1 Thessalonians 1

The Thessalonians’ Faith

In this first chapter of 1 Thessalonians, we see how Paul uniquely began the story of the gospel’s formation of the church in Thessalonica. We discover how God founded the church (1-4) and then how He used the church to spread the gospel (5-10).

Greetings (1)

Paul opened with a greeting, making Silvanus and Timothy co-authors with him. The use of “we” throughout 1 and 2 Thessalonians distinguishes the letter to the Thessalonians. Paul then established the absolute faith of the church just 20 years after Christ's death: “... to you who belong to God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” (1 NLT). Jesus and the Father are two Persons and one Being. The Church’s distinctive marking is that they are in Christ, much like a person’s finger is in and a part of his/her body. To be a part of the Church is to be in Christ and thus to be in and belong to God the Father. 

Gratitude (2-3)

Next, Paul shared what he, Silvanus, and Timothy did that true parents would do: they prayed constantly for their spiritual children. He gave thanks for those special qualities the grace of God had accomplished among them, which were faith, hope, and love (2-3). 

Faith, hope, and love were those Jesus-qualities necessary to move persons following Christ from being self-oriented and self-consumed to being Christ-adoring and loving of others. 

• The works were produced by faith, by their hearts being given in complete allegiance to Christ. 

• The labor was prompted by love—the kind of love that was given in the cause of another’s reconciliation. 

• The endurance was inspired by a hope of an imagined future that burned in their hearts.

Here in these two verses, we are shown what the Holy Spirit accomplishes when He begins to set apart a people for Jesus. 

Gospel Power (4-8)

Next, Paul reminded the church of how the gospel came to them, not just in words of teaching but in a powerful Holy Spirit demonstration of radically changing who they were both inside and out. Paul and his company preached the Word with burning conviction: “The risen Christ can radically change you from the inside, making you a Kingdom people, liberated to live and love like Jesus.”

Their life in Christ started first when they responded to Paul’s preaching. 

Next, the Holy Spirit began doing powerful things within them (4-5).

Finally, they watched Paul’s life and example and began to imitate some of his Jesus-allegiant habits.  

Paul noted the obedience of the Thessalonians as they learned from their teachers, enduring through much hardship, for the gospel stirs hostility because it eventually challenges human independence and indulgence (6). The Thessalonians had to learn to fill with Holy Spirit joy as faith, hope, and joy were formed within them.

Paul recognized that they finally became an example church to others (7). So powerful was their transformation that the witness of God’s grace-changing life within the church was told to other churches before Paul had a chance to tell anyone. Paul essentially stated that their example turned into a holy echo that spread into the ears of others. The thought in the language here was not like some social media-organized telling; it was an unsolicited sharing by hearts who were moved by what they had seen and heard (8).

Gospel Practiced (9-10)

These verses give an account of what the local church Jesus was building looked like: 

• They were highly hospitable to the gospel, giving the apostles bringing the gospel to them a “wonderful welcome” (NLT), “receiving [them] with open arms” (MSG, addition mine).

• They turned away from and deserted their pagan, idolatrous ways. They had turned away from being obsessed with an external, sensual world that indulged in two formidable idol-worshiping practices: sexual immorality and greed. 

  “For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.” (Ephesians 5:5)

• They renounced their allegiances to tangible obsessions and allied themselves to intangible passions—the love and worship of the true and living God, which would render them servants of God instead of slaves to their appetites and desires (9).

• They began to wait upon the One who had come to save them from coming wrath (10). 

Paul taught the church that a day was ultimately coming when all humanity would appear before Christ, and He would set the world right. On that day, all would appear before Jesus in their resurrection bodies—the just and the unjust (John 5:28-29; Acts 24:15). All would give an account of their words and deeds (Revelation 20:12). Then Jesus would set the world right as those who shared in the first Resurrection, the Resurrection of Jesus Christ their King, would discover the second death had no power.

“Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years.” (Revelation 20:6)

This second death day is known as the “Day of Wrath.” This is the Day of Wrath the Thessalonians were anticipating, the day they hoped Christ would come and finally save them from a world gone mad, then transform them into priests and that whole world into the image of His resurrected Son.

1 Thessalonians 2

Paul’s Defense of His Ministry

The Genuineness of Paul’s Past Motives (1-12)

Paul began the second chapter by clearing his name against those who had smeared his motives. He made clear he was not some irate quack with dubious notions (3) but was one who had been entrusted with the gospel (4). He did not flatter for gain (5); he did not seek notoriety or popularity (6), but he came as a willing sufferer, preaching the truth under persecution (1-2). So pure was Paul's motive that he acted with the tenderness of a nursing mother, sacrificing his own soul (7-8), not even allowing them to give to him what they owed him for his work, but instead earning his own living (9). Finally, in defense of his ministry motives, he reminded them that he was like a father, encouraging their lifestyle in Christ, not seeking to accumulate a crowd for his glory (10-12).

The Genuineness of the Thessalonian Motives (13-16)

Paul reminded the Thessalonians that they did not receive his teaching as coming from man, but embraced it from its true source, God. He further reminded them that they possessed the true evidence of being believers: they followed the example of those who genuinely followed Christ (13-14a). The genuine nature of their faith was demonstrated in their enduring suffering, the same quality found in Christ Himself (14b-16). Note that in verse 16, those who attack and oppose the gospel are actually filling up the measure or cup of their sins, so when the cup is filled, God’s wrath will ultimately return upon them. 

The Genuineness of Paul’s Present Motives (17-19)

Paul ended this chapter by reminding them that he had been torn away from them by Satan way too soon, but his earnest desire was to see them once again (17-19).