An introduction to 1 Thessalonians
While visiting my grandmother in England last year I asked her to fill in some gaps in our family history. One afternoon, in predictable English fashion, out came an old biscuit tin filled with bits of paper and photographs all jumbled together. There was a photo of my dad and uncle as boys holding a monkey at the zoo. Another of my grandma herself, a teenager during the Second World War. Then we found something which really captured my imagination: my great-grandfather’s military service papers from the First World War. Reading those documents, I learnt a good deal about him and life for families at that time. But those papers also raised as many questions as they did answers, as these were bits and pieces of a small but significant part of one man’s life, so my view was limited. And yet, because I was learning about my very own great-grandfather, I couldn’t help but feel connected, even inspired by what I was reading. My knowledge of the First World War, now coupled with more intimate family history, brought real depth and definition to things. It was history, it was true, it was personal, it was moving.
Reading the letters we find in the Bible’s New Testament can sometimes feel like sorting through bits and pieces of family history in a biscuit tin, listening in to one half of various conversations from quite a historical and cultural distance. We might know something of the ancient world, even a good deal about some of the writers, but it can be a challenge to immediately understand or apply what we’re reading. Even so, the people we come across in the New Testament letters are not entirely strange nor unrelatable. A letter such as 1 Thessalonians was written to some of the very first Christians, and though they are unique, we share more in common than we might think. We share family ties as part of a long lineage of our sisterhood and brotherhood in the faith. Reading how our Christian ancestors learned to trust Jesus offers us a sense of continuity and confidence. After all, these folks were trying to follow the same Jesus we’re trying to follow today. I sometimes think of it like gazing up at the moon – the people, places and times may have changed, but throughout history, we’re all still admiring the same luminous reality. The New Testament letters direct us to the same Jesus now as then. They instruct, inspire and encourage us in our faith profoundly.
We also discover in letters like 1 Thessalonians that we not only share Jesus himself, but some pretty relatable human concerns too. Are the questions and challenges of these distant relatives so different from our own? Why is following Jesus so hard, and are we doing it right? What happens when we die, or to the people we love when they die? What does God care about how I live my seemingly insignificant life when it comes to things like sex or work? How does God expect me to treat others in light of Jesus’ message and example? These are just some of the questions we unearth in 1 Thessalonians, and much more. My job today is to introduce you to the first recipients of this letter, and to the person who introduced them to the message of Jesus in the first place, the Apostle Paul and some of his companions.
Setting the Scene
Let’s put our historical imagination to work. You live in first century Thessalonica, a bustling city in the northwest corner of the Aegean Sea (or modern Greece today). Thessalonica means “Thessalian victory”, named after Alexander the Great’s half-sister, daughter of Philip of Macedon, as it’s thought the princess herself was named for a battle Philip won in the region. Though it has roots, your city doesn’t live in the past. Thessalonica is a deep-water port, which means it’s open to plenty of trade and commerce, but it also sits on the second most important road in the entire Roman empire, so the city is full of cross-cultural connections and colour. Four-hundred years after Philip and Alexander, Thessalonica plays a major role in the now Roman province of Macedonia. Rome being the new world power, Macedonia is one of many provinces in a vast empire under Claudius, an Emperor with great sway and who demands devotion. Under Claudius and the other power brokers of empire, world order looks like a kind of hierarchal pyramid, and precious few ever shift position an inch. Most people’s best hope for a quality of life is to ensure they’re associated with someone powerful, serve their interests, and hope they will be protected should trouble arise. The rich and powerful stay so, the rest live underfoot, and no one batts an eye at all manner of exploitation. Slavery is not a dirty word to you, as the whole world runs on it. Everyone is in someone else’s pocket.
Being a port city and sitting on an important trade route, all kinds of people and ideas pass through Thessalonica, and sometimes they stick around. Over time, among the various cultures which have settled the city, are some from the east of Jewish decent, enough in number to warrant a functioning synagogue, a local house of worship. The Jewish community in your city is peculiar to you. They’re devoted, they say, to one God whom must not be physically represented in stone or wood, unlike the various other gods worshiped in the city’s Greco-Roman temples. Strange as they are, however, the Jewish culture is ancient, their shape of life rooted in a story much older than other stories of the city. This carries some weight in a place like Thessalonica, hungry for continuity and legitimacy given an otherwise brief and disjointed Greco-Roman history. The quality of Jewish life together is also distinct from Greco-Roman life, and attractive to some. Over the decades a good deal of non-Jews in Thessalonica have been drawn to the ancient and consistent life of the synagogue, adopting the worship and rhythm of life – it’s becoming appealing to you also from a distance.
One day, however, you hear of something happening in the Jewish synagogue which appears to break routine. A group of men have turned up in Thessalonica, and one of them is teaching something new. News spreads that this man has a mastery of the Jewish sacred texts which far exceeds the synagogue’s leadership, but more than that, when he speaks people are deeply moved. He recounts events in Jerusalem in Judea over the last twenty years, another far-flung Roman province. Jerusalem is the location of the Jewish Temple, the true focal point of their worship. The man recounts events around someone named Jesus, who hailed from a backwater town called Nazareth, who came to Jerusalem with an authoritative message. Another wandering prophet? Another teaching within Judaism’s many factions? According to the traveling teacher this Jesus was and is much more. Jesus is Lord. That’s a strange, controversial, even dangerous message. What could he mean? Did he realize the trouble that kind of talk might stir up in an city like Thessalonica under Caesar’s watchful eye?
According to this new teacher, Jesus is said to have had such an impact in Jerusalem that wherever news of him goes things are turned on their head. Bizarrely, this new teacher not only shares Jesus’ message but insists that that Jesus himself was crucified, and then came back to life, all part of the Jewish God’s plan. This makes little sense to you, and also seems to be a deeply troubling teaching for some of the Jews in the Thessalonica’s synagogue. The traveling man says that Jesus is somehow the fulfillment of the ancient Jewish texts, and that his death and resurrection are now the focal point of the entire Jewish story.
Even if this teaching is strange, again, this man’s mastery of the ancient Jewish texts begins to convince a number who listen. More than that, it doesn’t seem this man’s cleverness or public speaking prowess is making the difference, though he’s clearly brilliant. There’s an undeniable power behind his message which draws and convinces. You learn more about this traveling teacher himself. He claims that at first, he was part of the elite Jewish establishment, and that he resisted, hunted, even killed Jesus’ earliest followers. But one day on his travels he saw this Jesus himself and everything changed for him too – he was turned upside down, or perhaps right side up. The man put his full devotion to Jesus, and turning his back on the elites in Jerusalem, he and his friends had undergone incredible hardship because of this. They’re often hated and hunted wherever they bring their message. A message not only for Jewish people, but for every culture, every people group, all over the world. It’s why they’ve come to Thessalonica. They insist the message about this Jesus is for your city too.
Honestly, you’re struggling to keep up as it’s all a bit foreign to you. But what you can’t dismiss is that you’re also deeply compelled. Some of the Jewish people in Thessalonica are adopting this new teaching, along with a good deal of outsiders like yourself, including some of the city’s wealthy and influential women. Jews and non-Jews alike are being brought together under this new teaching, encouraged to commune together rather than being segregated. You’re told that your devotion to this Jesus and his teachings is what makes this possible. No lines are drawn between Jews and non-Jews any longer – they’re one family now under Jesus. In turn, what you respected about the Jewish community is only heightened, becoming more attractive, more indescribably powerful – it seems this Jesus, his way, his example is making the difference. And the man who has brought this new teaching to your city is on fire. He’s unlike anyone you’ve met. He doesn’t play the games the usual traveling speakers and swindlers play, who roll into town with fancy words, promise the world, take the money and run. He speaks and lives with authority, integrity, great generosity, as do his companions. But, ultimately, all he seems to want to do is talk about this Jesus, whom he insists is worthy of total devotion.
The new teaching gathers momentum in the synagogue, so a kind of new community is forming around the place and in some private homes too, which makes the synagogue leaders jealous. They’re threatened, not only by this fellow as he’s clearly out of their league, but by what’s gaining ground. This message and new community forming is a threat to their ways, and offensive to their ears for a whole host of reasons. After a few weeks, they decide to do something about it, this blasphemy must be stopped. A mob is formed, and they go hunting for this man and his companions. But, unable to find him, hidden by some new friends, the mob drags a few early adopters in front of the authorities instead, and want things dealt with. The accusation is that that this new teaching opposes Rome herself. If the synagogue leaders can get the city officials to see that this movement is a problem for Thessalonica’s devotion to the emperor, they might be able to snuff it out. Surely the city officials won’t stomach a statement like Jesus is Lord, when everyone knows that Caesar is Lord. But, eventually, those the mob snatched are released, and the men who brought the new teaching to the city escape by night, sent away by their new friends. If they stay, they’re certainly die, so the traveling men slip away quietly just as they had arrived.
What they leave behind in Thessalonica is something remarkable – a brand new Jesus-community. About twenty years after Jesus’ death and resurrection, this is how the church of Thessalonica got started – it was first church ever planted in what we now call Europe. And it was planted by men named Paul, Silas and a young Timothy.
The Letter
Let’s talk a little about the letter itself. Their lives under constant threat wherever they went, Paul and the others had been sent away. As with other cities where the gospel was first brought, the Jesus’ followers in Thessalonica faced immediate hardship. We know some of their names, like Jason, as the story goes in Acts 17. So here was this new Jesus-community, a mix of cultures, some prominent and wealthy folks, others maybe of lower class, all together. They had maybe only three weeks of Paul’s teaching under their belts and had been left to sort the rest out. But, even though Paul and the others had to move on, the new community endures. The power had not left with Paul. The truth they had been taught, the change they’d known deep in their hearts was lasting. They’d been told they were now brothers and sisters, and must stick together, even in the most trying moments, and that this Jesus would hold them together by God’s Spirit. As fresh and daunting as all this was, there was a genuine love and power present which inexplicably nourished and sustained them.
Wanting to share the message about Jesus with other cities, weeks later Paul stops in another influential Greek city, Corinth. But his heart burns for his friends in Thessalonica. What happened between them was powerful and real, and he was torn away from them so suddenly. When the time is right Paul opts to send a young Timothy back to Thessalonica, who tends to go unnoticed, to see how the fledgling community is doing. Had the seeds they’d planted taken root? Were his new friends able to withstand such intense and immediate persecution? Paul thought and prayed about them constantly. He had risked everything, again, to share the news about Jesus with the people in Thessalonica. The bonds of love and sacrifice, what they had faced together even in such a short window, would not be easily broken.
Paul waits for weeks in Corinth for Timothy’s return. Would he even see his young apprentice again? It was a risk to send him back in the first place. When Timothy finally returns from Thessalonica to find Paul in Corinth, the joy and relief is immense, and the joy compounds when Timothy shares his report. The seeds in Thessalonica have taken root. Their hard work and sacrifice had paid off. The community appears committed to what they’d been taught, and Paul is ecstatic. Timothy reports the particulars, and what the new believers are worried about since Paul’s departure. What results is what we hold in our hands today – Paul’s first letter to the first Christians in Thessalonica. What’s in the letter? We’ll find out as we read, but roughly it’s this:
- The difficult circumstances the Thessalonian Christians are facing, and Paul’s joy that they’re holding fast.
- Paul’s concerns for them, especially that they should expect hardship and why.
- The Thessalonian Christians’ concerns (as reported by Timothy), like the problem of Paul’s swift departure. Did he really care? Did he cut and run? Was the gospel to be trusted?
- Paul’s words on other matters among the Thessalonian Christians (sexual conduct; work; true Jesus-like love among them; worries about death; Jesus’ return; teaching on Christian life together)
So that’s the scene, and the broad content of the letter we’ll walk through this Spring and Summer. That’s some long family history. Let’s close with a quick look at some of Paul’s opening words.
1 Thessalonians 1.1-3
1 Paul, Silas and Timothy,
To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:
Grace and peace to you.
2 We always thank God for all of you and continually mention you in our prayers. 3 We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.
This is how the letter opens. A few notes as we close today.
First, from the three traveling brothers: Paul, Silas, Timothy. The work given to Jesus’ followers, has always been, will always be, a team effort. Even in these three names, there’s a wide range of age, life experience, and cultural background. The three men are very different, but they are together under Jesus, an example themselves of the new Jewish/Gentile fusion.
Second, the believers in Thessalonica are not only in Thessalonica. They are in a where, but also now in a who – they are “in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ”. They have a home in God, and in Jesus – they’re secure, even when the mobs form.
Third, notice God the Father (Israel’s YHWH) and Jesus are on the same footing. 1 Thessalonians is thought by some to be the first New Testament document written, around 50AD. So, even in the earliest Christian writings, the Lord Jesus is on the same footing as Israel’s one true God. That’s an incredible ascension for a crucified prophet. Paul, the great scholar, one of the best minds of his time, is deadly serious about Jesus’ power and position. What we’re reading is what proves to be one of history’s most dramatic turning points. Jesus is Lord – not only over against Emperor Claudius and Rome, but over all creation itself.
Forth, Grace and peace, words heard often in Paul’s letters. Grace is the central reality of life in Jesus, a gift we receive through trust. Peace is what’s made in our hearts between us and God, between one another, one day the entire world under Jesus.
Fifth, prayer. Dramatic and historic as this shift under Jesus is, at this point Christianity is still a small movement within a vast empire. What do the beginnings look and sound like? They sound like someone labouring in prayer for his new sisters and brothers. They sound like love and concern. They sound like thankfulness and togetherness under Jesus. If we ever wonder where this all began, after Jesus, it began with prayer and love for one another. As we read later in the letter –“never stop praying”. So, as they prayed for one another then, so we pray for one another now. Everything begins and ends with prayer – the reminder that it’s all in God’s hands, especially one another.
Sixth, finally: Faith, love and hope. For Paul, the work of being a new community under Jesus comes from faith, trust, in Jesus. Their labour together spurred on by genuine love. Their endurance, their persistence in the face of difficulty, founded on a hope they have in Jesus.
What is hope in Jesus? Is hope something we have because we’ve not planned very well – “I hope I’ll do well on this test, because I’ve not really studied! Maybe I’ll be fortunate, and they’ll have pity on me!” That was the sentiment around the word hope back then. Scholars tell us that hope was not a positive term, it was something you were left with if you didn’t have your ducks in a row. Hopeful people were not admired but pitied. If you wanted to get along in that world, you couldn’t be foolish enough ride along on hope – you had better make sure you were set up. Hope was not action plan. Strong, secure people didn’t bank on hope.
But here, as Paul uses it, hope means something different. The Thessalonian’s hope isn’t feeble, something to be scoffed at. Their new hope in Jesus was not a kind of wishing for the best, a rolling of the dice. Hope in Jesus had merit, strength, security. Even with the little they had by way of knowledge, Paul thinks hope in Jesus will even help his new friends endure anything, buoyed in the roughest waters. Under Jesus’, they can even face the terror of death itself, because the central message about Jesus is of his power over death itself. This was no silly hope to be scoffed at. This hope was sound, overriding any circumstance. Hope was now an fortifying word in the hands of the first Christians. Hope in Jesus emboldened the first Christians. With Jesus-rooted-hope they could stare down any adversity, even death itself. As I said earlier in my little re-telling of how the church was planted in Thessalonica, Paul may have moved on, but the power had stayed. The hope they had in Jesus, and we now have, is still present and resonant here today.
What do you hope for? What do you hope in? What’s your action plan when the going gets tough, when the bad news inevitably rears its ugly head? What adversary is staring at you out of the darkness?
Whatever stares at you this very week, stare back through it with hope in the Lord Jesus, maker and sustainer of creation. Say his name, full of power. Remember, you don’t only live in Thessalonica or Langley or Surrey or wherever you keep your stuff. As a Christian, your home and hope is in the Lord Jesus.
No matter how much head knowledge you have about him, or how fresh you are to faith, you have a sure and certain hope in Jesus. It’s what our Christian ancestors had back then; it’s what we still have now. May Jesus be your home and your hope.
Luke Knight 