Recap

So far in 1 Thessalonians, we've read as Paul praised the Thessalonians for their faithfulness and encouraged them that the gospel he brought was genuine. After briefly visiting Thessalonica and facing persecution, Paul moved on but sent Timothy back to encourage the believers there. Timothy later reported that, despite persecution, the Thessalonians were growing in faith. Paul then wrote this letter to praise and encourage their perseverance.

Paul opened with gratitude for their faith, love, and hope, noting how they had become an example to believers across Macedonia and Greece. He reminded them of his time in Thessalonica. He emphasised his genuine motives and care, working night and day to avoid being a burden. The Thessalonians’ acceptance of the gospel demonstrated that it was from God, not human teaching. Paul praised their endurance in suffering and expressed his desire to see them again, rejoicing in their steadfastness as a testament to his ministry.

1 Thessalonians 3-5

After Paul left Thessalonica, he was desperate to know how the small church he planted was fairing. He and the team send Timothy back to Thessalonica to check in on them and encourage them in their faith, despite persecution. Paul’s own ministry was evidence that persecution would continue, and it was something that Paul warned them of when he was with them.

So Timothy went and then came back with the good report on how the Thessalonians were doing. Because of this, while Paul has been going through more difficulties and persecution, he was able to rejoice in the flourishing of the Thessalonians.

Paul is so grateful for the faithfulness of this church and continues to pray that he might one day go back to them to continue to support them and teach. He prays that the Thessalonians will continue to grow in love and that God continues to strengthen their hearts, so they continue to be holy and blameless.

This leads Paul into the second half of the letter, focused on encouraging the Thessalonians in how they live. He urges them to live in a way that pleases God.

Paul reminds them of the teaching he gave them when he was with them. They must have mastery of their body and its lusts, not giving themselves over to sexual immorality. That’s what those who don’t know God do. They are called to something different.

Particularly, they are to make sure they do not wrong or take advantage of one another sexually. This is because ‘the Lord is an avenger’ (1 Thessalonians 4:6). He will punish this sort of abuse.

Paul warns them they have been called to holiness, not impurity. If anyone claims that this is not an issue and they are free to do what they want, then they should know they are not resisting some commands of Paul’s. This is the call of God, who is in them through the Holy Spirit.

Outside of sexuality, the Thessalonians should live their lives ordered by love. Paul acknowledges they already do this and are well known for it, but he encourages them to do so even more.

Their ambition should be to live a quiet life in a way that sets a good example. He encourages them to mind their own affairs and work with their own hands. This seems like it was because some of the Thessalonians refused to work.

This might have been because, now part of the church, they knew that others would support them out of generosity. Or because they believed Jesus would come back any day now and so why waste time on mundane things like work.

The problem with this is that they weren’t able to support themselves and were being a drain on their community. Paul’s encouragement is that they work hard so they might have a good reputation with those outside the church and not be dependent on others for support.

If it was because the Thessalonians believed Jesus was coming back soon, Paul moves to address that topic. It also seems like some have them had died, and so the Thessalonians were distressed about that.

Paul encourages them, letting them know that they are not like those who have no hope. Just as Jesus died and rose again, God will restore those who have died with Jesus. When Jesus returns, it is those who died who will be with him first.

We then get a description of Jesus’ return, that with a shout and a trumpet sound, he will descend from heaven and those who die will rise up to join him. Then those who are still alive will also join him in the clouds.

This passage, along with Matthew 24:40-41, is often used to point to the rapture, the idea that God will whisk away the believers into heaven and leave behind the unbelievers. But when we looked at Matthew 24:40-41, we pointed out that it was more talking about God weeding out unbelievers and removing them rather than the other way round.

Here, in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 Paul is drawing on the Old Testament imagery of the day of the Lord when God will come bring judgement and make all things right (see Isaiah 27:13, Joel 2:1, Zephaniah 1:14-16, Zechariah 9:14). The fact that believers are going to be caught up in the clouds is reference to Daniel 7:13, where the son of man comes on the clouds.

Daniel 7:21-22, 27 mention holy ones who joined the son of man and with him took authority over the kingdom. 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 isn’t about Jesus returning and whisking believers off into the sky. It’s about Jesus returning with authority and the believers joining him in that authority to see the earth redeemed and finally brought under God’s authority once again.

The hope that Paul is giving these Thessalonians who are worried about those they care for who have died is that one day Jesus will return to restore the whole world to himself. When he does that, both the dead and the living will be restored and come together with Jesus. They will one day see their loved ones again.

Which naturally then raises the question, when will this happen? Paul explains there is nothing to tell them because the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night when they are not expecting it. Note how Paul specifically calls this event ‘the day of the Lord’ linking into that Old Testament tradition. He’s also echoing the words of Jesus in Matthew 24:43, where Jesus is saying the same thing.

There will be some that assume everything is fine and then the labour pains Jesus will return and the judgement that comes before the restoration will start. Paul encourages the Thessalonians that they are not thieves or those who sleep in the dark. They have been moved from darkness to light with eyes wide open.

Because of this, they should keep their eyes open, always being ready knowing that Jesus will one day return. They should put on the breastplate of faith and love and the helmet of salvation. Here we can see the early ideas of Paul’s armour of God that he unpacked in Ephesians 6:13-17. As 1 Thessalonians is early in Paul’s career, he clearly develops this concept more as his ministry continues.

As believers, the Thessalonians won’t experience the judgement of the day of the Lord because Jesus died for them. This includes those who are alive, and those who died. Therefore, they should encourage and support one another and be ready for that day.

Finally, Paul ends with some last encouragements. The Thessalonians should respect their spiritual leaders, who work hard for their benefit. They should seek to be at peace with one another.

This involves dealing with different people in different ways. Those who are idle need challenging, those who are fainthearted need encouraging, those who are weak need help, and they all need a great deal of patience.

They shouldn’t lash out at those who hurt them or seek revenge. Instead, they should always seek to good. In all things, they should look to rejoice, pray, and give thanks.

When it comes to the prophetic, they should not quench this spiritual gift or ignore it. But at the same time, they should always test it and weight it up, holding fast to what is good and doing away with whatever is not. And then Paul ends with a final prayer for them and closing greetings.

Because 1 Thessalonians is such an early letter, it has what we call the least developed theology. Paul is still working out a lot of things and so we don’t have many of the more worked out idea and images that we found in Romans, 1 Corinthians, Galatians, and Ephesians.

What we do have is a letter from a pastor who cares deeply for one of the first churches he planted. He wants to encourage them in their persecution, guide them to continue living right, and give them a hope that one day it will all be worth it. That is 1 Thessalonians.

Psalm 14

This psalm is attributed to king David and is often considered a lament psalm, but it’s not that clear. We’ve established before that the common beats of a lament psalm are; turning to God, bringing the complaint, making a request of God, and then declaring trust in God. 

But this psalm has less of the feel of someone bringing their complaints to God and asking him to intervene, and more of the feel of someone who is teaching on the nature of a fallen earth. There are fools who are corrupt, and those with understanding who seek after God. 

We have similar language in the book of Proverbs, and so it may be that this psalm is a wisdom psalm. These psalms seek to educate and teach the reader. The psalm has a duplicate later on (Psalm 53) which is almost identical with some slight variations.

The psalm can be broadly broken into two parts; wisdom’s lament and looking forward to deliverance. But the first part can be broken down even further.

Psalm 14:1 - The foolish

Psalm 14:2-3 - Are there any who are wise? (Spoiler, no)

Psalm 14:4 - Why do the wicked attack my people?

Psalm 14:5-6 - God is refuge to the poor

Psalm 14:7 - The future hope of Zion

The psalm opens on a problem that foolish, corrupt people exist. And there seem to be a lot of them. These foolish people do not believe in God, and they do wicked things.

In response, God searches the earth for those who aren’t foolish. Those who have understanding and who seek God. But all have them have allowed themselves to become foolish.This is hyperbole (over-exaggeration) as we’ll see there are still those who are innocent and righteous.

Turning back to the foolish, the psalmist notes how they oppress and consume ‘my people’. Who is the person talking? As the psalm is attributed to King David, this could be from the point of the king. But it is perhaps more likely that the psalmist is talking from the point of lady wisdom.

Lady wisdom is a character that appears in a lot of wisdom literature, who is the embodiment of wisdom. Her people are those who seek after and live by wisdom.

Lady wisdom condemns the wicked. They will be terrorised because God is the God of the righteous. As much as they might try to shame the poor, God will protect them.

And so lady wisdom looks forward to the day where there will be no more wicked. Where God restores the good fortunes to his people. This will be a day of celebration.