Text for the Week: Impacting Your Circle

Scripture: 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10

From Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy.

To the Thessalonians’ church that is in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Grace and peace to all of you.

² We always thank God for all of you when we mention you constantly in our prayers. ³ This is because we remember your work that comes from faith, your effort that comes from love, and your perseverance that comes from hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the presence of our God and Father. ⁴ Brothers and sisters, you are loved by God, and we know that he has chosen you. ⁵ We know this because our good news didn’t come to you just in speech but also with power and the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction. You know as well as we do what kind of people we were when we were with you, which was for your sake. ⁶ You became imitators of us and of the Lord when you accepted the message that came from the Holy Spirit with joy in spite of great suffering. ⁷ As a result you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. ⁸ The message about the Lord rang out from you, not only in Macedonia and Achaia but in every place. The news about your faithfulness to God has spread so that we don’t even need to mention it. ⁹ People tell us about what sort of welcome we had from you and how you turned to God from idols. As a result, you are serving the living and true God, ¹⁰ and you are waiting for his Son from heaven. His Son is Jesus, who is the one he raised from the dead and who is the one who will rescue us from the coming wrath.

Questions

1. In verse 3 Paul connects the work of the Thessalonians to their faith, hope, and love to their work in the community, what can we learn from that for our lives today?
2. Given how slowly news could travel in the ancient world how does Paul’s praise of the Thessalonian community strike you?
3. What does it mean for the Gospel to come with power and the Holy Spirit and full conviction?
4. Why does Paul connect serving Jesus and waiting on the resurrection?

Background

Related Scriptures: Deuteronomy 7:6-8; Isaiah 52:1-12; Luke 4:18; 1 Corinthians 13:13

Thessalonica was the capitol city of Macedonia and was the largest most prosperous and most culturally diverse city in the region.

The grouping of faith, hope, and love are important for Paul and sum up the essentials of Christian life faith in Jesus, a living hope of the resurrection, and love for God and God’s creation. In this passage these three are tied explicitly to the work the Thessalonians are doing in their community and presented as the motivations for that work.

Paul’s presentation of the Gospel coming through the Holy Spirit is meant to distract any focus away from what he and his partners did and place all the credit on the Holy Spirit. Reminding the people that their works in the world are signs they are living in the Holy Spirit.

Paul’s indication in his praise is that the works of the Thessalonians are so impressive they are making his job easier even beyond their province.

Reflection

What is the report people spread about you, and what is the report that you want them to spread about you? 1 Thessalonians reflects the thoughts of Paul, Timothy, and Silas (Silvanus) after Timothy has returned from Thessalonica bringing a report about the churches in that city. The entirety of the letter is a response to the report of the churches of that community and what is the first thing Paul says about them, “I’m excited to see all of the great things you’re doing in your community and Jesus would be proud.” What better praise can a church get than to hear that a former pastor and spiritual mentor has heard that you are transforming your community and wants to send you praise for doing good work. I think this opening about the Thessalonians’ reputation preceding them is especially interesting because this same idea marked Paul’s time in the city. When Paul and Silas had been preaching in the city a few months earlier they caused a riot as people went to the city magistrates proclaiming, “These ones upsetting the whole world they also are here.” (Acts 17:6). Paul and Silas had been met with hostility based on their reputation and in this letter they turn that around and send the Thessalonians love and affection because of their reputation. Paul and Silas’ reputation in the larger Greek world had reached Thessalonica and many in the city wanted to imprison them for what they had done. A few short months later, these men are sending the churches there a letter to praise them for their outstanding commitment to Jesus. Those hearing the letter read for the first time would have heard them saying, “Remember how so many in your city hated us because of our reputation for turning the world upside-down, way to go we hear your continuing to do that.”

Now the reality is there are a number of ways of turning the world upside-down, and it is easy to think that because “the world” disagrees with me and is as angry with me as the Thessalonians were with Paul and Silas that I’m doing a great job. Many seem to believe that as long as we are saying the name Jesus and the world is upset we are proclaiming the Gospel, but this is not the case. Notice Paul does not praise the church that people are upset with them, we do not know that the Thessalonian church faced any real opposition after Paul left. But Paul does praise the church for continuing his ministry and later in the book he will emphasize that they need to continue to live as they saw Silas and himself live. The letter does not simply praise the Thessalonians for spreading Jesus it praises them for spreading Jesus in lives committed to  exemplifying their faith, hope, and love (v3). We are most familiar with these three from 1 Corinthians 13 where Paul says they are the last to remain, but here he lays them out as the primary guide rails for the believer’s life. The Thessalonians have taken living out their faith, hope, and love and this commitment has earned them a reputation of transforming not only themselves but their entire region. Further, they are not allowing the negative experience of Paul and Silas in their community negatively impact their work, they are not bearing a grudge against the members of the community that arrested one of their own. Instead they continue to work to see their message of Jesus proclaimed among the people who wanted Christians arrested.

Today we live in a highly combative world, where we are trying to turn the world upside-down the way Paul, Silas, and the Thessalonians were. Today in many real ways we face opposition to the message of Jesus, push back against our ideals, and disagreement about the very things that make a community thrive. The question that remains for us today is, are we going to simply oppose the goals of the world using the same methods or are we going to commit to living out faith, hope, and love to change the world? Committing to the second means pursuing Christlike actions and attitudes more than winning. Our commitment needs to be demonstrating to our community our faith in Jesus’ victory, our hope in the coming justice of the resurrection, and our love for God and God’s creation. To do anything else is to miss the point of the message, but to live this way gives us a reputation that lasts forever.