Read with Me
1 Thessalonians 1:4-10 (HCSB)
knowing your election, brothers loved by God. For our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power, in the Holy Spirit, and with much assurance. You know what kind of men we were among you for your benefit, and you became imitators of us and of the Lord when, in spite of severe persecution, you welcomed the message with joy from the Holy Spirit. As a result, you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. For the Lord’s message rang out from you, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place that your faith in God has gone out. Therefore, we don’t need to say anything, for they themselves report what kind of reception we had from you: how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath.
Listen with Me
Paul is very thankful that the Thessalonian believers were standing firm, not only because it meant that they were locking in their eternal destiny, but because it confirmed in his own heart that he had followed God’s lead in bringing the gospel to them in the first place.
Paul had come to Thessalonica after he and Silas had been arrested, beaten, and imprisoned in Philippi. After the conversion of the jailer and his whole household (Acts 16:16-40), they had been released and had headed west until they came to Thessalonica.
But in these verses, Paul points to several things that convinced him that his arrival in the city had been an important part of God’s plan. To begin with, God had empowered their proclamation of the gospel by providing divine signs and miracles. Although none of the miracles are specifically listed in Luke’s account in Acts, miracles and healings were a common occurrence in Paul’s ministry, lending credibility to the message he brought, and it was no different here.
The second sign that Paul’s ministry among the Thessalonians was God-ordained, was the eagerness with which the people, especially the gentiles, had grabbed hold of the message, and had experienced genuinely transformed lives. Paul declares that these new believers immediately became imitators of Paul and Silas, and also of the Lord Jesus Himself, something that would have been impossible without a genuinely divine transformation of their minds and hearts.
The next sign of God’s hand at work was that the faith and transformation of the Thessalonians had been so drastic and so well-known that they had become a model to the Christians in other cities throughout the regions of Macedonia and Achaia.
The clear sign of this obvious transformation was that they had turned away entirely from the idols, the false gods they had served their whole lives, and instead had become entirely devoted to the one true God and to Jesus, His Son. Another sign was the hope that they had been given and had received – hope in the return of Jesus and of their eternal salvation. That faith and hope had given them power to stand firm even in the face of opposition and persecution.
Pray with Me
Father, it’s kind of fascinating to me that Paul had such powerful and immediate transformation that he can point to as evidence that the Thessalonians had truly passed over from death to life. These days we don’t look for or expect real transformation like that. Instead of allowing You to work in Your divine power in a person’s heart and to purify and change them into imitators of Jesus, we are content if we can get them to recite a prayer. Then, if they stick around, we try to educate them and exhort them into sainthood. Your method works from the inside out, with a miraculously transformed heart automatically producing dramatically different priorities and behaviors. Our modern methods are outside in, trying to impose beliefs and behavioral standards on the outside in hopes that eventually the heart will be affected. Your way, Paul’s way, the way of Jesus Himself, was effective and produced long-lasting and solid fruit. Our way is frustrating, discouraging, and far more short-lived than we want it to be. Lord, help me to do the work of Your kingdom in Your way, so that You Yourself can work powerfully, miraculously in the lives of the people I reach out to. Amen.