Pastoral Care

2 Thessalonians – The Situation in Thessalonica

[Audio for this study is available at Sermons.net, as is a PDF copy of the notes. You may right-click and “save as….” ]

Why is Paul writing the church at Thessalonica another letter? The consensus answer is that the church received a letter claiming to come from Paul has circulated to the church. This letter claimed that the “Day of the Lord” has already occurred. Paul writes to calm their fears and to assure then that the Day of the Lord has not yet arrived since the “Man of Lawlessness” has not been revealed.

But there may be more here than a false letter. It is possible that the persecution which the church has faced has caused some in the church to wonder if they are suffering because they have sinned (and are being punished) or perhaps have believed the wrong things about Jesus. Much of the Greco-Roman world was motivated by honor / shame, the suffering the church is facing appears to be a “shame” rather than an “honor.” “The Thessalonians themselves may have had a rather low conception of themselves, especially in light of the shame they endured as a persecuted people” (Green, Letter to the Thessalonians, 281).

Paul writes this second letter to clarify that Christians might suffer before the return of the Lord. First, suffering cannot be taken as an indication that the Great Tribulation has begun because God has an appointed time when the restraining power of God is removed from the world, permitting the Lawless One to be revealed.

Second, suffering ought not be taken as an indication of divine disfavor nor should the Christian think that they are dishonored because they are being persecuted. This sort of suffering is the lot of the Christian and the endurance the church has already demonstrated is a worthy testimony of the Lord’s work in their church and is a source of boasting for Paul. Paul is pleased that they are steadfast as they endure persecution (1:4).

Third, the source of the suffering which the church is experiencing is not God, but rather Satan. God is not punishing them at all. Since they are a successful, growing church, Satan is attempting to distract them from their commission as a church and limit their effectiveness As Green observes, “the persecutions were those that they suffered at the hands of their contemporaries and that were motivated by Satan (1 Thess. 1.6; 2.14; 3.3–5).”

The major theme of the letter is that  patient endurance in the face of persecution is an indication that the church is  living a life  comparable to the salvation they have already received. Christians are going to suffer naturally just like anyone, But Paul says in this letter that our response to suffering is an indication that we are “worthy of the kingdom of God.”

This teaching is diametrically opposed to the “health and wealth” gospel popular today. Many Christians sincerely believe that if they are right with the Lord they will be not only healthy, but wealthy and successful as well. This “gospel” is popular because it tells people what they want to hear, that God will fulfill all their earthly desires without requiring anything more than giving money to particular ministries. This sort of thinking confuses God with Santa Claus and seriously misinterprets and misapplies scripture.

Paul’s letter reverses this popular thinking.  It is not that God wants you to suffer illness and poverty, but rather than when you face trials your faith ought to be refined and renewed.

1 Thessalonians 5:12-13 – Respect Those Who Work Hard Among You

After describing the church as “people of the light,” Paul concludes his letter with a series of short commands. The Church at Thessalonica was perhaps a year old when Paul wrote this letter, and most of the members were Gentiles, former pagans who now are in Christ. Typical of Paul’s churches, there were some wealthy, prominent members of the community but also many poor, perhaps slaves. There would not have been that many leaders outside the church, so the people now who were “church leaders” were inexperienced. 1 Thessalonians 5:12-13 is clear: the congregation should care for its leaders.

This naturally leads to some troubles in the church. Imagine a slave particularly gifted with the Holy Spirit as a leader is chosen as a church leader and offers an admonition from Scripture. How would a prominent member of the Thessalonian society handle hearing a slave preaching the word and exhorting them to godly living? Alternatively, if a rich person from a socially well-placed family exhorted the congregation, would the poor slave listen to him objectively?

1 Thessalonians 5:12-13

Given the commands Paul gives here, it is likely that these inexperienced leaders were not being given respect due to them because of the office they held as elders of the church and because of the labor they did for the church. Paul describes the work they do as “toilsome labor,” the very same word Paul used to describe his own work in 1 Thessalonians 1:3. These leaders are doing hard work, taxing physically and emotionally. They are doing this work on behalf of the church. They are due some respect for being the ones that carry the heaviest load.

The leaders are appointed by God; they are “over you in the Lord.” This is how church leaders are described in Romans 12:8 and how a family leader is described in 1 Timothy 5:17. The emphasis is on leading with care and diligence.

Paul says that the congregation is to hold their leaders is high esteem in love because of their work. Notice that the congregation is to hold them in high esteem because of their work, not because of their personality, or whether they do what you want them to do, or because you agree with everything they say, etc.

A year before Paul wrote this letter, the leaders of the Thessalonian church were still pagans, and now they are spirit led leaders of a growing Christian congregation. They were doing their best, even though they were not the “experts.”

Many applications of this principle come to mind for the modern church.  Paul’s point is that the church’s work is the most important thing and that any lack of personal respect needs to take a back seat to the presentation of the Gospel. This is a complicated section because the modern church is very performance-oriented. We are very critical of a pastor or elder, comparing their abilities to other pastors and elders we know. I am thinking about the American church because that is what I know, but I am confident the same is true for any church anywhere in the world.

Many pastors are judged as successful if they have a large congregation. They may judge themselves this way, if there are a lot of people there on Sunday morning they assume they are doing a great job. But numbers are not the measure of success or respect. It is possible that the pastor is doing everything God wants him to do, yet there are many empty pews on Sunday.

People in the pew judge the pastor’s sermon by the standard of others they have heard, perhaps on Christian radio or the internet. Modern media makes it possible to hear twenty excellent sermons weekly, making it hard for your local pastor to compete!  This is like judging the church softball team’s ability by the Los Angeles Dodgers’ standard. They are playing the same game, but the level of experience and giftedness is in another league. There are not many Chuck Swindoll’s, or John MacArthur’s out there, it is highly unlikely we will be able to attract either of them to our church.

1 Thessalonians 4:9-10 – Brotherly Love

[Audio for this study is available at Sermons.net, as is a PDF copy of the notes. You may right-click and “save as….” ]

In the final section of 1 Thessalonians, Paul begins to deal with a few ethical issues which need improvement in the church. He also clarifying his teaching on the return of the Lord. Perhaps Timothy reported this as problems he observed, perhaps the church sent questions to Paul via Timothy.  Beginning in verse 9, Paul develops a family metaphor to describe how church members ought to behave towards one another.  Because we are used to hearing the term “brotherly love” we may miss the rhetorical punch of Paul’s use of the word in 1 Thessalonians.

What is brotherly love? The noun used in 1 Thess 4:9 (φιλαδελφία) was only used for literal family relationships before the Christian community began to use it as a metaphor for members of their community. The Greeks considered the relationship between brothers to be of primary importance, Plutarch used the term “brotherly love” to describe the proper relationship between brothers.

Plutarch, De fraterno amore 2 …where there is an unanimous accordance amongst brothers, the family thrives and flourishes, and friends and acquaintance, like a well furnished choir, in all their actions, words, and thoughts maintain a delightful harmony. “But jarring feuds advance the worst of men.”

Plutarch, De fraterno amore 15 Brothers should not be like the scales of a balance, the one rising upon the other’s sinking; but rather like numbers in arithmetic, the lesser and greater mutually helping and improving each other.

Plutarch, De fraterno amore 21 Again, it is highly commendable in him to have the highest esteem and honor for his brother’s wife, reputing and honoring her as the most sacred of all his brother’s sacred treasures, and thus to do honor to him

Based on the teaching of Jesus, the earliest believers referred to themselves as “brothers and sisters.” In Mark 3:3 Jesus indicates that his “brothers and sisters” are those who hear and obey his words. If those who followed Jesus faced rejection from their families, it is possible that Jesus intended his followers to be a new “family.” On the other hand, the family of Jesus may be an allusion to the larger theme of a New Israel among the followers of Jesus. In Acts 2:29 Peter addresses a Jewish crowd as “brothers,” meaning “fellow Jews.” So too Paul in Acts 22:1; 23:1 when he addresses large crowds of Jews.

Paul’s use of the term “brother” and “brotherly love” bears additional theological weight. By accepting Christ, we are adopted into the family of God, God is our father. This makes each person that has accepted Christ as their savior a brother or sister in Christ.

This new family in Christ is the foundation for many of Paul’s commands (cf., Rom 12:10; other Christian ethical instruction begins the same way: Heb 13:1; 1 Pet 1:22; 2 Pet 1:7; 1 Clem 48:1). He urges his readers to please God by treating each other like brothers and sisters.

If the church lives in brotherly love, then the father is pleased and honored. For the Greek world, nothing dishonors the parent more that children who do not display proper affection for one another and feud.  As Plutarch said, “jarring feuds advance the worst of men.”

1 Thessalonians 4:1-2 – “Excel in Living to Please God”

[Audio for this study is available at Sermons.net, as is a PDF copy of the notes. You may right-click and “save as….” ]

In the final section of 1 Thessalonians, Paul begins to deal with a few ethical issues which need improvement in the church. He also clarifying his teaching on the return of the Lord. Perhaps Timothy reported this as problems he observed, perhaps the church sent questions to Paul via Timothy.

In either case, Paul want to“ask” and “urge” to live a life that pleases God. These verbs (ἐρωτάω and παρακαλέω) are commonly used to encourage a reader to a particular action. They appear in personal letters between people of the same social status rather than a “superior” giving orders to his underlings. Paul’s view that the church is a family and that he is a “brother” within that family is implied by the use of these verbs (Green, Letters to the Thessalonians, 183). Potentially Paul could have “pulled rank” and told the church what needs to change – but he offers these commands a social equal.

But Paul includes a prepositional phrase, he asks them “in the Lord Jesus.” The commands in this section are not from Paul, but rather from the true authority, Jesus. Verse 8 will make this point again, if you reject this command you are rejecting the Holy Spirit!

Living a life which “pleases” may simply mean making another person happy or proud. But the word was used for citizens who had preformed some civic duty and had “pleased” the government enough to inscribe their names on monuments. In the context of the “ask in the Lord Jesus,” Paul is saying that these moral guidelines are ways to please the Lord, who is Jesus. Any citizen of Thessalonica would like to please their government and be honored with an inscription, therefore Paul says you ought to live your life the way the ultimate authority wants you to!

The church is already living to please God, but they can improve, they can do this “all the more.” Anyone that thinks they cannot improve is in trouble, not only have they ceased to grow, but they are probably moving backwards. Paul says keep moving ahead! Keep on pleasing God all the more.

How one “pleases God” as a Christian stands in contrast with the Greco-Roman world. Paul draws a contrast with the Roman world throughout the rest of the book. In 4:3-8 the church is not to tolerate sexual immorality like the world. Nor are they to defraud their brothers. The Christian ought to live an industrious quiet life, working with their hands. The Christian does not need to mourn or grieve like the pagan world concerning the death of brothers because we have the hope of resurrection (4:13-18).

It is this contrast with the world which is the radical element in Paul’s ethic. There ought to be something “different” about the Christian – that difference is what is pleasing to the Heavenly Father.

1 Thessalonians 3:8 – “For Now We Live”

[Audio for this study is available at Sermons.net, as is a PDF copy of the notes. You may right-click and “save as….” ]

In 1 Thess 3:6-10, Paul is encouraged in a time of distress. This refers to actual persecution Paul faced rather than the emotional distress he suffered as a result of being separated from the church. It is possible that Paul is continuing his metaphor, he was “orphaned” from his children and had no idea if they were safe, or if they were continuing to grow in their new faith.

Paul was physically in danger in Thessalonica (Acts 17:1-9), and that trouble followed him to Berea (Acts 17:10-15). While there is no evidence of suffering in Athens (Acts 17:16-34), but he is alone during that period and he seems to have come to Corinth with low spirits.

Soon after Timothy and Silas join Paul in Corinth, Acts 18:6 indicates that Jews from the synagogue opposed Paul’s message. After Paul leaves the synagogue and forms a church (next door!), the Lord comforts him in a vision, telling him not to be afraid because no one will attack or harm him (Acts 18:9-11). The very next story is an attack by the Jews in which Paul is arrested and charged with worshiping God contrary to Roman Law (Acts 18:12-17). The proconsul Gallio throws the case out of court and Paul is not harmed in any way. In 1 Cor 2:3 Paul describes himself as coming to Corinth in “fear and much trembling.” In 2 Cor 6:3-10 and 11:16-29 he lists a number of times that he has suffered already. The letter to the Thessalonians was written in the midst of this suffering, just before Paul is given a vision comforting him (Acts 18:9-10).

But in the midst of this distress, Paul says that he “really lives” as a result of the news that the church is standing firm in the Lord. This is an odd expression, that “we really live knowing that you are standing firm.” The “we” would be Paul, Silas, and Timothy; the ministry team that founded he church.

What does he mean “live” (ζάω)? It is not that Paul would die if they had rejected the faith. What he probably means is that his life work is to plant churches and see them develop, it is what makes his life satisfying and gives him the encouragement to continue in the ministry. The image is that before the good news of Timothy’s report came, he felt dead, he was depressed about the situation he left in the church. But now that he has heard the good news of the report, he can live.

Paul was encouraged because the church was “standing firm in the Lord.” The syntax here is important: the KJV and the ESV translates the end of the verse as “if you stand” but the NIV (TNIV, NIV2011) has “since you stand.” The NIV attempts to reflect the grammar: the use of ἐάν with the present indicates that Paul understands the condition (standing firm) as a certainty. Grammatically it is a condition, but the first part of the sentence is so certain that it can be translated as “since.” (Use this as an example: “If it is Thanksgiving, we are going to eat pumpkin pie.” The condition is so certain, that we can say, “since it is Thanksgiving, we are going to eat pumpkin pie.”)

To “stand firm” (στήκω) means “to be firmly committed in conviction” (BDAG). The verb is formed from a perfect form of ἵστημι and is used by Paul standing in faith (1 Cor 16:13), in the Lord (Phil 4:1), or in the Holy Spirit (Phil 1:27). In Gal 5:1 and 2 Thess 2:15 is refers to holding on to the gospel as it was taught to the church by Paul in the past. There is a past event (their belief, their acceptance of the Gospel) which has some present effect (standing in their Lord).

The church is standing firm in the Lord. Paul does not praise them for believing the right things, or for doing the right things, but for clinging tenaciously to their Lord, perhaps against the attacks from outside the church which proclaimed another Lord (Caesar) or from inside the church which questioned the power of the Lord. Romans 14:4 uses the same verb for a judgment – one can only stand before the Lord because the Lord makes him stand.

Paul is therefore “revived” by the news that the church has not failed, in fact they have exceeded his expectations. The church is far from perfect, but they understand that they have not “arrived” and Paul praises them for wanting to grow even more.