Chapter 1

Verse 1 — “Paul.” The word in the Greek means “little", and yet this word designates the name of one of the outstanding young men of the ancient world, a man who rose to the top of his nation as a young man. He was a man who was successful from the standpoint of religion as well as from the standpoint of politics. Yet in the midst of all of this he found the most wonderful thing in the world. He found the peace, the strength, the joy and the blessing that comes from receiving the Lord Jesus Christ as saviour. He was appointed by God the Holy Spirit and apostle, for it is the ministry of the Holy Spirit to disseminate spiritual gifts. The gift of apostleship was the gift of absolute spiritual dictatorship, and not only did he have this top spiritual gift but at the same time he is the human author of this epistle.

Paul wrote this epistle on his second missionary journey. He was down in the south of Greece when he heard of the problems which were brought to him by Timothy. Timothy had gone back to Thessalonica to see what was happening there. Paul had been at least three weeks in Thessalonica and perhaps longer. While he was there he first of all witnessed for Jesus Christ. As a result a certain number of Thessalonians came to know Christ as saviour. Then he began to teach them doctrine and in a relatively short time he was able to teach them a tremendous amount of doctrine. And then as was his custom he moved on. Timothy backtracked and when Timothy came back he had some interesting reports. He said that some of the believers were standing around, had sold their businesses or were neglecting them, because they thought the Rapture would take place at any moment. Other believers were living in panic palace because they somehow thought that those who had died between Paul’s visit and that particular moment that their loved ones would not be involved in the Rapture of the Church which apparently Paul had taught. Some of them were all upset by the pressures and the adversities and the persecutions of life, and there was some. Others were confused about the doctrines of spiritual gifts and therefore Timothy brought back a very negative report. The result was the writing of the five chapters which comprise 1 Thessalonians.

The epistle is characterised generally in four ways. First of all it is what is called an eschatological epistle. It refers to future things. In every chapter there is some reference to the future, either the second advent or in some cases the Rapture of the Church. The second thing which is most unusual about this epistle is the fact that there are no Old testament citations. This is the only epistle of Paul’s where not once does he quote the Old Testament. We conclude from this that this was primarily a Gentile church. The third thing which is most unusual about the epistle is the fact that it is short and yet it covers a tremendous amount of doctrine. There are so many different subjects all of the way from the Holy Spirit to the doctrine of election, to the Trinity, to the second advent, to the final judgement. Finally, there is in this epistle a very fascinating subject, the subject of the oral teachings of the apostle. Apparently from this epistle it is concluded that before the canon of scripture was written the oral teachings of the apostle had divine authority. Once the canon of scripture is completed, however, the oral teachings pass into history and we do not know the exact content and details of them.

As far as all of the Pauline epistles are concerned during the second missionary journey all of the epistles written during that time (two in fact, 1 and 2 Thessalonians) are eschatological in nature. The first letters that Paul wrote were primarily eschatological. On the third missionary journey Paul wrote Galatians, 1 and 2 Corinthians, and Romans. These epistles are generally characterised by the doctrine of soteriology. it is interesting that before Paul ever got to writing about salvation he was writing about the second advent of Christ, the Rapture of the Church, and other eschatological subjects. In the first Roman imprisonment Paul wrote Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Philemon. The subject was Christology. Then during his second Roman imprisonment he wrote 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus. The subject was ecclesiology, the doctrine of the Church.

This is addressed to a group of believers who lived in the city of Thessalonica, the capital of the Roman province of Macedonia, the northern part of the Greek state. it was famous for its wealth and its great se port; 200 thousand at least by way of population. The church was founded in Acts 17:1-11 by Paul on his missionary journey. “Paul and Silvanus, and Timotheus .” Paul is a Greek word, Silvanus and Timotheus are Latin words. We have three missionaries with the indigenous idea. These three men were men who traveled around the ancient world. We must call this the Pauline missionary team and as the traveled from place to place everyone had a responsibility. They would go into a city and the first thing they would do was to declare the gospel. They would witness for the Lord Jesus Christ. As a result of their witnessing a few to many would accept Christ as saviour. Without any further beating of the bushes, without going out into the highways and byways they immediately gathered these people together and began to train them to go out and reach their own people. This is the primary concept of the indigenous missionary movement. This is the concept which has been ignored as we have departed from doctrine. Paul, Silvanus and Timothy and Silas went out together to witness for Jesus Christ, but they did not try to reach everyone in the place, they trained those that they could win to go out and reach others. Once these people had been trained Paul did something else. He organised the local church, and in the organisation of the local church there were three factors that were always there:

a) The church was self-supporting. He did not send back to Jerusalem or Antioch, or some other place, for funds. The church supported itself.

b) The church was self-governing. While Paul had troubleshooters on the team they only came in to handle special problems, they did not come in to run the church.

c) The church was self-propagating, they went out and did their own witnessing for Jesus Christ.

Here are three men, then, who have the indigenous concept as they go about the ancient world witnessing for Christ. There were some problems in this local church. First of all, many believers in the church had become unruly, causing internal trouble. This is always the case when a church gets started, there are a few spiritual bullies, there are a few people who are power mad, and these people often cause difficulties. Because of this 1 Thessalonians 5:15 as well as 2 Thessalonians 3:6,7,11 indicate that there was a great deal of unrest in the church. The power mad boys were trying to take over. Secondly, the church was enduring terrible persecution. We discover this is 1 Thessalonians 2:14 and 3:2-4. There was a tremendous amount of pressure in Thessalonica. Then thirdly, some of the believers anticipating the Rapture had sold out their businesses in anticipation of the Rapture. They had a little doctrine with regard to the Rapture but they didn’t have enough.

Notice it is addressed “unto the church of the Thessalonians.” This is a local church and the word “church” is in the dative case in the Greek, dative of advantage. It is to the advantage of believers to be organised into local churches for worship, for fellowship, for edification, for the organised teaching of the Word of God, and many other blessings which will come as a result of this.

Then notice the usual salutation, “Grace” and then “peace.” Grace is all that God is free to do for you because Jesus Christ died for your sins. Grace is God providing everything and man receiving. Under the concept of grace man cannot earn it or deserve it, he cannot work for it. Grace is the entire plan of God. Whenever you see the word “grace” while it refers specifically to salvation it is still the plan of God. God the Father, the first person of the Trinity, is the author of a plan for the human race. This plan is called operation grace. It is divided into three parts: phase one, Jesus Christ came into the world through the virgin birth, He died on the cross for our sins, he rose again, He ascended. Phase one is salvation. The executor of phase one is the Lord Jesus Christ. That is grace. Jesus Christ did everything. he died on the cross, He bore our sins, He took our place, He provided redemption, He provided reconciliation and propitiation. He provided everything that goes into make our salvation. Phase two is the believer in time. The executor of phase two in the Holy Spirit. God, again, has provided all of the assets for living the Christian life. And we can have peace and blessing and joy and strength and power as a result of accepting Christ, and as a result of the utilisation of what God has provided. Grace means that He does it, we use what He has provided. Then there is phase three, and again it is grace. The executor of phase three which is eternity is the first person of the Trinity. God the Father has provided for us for eternity. We have a resurrection body coming up, we have a home in heaven, we have no more sorrow, no more tears, no more pain, no more death, the old things have all passed away. Absent from the body, face to face with the Lord. This is God’s provision. So grace is the entire plan of God but specifically it is the plan at its inception. The inception of the plan of God is the cross where Christ died for our sins and took our place.

Notice that the salutation is always the same, grace comes before peace. Peace is the result of appropriating grace. “Therefore being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” The word “peace here refers to our relationship with God. There is no longer a barrier between man and God. We have peace with God as a result of personal faith in the Son of God. Then as a result of having peace with God we can have the peace of God which passeth all understanding of Philippians 4:7.

After the salutation, thanksgiving. We are told “in everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” You haven’t lived until you can thank God for everything in your life, the difficulties as well as the blessings. When you can be thankful for everything, then you can begin to understand the principle that all things do work together for good, all things are not good in themselves but all things do work together for good to them who love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.

“We keep on giving thanks” it says in verse 2. This is present linear aktionsart in the Greek. “We” means Paul, Silas, and Timothy. Notice the recipient of their thanksgiving — God. This is, again, a dative case. This is dative of dignity. God is the eternal and sovereign ruler of the universe and He is the recipient of thanksgiving because He is the basis of all gracious provision.

“for you all, making mention of you in our prayers” — notice again, this great principle of power and of service: prayer. The principle is that prayer is a part of the follow-up of the indigenous concept, and in order to perpetuate Christianity in Thessalonica, Paul who has left Thessalonica is still remembering the group of believers in that area.

Verse 3 — “Remembering without ceasing,” present linear aktionsart — always remembering without ceasing, literally.

“your work of faith” — there are three areas of prayer follow-up here. The first: “work of faith”; the second: “labour of love”; the third: “patience of hope.” Notice something about the first two. There is work involved. But the third one does not have any connotation of work. Patience means to actually sit down without tapping your foot. It means to be immobile. Patience is the absence of works. However, there are two words before that where labour is involved: work of faith, labour of love. The word “work” is actually production. As a result of believing the promises of God, as a result of the faith-rest technique we have production. Now the faith-rest technique itself is just what it says it is, it is resting by faith. It is “committing your way unto the Lord, trusting also in him for he brings it to pass.” So it is actually resting, but as a result of resting you have production. So the concept here is not merely the faith-rest technique the work of faith is the result of claiming the promises of God. What are some of these results? Lack of worry — 1 Peter 5:7. Now that we have accepted Christ as saviour we belong to Him. This is no longer our battle, it is His battle.

1 Corinthians 15:10 — “By the grace of God I am what I am: [this is not an expression of his ego] and his grace upon me was not in vain [it wasn’t empty, it wasn’t useless, it wasn’t nonproductive]; bit I laboured more abundantly than them all [he simply utilised divine operating assets]:” — the believers who count for the Lord Jesus Christ are the believers who use capital, God’s capital, divine operating assets provided by Him. Grace means capital, grace means God has provided — “yet not I, but the grace of God with me.”

The principle is this. When we utilise divine operating assets, God’s capital, there is production. How do we use this capital? “Work of faith” — “of faith” is genitive of description, genitive of source. It is production which has its source in faith. This is the faith-rest technique from the standpoint of production.

The next, “labour of love.” The love here is divine love. This is love which is the filling of the Spirit producing this love. So we have the labour as the result of the filling of the Spirit. When God the Holy Spirit controls the life there is production. So Paul is praying for them: 1. That they produce through faith; 2. That they produce through the filling of the Spirit. The filling of the Spirit is the provision of energy, the provision of power. God provides the assets; God provides the power.

Then he prays for a third thing: “patience of hope.” Patience means lack of activity, the perpetuation of the faith-rest technique, it means believing when things are hopeless. Patience means to keep on, claiming the promises of God when the situation is 100 per cent hopeless. There is no human solution but you keep right on claiming the promises, you keep right on standing on the Word of God.

As a result of these three areas of prayer follow-up e goes on to say that this is done “in our Lord Jesus Christ.” This is an objective genitive. Jesus Christ is our hope for the future.

“in the sight of God and our Father” — “in the sight of” means literally, in the face of. Effectively, all prayer is directed to God the Father.

Verses 4 & 5 is the foundation of the blueprint church. Paul founded a model church in Thessalonica, a pattern for all good local churches. Notice now the divine provision.

Verse 4 — “Knowing” .Divine provision is a reality but divine provision only becomes a blessing to us as we know it. The Greek word is in the perfect tense which means that we have this in the frontal lobe. This is information which is in the Bible but, more than that, it has been transferred from the Bible up to the frontal lobe where it does some good.

“brethren” — the ideal church is made up of believers only. If you are going to have a blueprint local church it should be made up of those who are born again. This is addressed to those who have personally believed in Christ as saviour.

“beloved” — in the perfect tense. It means we are loved in them past with the result that we keep on being loved. That is the meaning of the perfect tense. Then, this is in the passive voice in the Greek and the passive voice means the subject receives the action of the verb. It means that we receive this love. We don’t deserve it, we don’t earn it, we don’t work for it, we receive it.

“your election” — “your” is a possessive pronoun. You have received Christ as saviour, God the Father has cast for you a unanimous ballot. You have been elected. This election took place in eternity past.

The doctrine of election

1. Christ is the only person ever elected by God the Father — Isaiah 42:1.

2. The election took place in a conference held in eternity past — the doctrine of decrees or the eternal life conference — 1 Peter 1:2. “Elect according to the foreknowledge of God through the sanctification of the Spirit.” What does “through the sanctification of the Spirit” mean? The word “sanctification” is a Greek word which means “set apart.” We enter into union with Christ. This is the ministry of the Holy Spirit at the moment of salvation. Who is elected from all eternity past? Christ is the elected one. Now that we have entered into union with Him we share His election. Cf Ephesians 1:4, we are only elected because we are in Christ — “in Him.”

3. Election is the present possession of every believer — Colossians 3:12. Notice that election is always based upon relationship, and relationship with a specific person, the Lord Jesus Christ.

4. Every believer shares the election of Christ — Romans 8:28,29.

5. Election takes place at the moment of salvation — 1 Corinthians 1:9,24,26-28.

6. Election is the foundation of the Church — 1 Thessalonians 1:4.

“of God” — genitive of source, God the Father is the source of this election.

Verse 5 — the human appropriation. “For our gospel” .The gospel is good news which starts with the cross. Christ died for my sins, He became my substitute, He took my place. Now that I have received Christ as saviour this gospel belongs to me. So we have a possessive pronoun again. The darker the world situation the brighter is the good news.

“came not” — this is negative now. It is an aorist tense, in a point of time. The passive voice: even in giving out the gospel you must have the passive voice, God must provide the power and everything necessary to get the point over.

“unto you in word only” — this means it came in words, it has to come in words. People have ears and they have to hear something. But what accompanied the word? Three things:

“power” — divine power, not simply human power, not the energy of the flesh. This word in the Greek is inherent power, which means the power of God — omnipotence.

“and in the Holy Spirit” — which means it came through the one who is the soul winner, God the Holy Spirit — doctrine of common grace, as found in John 16:8-11.

“and in much assurance” — no matter what kind of a personality you have, when you open your mouth and say, Jesus Christ died for the sins of the world, you are no longer Mr Ordinary person, you are an ambassador representing the Lord Jesus Christ. You are the ambassador of good news, the most important news this world has ever known. You declare the Word of God with confidence.

“as ye know what manner of men we were among you for your sake” — he doesn’t mean he simply lived the life, but he spoke, he declared the Word. His life demonstrated the power and the production of the Spirit and his lips declared the gospel, and later on doctrine to the believers. And because of this a great and powerful church suddenly reared up on the edifice of the power of the gospel and the doctrine, the Bible conference work that Paul did.

Verse 6 — the reception of the Word. It is only as believers take in the Word of God and get Bible doctrine up into the frontal lobe that they become successful in evangelising the world. Paul went to Thessalonica where he had a few converts and he trained them. He gave them doctrine. And, as it says in Acts 17 the big complaint against them was, “These men are turning the world upside down.” Why? Because he trained people to go out and reach people, and these people went out and reached people who reached people, and soon this thing snowballed. The word was being saturated from one point because it was being done God’s way.

You cannot have an indigenous church, a successful missionary operation, apart from reception of the Word — doctrine.

“And ye became followers” — the word “followers” in the Greek means imitators. And who are these new converts imitating? “of us and of the Lord.” “Ye became” is an aorist tense, and that means in a point of time they became, and that is the point of time in which they received Bible information. Paul, Silas and Timothy led a few people to the Lord and then stayed around to train these people. They gave them doctrine, more doctrine, and more doctrine. And when they left this group was organised into a church. “Ye became” is the aorist tense, the point of time when Paul trained them. It is in the passive voice: they received becoming, actually. The aorist participle in this verse is “having received.” What did they receive? “The word.” This is in the middle voice where the subject benefits from the action of the verb. Believers are always benefited by receiving the Word of God. First of all they received the Word, and as a result of receiving the Word they became imitators. You do not become an imitator of the Lord and you do not become an imitator, as it were, of a great spiritual believer like Paul apart from receiving the Word. It is the receiving the Word that makes wonderful, powerful, useful, productive believers out of a handful of Thessalonians. It doesn’t take a lot of people, it takes a few people who will receive the Word. That is why “became imitators” is in the passive voice. It means they became imitators apart from practising themselves. If this was in the active voice it would means that they became imitators of Paul by watching Paul. But this is not the active voice, it is passive voice. That means they became imitators by not imitating, they became imitators by taking in the Word of God. They became imitators of divine viewpoint as versus human viewpoint. They didn’t imitate the activities of Paul. The imitation was in the thought pattern, it was in the Spirit-filled life. The imitation was in the faith-rest technique, in rebound where necessary, in occupation with the person of Christ. And all of these things came by receiving the Word of God. Then they became imitators. Again, the importance of the syntax here. The action of the aorist participle precedes the action of the main verb, the main verb: “they became imitators.” But they became imitators after they received the Word of God.

Notice how they received the Word of God — under pressure. The words “in much affliction” is literally, “in much adversity.” They were persecuted, they had all types of trials and testings. Why? Because out of that small group there are those who are shortly going to go out to various directions. Therefore, they must have some training. You don’t simply go out on the firing line and become a soldier, you have to have training, training, training. So while they were receiving the Word of God they were getting their training under pressure. Pressure teaches how to use the techniques. Under pressure they learn to claim the promises of God.

First of all you must have reception of the Word, you must have training, you must know the Word — “having received the word of God in the sphere of much affliction.” Why? Because this is the way you consolidate doctrine. This is the way you use doctrine. And yet, notice: “with joy of the Holy Spirit.” Now “in much affliction” has a principle. There is nothing like pressure to cause the believer to get the Word of God and to use the Word of God while he is getting it.

“with joy” — the Greek preposition “with” means “accompanied by.” The word “joy” means inner happiness which is the monopoly of Christianity. While they were taking in the Word of God in the midst of these pressures these pressures were accompanied by inner happiness. This means to us that no matter how great our adversities, our afflictions, our heartaches, our trials, our problems, the most difficult circumstances of life can be accompanied by inner happiness.

“of the Holy Spirit” is genitive of source. The indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit is the source of inner happiness in the life of the Christian.

Verse 7 — the blueprint church. “So that” is a result clause. As a result of the reception of the Word of God, “ye were ensamples.” Today we say “examples.” This noun is in the singular, not the plural. They weren’t examples plural, they were a blueprint. The Greek word is a blueprint. They were a pattern, a mould, a form of what a church ought to be.

This is the blueprint church. When it says “ye were a blueprint,” “ye were” is a verb and it should be translated “ye became” actually. It is the aorist tense. In that same point of time when they took in doctrine. There were certain things that happened in their life. At a point of time they listened to the Word, at a point of time they listened to the Word, they listened to the Word, they listened to the Word. All of a sudden these are all put together and you have a finished product ready to go. They have been trained in the Word of God. They put together all of these points of time and now they are going out and using it. That is the ideal church, the blueprint church. The aorist tense tells us that every point of time when they took in the Word of God and got this training they were a blueprint “to all that believe.”

“all that believe” — three things: It is a participle in the dative case, dative of advantage. It is to our advantage to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is the present tense, and this is the dramatic present. The most dramatic moment in your life is the moment when you personally believe in Jesus Christ. It is active voice which means you must believe yourself.

Verse 8 — missionary activity is the result of receiving the Word. “For from you” — the word “from” is the preposition of ultimate source, not the preposition of near source. This means that there were many converts to these people now. These people have gone out and won people to the Lord, and down the line is a fourth generation convert and the source was “from you,” ultimate source. The ultimate source is Thessalonica, though not the immediate source. When they led people to the Lord they trained them how to lead others to the Lord and then left them with it. “From you” does not mean that they went out and personally beat the bushes and won everyone to the Lord, they trained others to beat the bushes in their areas, and went on. The Thessalonian believers were the source of evangelising others.

“sounded out” — this means the blast of a trumpet. This means to sound loud and clear. Furthermore, it is the perfect tense which means sounded out in the past with the result that they are still sounding out. The result is that the gospel is going out around the world — perfect tense, something that happened in the past with results that keep on going forever. Passive voice, the subject receives the action of the verb. This means that when someone leads someone else to the Lord ultimately it is the ministry of the Holy Spirit. The sound was received around the world, that is the grace of God.

“the word of the Lord” — the gospel; “in every place” — not just in Greece alone, in every place. This is world wide evangelism, and what is the base for it? One spot, Thessalonica. Cf. Acts 17:6.

“your faith to Godward is spread abroad” — Paul gets a report. “Your faith to Godward” — the faith-rest technique operates Godward. They were believing the promises of God, they were claiming the doctrines, they were operating under the faith-rest technique. “Spread abroad” is in the perfect tense, spread abroad in the past with the result that it keeps on being spread abroad.

“so that” — result clause, “we need not to speak any thing.” Literally, “we do not have a need to speak anything.” Paul’s purpose is to preach the gospel wherever he goes and here is what has happened at this point. Wherever Paul goes he finds a believer is already there. The Thessalonians had beaten him to the punch. That is the kind of thing that made Paul very happy. How wonderful to walk into a town and find that his own students beat him to it, that they had passed the word to someone, who passed the word to someone, who passed the word to someone, and when Paul arrived in town it is too late to find a town that doesn’t have a believer.

Verse 9 — personal testimony of some of Paul’s spiritual grandchildren. “For they themselves” — the converts of believers from Thessalonica; “shew of us” is literally, “keep on reporting” — present indicative active; “what manner of entering in we had unto you.” How does Paul know that his students have beaten him to the punch? Because these people have passed the story down now third hand and fourth hand but they are still talking about how Paul went to Thessalonica and led people to the Lord. And when they lead someone else to the Lord they tell of how Paul came and taught, so they teach their converts how t teach their converts how to win people to the Lord.

Then he goes on to say that it is known all over the world how the Thessalonians “turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God.” The key here is to serve. A lot of people do not serve the Lord because they have not received the Word of God. No Christian can serve the Lord without doctrine in the soul. “The words “to serve” is a present active infinitive and it means to keep on serving the Lord.

Verse 10 — they did not ignore prophecy. There can be no effective evangelism until one gets straightened out on eschatology. Prophecy is a motivating factor in correct witnessing for Christ. They need to understand the last judgement, for example, which is one of the clearest ways to lay it on the line with regard to the gospel.

“to wait” doesn’t mean wait as we think of wait. This is the Greek word for waiting in the sense of anticipation, of expectation. Believers to effectively witness for Christ and to be a part of a Bible missionary activity must anticipate the Rapture of the Church.

“For his Son from heaven” — there are three “forms” in this verse. In each case it is the same Greek preposition which means “out from.” Jesus Christ is in heaven. There is a time coming when He is going to come out of heaven and He is going to come down to the air to meet the Church in the air.

“whom he [the Father] raised out from the dead.” Before Jesus could come out from heaven He had to come out from the dead. The humanity of Christ died on the cross, the humanity of Christ rose three days later, He came out from the dead, He ascended into the presence of the Father, and He comes out from heaven. This is what we call an effective parallelism. Christ came out from the dead, He is now seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come out from heaven to meet us in the air.

“which delivered us from the wrath to come” — the word “to come” here is a present active participle of sequence which means to come immediately, which means we are going to be delivered out from the Tribulation, “the wrath about to come.” This means the Church will not go through the Tribulation.