I Thessalonians 1:1-10
1 Paul, Silvanus, and
Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord
Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace.
2 We always give thanks
to God for all of you and mention you in our prayers, constantly 3
remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and
steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. 4 For we know,
brothers and sisters beloved by God, that he has chosen you, 5
because our message of the gospel came to you not in word only, but also in
power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction; just as you know what
kind of persons we proved to be among you for your sake. 6 And you
became imitators of us and of the Lord, for in spite of persecution you
received the word with joy inspired by the Holy Spirit, 7 so that
you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. 8
For the word of the Lord has sounded forth from you not only in Macedonia and
Achaia, but in every place your faith in God has become known, so that we have
no need to speak about it. 9 For the people of those regions report
about us what kind of welcome we had among you, and how you turned to God from
idols, to serve a living and true God, 10 and to wait for his Son
from heaven, whom he raised from the dead--Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath
that is coming.
The theme of I
Thessalonians 1:1 is the identification of the senders and receivers of the
letter. Paul identifies himself and two others as the senders of this letter.
Silvanus shared in evangelizing Corinth (II Corinthians 1:19, Acts 18:5),
evangelizing Thessalonica (Acts 17:1-9), and bringing the Apostolic decree to
Antioch (Acts 15:27, 32). He may have been a Roman (Acts 16:37). Timothy is one
in whom Paul had complete trust. They worked as a team as they introduced the
gospel. They joined him in the initial work in Thessalonica and continue to
join him in prayer and concern for the Thessalonians and their ongoing life as
a Christian community. He addresses the
people as “church,” the Greek word “ekklesia” suggesting an assembly or
gathering. To refer to this group as a gathering of the Thessalonians is
unique, for he usually writes to the churches or church “in” a certain place.
This gathering centers around the presence of the God of Israel as the Father
and Jesus Christ as Lord. He concludes the address with a common Greek greeting
in referring to Grace and a common
Jewish greeting in referring to peace
(shalom). However, given the Pauline context, the first part of the
greeting will suggest the gift of God in Jesus Christ. The second part will
suggest the power of God in Christ to protect, save, and bless the people of
God. It will suggest the rabbinic practice of associating it with
righteousness, mercy, and joy. While such a greeting is familiar to people who
read the New Testament and many official church documents since, Paul is the
first person to use the words in this combination. We have already learned that
this gathering of people exists only in relationship to the God of Israel as
their Father and to Jesus Christ as their Lord. It begins with the implied
promise of grace and peace.
The theme of I Thessalonians 1:2-10 is that of thanksgiving in prayer,
congratulating them for becoming examples, and identifying the message of the
gospel. H. Richard Niebuhr said, “The great Christian revolutions come
not by the discovery of something that was not known before. They happen when
somebody takes radically something that was always there.” This passage is
going to remind us of some basic truths, like the importance of gratitude,
prayer, faith, hope, love, and the message of the gospel. None of this is new.
It will raise the question of whether radical belief in them would change our
experience of the vitality Christian life and community.
This
segment begins with the reminder of the co-authorship of the letter. The
authors give thanks. We ought never to underestimate the power of giving
thanks. The authors begin with their offering of gratitude to God for the
people gathered in Christ in Thessalonica. They mention the people in their
prayers, even constantly remembering them. I want to spend some time reflecting
with you on what they remember about this congregation. What later tradition
would call the theological virtues are alive and well among these people.
First, the church is the place where people offer
faith without embarrassment. “Religion is the fashionable substitute for
belief,” said Oscar Wilde. There is an old saying to the effect that Christianity is always only one
generation away from extinction. I do not know who first said that, but the
truth of the statement is evident. Without the passing of the knowledge about
Christ and the testimony of faith from parents to children, from elders to
youth, from those convinced of the faith to those who have not yet been
persuaded, Christianity would eventually either die out altogether or be
reduced to a curious historical phenomenon.
Second, the church is the
place that nourishes hope without delusion. Certainly, there are ample reasons
to lose hope in life. In fact, it is easy to preach in a despairing, for in the
day-to-day it often seems so much more credible than hope is. There is
generally plenty of evidence around us to encourage and engender despair.
Nevertheless, the church understands that hope does not have its root in what
happens in the present moment. The hope the church shelters believes in the
biblical promise of the coming rule of God. It guards this hope while facing
the tragic character of life and without attempting to explain tragedy away as
the will of God. Hope is not some sort of dreaming that those of us with strong
enough gumption muster up from some inner core. Rather hope is an ultimate
belief that when all else fails, when every other support gives way, our lives
remain in the hands of God. God has
given us the church to support our hope. The task of the church is to nourish
hope, for if left out on its own, hope is vulnerable. It seems unrealistic to
expect the church to be the kind of community where everyone is very certain
about hope, but the church is a community where we have enough evidence from
experience to warrant a decision in favor of hope.
Third, the church is a place
that exercises love without limits. Jesus told us to love our neighbor. He was
not talking about emotions but about behavior. He was talking about acting in
ways that support the well-being of others. When we really grasp its meaning,
we realize that none of us does it perfectly. However, love is a driving force
in the church that will not leave us at peace if we exclude and ignore people
in need. We are all in need, rich and poor alike.
The church must not shrink
in its faith, hope, or love.
The authors offer such
gratitude because God has chosen or elected them as a community that belongs to
Christ.[1] He uses language familiar
within the Jewish tradition. In Deuteronomy 33:12, the text refers to the tribe
of Benjamin as “the beloved of the Lord” and that “the beloved rests” on the
shoulders of the Lord. Nehemiah 13:26 refers to King Solomon, in spite of his
sin, as “beloved by his God.” To this group of largely Greek people, these
authors affirm that God values and loves them. They can have this confidence
because of their message of the gospel,
referring to the basic plan or economy of salvation. Yet, clearly, they are not
identifying the gospel as simply a doctrine. This gospel did come in
proclamation and therefore in the preached word. However, it also came with
signs of divine activity, enthusiasm, and mighty works. The gospel came to them
in the Holy Spirit and with full
conviction. The point here is that the apostolic message mediates the
glorifying of Jesus by the Spirit, for its content goes out in the power of the
Spirit.[2] This gospel does make known
the once-for-all act of salvation in Jesus Christ, of course. However, the
authors indicate that the act of proclamation is itself an act of salvation on
the part of God.[3] The authors are thankful
for the extraordinary change that has taken place in the lives of these people.
How many local congregations
and established denominations witness a weakening of spiritual conviction? Such
convictions appear necessary to generate the enthusiasm and energy necessary to
sustain vigorous communal life. If we lose the will or the ability to teach the
message of the gospel to the next generation in such a way that develops a
sense of allegiance, the death of Christianity is near. The church needs to
admit that secularity has been powerful. Would it be possible to say that the
church largely accommodated secularity when it needed an apologetic? Is it
possible that segments of the church retreated into a ghetto of Christian
doctrine in the attempt to create a bubble within which the church can breathe,
but also require surrender of thought? Theologians may not have seen the
danger. Along with them, bishops, pastors, and lay leadership may not have seen
the danger. Re-thinking the message of the gospel in light of the challenges of
modern and secular life was not a task that many thought of as important. If
church has become little more than a tip of the hat to God and Jesus on the one
hand and the Golden Rule on the other, church and discipleship hardly seem
worth the effort. If the church is simply a tool for a progressive or
conservative political agenda, then forget the church and serve your favorite
ideological idol. The challenge today is that in order to regain lost vitality,
directly addressing the theological issues would seem an important part of the
strategy. Such an address will need to provide compelling answers to the
questions of why Christ and the community of followers of Jesus still commands
special attention from people so embraced by the secularity of the age.[4]
The authors now appeal to
the example the authors set while with them. They imitated the authors as well
as the Lord. Fred Craddock once wrote, “If the messenger is not believable,
neither is the message.” We need to keep in mind that we grow in faith,
hope, and love by seeing them active in the lives of people. We need the
teaching, of course, but we also need to see its effectiveness in the lives of
some people. Therefore, we all require the role modeling of people like Paul,
Silvanus, Timothy and the Thessalonians, as well as the examples of countless
saints that we encounter over the course of our lifetimes. There is no stage in
life in which any of us is exempt from the necessity of growing and maturing in
our faith, hope, and love. Every stage on which we live our lives will need
mentoring. At the same time, there is
usually an opportunity for us to be a good example to someone coming along
behind us.
It seems like people are straying away from the church
and going back to God (Lenny Bruce). If the church is shrinking in faith, hope,
and love, it might be because the role models are no longer there. If the
church is shrinking in its vitality, it has lost a sense of the vibrant
presence of God. It must develop a clear identity, a compelling purpose, and a
coherent direction that arises out of that identity and purpose. We are social
beings, of course, and the church remains an important source of such social
interaction for many persons. Yet, if it does not meet the spiritual hunger of
the age, it will justly die.[5]
The authors seem
amazed that, in spite of persecution, they
received the word with joy inspired by
the Holy Spirit. The persecution of these people arose from the religious beliefs
dominant in the first century. We will discuss that in a moment. It reminds us
that people never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from
religious convictions (Blaise Pascal). Further, as important as the signs of
power were, what impresses the authors is their reception of the word. Their
reception of the word allowed them to become examples to all the believers in the area of present-day Greece. The fact
that the word of the Lord has sounded
forth from them is what impresses the authors. The result is that people in
the area know of their faith in God.
The people in the area tell the authors of the welcome this gathering of people
in Thessalonica has offered to the authors. We can see how important changed
lives are for the growth of faith, hope, and love. Changed lives are one form
the word of God takes.
This section
concludes with a condensation of the preaching (scholars would call it the kerygma) of Paul. The condensation is
hardly complete, for the important teachings regarding the cross and
justification by grace are not present. However, it does indicate some
important themes of the early preaching of Paul. First, they turned to God from idols. Christian
mission has taken to all nations the summons to turn or convert to the God of
Israel.[6][7]
Second, they serve a living and true God.
Paul had a vigorous stress on monotheism. As long as people believed in many
gods, it would be difficult to raise the question of the totality of the world
and the totality of a human life. To move to an affirmation of one God also
points us toward a discussion of the totality of the world and of human life.
Israel moved from the belief that it had “one god,” monolatry, to the
affirmation that only one God exists, monotheism, preparing the way for the
preaching of the team led by Paul. In addition, Greek philosophical theology
made such preaching intelligible to non-Jews.[8]
Thus, any Christian mission to the Jewish people must begin by recognizing that
they already believe in the one true and living God. Christian mission at that
point would say that this God, the God of Israel, has offered a definitive
revelation of who God is in Jesus Christ.[9]
All of this should remind us that a general idea of God is the presupposition
of ascribing qualities based on divine revelation. In this case, of course,
Paul is proclaiming the message of the gospel that includes the notion that the
God of Israel, the living and only true God, is also the Father of Jesus
Christ. Third, note that in the first letter that we have from Paul, he
stresses Jesus as being the Son of the Father. However, when the preaching of
Paul included the idea of waiting for the
Son from heaven, it reminds us that
basic to the Gentile mission was the belief in one God entering a world of
popular polytheistic ideas. Yet, reconciling this belief with the Christian
confession of the divine sonship and deity of Jesus Christ would be a central
theme of the message of the gospel and a problem in early Christian thought as
it developed beyond Paul.[10] Fourth, of course, the phrase reminds us that
Paul had a vigorous Christology that stressed the coming again of the risen
Lord. Paul affirms that the Father raised
Jesus from the dead. Fifth, this
Jesus rescues us from the wrath that is
coming. The role of the returning Christ is the salvation of believers from
future judgment that puts the present age to an end.[11]
I
may well start re-reading the letters of Paul in light of the various
missionary teams he led. I want to find a more prominent place for gratitude in
my life and in my prayers. I want to see more faith, hope, and love in my life
and in the communities of which I am a part. Seeing the proclaimed word showing
up in changed lives in such a way that transformed individuals and communities
make an actual difference in the world would be my prayer and guide my action.
Seeing election, the notion of God choosing for a divine mission, would be a
worthy way to see the world. Many of us could agree with such matters. Yet, I
wonder about some of the rest. Do we turn from idols? Do we believe that the
God of Israel is the one living and true God? Some writers today would answer
in the negative. In our post-modernity, monotheism seems totalistic and
imperialistic. Some even argue for a re-birth of polytheism that would lead to
tolerance. Do we really believe Jesus is the Son of the Father? Many today
argue that Jesus was one among many spiritual leaders from whom we can learn.
Do we have a vigorous Christology rooted in the Father, the God of Israel,
raising Jesus of Nazareth from the dead? For obvious reasons, many theologians,
bishops, pastors, and laity wrestle with whether this happened. Do we really
believe that divine judgment or wrath is coming, from which the returning
Christ saves us? Most of us have done enough reading in the scientific account
of the universe that this statement is incredibly naïve. For many of us, to
continue believing such things would require some re-thinking. Yet, something
tells me that Paul and his team believed these things so deeply and personally
that the belief reorganized their lives. After we do our re-thinking, we will
do the same.
[1]
Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume
2, 456.
[2]
Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume
2, 395.
[3]
Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume
2, 458.
[4] Though addressing a different issue, this paragraph
receives inspiration from Benton Johnson, Dean R. Hoge, and Donald A. Luidens,
"Mainline Churches: The Real Reason for Decline," First Things, March
1993, p. 18.
[5] - David A. Roozen and Kirk C. Hadaway, Rerouting the
Protestant Mainstream, Nashville: Abingdon, 1995, p. 86.
[6]
Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume
3, 245.
[7]
Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume
1, 393.
[8]
Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume
1, 72.
[9]
Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume
3, 475.
[10]
Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume
2, 278.
[11]
Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume
2, 400; Volume 3, 613.
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