1 Thessalonians 1:1-5 • Perspective Starts with Knowing and Trusting God
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What have you learned about trusting God with different aspects of your life? Have you noticed that the degree to which you trust God affects your level of thankfulness? In the last article, we learned why we need to gain the biblical perspective on all areas of life, both in the present and in the future. This is post #2 in the Thessalonians series. In this article, we will learn that gaining the biblical perspective starts with knowing and trusting God. Doing that leads to thankfulness.
Listen to this blog as a similar podcast from the Perspective Bible Study of 1 and 2 Thessalonians:
The Process of Discovery
Have you done any needlepoint, embroidery, or cross-stitching? You start with a blank canvas, then you use various colors of threads to add a recognizable picture to that canvas. Each color of thread is an important part of the whole pattern. Together, the different colors create a picture with life and meaning. That is how I approach Bible Study.
Whenever I begin the study of a book of the Bible, I always start with asking the Lord to show me truths from His Word. Then, I find an online version of the book, print all the chapters, and get out my colored pencils. I read through the whole book in one sitting to get the full context. Next, I look for similar topics and assign a different color to each—for example, prayer, joy, heaven, suffering. After marking the various main topics, I go back and see how many times the author referenced that subject. Often, I am surprised by seeing an emphasis on something that I have never seen before. That is what happened to me as I started studying 1 and 2 Thessalonians.
Treasure Found
The end times
Paul’s letters to the Thessalonians are known for their references to the end times. Jesus’ return for believers. The Antichrist. The Great Tribulation. The Second Coming of Christ and the judgment that follows. Every chapter of 1 Thessalonians ends with a reference to Jesus’ appearing again.
and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath. (1:10)
For what is our hope, our joy, or the crown in which we will glory in the presence of our Lord Jesus when he comes? Is it not you? (2:19)
May he strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones. (3:13)
After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. (4:17)
May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. (5:23)
As short a book as 2 Thessalonians is, almost one half of its verses deal with future events (2 Thessalonians 1:6-10; 2:1-12). Along with that, I found 6 references to God’s wrath against sin that will be carried out in the future. Most preaching and teaching from these letters focuses on the end times.
But wait, there is more…
There is so much more to these wonderful gifts of God to us. Paul addressed work 4 times (1 Thessalonians 2:9; 4:11-12; 5:12-13; 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13). He described what it means to please God or displease God 3 times (1 Thessalonians 2:4, 15; 4:1). He named 4 specific things that are definitely God’s will for you (1 Thessalonians 4:3; 5:16-18). No doubt about it.
In his usual manner, Paul wrote the words that he prayed for the Thessalonians. I found 5 places in the two letters where he did that (1 Thessalonians 1:2; 3:10-13; 2 Thessalonians 1:11-12; 2:16-17). Once, he asked them to pray for him.
But the biggest surprise for me was the number of times Paul found specific reasons to be thankful to God. The Thessalonians were getting persecuted like crazy. Paul had already been run out of town at Thessalonica and Berea. He had been given the virtual cold shoulder in Athens and was getting persecuted in Corinth.
Yet, in these two short letters, only eight chapters in all, Paul wrote out reasons to be thankful 6 times, spread throughout the two letters. In fact, he begins both 1 Thessalonians and 2 Thessalonians with reasons to be thankful.
When you write a letter … let me put that differently. If you ever wrote a letter or, more likely, a long email to friends who were going through tough times, and you were also going through tough times, would you saturate that letter with a bunch of different reasons to be thankful?
All the references to the end times are like red threads in needlework. They stand out like crazy! But I used a softer color for thankfulness. I got to thinking that thankfulness tones down the anticipation, impatience, and uncertainty of waiting for Jesus to come back and straighten out this mess on earth. Thankfulness sharpens your focus to see who God is and what He is doing now. In the present. On this earth. And in your life.
Thankfulness Requires Knowing the Living and True God
Paul reminded his readers that something very important had happened to them.
[Other Christians in Greece] tell how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God. (1 Thessalonians 1:9)
They had turned from idols to serve the living and true God. What a momentous decision they made! Paul introduced them to the real God. They got to know Him. How does anyone get to know God?
Knowing truth about God
What is God like? There is a lot of junk out there about God. And your view of God strongly influences your faith in Him. Jesus taught us to think of Him as our Father in heaven.
What kind of father did you have? Loving and kind or a domineering tyrant? Someone who cared for your needs or neglected you? Do you think of God as a resident policeman? Or is He a grand old man who is more like Santa Claus fulfilling your wishes? Involved in human lives or distant? Do you think of Him as someone so perfect and demanding of perfection from you to the point that you could never please Him?
That is why it is so important to really get to know the God of the Bible. He is not what someone on social media thinks about Him unless, of course, they know the true God of the Bible. God’s greatness is far beyond human understanding. But the Bible reveals to us part of the picture. We can know Him through what is revealed by Him and about Him. The Old Testament, especially the Psalms, is filled with descriptions of God’s character. You can know Him.
- God is sovereign. He rules over His creation with supreme authority and power, including the affairs of humans. You just might not see it now.
- God is more powerful than anything or anyone else in the entire universe. He is present everywhere at the same time, and He knows everything there is to know.
- God is holy and just. He is always set apart from evil, and He works righteousness and justice for all. You just might not see it now.
- God is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. God’s love is patient, kind, forgiving, and considers what is best for the one being loved.
- God is good. He is good in the tough times, in different ways for each person, and in what He allows or does not allow into our lives.
Knowing God personally
Much of the New Testament assumes you know these truths about our God. Paul’s letters built on that foundation of truth so that Christians could really know the living and true God.
In Ephesians, Paul said he was praying this for Christians,
I keep asking that …the glorious Father, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. (Ephesians 1:17)
That word “know” means “going beyond objective facts to knowing God intimately as in “closely acquainted and familiar.” Personally, as a close friend. What a gift!
We will never know all there is to know about God. There will always be some mystery about Him. But there is plenty enough revealed in the Bible that we can know Him truthfully, especially in the Gospels.
Jesus revealed God to us. Jesus is God in human flesh. He said, “When you see me, you see God (John 5:19; 14:9-10).” Every character quality of God is present in Jesus. You can study all the “I Am” statements in the Gospel of John and see this. Jesus brings our God to light so we can know the living and true God.
As you work through these two letters to the Thessalonians, you should not be just looking for the facts. But you want to know who this glorious Father God is who gives us our identity and purpose in His Son Jesus Christ. Then, the Holy Spirit uses that Scripture to teach us about our God and to give us an intimate awareness of His presence. He is an awesome God!
It is not enough to just know who God is, you also need to know what He says.
Knowing what God says
Knowing what God says is important. You have to start by considering the Bible as being sufficient on its own. It does not need our “improvement.” In it, we find what our God considers right and wrong across all time periods, all nationalities, all cultures, and all levels of civilization. In it, we find what our God thinks about us—who we are in His mind and in His plans. We recognize how much we are loved by Him.
That is why we start off each lesson in most of our Joyful Walk Bible Studies by having you look at the biblical text. What is God saying to us? It is written for us to know, understand, and obey. God gives us plenty of truth in the Bible that we can know and trust.
Speaking of trust, that is another aspect of knowing God, trusting Him with something.
Knowing God through trusting Him with something
In 1 and 2 Thessalonians, you will see evidence of what it looks like to trust God with someone or something important to you and then watch what He does. As you give to Him your desires in prayer and choose to rely on Him to do the work according to His will, He does! There are two aspects to trusting God.
First aspect: Trusting God while you do your part His way.
To do your part His way involves your knowing what His way is. That comes from knowing what He says. That comes from reading and studying the Bible. You trust that His way is the best way so you are willing to step forward and do your part His way. Sometimes that involves just waiting.
Second aspect: Trusting Him to do His part alongside what you are doing.
You have to trust God to work in the background of life and to make things happen in those areas over which you have no direct access. Only God can change the heart and mind of someone. And, God orchestrates situations in unexpected ways. You have to trust Him to work and be patient to let Him do so.
You can see illustrations of both of these at work in the accounts of Jeremiah, Nehemiah, and Esther.
As you experience those two aspects of trusting God, you get to know Him better. Knowing God and trusting Him lead to thankfulness.
Knowing and Trusting God Lead to Thankfulness
Remembering
So, here we are back at thankfulness. As our hearts become intimately acquainted with our amazing, personal God, we can hardly do anything but be thankful. When you have trusted God with something, and you look back to see what He did, how can you not be thankful? That is why it is so important to record how God has been faithful to you. We are to remember who God is and who we are to Him—as the Bible often says. Remembering leads to thankfulness.
There is an interesting verse in Malachi chapter 3 about remembrances. Here is what it says,
Then those who feared the Lord talked with each other, and the Lord listened and heard. A scroll of remembrance was written in his presence concerning those who feared the Lord and honored his name. (Malachi 3:16)
I have loved the first part of this verse for years. As the believers were sharing their prayer requests, the Lord listened and heard. They did not need to speak them again verbatim in prayer. He hears it when we share it.
But the second part applies to what I just said about remembering. A scroll was prepared before the Lord in which were recorded the names of those who loved and trusted God. In the verse that followed, God says that those people will be His treasured possession on the day when He acts on their behalf. We remember what God has done for us. He remembers our faith in and trust of Him.
Paul’s example
We see in all of Paul’s letters, including 1 and 2 Thessalonians, that Paul trusted God with the welfare of his new converts and the newly established churches. And he started off nearly every letter with thanks to God for the people themselves and for what God had done in their lives.
Paul expressed thankfulness for his own suffering and difficult circumstances because of what God taught him through it. That is throughout 2 Corinthians.
Paul wrote this in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 …
Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)
Being thankful is God’s will for us along with rejoicing always and praying continually. Rejoicing in all circumstances, praying in all circumstances, and being thankful in all circumstance go together.
When you stop and think about who God is and what He has done in your life and in the lives of those you love, you can always find reasons to be thankful. The biblical perspective on life leads to thankfulness.
And that is just one lesson to learn from our study of Paul’s letters to the Thessalonians. There will be so many more, including perspective on spreading the light of the gospel.
Let Jesus satisfy your heart with His perspective on life in the present and in the future. Then, live securely in Him during this time of waiting.
The above information is covered in our Perspective Bible Study of 1 & 2 Thessalonians.
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