This week I once again welcome guest blogger, Kirk Marks. Kirk is a retired pastor of 35 years who now works in international fair trade.
Remember how Paul first met the people in Thessalonica? In Acts chapter 17, we read the story. Paul went to Thessalonica after he got out of prison in Philippi. He only had three weeks in Thessalonica because as he started sharing the good news about Jesus, some people began to stir up trouble for him.
They started a riot, and it became life-threatening, forcing Paul and Silas to flee from Thessalonica. The rioters came looking for Paul and Silas. They heard he was at the house of this guy named Jason. Paul and Silas had already fled. Jason was still home though, so they beat him up, dragged him out to a magistrate’s office, and the government decided to side with the persecutors. They actually charged Jason, threw him into jail, and made him post bail to get out.
Clearly, the church at Thessalonica had a troubled start, but Paul writes to them in 1 Thessalonians 2:13–16, “Through all of that trouble, you believed. You accepted the message as good news, and you stuck with it.” Paul goes on to write that the persecution they suffered wasn’t all that different from what churches suffered other places.
Paul concludes in verse 16, writing a strange phrase, which I will admit to you I don’t completely understand. He writes, “The persecutors are heaping up sin because they’re working against what God is doing.” That I get. It’s sin to work against what God is doing, but what he says next is the confusing part. Paul writes, “The wrath of God has been revealed against them.” I have no idea what that means or what he’s talking about. I did some research on that and found out nobody knows what Paul meant when he said that.
So without speculating too much, suffice it to say, when it comes to these persecutors, Paul seems to be indicating, “We’re going to let God deal with them. It’s not something we have to work against, try to resist, or fight. God’s going to take care of that.”
Instead, we must persist in our faith, which is exactly what the Thessalonians are doing. Paul knows this, because he heard about their faith. Look ahead to 1 Thessalonians chapter 3, verses 6–13,
Paul really wanted to go back to Thessalonica, see the people again, and help them. He can’t visit them, though, because of the people threatening his life, threatening to throw him into jail if they see him again.
So Paul sends Timothy to check on the Thessalonian Christian. After Timothy returned from his visit, Paul writes, “I’ve heard a report from Timothy that you guys are sticking to your faith, even though there’s people there that are physically trying to stop you from being a church. You’re still showing faith and love.”
In verse 8, Paul writes something fascinating, “I really live because I hear that you are still in the faith.” Really live? What could he mean by that?
Paul’s talking on a very human, personal level. This is the feeling we get when we as teachers see our students actually learning what we’re teaching them.
My wife is a teacher, and some of her students recently got up out of their seats and danced for joy because they got 100% on a test. When your students demonstrate that they are learning, as a teacher you feel joy too, “I’ve accomplished something, I’ve done something.”
It’s a feeling we get as parents when our kids succeed, when they do well in the big game, when they bring home a good report card, when they get in to the college. We feel proud of them. That feeling is really living.
Consider the basics of human existence. We’re trying to survive, we’re trying to live, but we’re also trying to learn, we’re trying to love, and we’re trying to leave a legacy. This is what Paul says he sees in the Christians in Thessalonica. A legacy. His work there was not in vain. He’s passed on this good news that he had and people are actually living it. It’s making a difference in their lives. Paul feels like he’s alive when he gets that news.
I get that feeling as a pastor.
My wife and I started out in ministry 35 years ago. We did some youth work and we’re still in touch with some of those kids in that youth group, and now they’re leading youth groups. They’re teaching Sunday school, they’ve got kids, they’re doing really neat things in churches. When I think about that, I feel I’ve passed something on. I’ve done what God wanted me to do. Something for the kingdom and for future generations has happened. That’s a great feeling. That’s the feeling of really living.
Who have you impacted? Who can you praise God for? Who can you look at and think, “Because of their faithfulness, I feel like I am really living”?
Photo by Nathan Anderson on Unsplash
Engaging Scripture 