One In Jesus

1 Thess 5:19-22

(1 Thess. 5:19-22 ESV) 19 Do not quench the Spirit. 20 Do not despise prophecies, 21 but test everything; hold fast what is good. 22 Abstain from every form of evil.

Quench

In v. 19, the word translated “quench” means to extinguish. If I quench a thirst, it goes away but comes back. If I extinguish a fire, it goes out and stays out. Therefore, implicit in Paul’s instruction is the risk that we not only resist the Spirit but so resist the Spirit that we lose the Spirit — and so our salvation.

Continue reading →

The next and final section of the letter is a series of very brief ethical instructions. Many students of Paul find these sections uninteresting because they don’t deal with “real” theology — just how to live together in community.

But many scholars are now reminding us that these sections on practical Christian living are often the very point of the letter. The theology was covered to explain why it is that we should live together in peace, abstain from evil, etc.

The ethics may be obvious to someone raised as a Christian, but to someone converted to Christianity then or today, such instruction is imperative. Just as was true when Paul was doing mission work, we cannot assume that our converts understand Christian morality. Indeed, many converts will bring with them ethical standards very much at odds with Christ’s standards.

In fact, there are many of Paul’s ethical teachings that even those raised in the church don’t practice and even preach against. Therefore, working through the ethical sections can be time very well spent for even very mature Christians. It’s easy to forget the basics. Continue reading →

1 Thess 5:11

(1 Thess. 5:11 ESV) 11 Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing. 

“Therefore” means this is the first conclusion Paul is drawing from his lesson on the Second Coming. In context, his point is that we can fall away if we aren’t attentive and sober — prepared for the Parousia — which is also a very common teaching of Jesus.

The solution isn’t to lift yourself up by your own bootstraps. It’s not self-reliance. It’s not redoubling your hard work. It’s finding someone who needs encouraging — and encouraging them. And finding someone who needs to be built up and building them up.

Get away from the individualistic notion of spiritual formation where you seek to grow through study, solitude, and meditation (all good things). But even better is learning to look out for the needs of your brothers and sisters and serve them — especially encouragement and edification. Continue reading →

1 Thess 5:6

(1 Thess. 5:6 ESV)  6 So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober. 

Paul is now doing midrash — rabbinic style commentary. He is taking “night” as in “thief in the night” and treating it as a reference to darkness — that is, the absence of God.

Since we are saved and hence among the children of the day, we need not fear Jesus coming as a thief. Rather, we should not sleep — not meaning “do not die” but “be vigilant.” We “keep awake” by being vigilant against those who would tempt us to give  up our salvation. And we should be sober — as Jesus will execute his wrath against drunkards.

In Greek, as in English, “sober”  can mean “not drunk” but can also mean “dispassionate or circumspect, that is, vigilant. And so Paul can go from “drunkard” to “sober” to “attentive” by taking advantage of both meanings of “sober.”

1 Thess 5:7-10

Now, if you read what Paul just wrote against the background of Matt 24:36-44, I think Paul’s next few comments make better sense. For example, in 1 Thess 5:7-8, Paul urges the church to be sober and not indulge in pagan drunkenness. Why? Maybe because Jesus’ words include —

(Matt 24:37-39 ESV) For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.  38 For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark,  39 and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.

Jesus could be misread (or misheard) as anticipating drunkenness at his return. Paul is anxious to make clear that the drunkards are the ones left out of Christian hope.

Jesus also says in Matt 24:42,

Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.

“Stay awake” on Jesus’ lips means “be vigilant” or “be attentive.” But when Paul discusses the afterlife, he refers to the death of a Christian as sleeping. In context, then, “stay awake” sounds like “stay alive.” Paul uses the double meaning to preach on being ready for Jesus’ return. If you stay awake, you’ll not be afraid of sleep.

Paul moves the meaning of “awake” from “pay attention” to “be alive in this age” to “be alive in the  next age.” And that flow makes  perfect sense, despite (or because of) the word play.

(1 Thess. 5:6-10 ESV)  6 So then let us not sleep [be attentive to the things of God], as others do, but let us keep awake [be attentive] and be sober [not drunkards/attentive].  7 For those who sleep [the inattentive = the world], sleep at night  [when Jesus will return in wrath], and those who get drunk, are drunk at night [when Jesus will return in wrath. Don’t expect the world to be purified until after Jesus returns.].  8 But since we belong to the day [“Day” in the prophets is associated with the presence of God. Compare 1 John 1; Job 24:13-14.], let us be sober [not drunk, so we don’t forfeit our salvation], having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation.  9 For God has not destined us for wrath [will be for those who in in the night or live outside the Kingdom], but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,  10 who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep [live or die in this age, rather than vigilant or not vigilant] we might live [eternally in the next age] with him [The Afterlife will involve living with Jesus!]. 

Anyway, I think that’s right. Recent scholarship has shown that it’s very likely that Paul’s letters were hand delivered by an emissary, who would read it to the church and would have had the letter explained to him by Paul. Oh, that we could have access to that knowledge!

The breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation

The metaphor of the Christian’s armour attracted Paul and he uses it a number of times (Rom. 13:12–13; 2 Cor. 6:7; 10:4; Eph. 6:13–17). The details are not always the same, which is a warning against pressing the metaphor too closely. Thus in Ephesians the breastplate is righteousness and faith is the shield, while neither hope nor love is mentioned. The idea probably goes back to Isaiah 59:17, where Yahweh is depicted as a warrior armed.

Leon Morris, 1 and 2 Thessalonians: An Introduction and Commentary, Tyndale NTC 13; IVP/Accordance electronic ed. (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1984), 97.

(Isa. 59:17 ESV) [God] put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on his head; he put on garments of vengeance for clothing, and wrapped himself in zeal as a cloak.

Interesting that Paul is telling us to dress as God dresses. And it’s interesting that in these passages, the only parts of the armor mentioned are defensive. Unlike in Eph 6, there is no mention of a sword or spear.

“Peace and security” comes from someone who defeats his enemies with righteousness (covenant faithfulness) and eternal salvation — not mere iron and brass.

Just so, the armor we are to put on is made of faith, hope, and love — and these are all gifts from God (1 Cor 13). It’s these things that provide true peace and security.

Destined us

In 1 Thess 5:9, Paul says we’re not destined for wrath but for salvation through Jesus. Is this Calvinism? It’s not likely because the point of the passage is to be sober and awake so that you don’t lose your hope and so you have nothing to fear at the Second Coming. That is, the passage is a warning against falling away — hardly a Calvinist sort of teaching.

The negative possibility that lack of vigilance may lead to loss of salvation preserves Paul’s doctrine of election inherent in destined from that absolute rigorism into which it has often been pushed so that those who believed themselves elect were certain that no matter what they did they would persevere to inherit salvation.

Does our passage teach that some are destined for God’s anger? Paul does not draw this apparently obvious logical deduction. There is of course no need for him to do so since he is not writing about unbelievers, but equally there is no need for him to deny it. That Paul allows for the possibility of some of the ‘elect’ failing to reach salvation through their lack of vigilance suggests he would not have drawn it, or if he had that he would have qualified it. As at 1:4 we must say that there is no place in Paul where he writes positively of the ‘election’ of men to God’s anger.

Ernest Best, The First and Second Epistles to the Thessalonians, Black’s New Testament Commentary, (London: Continuum, 1986), 217.

1 Thess 5:1-2

Roots in Matt 24

(1 Thess. 5:1-2 ESV)  Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you.  2 For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.

Jesus announced that the Second Coming (or Parousia) would come like a “thief in the night” in Matt 24:36, meaning that even the saved won’t know the date.

(Matt. 24:36-44 ESV)  36 “But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.  37 For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.  38 For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark,  39 and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.  …  42 Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.  43 But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into.  44 Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”

Matthew’s Gospel wasn’t written until some time later than 1 Thess, but Paul had access to the teachings of Jesus either by direct inspiration, by training received from the other apostles, or a separate collection of sayings lost to history (likely because those materials were accumulated into one or more of the Gospels).

Paul had apparently covered this teaching while he was in Thessalonica — which is far from surprising. How could he teach them Christian hope without addressing the Second Coming?

Paul’s understanding of the kosmos

As Paul sees the world, that is, in his worldview, the cosmos is divided into the Kingdom and the world, children of the day and children of the night, the sober and the drunkards, the attentive and the inattentive, those who’ve been saved from wrath and those will be suffer God’s wrath, those who have hope and those who have no hope. (1 John is very similar in thought.)

Paul is not speaking of an alternative to the Five Steps of Salvation. He is speaking pastorally to his flock about how to avoid the coming wrath and instead not be in the night when Jesus arrives like a thief in the night. It’s more midrash or rabbinic-style commentary on the words of Jesus we now  have as Matthew 24. Paul associates a word here, a metaphor there, and he passionately calls on his converts to be ready for Jesus’ return.

Contemporary readers and teachers want to talk about salvation as a process so that there are no knowable lines between the lost and the saved. But Paul seems to think he knows how to tell the difference — and that we should tell the difference.

1 Thess 5:3-5

Peace and security

(1 Thess. 5:3-5 ESV)  3 While people are saying, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.  4 But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. 5 For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness.

“Peace and security” is exactly the promise given by the Caesars to their subjects. The price was to worship Augustus and his successors as “son of god,” “lord,” and “savior.” This was a peace that those living in Thessalonica were proud of because the result was greater trade and prosperity — and if that cost the occasional sacrifice of incense to the emperor, and even if it cost giving Rome total control over their lives — it was a small price to pay to become wealthy.

Sudden destruction

“Destruction” translates olethros, the same word often used of death or the destruction of a city or nation.

(Ezek. 6:14 ESV)  14 And I will stretch out my hand against them and make the land desolate and waste [LXX: olethros], in all their dwelling places, from the wilderness to Riblah. Then they will know that I am the LORD.”

“Sudden” translates a Greek word meaning sudden. And yet we routinely take “sudden destruction” to mean “eternal non-destruction.” This is one of the many passages that persuades me that Edward Fudge is right to argue for conditionalism, that is, the doctrine that the damned will suffer punishment in the afterlife and then be destroyed — that is, they will cease to exist after God has imposed punishment in perfect justice.

After all, the idea of perpetual conscious torment does not fit well with “sudden destruction.” In fact, it’s the very opposite — not sudden and not destruction.

Labor pains and a thief

Paul uses two metaphors for the Second Coming — a thief in the night and a woman in labor.

A thief not only comes when he not expected  and when the owner of the house is likely asleep, he comes suddenly and he takes quickly. Paul is looking at the Second Coming from the perspective of the lost.

A woman goes into labor at a time that cannot be predicted. In the ancient world, the risk of death to the mother was very high — and so it was both an exciting moment of new birth and a terrifying moment that the mother or baby might die. Just so, the Second Coming could be a great thing or a dreadful thing.

Darkness

(1 Thess. 5:4 ESV) But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief.

Paul now takes a surprising turn. He concludes that the Second Coming is only “like a thief” — a bad thing — for the damned. The saved aren’t in darkness and so they’re safe from the dangers threatened by the Parousia.

Summary

(1 Thess. 5:2-4 ESV) For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord [the Second Coming] will come like a thief in the night.  3 While people are saying, “There is peace and security [as promised by the Caesars to Thessalonica],” then sudden destruction [not perpetual conscious torment] will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman [unpredictably], and they [who rely on Rome for peace and security] will not escape [sudden destruction].  4 But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. [The church may not know when Jesus is to return, but to us, it won’t be like a thief breaking in. It’ll be a celebration!] 5 For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness. [The prophets routinely used “light” and “day” to symbolize the presence of God. The saved are in God’s presence and so have nothing to fear from the Second Coming.]

[This is not greatly changed from a post I put up on Feb 22, 2016.]

The Parousia

(1 Thess. 4:16-18 ESV) 16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.

A large portion of the Protestant world believes in Rapture theology. Even many in the Churches of Christ believe in the Rapture; we just don’t call it that. Indeed, our hymn books often speak of meeting Jesus in the sky. Continue reading →

The afterlife

(1 Thess. 4:13 ESV) 13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.

First, just to break the ice, I can’t read this verse without being reminded of a preacher story — you know, one of those stories told as true so many times by so many preachers that its veracity is uncontested — with no supporting evidence of any kind.

Many years ago, it seems that the deacons were gathered outside the church building one Sunday evening after church, smoking and discussing the afternoon’s NFL game. A lovely young single woman, a church member, walked past. One deacon said, “Sally, why haven’t you gotten a man from here at church and married?” She replied, “If you knew your scriptures, you’d know the answer.” Continue reading →

When we run into a difficult passage, such as this passage, how do we decide what’s really being said and whether it is literally binding on the church as written?

I took several shortcuts in my blog post, just to avoid having to write 6,000 words on the subject. But I did do my hermeneutical homework before posting it. For example, I read several different commentaries from multiple authors and multiple schools of thought (10 or so). I checked the NET translator notes (nearly nothing on the question I addressed). And sorted through the passage in terms of the great over-arching narrative of scripture.

Two approaches. I’m going to compare and contrast two approaches to hermeneutics. There is the approach that includes the Bible’s over-arching narrative (“narrative hermeneutics”), and then there’s the approach that simply says “means what it says, says what it means” (“simplistic hermeneutics”). Continue reading →

I’ve been in the hospital the last few days dealing with an infection. I’m still there, and so I apologize for any mistakes I make. I blame the drugs.

Not sure when I’ll be up to joining in the comments. But I’m feeling well enough to do a little expository Bible study.

4:11-12

(1 Thess. 4:11-12 ESV)  11 and to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you,  12 so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one. 

Interesting stuff … I mean, how many sermons have you heard on “work with your hands” or “mind your own affairs.” Our preachers (and many of our members) do neither. Are we sinning? What is Paul really expecting? Is is wrong to have a job that doesn’t involve manual labor? Or do we just decide we don’t like this verse and so strike it from our Bibles? — which is exactly what we’ve done, you know. Continue reading →

There’s another subtlety here I want to look at more closely.

(1 Thess. 4:7 ESV) 7 For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness.

Paul says that his readers have been “called.” Now, when I was growing up in a north Alabama Church of Christ, “called” was considered the language of Calvinism — and it was taken to mean “irresistibly called.” Therefore, when we ran across this language in a text, we tended to either ignore it or explain it away. That is, we’d demonstrate the error of Calvinist without bothering to explain what it does mean.

I remember reading to our college class nearly 40 years ago a passage where Paul spoke of Christians being “predestined.” I explained that I believe in predestination, because Paul believes in predestination — but I don’t believe the Calvinists have it right. But our preaching and teaching should be perfectly comfortable speaking of predestination, foreknowledge, and being called — because Paul and the other NT writers are.  Continue reading →