Christians, stop trying to control other people’s bodies – 1 Thessalonians 4:1–8, Part 3

This week on the blog, we’re studying 1 Thessalonians 4:1–8, and in that passage, Paul’s main theme is that Christians are people who are living more and more to please God. The theological word he uses is that we are to be sanctified. In the previous post, I talk about what “sanctified” means. In today’s post, Paul discusses a very specific area of life in which Christians will be sanctified. Here’s what he writes in verse 3, “It is God’s will that you should be sanctified, that you should avoid sexual immorality;

The Greco-Roman world of the first century was very sexualized.  Not unlike much western culture in the twenty-first century.  Different, for sure.  But clearly, Paul, is concerned about how these Christians will handle their sexuality. 

The word Paul uses is “porneia,” which is the Greek word from which our English words “porn” and “pornography” are derived.  But Paul is not referring to the contemporary English idea of explicit images or video.  One scholar I researched writes that in Paul’s day, the concept of “porneia” referred to “engaging in sexual immorality of any kind, often with the implication of prostitution.” (Louw & Nida)

When it comes to human sexuality, therefore, Paul says, “abstain from all immoral actions.”  My interpretation of the Bible teaching about human sexuality is that it is to be expressed only in marriage between one man and one woman.  I realize that many disagree with that viewpoint, including some Christians. My purpose in this post is not to debate marriage, but instead to attempt to focus on what Paul says about sexual expression.

Notice the ways Paul describes how to avoid sexual immorality, starting in verse 4.

“Each of you should learn to control your own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the pagans, who do not know God; and that in this matter no one should wrong or take advantage of a brother or sister.”

First control your own body.  So much of contemporary Christian approaches to sexuality are about controlling other person’s bodies.  Telling other people how to act.  Battling our culture to make our culture behave a certain way.  But notice Paul’s focus.  “Control your own body.” I appreciate how Paul says we should focus on ourselves, on our own thoughts, words, and actions.  That is called self-control.

Self-control is one of the Fruit of the Spirit. Notice that the control is described as holy and honorable.  “Holy” has the same root word as “sanctify”.  When we practice self-control, we treat our body as a vessel that is to be set apart for God.  “Honor” carries the idea of respect.  We respect and honor our bodies, because they truly are not our own.  Hopefully when you are borrowing something that someone else owns, you treat it with respect.  Same with your body. 

Self-control means treating our bodies how he would want them to be treated, because he wants what is best for us.  That relates to the food we eat and what we drink. It also relates to exercise, medical check-ups, and good sleep.  It relates to mental and emotional wellness.  And as Paul writes here in 1 Thessalonians 4, we practice self-control sexually. 

Second, Paul says in verse 5 that we avoid passionate lust.  He points out that people who do not know God indulge in passionate lust.  Paul is talking about desire.  Lustful desire is strongly wanting to have that which is not yours to have.  Our culture constantly bombards us with images and ideas designed to attract our desires.  Generally accepted statistics say that the average person sees a couple thousand ads every day.  

I tried to count how many I ads was seeing the other day, and I didn’t make it very long.  There were far too many.  From yard signs, to bumper stickers, to billboards, to buildings, to TV, internet, phone, and so many more.  I fully believe that stat when it suggests we see thousands of ads each day.  All of those ads tap into our desires and want us to indulge our desires. 

Paul writes that followers of Jesus are people who have self-control, who do not indulge in those desires.  Particularly, we have self-control and do not indulge in lustful desire. Men, we work hard at looking at women in the eyes and keeping our gaze right there.

As Paul says in verse 5, we Christians are different because we know God.  Some people do not know God, but we Christians know God. Other people might be okay with indulging their lusts, not Jesus followers.  But why? Assuming the Christian doctrine of creation, why would God create us with inner desires, and then forbid us from acting on those desires?

Is God is a prude who wants to control us?  You hear that kind of argument from time to time.  “Isn’t Christian sexual ethics antiquated and legalistic?  What’s the big deal with indulging our lusts?  It doesn’t matter.  Why do you Christians have to kill the enjoyment of life?” 

Christians disagree with that perspective.  We believe that God’s approach to sexual ethics leads to human flourishing.  We believe that the wonderful gift of intimacy between husband and wife is the best possible way to express sexuality.  But we hold that view with a gracious heart.  We do not become sanctimonious.  We do not try to control other people’s bodies.  We focus on controlling our own.

There is a third way that Paul describes how we should avoid sexuality immorality, and we will learn about that in the next post.

Photo by Lidia Nemiroff on Unsplash

What does it mean to be sanctified? – 1 Thessalonians 4:1–8, Part 2

As one who preaches and teaches for a living, I have wrestled with how pushy to be in my sermons.  Or in lessons.  Or in written communication. And not just in large groups, but also one-on-one.  I’ve heard that we shouldn’t guilt people into doing things.  I agree with that.  We shouldn’t manipulate them, or scare them, or gaslight them into following Jesus. So how should we motivate people?

In this post, we’ll observe the Apostle Paul’s compelling approach to motivating people.

We’re studying 1 Thessalonians 4, verses 1–8 this week, and in the previous post, we looked at the beginning of verse 1. Paul continues in verse 1, “Now we ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus to do this more and more.”

Think about that. Earlier in verse 1, Paul has just admitted that the Thessalonian Christians are already living to please God.  He had heard great things about them.  Therefore, he could say, “My work here is done.”  But no, he presses in.  He says, “I ask you…no wait…I urge you to do this more and more.”  Is Paul being pushy? 

I submit that Paul is not being pushy.  The word “urge” is better translated “encourage.”  While “urge” can come across as pushy, “encourage” is warm and gracious.  In fact, the same word that Paul uses is one of the titles of the Holy Spirit.  It is the word “parakaleo,” and in John 14-16, Jesus refers to the Holy Spirit with this nickname.  The Spirit is The Paraclete. The Encourager.  Encouragement is a very comforting, positive action. 

Paul is being warm here, encouraging the Christians to pursue living to please God even more.  First, Paul acknowledges that the Christians are already living that way.  But then he encourages them to keep pushing themselves for more of God. 

Notice Paul’s technique in verse 1.  He first affirms their family, relational connection, calling them “brothers and sisters”.  He then continues to affirm them by saying, “You are living to please God just as I taught you.”  Only after that affirmation does he ask and encourage them to live for God even more. 

No doubt, Paul is confronting the Thessalonian Christian.  He wants them to go deeper.  But his confrontation doesn’t feel harsh.  It feels inviting.  They will likely read this and think, “Yes, I want to go deeper, I want to make changes to how I live.”  Likewise, we can graciously encourage people in our lives.

I am grateful for his phrase in verse one: “more and more.”  Paul is saying, “Christians, none of us has not arrived.  We are not perfect.  We can do better.”  Paul is stating what is true about life.  We have room for improvement.  We can have more of God. 

In verse 2, then, Paul begins to provide some practical application for how they can more and more live in order to please God.  He writes,

“For you know what instructions we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus. It is God’s will that you should be sanctified.”

“It is God’s will.”  How many times in life have you wondered if something was God’s will or not?  How many times have you prayed, “Lord, I wish you would tell me if this is your will!” and maybe he didn’t tell you? 

Here is one of the many passages in the Bible where we very clearly know God’s will.  God’s will in verse 3 is that we should be sanctified. 

What does it mean to be sanctified?  We use the word “sanctimonious” which is when someone is holier than thou, self-righteous. Sanctimonious is negative.  God doesn’t want us to be sanctimonious, but he does want us to be sanctified.  We use the words “sanctity” or “sanctuary,” words with a much more positive spin.  The “sanctity of life” or a “wildlife sanctuary.” 

These words all relate to the following concept: To be sanctified is to be set apart, consecrated, and holy. 

If I’m honest, that feels odd.  Do you feel sanctified or holy?  If you have those moments in the quietness of your heart and mind where you think, “I am not holy.  I am a mess.  I am far from God’s heart,” you are not alone.  There are plenty of Christians, me included who can struggle to believe that God thinks about me with love.  But he does.  And Paul is right.  God not only loves us, he sanctifies us. 

Paul will later write about this to the Corinthian Christians in 1st Corinthians.  In chapter 3, verse 9, he says, “You are God’s building.”  Then in verse 16, “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?”  Then in 1st Corinthians chapter 6, verses 19–20, he expands on this, “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.”

We are to pursue holiness, purity, in our bodies, because we are God’s temple.  God lives in us.  I don’t know about you, but I can forget that God lives in me.  I don’t often think of myself as God’s temple or that God’s Spirit lives in me.  I can think, “It doesn’t matter much what I think, eat, watch, say.”  I can think, “It’s not really affecting me that much.  Maybe it did when I was younger.  But now I am 50 years old.  I can handle it.” 

And when I start to think like that, I am not given due attention to the fact that my body is the temple of God, that it is God’s will that I am sanctified, set apart, a vessel consecrated for him.  How about you?  How often do you think about the fact that your body is the temple of God’s Spirit, and therefore, you are to be holy, set apart, sanctified?

God has chosen relationship with us.  He lives with us!  He desires what is best for us, which is to make choices for our good, for a good relationship with him and with others.

Check back to the next post, as we’ll look at the very specific way Paul says we should be sanctified, sexually.

Photo by Smit Patel on Unsplash

What matters more than what you put in or on your body – 1 Thessalonians 4:1–8, Part 1

What kinds of substances is God okay with you putting in your body? 

What kinds of clothing does God want you to wear on your body? 

Or rather, how much of your body is God okay with your leaving uncovered by clothing? 

What kinds of images can you look at? 

What words can you say? 

So many questions that Christians have differing opinions about. 

How can we answer those questions?

This week, I return to our study through 1 Thessalonians, and we are at chapter 4, verses 1–8.

Paul was worried about the Christians in Thessalonica, so he sent Timothy to check on them. Timothy found that they were still following Jesus.  Paul had taught them how to live in order to please God, and they were doing it, as Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 4, verse 1.  The Christians in Thessalonica faced pressure and persecution which was designed to get them to stop following Jesus.  But Paul writes here in verse 1 that the Thessalonian Christians had remained faithful.

He, Paul, had taught them how to live as followers of Jesus, or as he describes it in verse 1, “how to live in order to please God,” and he says, “in fact you are living that way.”  Paul is affirming them. Encouraging them.  Saying to them, “You are doing it!  You are living as followers of Jesus in the middle of a culture that is highly motivated to get you stop living as a follower of Jesus.” 

Does that sound familiar?  What this verse reminds us is that living as a follower of Jesus has not always been easy or popular.  In fact, living to please God has brought Christians to position of being at odds with their culture. 

We Christians are to live a particular way.  Following Jesus is that particular way of life that is pleasing to God.  Why? Because living a life pleasing to God is to live in line with the heart of God, in line with the way that Jesus himself lived.  What’s more, God’s way is best for us, for our communities, for the world.

But what does it specifically look like to live a life that is pleasing to God?  Christians through the ages, and still to this day, have disagreements about what that looks like.  Look again at the questions I mentioned above. I suspect that you have heard Christians debate the questions and answers.

Nearly all of that debate, though, misses something important.  The heart.  Jesus taught, “Out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks.” (Luke 6:45)  If you want to speak life-giving words, even in those moments of intensity when life-degrading words seem appropriate and are begging to fly out of your mouth, then something needs to be happening inwardly, so that what flows out of you is living giving.  If your heart is being transformed by Jesus, then you will naturally live a life in line with the heart of God, which is for your good, and for the good of others.

As we continue studying 1st Thessalonians 4:1–8 the rest of the week, we will build on that foundation, that Jesus desires to transform our hearts.

Check back to the next post tomorrow.

Photo by Sander Dalhuisen on Unsplash

So many questions about human sexuality – 1 Thessalonians 4:1–8, Preview

This coming week I resume the blog series on 1 Thessalonians, and we will study chapter 4, verses 1–8.  The topic of those verses is sexuality. 

Evidence suggests that the Greco-Roman culture of the first century was highly sexualized, somewhat like many cultures of the twenty-first century.  What Paul writes to the Christians in Thessalonica in his day sounds, in my opinion, very relevant.  

Human sexuality is an expansive topic.  There are so many questions.  Is it okay for Christians who are dating or engaged to move in with each other?  Can pastors marry a couple that is living together? Should pastors require them to live separately until their wedding day?  Is expression of sexuality evil before you say the words “I do,” and then suddenly after you say, “I do,” expression of sexuality in marriage becomes wonderful?  What kind of clothing is modest?  Not modest?  

Then there is homosexuality.  Can a Christian be attracted to the same gender without sinning?  Some Christians say that the New Testament passages condemning homosexuality did not envision a society where people of the same gender love each other in lifelong committed marriages, because that kind of marriage did not exist at the time. If it did exist in the first century, they say, then Paul and the other writers of the NT would have been okay with it.  Is that true?  And what about transgenderism?  What about polygamy and polyamory?  Does Scripture say anything about being married to multiple spouses, or being in love with multiple people simultaneously?  

What Paul has to say in 1st Thessalonians 4:1–8 applies to all the above, but what we will see is that Paul mentions none of the above.  Read it ahead of time and see what you think. Then join me back here on Monday as I dig into the passage.

Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on Unsplash

An experimental conversational sermon

For those of you who read the blog regularly, perhaps you noticed that I did not write any posts this past week. That is because at Faith Church we experimented with a conversational sermon. Normally I split my sermons into five parts and post one part each day Monday through Friday. Because of the conversational sermon, however, there was no sermon. Instead, I had a conversation. Or rather, a conversational sermon. Let me explain.

In recent years, podcasts have skyrocketed in popularity.  One of the most popular podcast formats is the group discussion/interview.  Joe Rogan has the largest podcast audience in the world four years in a row, and his format is simple. He interviews guests, and they talk for hours.  For example, listen to his recent interview of Wesley Huff, a Bible scholar.  It is a fascinating conversation. 

Author Ted Gioia suggests that conversational dialogue is the future of communication.  Gioia writes, “The Age of the Talking Head is over. Broadcasters will feel the pinch. But so will almost everybody else—politicians, educators, doctors, ministers, coaches, managers, and any other individual who needs to exercise leadership in any group setting whatsoever. Many are not ready for this. Some will believe that they are immune to change, and will keep bullying from the bully pulpit. Don’t be one of them—because their power and influence will erode very quickly.” 

As one who gives monologues for a living, Gioia’s words hit me like a thunderclap. I thought, “I want to experiment with a conversational sermon.”  We did so at Faith Church this past Sunday.  Two others and me. We only had a general topic, no script, totally ad lib. I was nervous, as I always am when we try new things, but so far, feedback has been positive.  

Who were the two others? I have known Joel Leicy and Dusty Zook for a long time, as they were students in Faith Church’s youth group when I was youth pastor twenty years ago. This past year, we started a podcast together, The Unapologetic Journey, which you can listen to Apple or Spotify. On the podcast, we have a general topic each week, and we just talk. Because of our familiarity with each other and with the format, it was a somewhat natural setting for us. You can listen to our sermon conversation here. We’d love to hear your thoughts. Should we do more of this?

How Christians can respond to division in our society – 1 Thessalonians 2:13-3:13, Part 6

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.

Do you like Taylor Swift?

Would you buy a Tesla?

Did you get a COVID shot?

Are you going to be kind to the lesbian couple that lives down the street from you?

These are not just things you have to make a decision about, they’re things that people are divided about. As soon as you say, “Yeah, I like Taylor Swift. I listen to her music,” somebody’s not going to like that, and they often have a whole list of reasons why.

People are taking sides about things which, in my adulthood lifetime, they never disagreed about before. We’re separated about so many topics. We’re even fighting about those topics.

In 2024 my church helped a refugee family from Africa resettle in our county. The family recently shared with us that they have friends from the refugee camp in Africa who are trying to relocate to the USA, but now can’t because of changes in immigration policy. Even though those refugees have been officially approved to start their journey to the USA, they are now being stranded.

Some Americans that think that is great. Other Americans think it is horrible. We are separated and divided on immigration, as we are on a thousand other things.

In our study this week of 1st Thessalonians 2:13–3:13, we’ve learned that Paul wrote the Thessalonian Christians to keep loving one another and the people around them.

What is it that makes it hard for us to love? What makes it hard for us to love each other here within the church? What makes it hard for us to love the people around us? One thing that makes that difficult is the deeply divided nature of our culture and society.

Tragically, many people think their Christian faith tells them what side of these issues to be on. A few months ago a young mom was shopping in my store with her little daughter, four or five years old, coloring in her coloring book. Right in front of me, the girl was coloring a rainbow. I overheard her mother say, “Oh, no, honey, we don’t like rainbows. We’re Christians.” We can think our Christian faith’s value is it tells us what side of these issues to be on.

Paul says to the Thessalonians, “I hope that you can be righteous and pure right up to when you appear before God on Judgment Day at the last day.” (1 Thessalonians 3:13) When Paul writes that, I have in my mind’s eye a picture of some Christians appearing before God at the last day and saying to him, “God, we were on your side. Every issue, we chose your side. We did the right thing because we were on the side that you wanted us to be on.”

Then I can hear God saying back to them, “Well, that’s okay, but how did you treat the people on the other side?”

Without a whole lot of thought, they’ll say, “We hated them. We were against them. They were stupid. They were idiots. We made fools out of them. We didn’t like them. We didn’t talk to them. Because they were on the wrong side. They were opposed to what was right.”

That’s the opposite of what Jesus has taught us. Jesus said, “Love one another.” If you disagree with somebody about some issue so much that they’re your enemy, Jesus said, “Love your enemies. Even if they’re persecuting you, pray for them.”

We have to relearn how to love our enemies. We have to unlearn our habit of falling into the divisions of the society around us. Let us relearn how to love others. To put aside division, look beyond the issues and see people as people God loves and as people we need to love too.

Paul said, “May your love for one another continue, and may that love overflow to those around you.” (1 Thessalonians 3:12). That’s what I want to see the church be. That’s what I wish as a denominational administrator I would have written to churches, as I mentioned in the previous post.

I should have written to those churches, “What we want from your church is to be a place where people look at your church family and say, ‘People love there. People there love me. People who go to that church, I know they just are loving people. They care about their neighbors. They love one another. They love everybody around them. They look past a whole lot of disagreements and love anyway.'”

I hope we can relearn love in the midst of our society that doesn’t look like it’s getting any less divided. The number of issues dividing people seem to multiply, not shrink.

In contradiction to that division, I hope we Christians love people even very different than we are. We love people who maybe even really disagree with us. We love people who we don’t like for a lot of reasons.

We still love them. Because what Jesus has called us to do is what he himself has done. He has come, loving us so much that he gave his life for a people who didn’t deserve it, including you and me. He calls us to love one another in that way. So, while the book of 1 Thessalonians wasn’t originally written to us in 2025, we can certainly learn some things from the priority of love shown there.

Can we love one another? Can we hear God’s call to do that even in really difficult times? I hope we can. I hope we will. I hope we’ll seek to try. I hope we’ll hear the Holy Spirit working in us to grow in us that Fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22–23).

Photo by Robert V. Ruggiero on Unsplash

What should you hope for in a church? – 1 Thessalonians 2:13–3:13, Part 5

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.

I was a denominational administrator for for 20 years. In that time, I sent a lot of letters to churches on behalf of the denomination. Those letters were communicating hopes that the denomination had for our local churches.

What hopes do you have for your church? Think about that for a minute before reading the rest of this post. Write down those hopes. Then come back to the post.

Here are the hopes we so often communicated in those denominational letters to our local churches: “You haven’t paid your denominational ministry funds. You owe us. You better get to work on growing that church because you’re shrinking and it’s not good. We want to see more people coming to your church. We really want to see you do something about your building. It’s falling apart. You’ve got to do a better job of taking care of it.”

I look back on those letters with embarrassment. Do you think Paul would write those kinds of hopes to the churches he started? In 1 Thessalonians 3:6-13, Paul writes to the Christians in Thessalonica, “I have heard news about you, and I some hopes for you as a church.”

Before we read what Paul hopes for the church, think with me for a minute about all the hopes Paul could have.

He could have said, “When I think about the future, I really hope for you that this persecution eases up. I hope that it gets easier for you, that people aren’t out there trying to kill you anymore.” He doesn’t say that though.

He could have said, “I really hope for the future that more people join the Christian movement there at Thessalonica. I hope you get more people to come to your church.” But he doesn’t say that.

He could have said, “I hope that you have the resources to do programs and events for the kingdom of God that we want to see happen in your city,” but he doesn’t say that.

He could have said, “I hope that you spread the good news of Jesus and get more converts into the church,” but he doesn’t even say that.

Now, I’m sure all of those tasks were part of Paul’s mission, but obviously they’re less important than what Paul says. What does he hope for the church in Thessalonica?

First, Paul writes “I hope that God opens the doors, that I can come to you and be with you again, share some more with you. It can’t happen now because of this persecution that’s taking place, but I hope that that happens.”

Second, he says, “I also hope that may you persist in faith till the judgment day, till the last day, till Jesus returns.”

Third, “May you continue to show love to one another and to everyone around you.”

What Paul writes fits perfectly with what Jesus taught us, doesn’t it? “This is my commandment,” Jesus said, “that you love one another as I have loved you.” (John 13:34–35)

Jesus said, “Make disciples, baptizing them and teaching them to obey the things I’ve commanded you.” (Matthew 28:18–20) What has he commanded? That we love one another. So, Paul’s priority of love, saying to the Thessalonian church, “what I want most of all is to see you still loving one another and showing that love to everyone” fits perfectly with Jesus’ teaching.

That teaching about love is another way we need some unlearning (see previous unlearning examples here, here, and here) in the church of Jesus Christ in America today. Does that priority of love surprise you? If so, perhaps it is because we have had misplaced hopes for our churches.

Remember how I started this post? I talked about when I was an administrator for my denomination, and I sent letters to churches asking them to pay their bills or fix their buildings. I don’t know that I ever, in any of those letters said that what we as a denomination really hope for churches is to show love to one another and make sure you’re showing love to the people around you.

It seems to me that we’ve got the priorities wrong in some places: how many people we have coming, how much money we’re raising, what kind of buildings we have. Those metrics can become more of a priority than showing love to one another and to the communities around us.

Paul, therefore, reminds us to think about how our relationship with each other, our relationship of love and our showing love to the people around us, needs to be the most important thing. Jesus certainly said we should work hard at loving one another as he loved us.

I’m going to take this a step further. Imagine we were to ask the people at the church at Thessalonica, “So Paul says to you that he hopes you’ll continue to show love to one another and to everyone else. What’s making that hard for you? What’s the presenting issue that makes that difficult?”

They’re being persecuted. People are trying to drag them off and throw them in jail and even kill them. And they would say, “It’s hard to love people who are attacking us, people who are opposing us, people who are threatening our lives.” It would not surprise me if that’s what they said.

Jesus gave us some teaching about that too, didn’t he? Jesus said, “Love your enemies. Pray for those who persecute you. Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, falsely say evil against you because of me.” (Matthew 5:10–11, 43–48)

Jesus prepared people to love even those people who are trying to attack you, those people who are against you. He even loved them. The kind of sacrificial love for one another, for our communities, and even for our enemies is what we should hope for our churches.

In the next post, we’re going to bring this into the 21st century to look at how we Christians in American can do a better job of loving one another.

Photo by Daniel Tseng on Unsplash

How to have the feeling of really living – 1 Thessalonians 2:13–3:13, Part 4

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”?

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The Word of God is so much more than the Bible – 1 Thessalonians 2:13–3:13, Part 3

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.

What is the Word of God? The Bible is the Word of God, right? That was drilled into my head as a young person growing up in the church. My Sunday School teachers and pastors also said, “There are going to be people out there that tell you the Bible isn’t the Word of God. They’ll tell you it’s just another book. They’ll tell you it’s old and out of date. They’ll tell you it’s inaccurate and not correct.”

“All of that is wrong,” they told me, “and you’ve got to steer clear of that. The Bible is the Word of God and you have to believe it as that.”

So every time I heard the phrase “the Word of God,” I thought that phrase is referring to the Bible. When Paul writes in 1st Thessalonians 2:13, “When I came to you, I shared with you the Word of God,” you know what I’m picturing? He did a Bible distribution. He got showed up in Thessalonica with a box full of Gideon New Testaments. He opened the box, started passing out the Bible and saying, “Here you go. Here’s the Bible. This is important. You need to read it. It’s the Word of God.”

So it was very shocking to me to learn that image of Paul passing out Bible can’t be true because at the time Paul went to Thessalonica there was no such thing as the Bible. Yes the books of the Hebrew Bible (what we Christians call the Old Testament) were written, but it was exceedingly rare for people to have a copy of even one of those books. They certainly did not have First Thessalonians because it hadn’t been written yet. None of the New Testament had been written yet.

The Bible as the accepted scripture of the church would not become a thing for another 300 years after Paul was at Thessalonica. Actually, the Bible, the 66 books that we love so much, did not come together as a bound collection until 1500 years after Paul was at Thessalonica.

Paul was not passing out Bibles at Thessalonica. When he says, “I shared the Word of God with you,” he’s not talking about the Bible. In fact, anytime the Bible uses the description, “the Word” or “the Word of God,” it’s not talking about the Bible.

It’s talking about something else. When Paul says “the Word of God,” we need to think of that word, as the message of God.

We use the word, “word,” that way all the time in the English language. For example, in my company, we’re always saying to each other, “Did you get the word about this order? Did you get the word about our shipment from Pakistan? Did you get the word about what’s going to be happening next week?”

What “word” are we referring to? The message. “Did you get the message about what’s taking place?” That’s the same way Paul’s using the word, “word,” here. It’s the message that God has to send.

There is a very important theological foundation to this concept of the Word of God. From the very beginning, the God of all the universe, the God who made everything, has been working to be in relationship with his creation, the people that he created. To establish and grow that relationship, God has a message for us. He speaks to us. He talks to us.

We can hear God. He has a word, a message for us. In Hebrews 1:1 the writer says, “In various ways, in various times down through history, God has spoken to us through his prophets and other ways. But in these latter days, God has spoken to us through his son, Jesus Christ, who is the perfect representation of his glory and the exact representation of him here on the earth.” God’s message, God’s word, has come to us many ways, but most powerfully through his son, Jesus Christ.

The Apostle John describes this in John 1:1, “In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.”

Who is the Word? The Bible? Is John saying the Bible was there with God at the very beginning. No. John is not talking about the Bible, because later he writes, “The word became flesh and dwelt among us.” John is talking about Jesus.

Jesus is the word of God. Jesus is God’s message who has come in the flesh. God has a message for people, and Paul brought that same message to the people at Thessalonica. This is the message of the gospel, the good news that God has sent his son, Jesus Christ, to be our savior, the messiah, as promised in the Old Testament scriptures.

Now, it’s still true that the Bible is the word of God. We’re used to describing the Bible as the word of God. That’s absolutely true. The Bible is the word of God. It is the message that God is saying to us.

The Bible tells us about the Lord Jesus Christ. It tells us about those prophets through whom God brought his word long ago. The Bible is the word of God, the authoritative word of God for our lives.

But “the word of God” means more than just the Bible itself. It’s the message that God is bringing to us. When Paul says, “I came to you at Thessalonica, and I brought you guys the word of God,” he’s saying, “I brought you the message about what Jesus has done, what God is doing, that God is moving, great things are happening, and you accepted it. You believed it.”

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Is the Bible written to you? – 1st Thessalonians 2:13–3:13, Part 2

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.

I’m thankful for the upbringing and the Christian education that I received in the church I grew up in. Very good, very well-intentioned Sunday school teachers and pastors told me that the Bible is written to you. When you read the Bible, they said, God is talking to you. You need to hear what God is saying to you when you read the Bible.

While I don’t disagree with that, I eventually discovered that I had to unlearn that lesson. In the previous post, I talked about the difficulty of unlearning. In this post, as we begin to study 1 Thessalonians 2:13–3:13, the first verse reminded me about the unlearning I had to do.

In 1 Thessalonians 2:13, Paul writes “We also thank God continually because when you received the word of God which you heard from us you accepted it.” If you haven’t read previous posts in this series, or if you just happened to begin reading at this place in the Bible, or if this was your devotional passage for the day to read, you might ask the question, “Who’s the ‘we’ and who’s the ‘you’? Who’s talking and who are they talking about?”

The very beginning of this letter says “Paul, Timothy, and Silas” are writing this letter. It might sound a little weird to you that three people are writing a letter. This is not unusual for Paul. When we know it’s Paul talking, it’s Paul’s voice, but Paul often had help writing letters.

We’re not sure why that was. Later in his ministry he’s going to be in prison and needed help getting his letters out. Bible scholars believe that Paul had some health issues, perhaps some eye problems that made it difficult for him to write, so he often had help getting his letters together.

But it’s very clear Paul, Timothy, and Silas are writing the letter, so they’re the “we”.

And who’s the “you”? Who are Paul, Timothy, and Silas writing to? The answer is at the beginning and end of the letter: they are writing to the Christians living in the city of Thessalonica.

We read that story in Acts chapter 17. Paul in his travels went to Thessalonica, ended up being there just three weeks, preached the message of Jesus, people heard it, people believed in Jesus, and a church was formed there. Those are the people he’s writing to. So Paul, Timothy, and Silas are the “we,” and the Thessalonian Christians are the “you”.

These are real people who wrote the letter, real people receiving the letter, and real situations they’re talking about. This happened 2,000 years ago. We are reading someone else’s mail.

We are overhearing a conversation that took place a long time ago. That’s actually how all of the Bible works. No matter where you are in the Bible, no matter what you’re reading, you’re overhearing a conversation. Think about how this applies to the previous blog series about the life of David.  We studied in the books of 1st and 2nd Samuel a history that was written long ago for a particular people telling them particular things about David because of a particular situation. All those particulars are called context. 

Learning about the context of the Bible was very, very difficult for me as a Christian because I was taught at a very young age that the Bible was God speaking to me.

I took that lesson to heart very seriously, so much so that every time I read a “you” in the Bible, just like Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 2:13, I thought that “you” was referring to me, Kirk Marks. When Paul writes, “when you received the word of God,” I thought the “you” was me. I tried so hard to see myself in all of those Bible passages I read as a kid.

So as a young Christian, I did not pay any attention to the context or who the actual “yous” and “wes” are. This became problematic for me when I got into more sophisticated Bible studies in high school and college. My Bible study leaders talked about understanding the context of passages and books of the Bible, knowing something about authorship, audience, culture, historical situation, and the like. That contextual study seemed wrong to me because the Bible’s written to me.

God’s talking to me in what I’m reading. I thought that other contextual stuff sounds like something I shouldn’t think about, or is not important. Shouldn’t I put it aside so that I can hear what God’s saying to me? It was a long road to unlearn that lesson and to learn that while God is speaking to us in the Bible, it’s precisely through understanding the conversation you’re overhearing that God speaks.

By understanding Paul, the Thessalonians, and the original context, we can begin to understand what God is saying, and what his Holy Spirit is leading us to do. All of that was a long road for me; I had to do a lot of unlearning. My Sunday school teachers and pastors were trying to teach me a very important lesson, God is speaking. But I had to unlearn how we hear God speak through his Word.

As we continue studying the passage, we bump into something else I had the wrong idea about that I had to unlearn, and we’ll talk about that in the next post.

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