Reflections on 1 Thessalonians 2

1 Thessalonians 02 (Contemporary English Version)


1. My friends, you know that our time with you wasn't wasted.
2. As you remember, we had been mistreated and insulted at Philippi. But God gave us the courage to tell you the good news about him, even though many people caused us trouble.
3. We didn't have any hidden motives when we won you over, and we didn't try to fool or trick anyone.
4. God was pleased to trust us with his message. We didn't speak to please people, but to please God who knows our motives.
5. You also know that we didn't try to flatter anyone. God himself knows that what we did wasn't a cover-up for greed.
6. We were not trying to get you or anyone else to praise us.
7. But as apostles, we could have demanded help from you. After all, Christ is the one who sent us. We chose to be like children or like a mother nursing her baby.
8. We cared so much for you, and you became so dear to us, that we were willing to give our lives for you when we gave you God's message.
9. My dear friends, you surely haven't forgotten our hard work and hardships. You remember how night and day we struggled to make a living, so that we could tell you God's message without being a burden to anyone.
10. Both you and God are witnesses that we were pure and honest and innocent in our dealings with you followers of the Lord.
11. You also know we did everything for you that parents would do for their own children.
12. We begged, encouraged, and urged each of you to live in a way that would honor God. He is the one who chose you to share in his own kingdom and glory.
13. We always thank God that you believed the message we preached. It came from him, and it isn't something made up by humans. You accepted it as God's message, and now he is working in you.
14. My friends, you did just like God's churches in Judea and like the other followers of Christ Jesus there. And so, you were mistreated by your own people, in the same way they were mistreated by their people.
15. Those Jews killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and they even chased us away. God doesn't like what they do and neither does anyone else.
16. They keep us from speaking his message to the Gentiles and from leading them to be saved. The Jews have always gone too far with their sins. Now God has finally become angry and will punish them.
17. My friends, we were kept from coming to you for a while, but we never stopped thinking about you. We were eager to see you and tried our best to visit you in person.
18. We really wanted to come. I myself tried several times, but Satan always stopped us.
19. After all, when the Lord Jesus appears, who else but you will give us hope and joy and be like a glorious crown for us?
20. You alone are our glory and joy!
    
    

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    Paul spoke of the Thessalonians, in this chapter, as if they were his pride and joy among the churches he had started. They, Paul said, would be his "crown of boasting in the presence of our Lord Jesus at His coming." (2:19) He made no such statement in letters to any other church. But they had readily received the gospel that Paul preached to them, welcoming it "not as a human message, but as it truly is, the message of God." (2:13) Having received the gospel, they "became imitators of God's churches in Christ Jesus that are in Judea." (2:14)  That is, they endured persecution from their own countrymen as the churches in Judea had experienced with their own countrymen, the Jews. They did not reject the gospel because of this persecution.
    
    The response of the Thessalonians to the gospel was a worthy response to the price paid by Christ to make it possible and by Paul to deliver it to them. Paul came to them out of pure motives seeking no glory for himself. He was gentle with them as a "mother nurtures her own children," and "encouraged, comforted, and implored each one of you to walk worthy of God," like "a father with his own children." (2:7, 11, 12) In turn, they openly received both Paul and his message. Thus they had a special place in his heart. Persecution in Thessalonica, however, forced Paul to leave the newly converted Thessalonia Christians. Since then, Paul had made "every effort to return and see you face to face" but had been hindered by Satan.