I recently finished reading through 1 Thessalonians and found yet again that the Scriptures can never be exhausted, that their riches know no bounds. With this series of blogs, I wanted to share what the Lord shared with me in this tour through the first epistle of Paul to the Thessalonians. This post covers notes from Chapter 2.

In Chapter 2, Paul gives an account of their visit to Thessalonica and explains how they did ministry so as to honor the Lord Jesus. One note on the Greek here: “Our coming” is not the same “coming” that will later be used for the coming of the Lord Jesus. The latter is a technical word, “Parousia,” while Paul refers to their coming with an ordinary word, “eisodos.” Paul uses a number of word pictures to describe their ministry among the Thessalonians. After they had SUFFERED. Suffering and affliction are major elements of the letters to the Thessalonians and thus should not be unexpected among other communities of believers throughout the church age. Their ministry had no intentional error or impurity, and it was not a pretext for greed.

“Like a nursing mother taking care of her own children . . .”

“Like a father with his own children they exhorted and encouraged and charged”

“Affectionately desirous to share the gospel and our own lives”

The word “gospel” appears four times in this second chapter, indicating that Paul’s primary focus in his ministry to the Thessalonians was to share the gospel. To sum up, the ministry of Paul and Silvanus and Timothy to these new believers was one of utmost integrity and purity.

One final note on Chapter 2: Like Chapter 1, Chapter 2 ends with a reference to “the coming of the Lord Jesus. Again, this “coming” is “parousia,” a technical word for the return of Christ at the end of the age.

SDG       rmb       6/3/2019