The Revelation of Jesus Christ: (chap.1)
The Christians in Thessalonica were grateful to God for Paul’s first letter. As the persecution grew worse and some believers thought they were living in the time of the Tribulation. Then a letter arrived claiming to be from Paul, stating that the Day of the Lord was actually present. The assembly seems confused and frightened. Some of the believers thought that since the Lord’s coming was so near, they should quit their jobs and spend their time waiting for Him. This meant that the other members were under an extra burden to care for them. Satan was trying to deceive the assembly.
Salutation and greetings: (1:1-3):
Paul starts this letter with greetings from all three, viz, Paul, Silas and Timothy although it is purely Paul’s letter. This shows that all the three are in perfectly in one spirit and in unity.
Paul reminded his readers that they were the recipients of God’s grace and peace, and he wished that they would experience these blessings in fullest measure. “Grace” is “God’s riches at Christ’s expense.” It is God’s unmerited favour which He freely bestows on all who accept Jesus Christ’s substitutionary work for them on the cross by faith. God gives man the opposite of what he deserves: blessing instead of judgment. This is the grace of God. Peace has resulted from Christ’s death. God and human-beings can be reconciled because the debt of human sin has been paid by Christ. Christians have peace with God through the death of Christ. They also experience the peace of God as a result of Christ’s work.
Christians can be at peace even in the midst of trials and persecution. This was Paul’s desire for the Thessalonians. Both grace and peace are gifts of God that come to believers through the Lord Jesus Christ. In both Thessalonians’ letters Paul gave the greeting “Grace and peace to you,” but (in 2 Thess.) he added from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Suffering helps us to grow and to glory: (1:4-10):
“The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church,” wrote the Latin church father Tertullian. The suffering in China has multiplied the blessings because it has purified the church and will be same for any nation even in a pluralistic society like India. The Thessalonians believers are not only displaying the evidence of God’s grace in their lives, but also evidences of the righteous judgement of God. It is the faith, love and endurance which they are displaying in the midst of their sufferings. “Tribulation produces perseverance” (Rom. 5:3). Of course, “perseverance” in the NT is not simply “waiting,” it is steadfast endurance in the Lord, keeping going, when the going is tough. The Christian who prays for more patience must expect more tribulation, for tribulation is the spiritual tool God uses to make us patient.
When suffering comes, it will either make us or break us. If we accept the suffering, yield to God’s will, and by faith continue to stand true, then the suffering will cause us to grow. If we resist the suffering, complain to God, and give up in unbelief, then the suffering will break us and weaken our testimony. (1 Pet. 4:12-19).
Jesus had taught that suffering was the unavoidable path to glory, both for Himself and for His followers. Therefore, Paul is also insisting that only through many tribulations and sufferings we can enter God’s kingdom and that only if we share in Christ’s sufferings, will we ever share in His glory. So suffering and glory, tribulation and the kingdom, belong inseparably to one another.
Although God seems to have some rope for the persecutors, it was evident in the lives of the Thessalonians that God was on their side, sustaining and sanctifying them. Through persecutions, God was developing their faith, love and perseverance in contrast to the prejudice, anger and bitterness, thereby counting them worthy of the kingdom of God, for which they were suffering. They were not worthy but counted as worthy in God’s grace when they courageously faced the persecution by the help of God.
Further Paul speaks that God is just. He will vindicate the believers publicly and reverse the fortunes of both groups, i.e. the persecutors and the persecuted when Christ comes. He will pay back trouble to the trouble makers and give relief to those who have been afflicted. This is a spiritual truth and calls for spiritual discernment. Knowing that God is preparing judgment for the wicked, we can rest in confidence. God will recompense judgment that He will mete out to the wicked in the same measure and kind that they have meted out to Christians. Pharaoh drowned the babies of Israel, and God drowned the Egyptian army in the Red Sea. Judas betrayed Jesus to be hanged on a tree, and Judas went out and hanged himself. Saul tried to slay David with a sword, and was slain with a sword himself. Sinners reap what they have sown.