
1 Thessalonians 3.11-13.
If you read 1 Thessalonians 3 in its entirety—and maybe read the whole book like the letter it is, instead of breaking it up into paragraphs, then analyzing the crap out of each paragraph, much like preachers in a sermon series, or me in these articles—you notice how Paul, Silas, and Timothy went on and on and on about how they missed the Thessalonians, fretted about the Thessalonians, wanted so very badly to visit the Thessalonians (well not so much Timothy; he was just there), and were thrilled to pieces about how well the Thessalonians were doing.
So in today’s paragraph, they finally wrap all that up.
1 Thessalonians 3.11-13 KWL - 11 God himself, and our Father, and our Master Jesus,
- has hopefully directed our path to you.
- 12 The Master hopefully provided more than enough for you,
- in love for one another and for all, just as we also have for you.
- 13 All to strengthen your blameless minds in holiness before God our Father.
- Namely at the second coming of our Master Jesus with all his saints. Amen.
And y’notice they start to move to the next subject-area of the letter:
The word the apostles used is
Yeah, there are various weird interpretations of what the second coming consists of. No doubt you know one or two. So did the Thessalonians.
What the second coming consists of.
The most common first-century idea of the second coming was that Messiah is gonna take over the world. Most Christians today don’t think that way; they think it’s the end of the world, where Jesus returns, the earth goes kablooey, and we live forever with him in heaven.
But first-century Christians started with the ideas of first-century
The Roman practice was to send word to a city: The Romans are coming! But rather than fear for their lives, Roman messengers framed this as good news, an
If you’re noticing some similarities between these ideas and
The apostles’ worry was the Thessalonians wouldn’t be ready for Jesus’s invasion. ’Cause the way we get ready is to live in Christ’s kingdom now. To
Until Timothy had reported back to Paul and Silas, the apostles had no idea whether the Thessalonians were still on Jesus’s side, living in anticipation of his invasion—or gone astray, and joined the enemy’s side. You know,
Good and faithful servants of our King have been following his orders. They’ve been holy and blameless,
Matthew 24.48-51 KJV - 48 But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; 49 and shall begin to smite his fellowservants, and to eat and drink with the drunken; 50 the lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of, 51 and shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
“Shall cut him asunder” is
So the apostles were anxious lest the Thessalonians miss out on God’s kingdom, and be disappointed in the second coming instead of thrilled. Timothy’s report indicated the Thessalonians were on the right path. God was reading them for Jesus’s coming. I hope he’s likewise preparing us for the same thing… for we still don’t know when he’s coming. The sooner the better!

