Year 2, Week 42, Day 5 Bible Reading Observations

Year 2, Week 42, Day 5

I have a brief observation for today’s reading of 1 Thessalonians 2-5.

Today’s reading concludes the Book of 1 Thessalonians. 1 Thessalonians 2 is a reminder from Paul as to how the believers at Thessalonica truly received the Word about Christ: “And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers” (1 Thessalonians 2:13). Having truly received the Word, it is now powerfully at work within them. 2 Thessalonians 3, while acknowledging the suffering that the believers at Thessalonica were experiencing, expresses Paul’s prayer for them: “Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you, and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints” (1 Thessalonians 3:11-12). 1 Thessalonians 4 points out that God’s will includes growth in holiness as it points to Christ’s return: “For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 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, and so we will always be with the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-17). 1 Thessalonians 5 exhorts believers to live uprightly in light of the Lord’s return: “But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thessalonians 5:8-9).

One of the things that struck me from today’s reading is the emphasis running throughout the Book concerning personal growth and holiness: “Finally, then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more” (1 Thessalonians 4:1). Paul has warmly commended the believers at the church in Thessalonica about their godly conduct. But Paul assumes nothing as they consider how they should live going forward. Paul reminds them that they must continually be mindful of the conduct of their lives with an ongoing awareness of the need to please the Lord. In particular, the conduct that is most pleasing to the Lord is holy conduct: “For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness…For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness” (1 Thessalonians 4:2-4,7). Embracing this call for holiness is not an optional calling by one that comes directly from God Himself: “Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you” (2 Thessalonians 4:8).

Paul’s call for the believers to conduct their lives in a manner that is pleasing to the Lord, was accompanied by a personal demonstration of a life lived in a manner pleasing to the Lord: “You are witnesses, and God also, how holy and righteous and blameless was our conduct toward you believers. For you know how, like a father with his children, we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory” (1 Thessalonians 2:10-12). Paul’s conduct before the believers at the church in Thessalonica was a holy, righteous, and blameless conduct. And out of the proper moral modeling that is fitting for a father to display before his children, Paul also played the role of a father as he encouraged, exhorted, and even charged the believers at Thessalonica to live in a manner that truly reflects the character of the God who called them to belong to Himself. Being a citizen in God’s kingdom called for a life that corresponds to the nature of that kingdom.

Paul not only modeled a life whose conduct was pleasing to the Lord, as well as charged the believers at Thessalonica to do the same, his prayers for them also reflected the priorities of personal holiness:  “Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you, and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints” (1 Thessalonians 3:11-13). Paul’s prayer combines a petition for an increase in love with a petition for an increase in holiness. When displays of love between believers genuinely increases, then evidence of holiness among believers truly increases. Paul prays for these increases in love and holiness as he alludes to the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul picks up his prayer concerning growth in personal holiness once again toward the very end: “Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it” (1 Thessalonians 5:23-24). Paul’s desire to see the believers at Thessalonica grow in lives that are holy and blameless is also framed by the reality of Christ’s return. As Paul prays for such progress, his prayer reflects great confidence in what God will do.

What struck you in today’s reading? What questions were prompted from today’s reading?

Pastor Joe