Being A Good Example

I Thessalonians 1:1-10

This week in the Book of Common Prayer we start several weeks of reading from the first letter of the Apostle Paul to the Thessalonians.  Let’s first take a look at the city of Thessalonica in the first century, at the time of this letter.  Thessalonica was the capital of the province of Macedonia in northern Greece, and had a population of approximately 200,000.  The most important Roman highway, the Egnatian Way, went through Thessalonica, and it was also a major seaport.  Thus this city was both wealthy and flourishing.  However, this also led to the city having many different pagan religions and influences.

The Apostle Paul began the new Christian church in Thessalonica, but had to leave after a very brief time due to persecution (Acts 17:1-10).  The new believers there remained firm and united in their faith, though.  As Paul starts his epistle (letter) he makes it clear that the church gathers in the Name of Jesus, the Son of God, and that this is not just some random, religious or philosophical assembly (vs. 1).  Jesus is both Lord God and Messiah.  At the start of each of Paul’s letters, he would emphasize the equality between God the Father and Jesus Christ.

In verse 3 Paul makes mention of the three important virtues - faith, love, and hope.  These characteristics should be marks of every effective Christian.  Believers should have a lifestyle of good works.  Good works don’t save us, but after salvation it should be a mark of our life, with faith, hope and love working together.

The Word of God changes lives (vs. 5).  It is more than just a collection of stories and poems.  Does our life confirm or contradict our faith?  Both in Paul’s day and also in ours, the Gospel message is confirmed by the lifestyle and character of those who preach the Word of God.  Paul’s life was open for all to review.  Everyone could see what he was like, and his life brought no shame to the message of Christ.  Hopefully that can be said of us, as well.

As the Thessalonian church, and most of the churches in other cities, were experiencing, the Christian life comes with adversity (vs. 6).  It is through adversity, though, that we draw closer to the Lord.  If we allow the Holy Spirit to work in our life, we can find joy in the midst of suffering.  As we remain firm in the faith, like the Thessalonians, we can be a strong witness to others who hear our testimony (vs. 7).

In verse 8 Paul says that the message of Jesus “sounded forth” from the Thessalonians.  They were just like mighty cymbals or like a trumpet for everyone to hear.  The message of Jesus should go out from us, both in our town, our state or province, our country and the world.  Just like cheerleaders and the roaring crowds at a sports event, we need to sound forth our support, love, and witness for Jesus and the Gospel.  Shout out our praise for Him, like the roaring crowds when a favorite team wins the big championship!

The Thessalonians turned to Yahweh, the true God, from many false idols (vs. 9).  Salvation involves turning from sin and false religions to Christ.  One needs to abandon all sins, wicked lifestyles, and all false gods, and turn completely around to follow Jesus.  Besides an actual image or statue, an idol can be anything that holds the place in our hearts that only God should have.  It could be most anything, including things that wouldn’t seem so bad, such as a house, hobbies, sports, food, cars, even family and health.  They all can be idols.

The “wrath to come” in verse 10 refers to both God’s wrath to come on the in during the period of Tribulation, and also the eternal wrath in hell.  As the Apostle Paul says in this opening of his letter to the Thessalonians we need to turn to God, serve God, and wait for Jesus’s return.