1 and 2 Thessalonians • The Need for Perspective
Are you longing to know God’s view on what is affecting your life? Are you unsure about your future beyond this life? We all need to gain the biblical perspective on all areas of life—life in the present and life in the future. When you study Paul’s letters to the Thessalonians, you can gain the biblical perspective on God, what it means to live your life to please Him, and what He has planned for your future. Then, you get a security in Him that allows you to rest and enjoy life today. You will be able to serve God with greater enthusiasm and freedom to impact your world for Him. Are you ready for that security? Let us learn together why we need perspective. This is post #1 in the Thessalonians series of articles.
Listen to this blog as a similar podcast from the Perspective Bible Study of 1 and 2 Thessalonians:
The Story
Who is Paul
As we launch into this blog series covering the letters to the Thessalonians, let us start with a look at the author of these letters (the Apostle Paul) and how he got connected with the people he was writing.
When Paul wrote the letters that we know as 1 and 2 Thessalonians, he had been a Christian for more than fifteen years. From the beginning, Jesus told Paul that he was to go to those who were called Gentiles (that is, anyone who was not Jewish) and preach the gospel to them. Read about that in our Acts blog series.
Paul spent the first three of those fifteen years just getting to know Jesus and learning what to teach about Him to others. Then, he became the co-pastor of a church of Gentiles in Antioch for a few years.
Around twelve years after he said yes to believing in Jesus, it was time to go elsewhere. Jesus sent him on mission to the island of Cypress and then to southern Turkey where many people believed the gospel and new churches were formed.
After being home for a while, Paul felt it was time to go back and visit those new churches. So, he set out with Silas and Timothy. God directed their movements through Turkey then onward to Greece. They headed first to northern Greece to the cities of Philippi and Thessalonica. Then, they went to southern Greece to the cities of Athens and Corinth. It is from Corinth that Paul wrote two letters back to the Thessalonians.
We cannot just gloss over those travel details without knowing the story. A lot happened in northern Greece before Paul went south. And the Thessalonians knew all about it, so we need to know it, too. Don’t you love a good story?
Paul and the Thessalonians
As I tell Paul’s story with the Thessalonians, I am going to use American geography and modern dates. The setting is Texas. And the time period is the fall of 2018 to the summer of 2020.
In the fall of 2018, Paul, Silas, and Timothy started out in Tyler—a town in northeast Texas. That will be our Philippi. There were few Texas Jews there, so our guys went to Lake Palestine to pray on Sunday morning. There, they met a group of women. Paul preached Jesus; Lydia and her friends believed the message and trusted in Christ. Over several weeks, many others join them as believers. A new little church formed. But Paul and Silas were falsely accused, beaten, and thrown in jail, and delivered by an earthquake. The next day, they were escorted out of town by the mayor and town council who basically said, “Don’t come back!” That was around the beginning of 2019.
Well, the guys traveled 100 miles west along Interstate 20 to Dallas. That will be our Thessalonica. It took about 3 days to get there on foot. In Dallas, they stayed with one of Paul’s relatives named Jason. To provide income for himself and his team, Paul made tents for a local camping ministry. On Sundays, Paul, Silas, and Timothy went to the biggest synagogue in North Dallas. Lots of Jews attended as well as quite a few God-fearing Texan Gentiles. For several weeks, Paul reasoned with the Jews, teaching them the truth about Christ. Some of the Jews were persuaded and believed in Jesus. A large number of God-fearing Texans also believed, including some very prominent women.
Sadly, the religious leaders living in Dallas did not like someone coming in and telling them anything new, taking over their prominence. So, the ones who did not believe got jealous and mad. They roused up a mob of protesters and rushed to Jason’s house on Royal Lane. Paul and Silas were not there. They were teaching at North Park mall. But that did not matter. The mob got Jason and his friends instead, dragged them out into the street for a good old beating, yelling false accusations like crazy. Everything was in turmoil. The sheriff arrested Jason and made him post bond to guarantee that Paul and Silas would get out of town by sundown.
So, when it got dark, Paul and Silas headed west to Fort Worth. That is our Berea. The Fort Worth folks were more noble-minded than the ones in Dallas. They did not get as many traveling preachers there. Paul’s preaching made Bible students of them. They took their time to evaluate what he said and to compare it to the Old Testament writings they had. Many Jews believed as well as a number of Gentile Texans. But those Dallasites could not stand having Paul in Fort Worth. So, they sent a mob to the stockyards and stirred up a tornado of trouble. The attack was sharp and swift. Paul was sent out of town on the first flight to Austin in the spring of 2019. But Silas and Timothy remained in Fort Worth.
While in Austin, Paul wrote to Silas and Timothy, asking them to join him there. And they did. Shortly after they arrived, Paul sent Silas back to Tyler and Timothy back to Dallas to continue discipling those churches. Then, Paul moved to San Antonio in the summer of 2019. Silas and Timothy rejoined him there, bringing a financial gift from the Christians in Tyler and Dallas. Timothy reported on conditions in the Dallas church. The Dallas Christians were confused about some things that Paul had taught, and they were still getting harassed by the rabble rousers in town. This information led Paul to write the first letter in late 2019 to clarify some of his teaching and help them to stand strong against the persecution. Someone reported news of the church back to Paul. The good news was that most of the Dallas believers were growing in their faith and love for each other in spite of the persecution against them. But an expectation that Jesus was returning any day now had caused some to quit their jobs and just “wait.” Being confused as well as idle is never a good combination for people, even Christians. So, Paul wrote the second letter in the summer of 2020.
There you have today’s Bible passage in a contemporary setting. Knowing the story helps you to gain perspective.
Gaining Perspective
What is perspective?
You have probably heard the phrase, “You need to gain perspective.” But what is perspective? According to the dictionary:
Perspective is an objective assessment of any situation, giving all aspects their comparative importance.
Objective assessment. Looking at all the issues and facts. That sounds like a necessary action to take whenever you must make a decision, doesn’t it? We all need perspective to help us successfully navigate through the challenges of daily life.
Gaining perspective is like sharpening your focus with a lens. When you have trouble seeing, and you go to an optometrist to get your eyes checked, you come away with a prescription for glasses or contacts that will enable your eyes to focus again. When you put on those new lenses, what was once a blur has now become clear. That is what happens when you gain perspective.
Sharpening your focus not only clears up blurry vision, but it can also help us to see something at a distance that we were not able to see. Consider how a pair of binoculars works. Let us say you are driving down a highway to get to the mountains. You go around a curve, and suddenly you see the mountains in the distance. That helps to get you excited about your journey. But you need help to see the mountains. So, you pull out a pair of binoculars and focus on the mountain peaks in the distance. You get a glimpse of where you are heading.
That is what Paul’s letters to the Thessalonian Christians helped them to do. They gained perspective about a bunch of things.
Sharpening your focus
From the moment Paul entered their city, the Thessalonians knew him as being well-educated and a tent-making craftsman. They knew that he was determined, bold, convinced of the truth of Christ, and very committed to Jesus’ calling on his life. He was a gifted teacher and loved God’s people almost as much as he loved God Himself. Paul reminded them of that in 1 Thessalonians to help sharpen their focus on who he was and what kind of relationship he had with them. They could trust his words.
To help us gain perspective on Paul’s relationship with the Thessalonians, think back about a group of people whom you met over the last year and a half who do not live near you. How did that relationship begin? What was it like a year ago? What is it like now? How have you heard anything about their lives since you last saw them?
There were no cell phones or email for Paul. He depended upon letters and eyewitness accounts for his information about all the churches. You will see evidence of this in the Thessalonian letters.
Biblical perspective
Biblical perspective on life is God’s perspective on life. Paul helped the Thessalonians gain God’s perspective on the persecution they were suffering at the hands of their neighbors. Having the biblical perspective about suffering helps you to stand firm and press onward regardless of obstacles in your life. When you sharpen your focus to gain perspective, you get this…
…the ability to see God’s presence, to perceive God’s power, and to focus on God’s plan in spite of the obstacles. (Chuck Swindoll, Insight for Today devotional, May 19, 2017)
Biblical perspective on life helps you grow in confidence because you learn that your self-worth is not derived from any human being but from God. This gives you stability, certainty, and confidence in your God who is faithful to you. Others will notice and be benefited by this.
Questions about Death and the Future
The Thessalonians had questions about death and the future. Biblical perspective about that gives you hope and assurance of your future with Christ in eternity. You will not fear death as those who have no hope.
And if you like eschatology (prophecy about the end times, especially Jesus’ return), you will enjoy Paul’s letters to the Thessalonians. As you study Paul’s letters to the Thessalonians, you will gain some perspective on the future that God has planned for all believers as well as for human history. One-fourth of 1 Thessalonians and nearly half of 2 Thessalonians deal with the coming of Christ from heaven for His own and the Great Tribulation on earth that will occur afterwards. You will gain perspective on the end times and how to view evil in the present. We will enjoy our time of discovery when we get to those passages.
Knowing the future hope gives you God’s perspective on life that you need in your world today. For now, you must live and work in this world. Paul’s letters to the Thessalonians have a lot to say about your daily life, including your work. You can view work as worship and see purpose in it when you gain God’s perspective.
When you gain the biblical perspective on who God is, what it means to live your life to please Him, and what He has planned for your future, you get a security in Him that allows you to rest and enjoy life today. Who would not want that kind of security? And you will be able to serve God with greater enthusiasm and freedom to impact your world for Him.
The next article in this series reveals that perspective starts with knowing and trusting God.
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.
Related Resources:
- Satisfied Series 13 Podcasts on 1 and 2 Thessalonians
- Acts 17-19: Living Life in the Extremes
- Counter the “Work Is Secular” Infection
- The Biblical Perspective on Death
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