our union with Christ. “If you were of the world,” Jesus taught, “this world would love you as its own; but because you are not of this world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you…If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you” (John 15:19-20). Every Christian is duly forewarned that trials are part and parcel of the Christian experience.

Given this understanding of afflictions and persecution, Paul writes to change his readers’ attitude. They should realize not only that their steadfast faith anticipates God’s judgment on their enemies, but also that they may be “considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering” (2 Thess. 1:5). The point is not that enduring under suffering makes us worthy of Christ’s kingdom, but rather that it reveals our membership in Christ, which is by God’s grace and through faith. According to the Bible, faithful suffering for the kingdom is in fact necessary to mark those who will inherit His glory by God’s grace.

As Paul sees it, the key to enduring persecution is to understand God’s righteous judgment. In verse 5, he wanted his readers to see their steadfast faith as both evidence of God’s faithfulness and proof of their right to enter Christ’s kingdom. Continuing in verse 6, Paul turns to the other side of the coin, displaying God’s avenging justice against the ungodly who persecute His church: “since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you.”

Here Paul states the biblical principle of divine retribution for sin. Believers in Jesus rely on God’s righteousness for our salvation: we know that God will keep His promises and that the payment that Jesus offered for our sins will be accepted. This same divine righteousness, however, ensures precise repayment for the sins of all those who do not receive Christ in faith. In particular, those who “afflict” God’s people will be repaid by God “with affliction” in return.

When Christians point out God’s righteous judgment of sinners, the question is sometimes raised as to how a loving God can treat people this way. The Bible’s answer is that God loved the world by sending His Son to die on the cross. Paul specifies that God will judge “those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus” (v. 8). This shows that unbelievers who refuse to accept Jesus in faith are judged precisely for spurning the love that God offered them. Having rejected the only way of forgiveness and reconciliation with God, persistent unbelievers have no other option than to be repaid “with affliction” (v. 6).

The inevitable question that suffering Christians will ask, especially under extreme duress, is when God will come to judge and repay their oppressors. Paul has reminded the suffering Thessalonians that God was already helping them by upholding their faith and that this help proved His final judgment of unbelief. But when will that final judgment actually take place? Paul’s answer is that it will happen at the second coming of Christ: “when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels” (v. 7). This is the second time that Paul has emphasized the return of Christ to the Thessalonians. In 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, the apostle offered Christ’s return as our hope for believers who have died. Now he comes back to Christ’s return as the time when the ungodly are judged and the oppression of God’s people come to a final end.

Paul provides a stirring picture of Christ’s glorious return, saying that He will be revealed “with his mighty angels in flaming fire” (vv. 7-8). We are reminded of Jesus’ remark before His arrest, when His glory as the Christ was so completely veiled to human sight that men thought is right to put Him to death. When Peter sought to defend Jesus with a sword in the garden of Gethsemane, the Lord responded, “Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more that twelve legions of angels?” (Matt. 26:53). Jesus explained that the angels would be kept at bay in order for Him to offer His blood as the Lamb of God who died for our sins.

The angelic host that so marveled in the Bethlehem sky when Jesus was born of the virgin Mary must have strained at the leash when Jesus forbade them to vent their fury at those who would nail Him to the cross. But when His glory is unveiled in the second coming, that angel host will be set free to take “vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus” (v. 8). The book of Revelation shows that angels will bring final judgment to the earth in the fires of God’s wrath. John writes: “Then I heard a loud voice from the temple telling the seven angels, ‘Go and pour out on the earth the seven bowls of the wrath of God’” (Rev. 16:1). The final bowl of wrath in Revelation is the very vengeance that Paul sees unleashed by angels when Jesus returns.

Whereas the appearing of Christ will spell doom for the unbelieving world in the righteous judgment of God, the same appearing will “grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us” (v. 7). Christ’s coming will remove all suffering and affliction from His people and usher them into a glorious communion that will last forever. Believers will be greatly relieved to be taken by Jesus to the place that He has been preparing, but even more, filled with joy that He takes us to Himself.

2 Thessalonians 1:5-8 Study Questions:

If being a Christian were made illegal by a hostile government, so that believers risked arrest by gathering for worship, how many of the people who fill evangelical Western churches today do you think would still do so?

What about you? Why do you come to church now? Would you identify yourself as a Christian if you could be persecuted for it?

How will God’s justice be worked out in the world as seen in verses 5-10?

How is justice different from vengeance? Think about your own life, your community or the world. How do you currently most desire to see God’s justice done?

In verses 5-10, Paul describes for the Thessalonians what future Justice and the coming of Jesus will look like. How would these words have deeply encouraged the young believers?

The letters of the apostle Paul feature a significant and surprising doctrine of boasting. According to Paul, there is nothing wrong with a little bragging, so long as you boast about the right thing. What we boast about reveals a great deal about the character of our religion. Churches in the West today increasingly take pride in the beauty of their buildings, the quality of their music, the dynamic personalities of their preachers, and above all their numerical size. More biblically minded churches take satisfaction in doctrinal fidelity, commitment to world missions, and sound biblical leadership. Yet when Paul writes his second letter to the fledgling church in Thessalonica, he boasts in something more surprising. Having expressed his thanks for his readers’ growing faith and increasing love, he writes: “We ourselves boast about…your steadfastness and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions that you are enduring” (v. 4). If we follow Paul’s example, we will also make our boast in a faith that grows, loves, and perseveres under persecution.

During the years A.D. 49-51, the world was powerfully shaken by Jesus Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit, through the second missionary journey of the apostle Paul. One of Paul’s stops was in the large and prosperous Macedonian city of Thessalonica (Acts 17:1-9). Preaching the gospel there, Paul assembled believers into a local church, which immediately suffered persecution. The apostle himself was forced to flee the city, journeying through Athens to Corinth. There, Paul received cherished news of the Thessalonians and wrote to express his thanks for their faith and give them continued teaching, especially on the doctrines of sanctification and the return of Christ. When Paul received a reply, he penned a second letter, probably within a few months of the first. Second Thessalonians thus completes the message of the first letter, centering on the church’s continued persecution, additional teaching on Christ’s return, and a forceful directive concerning members who refused to work.

Paul begins this letter in typical fashion, first identifying himself and his recipients, and then greeting them with an appeal to the grace and peace of God the Father and of Christ. He writes to “the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” (v. 1). The way in which Paul closely identifies Jesus Christ with God the Father shows his belief in the deity of Jesus.

There is a subtle difference in how Paul describes God in this letter compared to 1 Thessalonians. In the previous letter, he wrote of “God the Father,” whereas here he twice describes Him as God our Father” (vv. 1-2). In the first instance, Paul emphasized God as the Father of Jesus Christ; now he emphasizes our adoption as God’s children, so that God is not only Jesus’ Father but ours as well. It is as beloved, adopted children that the believers are “in God our Father,” through our faith in “the Lord Jesus Christ (v. 1).

From this same union believers receive the two great blessings that Paul almost always mentions in the opening of his letters: grace and peace. The apostle continues: “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ (v. 2). This statement sums up the gospel that Paul preached. Grace is God’s free gift of favor to those worthy of condemnation because of their sin. Grace flows from the Father in the form of His sovereign will to save His people into fellowship with Himself. Grace is offered by God the Son on the basis of His redeeming work on the cross. The result of God’s grace in our lives is peace: the comprehensive blessing of peace with God through forgiveness of sin, God’s peace at work in our hearts through the indwelling Holy Spirit, and peace with one another through the love that Christ gives to us.

Just as in his first letter, Paul follows his initial greeting with thanks to God for the faith of his readers. The difference in the second letter is that Paul highlights their growing faith (v. 3). A true faith in Jesus Christ is designed to grow exceedingly. Therefore, having been initially relieved to learn of the Thessalonians’ faith, Paul is now delighted to learn that their faith is growing as it should.

The calling to grow in faith raises the question how this is to be done. Faith must be primarily fed on a steady diet of the Word of God. Are you given to meditation of God’s Word, have you studied the promises, and do you do these sacred things daily? If you answer “No,” then the lack of growth in your faith is not surprising. Psalm 1 promises that the one who meditates daily on God’s Word is blessed with growing faith (Ps. 1:2-3). If your faith would be like a tree that grows tall and strong, you must have your roots in the water of life.

Second, faith grows through prayer in response to God’s Word. Try God’s promises and ask Him to show their fulfillment in your own life. As an example, the Bible says that God’s “power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9). So ask God to exhibit His power in your weakness. Paul writes that “the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding,” will guard the hearts and…minds” of those who pray in Christ (Phil. 4:7). Ask God to grant that peace to your heart and mind. Jesus told us to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread” (Matt. 6:11). So, ask God daily to provide for the things that you need. Not only will you find God faithful to His promises, but your faith in Him will grow correspondingly.

Third, faith in Christ grows through association with godly fellowship. When those of little faith describe their spiritual troubles, they find that others have had the same difficulties and overcome them by trusting in Jesus. The veteran believer will tell you what dangers he has passed, and of the sovereign love that kept him; of the temptations that threatened to ensnare him, and of the wisdom that guided his feet; and he will tell you of his weakness and God’s omnipotence; of his own emptiness, and God’s fullness; of his own changeableness, and God’s immutability. In fact, this kind of faith-building conversation is one of the primary callings of the church. Hebrews 3:13 directs believers to “exhort one another every day, as long as it is called ‘today,’ that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.”

A further way for faith to grow is by being exercised in loving ministry to other people. Paul specifies this calling when he rejoices that “the love of every one of you for one another is increasing” (v. 3). Faith and love are so joined in Paul’s letters that we can hardly claim the first without the evidence of the second. The urgency of this kind of love was specified by Jesus on the night of His arrest: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another” (John 13:34).

The positive tone which Paul writes once more to the Thessalonians is seen in his praise to God for their growing faith and increasing love. But his highest boast is seen in yet another fruit of a true and living faith in Christ. We have highlighted a number of ways that Christian faith grows. Faith in Christ grows on a diet of God’s Word, through prayer, through godly company, and through exercise in works of love for all kinds of people. Moreover, Paul concludes, our faith in Christ will grow as we persevere in the midst of trials: “Therefore we ourselves boast about you in the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions that you are enduring” (v. 4).

Paul goes into unexpected regions of boasting when he brags about the persecutions that these young believers had endured. Steadfastness in affliction is not something that the world brags about, but Paul says that “in the churches of God” it is one of the most praiseworthy subjects. Whereas worldly thinking will lead us to glorify churches and Christians that enjoy the greatest outward success and never seem to suffer any difficulties, the spiritual thinking of true churches will glory in a faith that abounds under persecution for Christ. One fruit of this way of thinking will be a positive overall attitude toward world missions. Instead of merely thinking of churches in developing countries and persecuted regions as needing our help, we will more wisely look to them for inspiration, spiritual encouragement, and valued insights regarding the life of true and costly faith in Christ.

One of the chief benefits of persecution is that it reveals the difference between true and false faith. In His parable of the soils, Jesus described the kind of faith that is like a seed that falls amid rocky ground and springs up quickly from the earth. Yet because such a person “has no root in himself,” he professes faith for a while, but “when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away” (Matt. 13:20-21). Since our response to opposition shows the real state of our faith, new believers who have been rejected by their friends, been ridiculed by their families, or, like Paul’s Thessalonian readers, suffered violence and even death for Jesus gain the benefit of assurance that theirs is a true and saving faith.

Do you need encouragement in your life of faith? Perhaps you look at yourself and see little or nothing that the world would boast about. Be encouraged then, if your faith is growing, if God is enabling you to spread Christ’s love, and if you are patiently enduring difficulty for Jesus’ sake. You, then, are like the believers to whom Paul wrote in 2 Thessalonians. Paul wrote to show that we are obliged to praise God with thanksgiving whenever our faith is growing, our love is increasing, and we are remaining steadfast to Christ under affliction.

2 Thessalonians 1:1-4 Study Questions:

When Paul writes this second letter to the young church in Thessalonica, he emphasizes not only that he is thanking God for them, but that it is utterly right and proper to do so. What does Paul see in the church at Thessalonica that is filling his heart with gratitude to God in verses 1-4?

It was inevitable that the world would find the church a threat and a challenge and would oppose them all it could, because the church was indeed the beginning of God’s kingdom, which would displace all human kingdoms. What does it look like to have patience and loyalty in the face of these kinds of troubles and suffering?

Paul concludes his letter with a prayer for the holiness of his readers. Earlier, the apostle wrote that “this is the will of God, your sanctification” (v. 4:3). Sanctification refers to the process by which God’s people are made like Him in His holy nature. Paul declares that God is Himself the source of our sanctification: “Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you” (v. 5:23). Peace is an attribute of God that Paul frequently notes in his benedictions. In speaking of our sanctification, we can see why he would refer to the peace of God, especially if we understand peace in its fullest sense of ultimate blessing and integrity.

Not only is God the One who sanctifies, but Paul further emphasizes how total and entire this sanctification is intended to be: “Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely” (v. 23). Paul expresses this principle of entire sanctification in three ways. First, we are to be sanctified completely, combining the Greek word for whole with the word for to the end (Greek holotelas). We might regard this as the designed extent of our sanctification: it is to be finished and complete.

Continuing in making this point, Paul adds a second prayer item: “And may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (v. 23). This statement is considered important to the question whether man is composed of two parts (body and soul – called dichotomy) or of three parts (body, soul, and spirit – called trichotomy). Trichotomists claim this passage as proof of their doctrine. Yet Paul didn’t intend to define the parts of the human nature, any more than Jesus did when He said to love God “with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength” (Mark 12:30). In general, the Bible uses the terms soul and spirit interchangeably and presents man’s nature in two parts: soul/spirit and body.

Third, Paul writes that our sanctification is such that we are “kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (v. 23). The meaning of blameless is “faultless” (Heb. 8:7) or “without blemish” (Phil. 2:15). Here we see the end product of our sanctification, our blamelessness, which takes place when Christ returns. Since Paul includes our bodies, along with our inner selves, he is referring to the resurrection of the dead. According to the Bible, when Christ returns, “the dead in Christ will rise” (1 Thess. 4:16). In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul notes that “we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.” He adds that “the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed” (1 Cor. 15:51-52). Here we see the completion of our sanctification, when in the resurrection our glorified souls will be reunited with our then-glorified bodies. It is after this that the final judgment takes place, in which all of Christ’s people will stand “blameless” and justified.

Paul’s doctrine of sanctification is a radical one, so we can understand why many Christians find it hard to believe that God intends complete holiness for us. It is probably in anticipating this kind of response that Paul continues to say that we are sanctified not only completely, but also sovereignly by God: “He who calls you faithful; he will surely do it (v. 24). The apostle reminds us that our salvation begins with the call of God: “He who calls you.” Paul adds that God is not only a sovereign caller to salvation but also a sovereign actor in sanctification: “He who calls you…will surely do it” (v. 24). In this way, Paul identifies God Himself as the chief mover in the salvation of Christians.

God’s sovereignty certainly doesn’t rule out individual effort in our sanctification, which is why Paul proceeds to note the importance of our ministry to one another in pursuit of holiness. We are sanctified completely and sovereignly, Paul writes, and we are also sanctified mutually. We see the mutuality of our sanctification in three exhortations, starting with a summons to prayer: “Brothers, pray for us” (v. 25). Paul’s logic is obvious: if God is the One who sanctifies His people, then just as Paul has prayed for the Thessalonians, he would have them pray for him and for one another.

In addition to praying for one another, Paul urges the believers to loving fellowship in the church. He writes: “Greet all the brothers with a holy kiss” (v. 26). It was the practice of early Christians to greet one another with a kiss – most likely on the cheek or the forehead – that expressed their loving brotherhood in Jesus Christ. Over time the practice took on a liturgical form, where it continues in the liturgy of the Eastern church, although most Western churches no longer practice holy kissing. This exhortation points out the importance of what takes place not only during but also before and after the worship service. Whether it is a quiet, listening ear, a word of encouragement from experience or from the Bible, a welcoming smile to a visitor, or a helping hand to one in need, we are participating in God’s sanctifying work that will ultimately be perfected in glory.

Third, Paul exhorts the Thessalonians that the ministry of God’s Word must be honored in the life of the church: “I put you under oath before the Lord to have this letter read to all the brothers” (v. 27). The forcefulness with which the apostle speaks tells us about both the nature of his ministry and the priority he places on God’s Word. It was the practice in Jewish synagogues for the Scriptures to be read, and here Paul gives that same place to the reading of his own letter. Likewise, Peter described Paul’s writings as “Scriptures” (2 Pet. 3:16). More than simply validating his ministry, Paul’s command signals how vital the reading of Scripture is to the sanctification of believers. “Sanctify them in the truth” (John 17:17).

Paul concludes this remarkable first letter the Thessalonians with a benediction focused on the grace of God in Christ. Following the apostolic example, many churches today conclude their worship services with a pastoral benediction taken from the Scriptures, the purpose of which is to offer a declaratory prayer for the blessings that God has promised to provide to those who trust in Jesus.

Paul began 1 Thessalonians with an appeal to “grace…and peace” (v. 1:1), so it is fitting that he concludes first with a reference to the God of peace and finally with a benediction on the grace of God in Christ: “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you” (v. 5:28). This statement is no mere wish from Paul, but a declaration of what is certainly the case for those who have believed in Jesus. The final word that they need to hear from their pastor is the truth that the grace of Christ is with them. We need the same assurance of God’s grace today – an assurance that comes through faith in Jesus Christ.

God’s grace is His own favor – freely given to those who have deserved His wrath – because of the saving work of Jesus Christ for His people. At various points in this letter, Paul has pressed his readers to be serious about their growth in salvation, especially about their sanctification into increased holiness. Here at the end, he reminds them once again that this expectation is grounded in the grace that God provides through His Son.

If Paul’s final words are any indication – and they must be – then God’s purpose in our struggle for holiness is not just so that we might give up sinful things for Him and offer good works in their stead, though this is part of what it means to love God. By concluding with grace, Paul suggests that God leaves us to struggle with holiness so that we might come to learn the reality and extent of His grace for us. He called us in grace to a patient, long-suffering, power-exhibiting process of sanctification. In this way, he gives each of us a personal experience of His grace.

Finally, Paul reminds us that God’s grace is in “our Lord Jesus Christ” (v. 28). God wants us to understand His grace by appropriating the gift of His Son, Jesus Christ, to be our Savior and Lord. The process of becoming holy causes us to look frequently to the cross, where Jesus died for our sins. By facing our sins in practical ways, we realize how great was the love of Christ that willingly bore our penalty on the cross. We are to rely wholeheartedly on Christ’s intercession for us in heaven (Rom. 8:34) and His power at work in our lives through the Holy Spirit whom He sends (Eph. 1:19-20). As a result, our holiness is to take on the lovely graciousness of the holiness of Christ.

1 Thessalonians 5:23-28 Study Questions:

What might Paul be trying to communicate by using family terminology three times in verses 23-29?

In what ways would the reminder of God’s faithfulness in verses 23-28 be an encouragement to the Thessalonians?

As his letter closes, Paul returns in 1 Thessalonians 5:8 to the theme of faith, hope and love that he began with in 1:3. How do these draw together the other main themes in the letter such as suffering, grief, joy, family and holiness?

What are the main things you take with you from this letter?

Having arrived in the final section of Paul’s message to the Thessalonians before his benediction, we are prompted to ask a question: What is the purpose of the church? This question is closely linked to Paul’s exhortations, since from the beginning of this letter he has identified the Thessalonian congregation as a good church. Paul has not written to correct a major doctrinal error, as in Galatians, or to rebuke major moral lapses, as he will later do in 1 Corinthians. Instead, Paul has written to express his joy over the Thessalonians’ faith, love, and hope, to address questions about Christ’s second coming, and to deal with minor concerns. As he concludes his letter, he gives his general pastoral encouragement for them to press on and fulfill their calling together.

So, what is the primary calling of the church? Some people say that the main purpose of the church is evangelism (Matt. 28:19). Those who think this way look on the church as an army conquering the world through its witness. Others answer that the church’s purpose is to do ministry in the world (Matt. 25:35). On this view, the church is mainly a social-service agency. Still others think of the church as a safe place where we can escape the damage occurring in our world. Those who think this way look on the church as a fortress and a refuge.

According to Paul, none of these is the primary calling of the church. Certainly, the church must evangelize, minister, and protect, but these are not God’s main purposes for the church. According to Paul, the purpose of the church is that we, God’s people, should grow spiritually so that we increasingly attain to Christlike holiness and maturity. This principle is perhaps most clearly expressed in the fourth chapter of Ephesians, a letter that is widely regarded as the most fully developed expression of Paul’s pastoral philosophy. There, he writes that we are to attain “to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ…Speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ” (Eph. 4:13-15).

This definition challenges the kind of Christianity that is common today. For many church members, Christian faith resides in the background of their lives. They think little about the Bible or God or their own spiritual condition, and they draw from very little of the power for godliness that is available to them in Christ. For many, Christianity is mainly the comfort that we can dial 911 to heaven and make an emergency call when needed.

If this describes your Christianity, then you should realize that it is very far from the conception not only of Paul but also of Jesus Christ. “And this is eternal life,” Jesus prayed, “that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John 17:3). The essence of salvation is knowing God in a personal relationship that grows continually in this life until, in eternity to come, we are “filled with all the fulness of God” (Eph. 3:19).

As Paul concludes his first letter to the Thessalonians, he is concerned to direct the new believers to a spiritual maturity in which their relationship to God has grown and been strengthened. Here, as elsewhere, Paul conceives of our relationship to God in terms of the doctrine of the Trinity. There is only one God, but God is known in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Paul’s concluding exhortations clearly follow this biblical pattern: through our relationship with God the Son, believers are brought into communion with God the Father, through the power provided by God the Spirit (Eph. 2:18).

Paul’s exhortations in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-22 open up further dimensions of the Trinity by teaching us how to relate to the Father and the Holy Spirit. The Bible teaches that while the Son accomplishes our salvation, the Father plays the role of ordaining His saving will for us. Paul describes in verses 16-18 “the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” in terms of living consciously in the Father’s love. Moreover, the Holy Spirit has the role of applying God’s saving work in our lives. Therefore, in verses 19-22, Paul urges us to walk intentionally in step with the Holy Spirit.

Since our study of verses 5:14-15 considered Paul’s charge to imitate the servant ministry of God’s Son, we progress in verse 16 to living consciously in the presence of the Father’s love. Paul expresses this principle in terms of a threefold exhortation: “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (vv. 5:16-18). All three of these responses – joy, prayer, and thanksgiving – are by-products of a life consciously opened to the Father’s love.

When speaking of Christian joy, we must first differentiate between true spiritual joy and the giddy emotionalism of the world. Unbelievers are happy when their circumstances are good. Christian joy, in contrast does not depend on how well things are going, but is able to flourish even amid great afflictions. This was the setting in Thessalonica: “Rejoice always.”

So, if pleasant circumstances are not the cause of a Christian’s happiness, then what are the sources of our rejoicing? First, Christians rejoice in the Father’s gift of His Son to be our Savior. A second source of Christian joy is the relationship with the Father that Jesus has secured by His saving work – what Paul described in Romans 5:1 as “peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” A third source of the believer’s joy is the Bible’s testimony of God’s saving promises. God’s Word assures us that “for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” (Rom. 8:28).

In addition to joy, Christians are to live in an attitude of continual prayer. Pray without ceasing,” Paul says (v. 17). He is not suggesting that Christians stop all our other activities so as only to pray, but urges a heart that is always open to God. Paul advocates prayer not merely as an action but also an attitude. The prayerful attitude that Paul seeks was lived by Enoch and Noah, who according to the Bible “walked with God” (Gen. 5:24; 6:9).

The third leg of Paul’s call to live in God’s presence is to “give thanks in all circumstances” (v. 18). How are Christians to be thankful for trials and tribulations? The answer is that our faith turns us away from ourselves and unto God. Just as David faced giant Goliath without fear by his faith in God, Christians face all threats and dangers with gratitude to the God who they know is sovereignly ruling for His glory and our salvation.

Paul notes that these gracious responses to God’s loving presence are “the will of God in Christ Jesus for you (v. 18). God does not necessarily will that we should have good health or earthly riches, faithful friends or successful careers. God does something better than these for us: He gives us His Son to be our Savior, and in His Word He promises us eternal life in glory. It is His will that we should grow into the maturity of joy, prayer, and thanksgiving, because of and “in Christ Jesus.”

Paul’s final exhortations concern the believer’s cooperation with the Holy Spirit’s work in our lives. Just as Christians are to enter sacrificially into the servant ministry of the Son and live consciously in the Father’s love, we are also to fuel the flame of the Holy Spirit. Along these lines, Paul urges his readers, “Do not quench the Spirit” (v. 19).

The ministry of the Holy Spirit is sometimes compared to a fire (Matt. 3:11; Acts 2:3), so resisting the Spirit’s ministry is similar to dousing a fire with water or ashes. Presumably, this quenching takes place when believers crowd out God’s Word, prayer, and corporate worship with earthly pursuits or sinful pleasures. The result is that the effects of the Spirit’s work are diminished, like the flickering flames of a fire that has been deprived of oxygen.

Paul’s particular concern focuses on neglecting or rejecting God’s revealed Word. “Do not despise prophecies,” he writes (v. 20). Paul occasionally mentions the New Testament prophets (1 Cor. 12:28; Eph 3:5; 4:11). We need to remember that these early churches did not yet possess the written New Testament, so God provided prophets to declare God’s Word concerning salvation in Jesus Christ. These prophets might also foretell future events, but their main job was to “forth-tell” the gospel: they were preachers of the New Testament message before that message was recorded in writing. These gifted men belonged to the foundation-laying era of the apostles, and once the canon of the Bible was completed, their foretelling function ceased in the church (see also Eph 2:20).

Today, the analogy to prophecy is the preaching of God’s Word. This means that to fuel the flame of God’s Spirit, we must devote ourselves to the ministry of the Bible, in personal reading and especially in the preaching ministry of the church. Either the Word of God will shape our thinking or the message of the world will drown out God’s voice and quench the ministry of God’s Spirit.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-22 Study Questions:

What are the sources of our rejoicing?

What does “pray without ceasing” mean to you?

What does it mean to “give thanks in all circumstances?”

What is God’s will for us?

A dispute that arises from time to time among Christians has to do with the relationship between the law and the gospel, or, to put it differently, between justification and sanctification. Sound Christians note the distinction between these doctrinal matters. The law is what God commands us to do, and the gospel is what God promises in order to save us. Justification is God’s declaring sinners forgiven and righteous through faith in Jesus. Sanctification is the process by which justified believers become holy in practical ways.

In our studies of 1 Thessalonians, we have had several occasions to note that while these doctrines are distinct, they must never be separated. Throughout this letter, Paul celebrates the faith of the Thessalonians, through which we are justified (1 Thess. 1:3, 8). This emphasis on faith does not deter Paul, however, from also urging good works. In believing, they had “turns…from idols to serve the living and true God” (v. 1:9). Having been justified through faith, the believers are reminded by Paul that “this is the will of God, your sanctification.

Seeing that the law and the gospel, faith and works, and justification and sanctification are always intended to go together, Christians should not be surprised to receive not only promises but also exhortations in the Bible. Thus, when Paul issues commands to believers, he has not descended into legalism. Rather, he is reminding us that faith in Jesus involves getting up from the place of our sin and following him, just as Jesus Himself so often commanded, “Come, follow me.”

In the concluding section of 1Thessalonians, Paul exhorts the believers in the church in their shared discipleship to Christ, charging them with three categories of attitude and action. The first of these categories deals with their relationships, involving respect for their leaders, mutual ministry among believers, and good deeds for even their enemies (vv. 5:12-15). Second, the Thessalonians are exhorted with respect to their piety, which should be filled with joy and thanksgiving (vv. 16-18). Third, they are charged to be receptive to God’s revealed Word (vv. 19-22). In all these matters, Christians are to respond to Christ’s grace not only by trusting Him but also by following His example of ministry, godliness, and zeal.

The first set of Paul’s exhortations pertains to the believers’ duty to minister to one another. This is an important point of emphasis, especially since in the previous verses Paul has given prominence to the authority of church leaders. It is vital that the church have a balanced relationship between its official ministers and the rank-and-file members, or, as it is sometimes put, between the clergy and the laity. Errors in this matter have often crippled the church and brought needless strife.

The first error is called clericalism. This is the view that all ministry is performed by the ordained ministers, who are paid to do it, while the members are merely to follow in a docile manner. Historically, this approach is represented by the priests of the Roman Catholic Church, although it is found among Protestants as well. Many ministers promote this view by wanting to be in charge of everything and sometimes by holding their church in actual tyranny.

A second error, anticlericalism, runs to the other extreme. Here, the church strips ministers of their authority or even does away with them, ignoring the fact that Christ has appointed pastors and teachers to lead and serve His flock. The true model for ministry is neither clericalism nor anticlericalism, but is the dual approach to ministry explained in Ephesians 4:11-12. He pointed out that Christ appointed pastors and teachers for the church. Their role is “to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.” Ministry therefore starts with the teaching of God’s Word by faithful and gifted pastors. This does not replace but inspires other ministries in the church and provides the biblical understanding and motivation that the people need.

If Ephesians 4:12 calls for all Christians to engage in ministry, 1 Thessalonians 5:14 works out some of the details: “And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all.” These charges are not given to the leaders, but to the rank-and-file Christians, who are commanded to care for one another. Paul cites three groups that need attention from fellow Christians: the idle, the fainthearted, and the weak.

First, Paul identifies church members who are “idle.” The Greek word used, ataktos, has a broader meaning along the lines of “unruly” or “apathetic.” This is a word used in the military for a soldier who has stepped out of rank. In this sense, Paul is describing a wide variety of unruly Christians who are not living up to their responsibility as church members.

A second kind of person who needs attention is the “fainthearted. In contrast to the slacker, Paul here addresses the needs of those who are easily discouraged. While some Christians boldly embrace the dangers and challenges of following Jesus in this world, others are easily made to tremble, especially in a situation like that at Thessalonica, in which the church faced serious and painful persecution. Some Christians merit this description nearly all the time, but virtually all of us will fall into this condition at least some of the time. The proper ministry response from Christian friends is encouragement: “encourage the fainthearted.” This ministry may include reminders of biblical promises, support in prayer, and examples of others who struggled but continued in salvation.

Third, Paul urges Christians to “help the weak.” This term probably applies to those who find it difficult to abandon sin and resist worldly pressures. Paul’s letters reveal how uncompromising the apostle was in demanding that Christians never abandon believers who are weak, yet still trying to do better. The word for help literally means “to lay hold of,” with the idea of not letting them go. This should be our response to Christians who fall prey to substance abuse or are entangled in ungodly relationships, and who thus require close accountability and constant support.

Verses 5:12-15 forms a unit focusing on the Christian attitude in a variety of relationships. Christians are to treat church leaders with respect and “esteem them very highly in love” (v. 13). Among their fellow believers, Christians are to minister to the needs around them with a balanced response of truth and love. Finally, Paul offers a word of exhortation concerning even the believers’ enemies, which includes those violent persons who were persecuting fledgling church. In this case Paul charges them: “See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone” (v. 15).

Paul’s point in this matter is that Christians must not retaliate for wrongs as to seek to harm others. People outside the church – and sometimes within it – may deal out evil, but it should never be returned to them (see Matt. 5:44-45). This precept does not preclude Christians from seeking lawful redress from the civil authorities who are appointed by God to this very end (see Rom. 13:3-4). Nor does it mean that we should not act in defense of others. Yet when it comes to merely personal injuries against ourselves, Christians are privileged to honor Jesus by “turning the cheek” and giving our cloak as well to the one who asks for our tunic (Matt. 5:39-40).

In one of his greatest summaries of the Christian life, Paul wrote to the Galatians, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Gal. 2:20). If Christ lives in and through those who trust Him, then we should expect to see their lives bear and increasing resemblance to the ministry of Christ. This resemblance is exactly what Paul has in mind as he sets forth the Christian calling to relationships of love and grace. In considering Paul’s charge to the early converts, we see a reflection of the very actions by which Christ brought salvation to our souls.

1 Thessalonians 5:13-15 Study Questions:

What role does the whole community play in bringing believers to a point of fluency in their behavior (vv. 14-15)?

Describe a time when your Christian community affected an aspect of your behavior, causing you to live more as a child of light.

As we draw near to the end of 1 Thessalonians, which by all accounts is one of Paul’s earliest letters, it becomes evident that the church was not some latter addition to the original Christian movement but was integral to it from the very beginning. As Paul concludes this letter, he gives instructions strongly suggesting that he had established the converts in that city as an organized church. He begins: “We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work” (vv. 12-13).

This statement shows that Paul recognized official leaders among the believers in Thessalonica. Acts 14:23 shows that from the very beginning, Paul “appointed elders” in the churches he founded and invested them with authority by “committing them to the Lord.” It is clear from later letters that Paul and the other apostles institutionalized this practice. Apostolic churches such as the one in Thessalonica were organized under the spiritual leadership of a group of elders working together. Acts 20:4 mentions two Thessalonican men who likely were elders (“Aristarchus and Secundus”), and there were probably more.

Verse 12 identifies the work to which church leaders are called. Paul’s description applies to all elders, but especially to ministers in their full-time calling to the church: they “labor among you,” “are over you in the Lord,” and “admonish you.” First, Paul says that church leaders “labor among you.” Primarily, this statement notes the costly effort – even to the point of exhaustion – involved in providing spiritual leadership to the church. This description makes the point that pastors should be expected to work hard in service of the church. Whether it is study and the preparation of sermons, or visiting the sick and counseling the disturbed, or instructing people for baptism and marriage, or being diligent in intercession – these things demand that we “toil, striving with all energy which [Christ] mightily inspires within” us (Col. 1:29).

Second, Paul emphasizes that church leaders “are over in the Lord” (v. 12). Here, the Greek word proistemi conveys the idea of presiding over or having charge. In 1 Timothy 3:4, the same word has the idea of “manage,” and in 1 Timothy 5:17 of “rule.” Paul expressed a similar notion when he identified the eldership as “the office of overseer” (1 Tim. 3:1). Therefore, elders and pastors are authority figures in and over the church. It makes all the difference that Paul specifies the elders’ rule as being “in the Lord” (v. 12). Their pastoral authority comes from Christ and must be wielded on His behalf and in His name. It is essential that Christian leaders demonstrate that their authority is “in the Lord” by always explaining the biblical basis or logic behind actions that are taken.

Third, Paul says that church leaders are called to “admonish” (v. 12). Here, the Greek word noutheteo means to “rebuke” or “correct.” This not a harsh exercise of judgment, but a loving admonition of believers who are going astray in either doctrine or life. We gain a flavor for the style of reproof required of elders when we see in Paul’s letters both a forthright boldness and a tender mildness in dealing with the wayward.

One of the most important applications that we can make from Paul’s teaching on church leaders is to realize that it entails a mandate for church membership. If the Lord has placed leaders over the church and called them to the triple function of laboring, ruling, and admonishing, then it follows that the Lord’s people are to be organized in churches under this very kind of spiritual leadership.

Some people ask the question, “Why should I join the church?” There are a number of good answers. One is that God has organized human society in covenantal relationships, and Christians are to bond together as a covenant people in the Lord. This points to the analogy of the church as a family, with its associations of affection, loyalty, and commitment. Another reason why church membership is essential is our calling together to the work of the Lord. Jesus’ Great Commission charges us not merely to make casual believers or fickle spiritual consumers. Instead, Jesus gave His followers a commission that can be fulfilled only in the context of a faithful church (Matt. 28:19-20).

In verse 5:13, Paul adds a word about the importance of Christians’ support and encouragement of pastors and elders. This charge has three components, the first of which is to appreciate and respect church leaders. Paul began verse 121 this way: “We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you.” The word respect is the Greek word know and involves the ideas of both personal acquaintance and acknowledgment.

In verse 13 Paul adds a charge for Christians “to esteem them very highly,” the idea being that a special honor due to the holy office of the minister and elder. It is this biblical mandate that has prompted ordained ministers to receive the title Reverend, in keeping with Paul’s emphasis in 1 Timothy 5:17: “Let the elders rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching.” The issue is not the granting of social prestige, still less of celebrity status, but rather the spiritual submission to biblical authority that will enable the pastor to fulfill his God-given role in the lives of Christ’s people.

In addition to respect, Paul would have Christians grant loving affection to their spiritual leaders: “Esteem them very highly in love because of their work” (v. 13). A faithful pastor labors intensely and prayerfully for the spiritual well-being of his flock; one of the chief blessings that compensates for the trials is the loving appreciation and affection of the people. This loving esteem includes providing generously for their material needs and praying for God to protect and bless their ministry.

Finally, church members support their pastors and elders by placing a priority on the peace and unity of the church: “Be at peace among yourselves” (v. 13). Few things distract and discourage a pastor more greatly than when church members level needless complaints against fellow believers or disturb the church with quarrels and strife. Being peaceable also implies a willing support of decisions made by church leaders.

Everything that Paul has taught about church leadership and membership must be applied in careful biblical balance. Leaders are to oversee, not dominate or stifle. Authority is to be “in the Lord” and not in the flesh. Church members are to respect but not to worship their pastors. Christians are to obey and follow their leaders, but leaders are to teach and make decisions in keeping with Scripture. Members are to love church leaders not so much for their gifts – which may result in division or favoritism – but for their work on Christ’s behalf. This need for balance and the difficulty or achieving it ought to persuade every Christian of the great need that we have for prayer, both for ourselves and for the church to which we belong.

Yet no matter how poorly we may succeed in achieving the biblical standard of church leadership and membership, we should never hate but always love the church. In response to our relationship through faith with Jesus Himself, Christians should treasure the church, pray for the church, and bind together in the church for the worship and work that is designed by God to bring glory to Christ and the gospel of salvation to the world.

1 Thessalonians 5:12-13 Study Questions:

As with learning a new language, the grammar is the starting point, but the ideal is to reach a point where one does not even need to think about the grammar or the construction of sentences. This is the point of fluency, and it is the same as learning the new language of Christian behavior. The ideal is that believers should have the new language of Christian behavior written on their hearts. How are we to relate to Christian leaders as we learn fluency in the new language of behavior for believers (vv. 12-13)?

Paul urges Christians to put on the hope of salvation like a helmet to crown and protect the head (v. 8). But what is the true ground of assurance of salvation? Paul points his struggling friends to the gospel truths that he had preached to them: salvation from sin, salvation to new life, and salvation by God’s sovereign grace. He writes, “For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him” (vv. 9-10).

According to Paul, his readers should look with confidence to the return of Christ because they had been saved from sin: “For God has not destined us for wrath” (v. 9). In saying this, the apostle makes the important assumption that punishment for sin is the chief threat to our eternal well-being. The gospel that Paul preached, therefore, and that we should believe and preach today, is a gospel of salvation from the ruinous effects of sin.

In particular, Paul considers salvation from sin in terms of deliverance from the wrath of God. Our problem, he indicates, is not merely that sin harms us but that God will punish us in anger for our sins against His law. This being the problem, Paul’s good news to believers in Jesus is that “God has not destined us for wrath.” The question may be raised as to how a holy God delivers sinners from His wrath. Paul answers that believers “obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us” (vv. 9-10). Christians are saved from God’s wrath because Jesus “died for us.”

In these words, we hear the heart of Paul’s gospel: “Jesus…died for us.” The us that Paul refers to is believers in Christ, who have confessed the guilt of their sin and sought forgiveness by trusting Christ’s death. Paul speaks of Christ’s death in a way that implies penal substitutionary atonement – the evangelical doctrine that Jesus died in our place to pay the penalty for our sins. The apostle teaches that Jesus’ death had the effect of saving us from God’s wrath. We are not saved simply by having our hearts warmed by a demonstration of God’s love or by receiving an inspiring example to follow. Jesus died to save us from God’s wrath, substituting Himself as a sacrifice in our place.

Paul’s point in the context of our passage is that his readers should not fear the return of Jesus and the final judgment He will bring, since Christians have been saved from God’s wrath by Jesus’ sin-atoning death on the cross. Christ’s people, for whom He died, will not be destroyed in His coming but will be saved to the uttermost. Christ’s second coming will consummate the salvation He purchased in His first coming at such great cost to Himself. As Paul sees it, therefore, joyful Christians – those who are most assured of salvation and who most eagerly await Christ’s return – are those most willing to see the truth of their sin so as to be most fervently reliant on the finished work of Christ’s death.

Looking away from ourselves to Jesus does not mean, however, that Christ does nothing within us in salvation. According to Paul, the same gospel that delivers us from the wrath also saves us to a new life: He “died for us so that…we might live with him” (v. 10). The words so that express a purpose clause: Jesus’ death had a purpose not only to delivering us from wrath but also enabling us to live for and with Him. Paul expanded the same idea in 2 Corinthians 5:15: “He died…, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.”

According to the Bible, the Christian’s new life begins at the moment of faith and salvation. Paul said that “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Cor. 5:17). As reborn believers, we are to pursue godliness and good works in keeping with our discipleship to Christ. Having been saved by grace and through faith, apart from works, we realize that “we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Eph. 2:10).

Paul has emphasized dual aspects of salvation in 1 Thessalonians. In 5:9, he highlighted our salvation from God’s wrath – this is justification. In 4:3, he stated that “this is the will of God, your sanctification.” Therefore, to be saved is both to be justified – forgiven and accounted righteous in God’s sight for Jesus’ sake – and to be sanctified – increasingly transformed by God’s grace – through our union with Christ in faith. This is Paul’s point: Jesus “died for us” so that “we might live with him” (v. 5:10). These two connections – “for us” and “with him” – make up Christian salvation, through union with Christ in faith.

In encouraging his readers about their hope in Christ, Paul further appeals to the sovereignty of God. Believers can be sure of their salvation because “God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ” (v. 9). The believer’s salvation ultimately rests not in time but in eternity, when God has destined – elsewhere, he will specify “predestined” (Rom. 8:29-30; Eph. 1:5) – His people to be saved.

The Bible teaches that the whole of our salvation rests on the saving decree of God in eternity past. According to Scripture, God did not simply ordain that those who believe will be saved, but selected persons for Himself, sending His Son to die for their sins and then sovereignly bringing them to faith so that they receive eternal life. Paul proclaimed in Ephesians 1:4 that God “chose us in [Christ] before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.” God chose not merely the way of salvation in principle but actual people to be saved: “He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will” (Eph. 1:5).

The sovereignty of God is not limited to the predestination of His people to come to faith for salvation. God is also sovereign in the perseverance of believers, so that we continue in faith until death or the return of Christ. Here is the concern pressing on the Thessalonians’ minds: would life or death find them ready of Jesus’ coming? Paul answers that since they believe in Jesus, they can trust that “God has not destined” them “for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ” (v. 9).

Paul acknowledges here the necessity of trusting in Christ for salvation. We “obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,” that is, through faith in Him. Yet this requirement for faith does not throw us back onto our own resources and strength, so that, we would nervously sweat the return of Jesus, wondering whether we will measure up. Rather, the God who was sovereign in ordaining our salvation through faith is also sovereign in maintaining our salvation through faith. Peter wrote that “by God’s power [we] are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” (1 Peter 1:5). Yes, perseverance is “through faith,” so that Christians must continue believing in Jesus. Yet through faith we “are being guarded” by a sovereign God who has committed Himself to our salvation in the return of Christ.

In his brief by potent application, Paul tells us that God’s purpose should become the basis of our ministry in the church: “Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing” (v. 11). We see in Paul’s exhortation a threefold agenda in response to the saving message of God’s salvation in Christ. First, we must receive the gospel in personal faith. This is clear in verse 9, where Paul says that we are destined “to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Second, having received salvation, we continue to serve God’s purpose by encouraging one another with words of gospel truth. The idea is coming alongside those in weakness, difficulty, or doubt so as to help one another to continue in faith. Third, when Paul speaks of exhorting others so as to build them up, this implies that Christians are to be growing spiritually. We are not to be like the tribes of Israel when they settled into the Promised Land of Canaan. When Paul uses the phrase “just as you are doing” (v. 11), he acknowledges that his readers had started well in encouraging one another to Christian growth.

When we work Paul’s approach to being joyfully ready for Christ’s return, we cultivate a joyful assurance and hope by looking in faith to the cross, by responding to faith with good works and obedience, and then by taking part in the body of God’s people, in the family, the church and the world, building up one another with God’s Word of truth, the same gospel message by which we received salvation “through our Lord Jesus Christ” (v. 9).

1 Thessalonians 5:9-11 Study Questions:

The Thessalonians were already children of the day, children of light. God’s new world had broken in upon the sad, sleepy, drunken and deadly world. In verse 11 Paul encourages the Thessalonians to continue to “strengthen one another, and build each other up.” In what practical ways can the community of believers you are part of encourage each other to live out verses 8-11?

What is the true ground of assurance of salvation?

What are the dual aspects of salvation?

At the end of chapter 4, Paul gave a clear teaching about Christ’s second coming and urged, “Therefore encourage one another with these words” (4:18). In chapter 5, Paul addressed concerns about the timing of Christ’s return, concluding with a similar charge: “Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing” (5:11).

According to Paul, the Christian strategy for enduring in faith through trials is to strengthen one another with biblical truth. This is Christian teamwork in the church and home. How is the Christian family to endure against cultural attacks? By the husband’s encouraging his wife and the parents’ encouraging their children with biblical truths. How are Christians to minister to those faltering or discouraged? With the encouragement of biblical truth. We are to take the team approach in the Christian life, not tearing each other down but building each other up with the truths of God’s Word.

The truth that Paul wants to impress on the minds of his Thessalonian readers concerns their relationship with Christ. The way to be prepared for Jesus’ coming, he says, is to have our heads clear about what it means to be joined to Christ in salvation. Paul writes: “But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness” (vv. 4-5).

To describe the Christian’s situation, Paul employs the familiar biblical image of light. Believing in Jesus, the Christian no longer lives in the darkness but belongs to the realm of the light of Christ. Paul’s point is that Christians should not be unprepared for Christ’s coming, since we now belong to the light. By calling us “children of light,” he means that the blessings of God’s light have come to distinguish us and characterize our lives. Christians have gained knowledge of truth, have been warmed to God’s ways, have received spiritual life, and are guided by the light of God’s Word. Therefore, the day of the Lord should never come upon us as a “surprise,” like “a thief” (v. 4), since we have been looking forward to and preparing for that bright day.

Verses 4 and 5 present one of the Bible’s main principles for Christian living and sanctification, namely, that Christian living arises out of Christian thinking. We have seen earlier that Christians are persevere in faith by encouraging one another in biblical truth. Paul now explains how this works: God’s Word is taught to us, we begin thinking in light of God’s Word, and by God’s grace this new thinking yields a new and godly lifestyle. Jesus mandated this process of transformation by illumination when He prayed to the Father, “Sanctify them in truth; your word is truth” (John 17:17).

Having expressed his principle of reckoning who and what are we in Christ – children of light – Paul makes the application in terms of how we should therefore live in anticipation of Christ’s return. He focuses on three aspects of Christian readiness that will enable us to persevere in faith until the coming of Jesus to save us.

Paul’s first application is that since believers no longer belong to the darkness but are children of light, we should stay awake and not slumber: “So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake” (v. 6). Being children of light, Christians should not engage in the nighttime activities of darkness. Those in the dark are asleep to God, unaware of what is happening in the world, and unresponsive to the call of the gospel. The children of light, in contrast, are to be awake to God’s plan and alive to God’s calling. Jesus warned, “Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation” (Matt. 26:41).

A second biblical example of a sleeping believer was Samson, who lost his strength as his hair was cut in the night. Samson took his rest and made his peace with the world around him, settling into the arms of a Philistine named Delilah, who betrayed him. Samson’s slumber cannot be blamed of Delilah, however: Samson put himself to sleep spiritually by violating his covenant with the Lord. Once asleep, he awoke to his danger too late, realizing only then what he had lost through his alliance with the world. How many Christians today are asleep to the influences of popular culture, as that like Samson we become prisoners of worldly thinking and acting and so lose our usefulness to the cause of Christ?

A third example was given by Jesus in His parable of the tares and the wheat. A man sowed good seed in his field, “but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away” (Matt.13:24-25). Likewise, in the tolerant spirit that grips the church today, there is little doctrinal vigilance over our churches and ministries. Christians are asleep to the threat of an active enemy who seeks to undermine and infiltrate the work of Christ’s kingdom so that we squander the gains given to us by God and lack the spiritual power to prevail in dangerous times.

In addition to staying awake, Christians maintain their readiness for Christ’s return by staying sober: “For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be sober” (vv. 7-8). This application is a companion to the previous one: since Christians belong to the day, they should not be characterized by practices that take place during the night. Among these nighttime practices is a lifestyle that is inebriated with earthly pleasures and sin.

We should understand Paul’s call to sober living to involve more than drunkenness on alcohol or drugs. Today, this calling extends to the whole realm of entertainments of which Christians may imbibe, including movies and music that promote a sensual, self-absorbed lifestyle and glorify values that are contrary to God’s Word. In the workplace, Christians can become drunk with academic prestige, political power, or financial success. Paul’s emphasis on sober living, repeated twice in these verses, could indicate that this was a problem among the Thessalonian new believers. Given our similarly intoxicated culture today, many young believers and new converts will likewise need to seek God’s power to start living a sober life that no longer indulges in the kinds of worldly recreations that deaden us to the things of God.

Paul’s first two applications were negative in principle: “Let us not sleep…[or] get drunk” (vv. 6-7). The third application is active and positive, calling for Christians to arm themselves with biblical virtues: “having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation” (v. 8). Paul presents here for the first time in his writings an analogy that he will continue to develop in his later epistles, especially in Ephesians 6. He imagines Christians as preparing themselves for life in the same way that a soldier puts on his armor before heading into battle. It is not enough for Christians merely to say No to sin and worldliness; we must also actively cultivate faith, love, and hope in order to be guarded from threats that would endanger our salvation.

The two pieces of armor that Paul cites here are those that protect the vital areas of the heart and the head. The soldier’s chest was protected in battle by a breastplate, and Paul urges Christians to “put on the breastplate of faith and love” (v. 8). In Ephesians 6:14, Paul speaks of putting on “the breastplate of righteousness.” These descriptions go together – “faith and love” on the one hand and “righteousness” on the other – because faith and love are the means by which righteousness is received and then practiced. We are forgiven our sins and justified before God through faith in Jesus Christ (Gal. 2:16). Having believed, we then pursue a practical righteousness by leading a life of love – love for God and love for one another as outlined in God’s holy law.

Added to the breastplate that guards the vital organs is the helmet that protects the head: “and for a helmet the hope of salvation” (v. 8). According to Paul, the Christian who possesses a biblical hope for salvation is able to think clearly and resist blows that would daze him or her into unbelief or folly. We ground our hope in God’s sovereignty over history – a history that is defined by Christ’s saving death for our sins and that will conclude in Christ’s saving return.

The helmet of salvation will deliver us not only from worldly threats but also from a misguided dread of Christ’s second coming, as many Christians have sadly been led to do. For Paul and the early believers, Christ’s return was the hope for which they fervently longed. We are to live in readiness for that day, not suspending our lives and gazing at the sky in trepidation, but awake, sober, and armed with faith, love, and Christian hope.

If we trust in the work that Christ has done for our salvation, dying on the cross for our sins; if we cultivate a love for God and for one another according to God’s Word; and if we look in hope for Christ’s coming to bring us with Him into glory, we will be guarded for salvation and crowned with grace to stand without fear before a dark and wicked world that can be awakened to the gospel only by the witness that we are emboldened to give.

Paul makes it clear that Christians should expect struggle and difficulty as we await the return of our Lord. Some may wonder whether it is worth all the effort of staying awake, keeping sober, and arming ourselves with faith, love, and hope. Can we expect to prevail? Jesus answers, “In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). Paul urges believers to remind each other of such truths: “Therefore encourage one another with these words” (1 Thess. 4:18).

1 Thessalonians 5:4-8 Study Questions:

In verses 1-11, what are all the pictures or images that Paul uses to try to explain the relationship between believers and the world and the coming of the Lord?

How does Paul contrast the people of the day and the people of the night?

Paul’s point about staying awake belongs not so much with the danger of burglars but with the all-important difference between the old world (of darkness, sin and death) and the new world (of light, life and hope). What aspects of living as children of light or children of the day are challenging?

It seems from Paul’s letter that the Thessalonian Christians were worried about what might occur to them on some dark night. Having earlier addressed their concerns about the destiny of believers who had died, Paul now responds to their concerns about the timing of Christ’s return. “Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers,” he writes, “you have no need to have anything written to you” (v. 1). The Thessalonians were concerned, we may infer, about the timing of Christ’s return, lest they be unprepared when Jesus came. Paul responded that he had covered this topic thoroughly during his time among them: “You have no need to have anything written to you. For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night” (v. 2).

In 1 Thessalonians 4:15, Paul had written about “the coming of the Lord.” Now he describes the same event with the designation “the day of the Lord.” “The day of the Lord” is an expression with its origin in the prophetic writings, signifying the coming of God to judge His enemies in fiery wrath. In the Old Testament, “the day of the Lord” referred to a complex of events in which God broke into history to judge His enemies and save His people, pointing forward to the great day of the Lord when Christ returns.

The Bible’s teaching on the day of the Lord tells us that history is moving forward to a great reckoning for all the evil on the earth and to salvation for the people of God. This contrasts with the prevailing unbelief of our day, based on the theory of evolution, which holds that history has neither a goal nor any meaning. Just as history had its beginning in God’s sovereign act of creation, it will conclude in the sovereign return of the Lord, the day when man’s apparent sway is brought to an end and God’s sovereign purposes are unveiled as being fully achieved.

While both Jesus and Paul emphasized the unforeseen nature of the Lord’s coming, the Bible also displays an expectation of its nearness (Isa. 13:6; Ezek. 30:2-3; Zeph 1:14). What was said of these earlier, more limited judgments is all the more true of the great and final day of the Lord in the coming of Jesus Christ. Even if it should turn out that Christ returns at some far distant date in the future, the reality of death makes it certain that judgment is near to everyone who lives and breathes at this very moment. Hebrew 9:27 reminds us that “it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment.”

As Paul and other biblical writers explain it, the result of Christ’s unforeseen coming will be sudden destruction on those who were unprepared: “While people are saying, ‘There is peace and security,’ then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape” (v. 3). Here, the apostle mirrors the earlier teaching of Jesus, who compared the world at His return to the unprepared world on the brink of Noah’s flood (Matt. 24:37-39).

Jesus’ point was that the worldly will be oblivious to the demands of God and to their danger as rebels against God’s rule. They will be concerned about their own affairs: their pleasures, ambitions, and worldly pursuits. Just as worldly preoccupations keeps so many men and women from thinking about God and eternity now, the same attitude will expose the ungodly to destruction on the day of the lord when it suddenly comes, completely unforeseen, like a thief in the night.

Realizing that once the day of Lord has appeared it will be too late to get ready brings us back to the anxiety of the Thessalonians. They were concerned to be ready for Christ’s coming and therefore wondered about the “times and the seasons” of this great event. Paul answered that the way to be prepared for Christ’s coming is not to know the date – which no one can know – but to prepare ourselves in advance. The way to be ready for the day of the Lord is to act now on the offer of salvation granted to sinners through the saving work of Jesus Christ.

To be sure, those who prepare for the last day by believing in Jesus not only receive forgiveness of sin and justification through faith alone, but also are regenerated so that they increasingly are “dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 6:11). Paul therefore writes: “But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief” (v. 4). Unpreparedness for the day of the Lord is a feature of the life in the darkness of sin and unbelief, whereas readiness characterizes those who live in light of Christ. The believer’s readiness for Christ’s coming does not consist in additionally meritorious fervor, but through the salvation that every sinner receives when he or she turns to Christ in saving faith. In other words, while believers look with dismay on the world’s giddy blindness of coming judgment, we may be certain of our own readiness right now simply by trusting Christ for our salvation and surrendering our lives to the Savior who one day will come as Lord both to judge the wicked world and to complete the salvation of all who trust in Him.

Everything that Paul has said about the unbelieving world is reversed when it comes to Christ’s believing people. Jesus’ coming is unforeseen by the world. But far from being surprised, the believer lives every day in joyful expectation of the lord’s day. Christ will come to the unbeliever like a thief in the night, breaking into a life that the person had deemed secure and stripping away all that he or she had trusted and loved. To the believer, who has primarily sought for treasures not in this world but in heaven, the coming of the Lord unlocks our inheritance. Romans 8:17 says that believers are “heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.”

According to Paul, not only believers but also “the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God” (Rom. 8:21). The day of the Lord is the creation’s own deliverance from the curse of mankind’s sin. Therefore, Paul exclaims, “the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God” (Rom. 8:19).

The example of creation on its tiptoe, groaning, waiting for the liberation of the glory of the people of God is given for us to emulate as we anticipate the coming of Christ. The day of the Lord is not unforeseen to those who have received God’s Word in faith. Christ does not come like a thief in the night, but like a long-awaited king whose triumph will inaugurate our own coming of her beloved groom, to whisk her away on a wonderful adventure. Therefore, we wait on tiptoe, casting our glance constantly on the clouds for a gleam of the glory of the Son of Man.

1 Thessalonians 5:1-4 Study Questions:

What does Paul mean when he says: “the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night?”

What was Paul referring to when he says: “the day of the Lord?” How is that different to when the Old Testament says: “the day of the Lord?”

The term rapture comes from the Latin word rapio, which the Vulgate translation employed for the Greek word harpazo, which Paul uses in verse 17 of our Scripture. The apostle says that believers “will be caught up” to meet the Lord when He returns. Whereas allusions to the rapture may be seen in other Bible passages, the event is directly stated only in this verse, which explains that when Christ returns and “the dead in Christ” have been raised, then “we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air” (vv. 16-17).

There is a doctrine accepted by many evangelicals today that was virtually unknown before the mid-nineteenth century. This doctrine, which is called the secret rapture, teaches that Christ’s second coming will take place in two stages, one before and one after a seven-year period of tribulation. The secret rapture removes all Christians so that they will not suffer the tribulation prophesied in the Bible. For this reason, the secret rapture is also called the pretribulation rapture, language that is a standard feature of dispensational premillennialism. This teaching holds that after the Christians are removed and a seven-year tribulation is completed, Christ will come in visible glory to judge His enemies and inaugurate a literal thousand-year reign on the earth, after which comes the final judgment and the eternal state. Advocates of this view make their case not on the direct teaching of any Bible passage but from inferences taken from Scripture on the basis of a presupposed system of doctrine.

However, just as the Bible does not separate Israel and the church, so also the two-stage return of Christ is not supported by Scripture. It is true that different versions of Christ’s return present different elements, for the simple reason that individual passages are making particular points. It is even more obvious that the coming of Christ as described by Paul is anything but a secret. In fact, it is mystifying how believers who claim a literal interpretation of the Bible, as dispensationalists do, can describe as secret an event that is announced “with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God” (v. 16).

Moreover, the doctrine that Christians are raptured before the great tribulation is thoroughly refuted by any number of Bible verses that warn Christians to be prepared to endure these very trials. In His teaching on His return in Matthew 24, Jesus warns believers not to be deceived by false christs and then warns that “they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake” (Matt. 24:9). Jesus says nothing about believers’ being removed before this tribulation, but warns them instead to endure it without falling away: “The one who endures to the end will be saved” (Matt. 24:13). Furthermore, Jesus’ statement that “for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short” (Matt. 24:22) makes little sense if His people have previously been removed from earth.

It should be stressed that the secret rapture is believed almost exclusively by Christians who hold a high view of the Bible’s authority and are courageously devoted to Jesus. The point of assessing and critiquing their teaching is not to mock them but rightly to handle the Word of Truth.

As Paul urges us to “encourage one another with these words” (v. 18), we focus on his concluding statement: “and so we will always be with the Lord” (v. 17). The souls of Christians who die go immediately to “be with Christ” (Phil. 1:23) in heaven. Those who have trusted Christ in this life, loved the Lord, and served His gospel “will be caught up together” (v. 17) and thus will be with the Lord forever. Death will bring no final loss to those of us who live in Christ now and reign with Him then. We will together enjoy the perfect fellowship for which we have so longed in this life, each of us joined together in love by the great love of Christ that will be our all in all.

What an encouragement Christians receive now from the knowledge of Christ’s glorious, saving return. First, we have a strong incentive to live as followers of Christ. This world, with its temptations to sin, is seen passing swiftly away. The reality that is found in Christ will soon appear forever, so that wise believers are glad to live now for His sake. Second, we are greatly emboldened to witness the gospel of Christ to a lost and dying world. Jesus said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matt. 28:18-19). Third, Christ’s coming encourages us to labor for building up the church and advancing the kingdom of Christ. Jesus urges us to “seek first the kingdom of God” (Matt. 6:33). “Blessed is that servant,” He says, “whom his master will find [serving] when he comes” (Luke 12:43). Fourth, we are encouraged to love one another as Jesus has loved us, realizing that we will be caught up in order to be together forever with the Lord. The relationships we forge now in Christian worship, fellowship, and service will literally last forever. And the most valuable thing that you and I will ever behold before seeing Jesus in glory is one another: precious saints purchased with the blood of Christ.

Finally, Paul’s teaching urges everyone to come to Christ in saving faith. The encouragement of which he spoke is valid only for those who have believed in Jesus. When Jesus returns, with heaven and earth passing away, those who are caught up in the air to meet Him will return with Him to the new heavens and the new earth. How many people close their hearts, fearing that they will lose the world if they put their faith in Christ! In the end, however, the very opposite will be true. Christians do, in many respects, lose this present world, especially its sinful pleasures, when they give their allegiance to Christ. But when He returns, they will be left when all others are taken away in judgment, to meet Him in the splendor of His glory. The, believers in Christ will gain the new world together with Him. Trusting in His promise, we call to Him now, together with all the rest of His adoring people, saying, “Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!” (Rev. 22:20).

1 Thessalonians 4:16-18 Study questions:

Does the study of these verses encourage you to share the gospel?

How do you “seek first the kingdom of God” on a daily basis?