Thessalonians Words ~ Day 21: Pray

Day 21: Pray

"Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus."  1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

It is amazing to think that these are Paul's instructions to a church that is in the midst of severe suffering. Paul knows what they face, for he has faced on many occasions the same types of trials they have. Paul also knows that the way to bear with the suffering and to remain steadfast in the faith is to always rejoice, constantly pray, and thank God through it all. Paul is a model of this to all of the churches he writes to. His letters are full of his prayers and give us a model of how to pray for others and for the church.

In the letters to the Thessalonians alone Paul includes ten prayers. He shares how he is praying for them. He uses prayer to encourage them and build them up.  He uses prayer to urge them on and give them hope. And he uses prayer as a blessing over them. The frequency in which Paul inserts prayer in his letters gives us a model of a life devoted to prayer. It is a life that, beyond taking time continually to pray, has an attitude of prayer. A life that is totally dependent on God and looking to God at all times and in all things

"We always thank God for all of you, mentioning you in our prayers. We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Thessalonians 1:2–3

"And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is at work in you who believe. For you, brothers, became imitators of God’s churches in Judea, which are in Christ Jesus: You suffered from your own countrymen the same things those churches suffered from the Jews, who killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets and also drove us out. They displease God and are hostile to all men in their effort to keep us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be saved. In this way they always heap up their sins to the limit. The wrath of God has come upon them at last." 1 Thessalonians 2:13–16

"How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy we have in the presence of our God because of you? Night and day we pray most earnestly that we may see you again and supply what is lacking in your faith. Now may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus clear the way for us to come to you. May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you. May he strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones." 1 Thessalonians 3:9–13

"May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it." 1 Thessalonians 5:23–24

"The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you." 1 Thessalonians 5:28

"We ought always to thank God for you, brothers, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love every one of you has for each other is increasing. Therefore, among God’s churches we boast about your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and trials you are enduring. . . ." 2 Thessalonians 1:3

"With this in mind, we constantly pray for you, that our God may count you worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may fulfill every good purpose of yours and every act prompted by your faith. We pray this so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ." 2 Thessalonians 1:11–12

"May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word." 2 Thessalonians 2:16–17

"And pray that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men, for not everyone has faith. But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen and protect you from the evil one. We have confidence in the Lord that you are doing and will continue to do the things we command. May the Lord direct your hearts into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance." 2 Thessalonians 3:2–5

"Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way. The Lord be with all of you." 2 Thessalonians 3:16

May we, also learn to live a life of prayer and become devoted to praying continually from Paul's example.

Over the weekend try going through 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 with the study method and techniques we have been learning. Next week we will begin to look at different ways we can respond to God and apply what we have discovered through study.

Thessalonians Words ~ Day 20: Each Other

Day 20: Each Other

"Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing." 1 Thessalonians 5:11.

Today's verse is the last verse  of the passage we looked at yesterday's. Here Paul tells them, and us, that what he has said - everything about being prepared by living a holy life, about those who are living and those who are dead in Christ when He returns, and about our salvation from suffering the coming wrath of God at Christ's return - are meant to be used by them and us to encourage and build up the body of Christ.

There are a number of 'each other' and 'one another' passages in the letters to the Thessalonians. Such passages in the New Testament letters refer to how we are to live in the body of Christ with our fellow Christ-followers. Paul, and the other New Testament writers, make it clear that a part of holy living is how we live with one another as God's family. There are 100 verses in the New Testament that give us information on how we are to live with and treat each other as God's people. It is especially a topic Paul is passionate about with 60% of those verses being in Paul's writings. Another thing to note about both the verse we are looking at, and much of Paul's writings, is that this call to encourage and build up (edify) each other comes after he has given us the theology that should bring about that encouragement and edification. Paul often will lay a theological foundation - a teaching of biblical truths - and follow it with instructions on how to live with one another, on how we are to treat each other in God;s family. This pattern of Paul's shows us that right living flows from right learning (doctrine). In other words, what we learn about biblical truths should result in our living them out in community. This is not a parent telling his children to do something just because he says so! Rather it is a loving pastor teaching his people the truth of God's ways, and then, asking them to allow that truth to transform their way of living by the power of the Holy Spirit, so that they will be the holy people of God.

Here are the ways Paul encourages God's people to live with each other in the Thessalonian letters:

"May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you." 1 TH 3:12

"Now about your love for one another we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other." 1 TH 4:9

"Therefore encourage one another with these words." 1 TH 4:18

"Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing" 1 TH 5:11

"Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work. Live in peace with each other." 1 TH 5:13

"Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else." 1 TH 5:15

"We ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love all of you have for one another is increasing." 2 TH 1:3

Read through this list again, slowly. Think about our current day with our world and our country facing a deadly pandemic. Think about our country with so much divisiveness and hate prevailing. We continue to let issues of politics and racial injustice divide us. Now take special note of verses 3:12 and 5:15 about love and being kind. Use your observation skills to note what has been added. Paul calls us to not just love and be kind to those we are in community with in God;s family, but to love and be kind to everyone else as well. Paul's instructions on how to live in community are never conditional, as in love, be at peace with, be kind to, or encourage only those who act the same way to us. Think of how different things in our world, our nation, our cities, our neighborhoods, and our families might be if we Christ followers led the way in loving and being kind to everyone else. Not letting it matter if they are of the same faith or not, if they are of the same race or not, the same political party or not, the same generation or not, and on and on. Let's live out Paul's call - the words approved by God - to love and be kind to each other and to everyone else.

Over the weekend try going through 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 with the study method and techniques we have been learning. Next week we will begin to look at different ways we can respond to God and apply what we have discovered through study.

Thessalonians Words ~ Day 19: Died

Day 19: Died

"For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him." 1 Thessalonians 5:9-10

Today I thought we would walk through this passage to get a better understanding of it, as well as practicing that technique again. You can look at the document "Walk Through a Passage" on the Bible Study Techniques page for a refresher. This really is an exercise that can quickly lead to understanding a passage. Remember we let the important connectors (connectives, prepositions and conjunctions) and the verbs lead us through the passage pointing us to which investigative questions to ask.

Since the passage begins with 'for', which is a conjunction that is a term of explanation, we need to look backward to find out what it is explaining. Since we have two meanings for the word 'for' a good way to determine which form is being used is this: If you can read the sentence and replace the word 'for' with the word 'because' then it is a term of explanation. As opposed to using 'for' as  'on behalf of' or 'in place of'. When we see 'for', a term of explanation, we will almost always need to look at what was said before  it (the words, verse or passage) to determine its meaning.

So, again, our passage begins with 'for' and we see its explanation back in verse 8.

"But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet." 1 TH 5:8

In verse 8 Paul says that since (because) we are children of the day (which we looked at on day 17) we are called to be self-controlled. How are we or can we be self-controlled? Look at the verb: By "putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet". Paul likes to use military language to give us a visual picture. Both a breastplate, that covers the chest to protect vital organs, and a helmet, which protects the head, offer life saving protection for a soldier. So faith, love and the hope of salvation, like armor, protect us. Why do they protect us? Here's where we come to the 'for' in verse 9.

Faith, love and the hope of salvation protect us. Why? Because God did not appoint or destine us.  To what? To suffer wrath. When would we suffer wrath? We look at the context of the passage this verse is in to get the answer. The context encompasses 4:13-5:11. But we can simply look back at the preceding verses in chapter 5.  We know from our previous words that this passage is about "the day of the Lord" (5:5), the day of judgment. Paul said that those in darkness sleep, meaning they are not aware of its coming. The children of the day will be "alert and self-controlled" (5:6) because Paul has taught them the importance of living a holy life (4:7), thus they are prepared for the coming day and they will not suffer wrath (judgment of death). We can also remember that way back in chapter 1 Paul told us that those who have turned to the living and true God are waiting for His Son to come down from heaven and He will rescue us "from the coming wrath" (1:9-10).

Chapter 5 verse 9 continues with 'but' (instead). Instead of being destined to suffer wrath we are instead destined to what? "Receive salvation". We already know through this book that we have received the salvation of having been reconciled to God through the forgiveness of our sins through the redeeming work of Jesus Christ on the cross. SO this cannot refer to that salvation. So in the context of our current passage, this salvation refers to the salvation of being freed from the wrath of God on the day of the Lord. How do we receive salvation from the coming wrath? "through our Lord Jesus Christ". 

Here is a side note: In Paul's letters he uses three tenses of the word salvation - past, present, and future. Our past tense salvation looks back to the day we receive Christ as Lord and through Him are saved from the penalty of our sins. Our present tense salvation is the ongoing work through the Spirit  of Christ in our lives to live a holy life saving us from the power of sin in our life (see Phil 2:12 for an example). Our future tense salvation is what we have looked at in this passage, we will be saved at the time of Christ's second coming, again through Jesus Christ, from suffering the wrath of God . So we have received salvation, we continue to work out our salvation, and we will finally be saved on the Day of the Lord. Notice the word "through" in each of the tenses. This is an important theological preposition in the New Testament. In Greek it is "dia" and is most commonly translated as 'through' or 'by' and points us to the means by which something happens. Used often in the New Testament for significant truths: "Through Jesus Christ', 'through the Spirit', 'by faith', by the power of the Spirit' etc. Don't quickly read on when you see 'through' or 'by'. Pause and see what significant truth is being communicated by this little preposition! Back to our passage.

Now at the beginning of verse 10 it say 'He'. Many of the other translations say "Who", which really helps the flow, because in the Greek verse 10 is not a new sentence but a continuation of verse 9. So we can read it as, "...through Jesus Christ, who died...". So what does Paul say about Jesus Christ in verse 10? That He died. Who did He die for? Us, those who are children of the day/light. Remember the 'for' here is used as 'on behalf of'' or 'in place of''. Jesus Christ died on behalf of us, in our place. Why? We have to look past the parenthetical statement, which we'll come back to, for the answer. He died 'so that' we may live. How may we live? Together with Him. This is a statement of eternity. We will not suffer wrath instead we will complete our salvation, living together with Him forever. The parenthetic statement, 'whether we are awake or asleep' refers to the topic he has covered in previous passages. So whether the children of the day are awake (alive) or asleep (dead) when Christ returns, they will all live together with Him forever. Salvation - past, present, and future - is a gift of God provided through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ!

  

Today our newest document on the Bible Study Techniques page will look at Bible versions, the difference between translations and paraphrase, and how to use them in study. Next week we will start to look at various ways we can respond to God through what we have discovered in study.

Thessalonians Words ~ Day 18: Night

Day 18: Night

We continue today to dig into Paul's theme of Christ's Second Coming and the concerns it stirred up for the Thessalonians. Yesterday we looked at the day of the Lord and Paul's continued call on God's people to be prepared for that day by living a holy life. We saw that one metaphor used in the Bible for God's holy and righteous people is that of light. Today we look at the opposite metaphor of night or darkness.

"You are all children of the light and children of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be awake and sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet. For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him." 1 Thessalonians 5:5-10

Night or darkness are terms used in the Bible to refer to people who do not believe in God or in Jesus as their Lord and Savior. Again we see this in 1 Peter 2:9 as we did yesterday.

"But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light."

As God's holy people we have been called out of the darkness and into His wonderful light. Paul, in describing his first encounter with Jesus, shares the story of his own conversion, sharing the words Jesus gave him of God's call on Paul's life to be sent to the Gentiles, "to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in Me." Acts 26:18

Darkness and night, light and day, are metaphors Paul uses often to describe unbelievers and believers. Those who live in darkness have not accepted God's gift of salvation found in His Son Jesus Christ. They instead live within the realm of darkness - the realm under the power of Satan - the realm in which the light of Christ does not shine.

But Jesus promised that sons of darkness can become sons of light. In Him, hope is not lost.

"When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” John 8:12

"Believe in the light while you have the light, so that you may become children of light.” John 12:36

We will have another new technique document with tomorrow's post. I encourage you to keep practicing the different study techniques found on the Bible Study Techniques page When we repeated practice something, it becomes easier, and can result in becoming a habit. There is no greater habit to develop then becoming a student of the Word of God!

Thessalonians Words ~ Day 17: Day

Day 17: Day

Yesterday we looked at the questions and concerns the young Thessalonian Christ followers had/ regarding those who died in Christ before the Lord's Second Coming. Today we look at another concern they had. It also had to do with the Second Coming of Christ, but now it turns to the fate of those in Christ who are living when He returns.

Now, brothers and sisters, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, “Peace and safety,” destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.

But you, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief. You are all children of the light and children of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness." 1 Thessalonians 5:1-5

The phrase "the day of the Lord" comes from the Old Testament prophets and would have been a part of Paul's teaching, just as it was a part of Jesus' teaching. In the Old Testament the prophets spoke of a day that would come that would bring destruction.

"Alas for that day!
    For the day of the Lord is near;
    it will come like destruction from the Almighty.

The sun will be turned to darkness
    and the moon to blood
    before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.
And everyone who calls
    on the name of the Lord will be saved." Joel 1:15; 2:31-32

"Woe to you who long
    for the day of the Lord!
Why do you long for the day of the Lord?
    That day will be darkness, not light.
It will be as though a man fled from a lion
    only to meet a bear,
as though he entered his house
    and rested his hand on the wall
    only to have a snake bite him.
Will not the day of the Lord be darkness, not light—
    pitch-dark, without a ray of brightness?" Amos 5:18-20

Paul continued that teaching in his letters, for example the passage below in 1 Corinthians 3:10-15.

"By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should build with care. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames."

The day of the Lord will be a day of judgement. Christ first came as a suffering servant and Savior. He will return as Judge and Lord. Paul describes the Lord's judgement in his second letter to the Thessalonians:

"All this is evidence that God’s judgment is right, and as a result you will be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are suffering. God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed. This includes you, because you believed our testimony to you." 2 TH 1:5-10

It is apparent that the Thessalonians were not overly concerned with trying to figure out exactly when the Lord would return, a topic even the people Jesus Himself taught seemed to be concerned with. (read Matthew 24:36-41 for how Jesus explained that we do not need to know the when it will happen). Paul points out  in 5:1-3 that they know the day of the Lord will come suddenly and unexpectedly. Like the metaphor of a pregnant woman, we know for certain the day will come, the exact day will, however, come upon us suddenly.

Paul goes on to reassure the Thessalonians that, though they may not know the exact time of Christ's return, His return will not be unexpected, catching them unaware or unprepared. For they are people of the light and the day, not of darkness. Light is often used in the Bible as a metaphor for the righteous people of God who live in the light of His revelation and grace.

"But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light." 1 Peter 2:9

Those who are people of the light need not fear the day of the Lord for they have received His salvation (1 TH 5:9-10). Paul's call to the Thessalonians has laid a foundation for them to continually abound in living a holy life, this is their preparation for the coming day of the Lord. His words throughout his letters regarding the day of the Lord are meant to encourage them, as well as for them to use his teaching to encourage each other (1 TH 4:18 and 5:11).

Today we look at how to establish the context of a word, verse, or book. My document is an overview of the types of ways we can determine context and the types of context we can look at. Head over to the Bible Study Techniques page and locate the document How to Determine Context.