1 Th 4:1-12, theme verse 1 Th 4:3
The praise and honor and glory be to our heavenly Father who seeks true worshipers who worship Him with the Spirit and truth.
In this eleventh Sunday after the Pentecost, I pray that His grace of the application of all the benefits which Jesus earned for our salvation and also the glorious ministry of the proclamation of His kingdom by the power of the Holy Spirit may be full in our life. Last week, as we looked at the Epistle to the Galatians, we learned that against the Legalism, Paul defended with the doctrines that we are justified by faith in Christ, who liberated us from the curse of the law and we can live the life to achieve the law through the Holy Spirit. Yet this week we would like to learn few lessons to look at the Epistle to the Thessalonians together.
1) As we saw already last week, there are 21 Epistles of the New testament. Among them, 13 were written by Paul, while 2 by Peter, 1 by James, 1 by Jude, and 3 by John and 1 by the unknown. Today, we would like to look at the first and second Epistle to the Thessalonians which is known as the second and third Pauline Epistles.
2) Paul went on three missionary journeys during his life. In the first missionary journey of AD 46-48, Paul visited southern Galatia of the central and southern regions of Turkey, along the route indicated by the white line on the screen, after being sent by the church in Antioch with Barnabas, after passing through Cyprus island, Barnabas’ hometown, landed on the land, passing Perga and Pisidian Antioch and Iconium, even to Lystra and Derbe, he returned to Antioch in Syria. And after he wrote the epistle to the Galatians due to the issue of circumcision, he went to Jerusalem due to the same issue in the church in Antioch at AD 49 and Jerusalem Council concluded that the Gentiles did not need to keep the Laws. And then at AD 52, he departed the second missionary journey with Silas, in which he visited again the churches in the southern Galatian region and, bringing Timothy from Lystra, he proceeded to north to Bithynia, yet since the Spirit of Jesus did not allow it, he went down to Troas through Mysia, and there he saw the vision at night that a man of Macedonia was standing there urging him to come over to Macedonia and help them so that he boarded and got off at Samothrace and moved to Philippi to proclaim the Gospel there and then moved to Thessalonica.
3) But, when he was there in Thessalonica, as Paul preached that Jesus is the Christ three times at the synagogue, some of the Jews were persuaded and joined Paul as did a great many of the devout Greeks and a few of the leading women as Acts 17:4 says. But the Jews who were jealous to Paul, taking some wicked men of the rabble, formed a mob and set the city in an uproar. And when they attacked the house of Jason, seeking Paul and his followers to bring them out to the crowd, yet since they could not find them, so they dragged Jason and some prselytes before the city authorities to accuse them to turn the world upside down and to act against the decrees of Caesar and to say that they were saying that there was another king, Jesus. But Jason and the rest were released after depositing the security money and Paul and Silas moved to Berea. But the Thessalonian Jews who heard Paul was preaching again at Berea, came to Berea to agitate and stir up the crowds, so Paul fleed again to Athen. Then Paul who was worrying about the Thessalonian proselytes sent Timothy and Silas to Thessalonica and Philippi to exhort them. And then he moved himself to Corinth and stayed there for 18 months. At that time, Timothy who returned from Thessalonica reported that Thessalonian church was building up very well, yet on the one hand, there were saboteurs who were trying to undermine Paul’s integrity and on the other hand there was a need to exhort newly converted believers to live a holy life and also there were some believers who were concerned about the fate of believers who died before the Lord’s return. So Paul wrote the first epistle to the Thessalonians to defend his integrity, exhorting the believers to endure persecution and at the same time, exhorting them to live a holy life, while giving them teachings related to the second coming of Christ and the bodily resurrection of the saints who died before His return. Yet a little later, Paul was reported again that the false teaching that “the day of the Lord has already come” was spreading in the Thessalonian church and some believers were refusing to work. with their hands, so he wrote the second letter which is known as the second Epistle to the Thessalonians to treat those issues.
4) And as we saw in the Epistles to the Galatians, since the Epistle to the Thessalonians follows also the ancient epistolary formula, so looking at each section of the letter, we can know that in the opening, the fact that Paul omitted his title of Apostle through which we can know that Paul had a very warm and affirmative relationship with the Thessalonians. And also we see the fact that he added two co-senders, Silas and Timothy by which we can know that he wanted to appeal his words to the Thessalonians since Silas and Timothy took very important roles in her planting and building-up. And then in the thanksgiving section, thanking for their faith, love and hope, we can see that he tried to foretell four themes of the body, in which we can see that after first defending his integrity, he exhorted them to endure the persecutions and to live the life of holiness as Christians and to teach and comfort them that in the second coming of the Lord, the deceased ones in Christ will be raised first and then together with the remaining Christians will welcome Him. And lastly, in the closing section, we can see that instead of simple typical phrase that “But may the God of peace be with you,” he ended with that “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,” so that he repeat again the exhortation of holy life and comfort them for the second coming of Christ.
5) By the way, Paul says that the will of God for the Christians is the life of holiness and love, that is, the life of holiness is the sexual immorality and not to wrong to other brothers and the life of love is to help brothers in Christ and also to life the life of peace and to work with our hands.
6) Through Today’s text, we would like to learn few things. Firstly, in today’s text, Paul says that the life of holiness is to abstain from sexual immorality and to treat his wife with holiness and honor, in addition, not to wrong other brothers. Here the Greek σκεῦος(skeuos) which is translated as wife in Korean translation or as body in the most English translation means vessel, belonging, wife or body and sometimes it can mean human’s private organ or sexual life so we can translate this verse that we have to treat our wife with holiness and honor as the Korean Bible was translated or that we have to control our sexual body in holiness and honor as the NIV or ESV was translated. And then regarding the phrase of verse 6 not to wrong other brothers, there are many different interpretation. Among them, Chrysostom of the 4th century AD, connecting this statement with the preceding one, explained this verse as not to harm his neighbors to eagerly desire their wives, yet, it seems to me he was too forced an exposition as Calvin said. So I think it seems more reasonable to interpret this phrase as not to wrong their neighbors as we already saw what the daily sanctification means in the opening that the sanctification means not only recovering our internal purity, but also acting righteously to our neighbors. In other words, Paul says the life of holiness means internal purity and also treating our neighbors righteously. Secondly Paul says that the life of love is the life to help other brothers and sisters and also the life of peace while working with our hands. Here the Greek ἡσυχάζω (hēsychazō) which is translated as quietly can mean to live the quiet life or peaceful life so that he exhorted them to live the life, not intruding themselves with forwardness into the affairs of others, making great disturbance, and giving trouble to themselves and others. In that vein, he exhorted them to live the life of working with their hands, not being lazy, so that they can sustain themselves not to be dependant and act honorably before other non-believers. And one more thing we would like to see is that Paul says that three enablers or motives of our holy life. I mean, firstly, he says the holy life of Christians is the purpose of calling of God as Eph 1:4 says that “even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.” And secondly he says the life of holiness is the commandment of the Lord as 1 Peter 1:15 says that “but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy.’” And lastly he says the Holy Spirit whom God gave us through Christ is the Spirit of sanctifier as 2 Th 2:13 says “But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth.” Therefore I pray that since God’s will for us is to live the life of holiness and love, we may live the life of not only internal purity but also to benefit others, for the peaceful life which results into the life of the fruit of love and peace.
Key Questions as Small Group Activity
Q1 According to today’s text, it is said that the life of holiness is the life to pursue the internal purity and to respect and benefit others externally. So after reviewing whether we are living in those life, I hope we could share our experience and thought with our team members together to learn from each other.
Q2 And also it says that the life of love is the life to help others and to live in peace and work with our hands. So after reviewing our life whether we are living in those life, I hope we could share our thoughts and experiences with each other to learn from each other.
Love you. Thank you. God bless you.
Prayer Note
Dear ( God’s attribute which you found Today ) God!
Thanks for ( something you received through the sermon or even during the week )
Praise, gratitude and glory be to You, Lord!
Today, I realized my sin (pains) that ( the sin God reminded through the sermon ),
please forgive (or heal) me and help me not to repeat ( the sins you recognized ).
I learned that ( something you learned through the sermon )
Please help me to live in that ( learned way of life )
I pray in ( Jesus’ attribute you find ) Jesus’ name. Amen.
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