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June 13, 2010 |
| A Ministry Without Fault Or Blame | ||
"In Paul's time, traveling religious leaders were very common. They were also notorious for operating unscrupulously. Many would slip into a city, work their way into the confidence of the wealthy, live sumptuously at the expense of their students, and then quietly slip out of town.when the people began to question the value of their teaching and the integrity of their lives."1
Paul had left Thessalonica under similar circumstances. The Jews had driven him out of town for his teachings.
"So many wandering charlatans […] made their way about the Greek world, peddling their religious or philosophical nostrums, and living at the expense of their devotees, that it was necessary for Paul and his friends to emphasize the purity of their motives and actions by contrast with these."2
1You know, brothers, that our visit to you was not a failure.
Merely the fact that Paul sent this letter to them would have shown he was not like the other religious leaders they would have seen. Paul still cared for them. He was not a con-man who had used them and thrown them away. Here he points out that, despite being driven from the city without completing all that they had wanted to do, the visit was not a failure. This refers back to the previous chapter and our previous lesson where Paul praises them for the great things that they continue to do.
2We had previously suffered and been insulted in Philippi, as you know, but with the help of our God we dared to tell you his gospel in spite of strong opposition.
Paul reminds them that his team had faced persecution before. With God's help, they continued on to bring the message to the Thessalonians, where they were also strongly opposed. In this verse Paul makes it clear that his team was not like other traveling religious leaders who wanted to live a life of ease at other's expense.
3For the appeal we make does not spring from error or impure motives, nor are we trying to trick you. 4On the contrary, we speak as men approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel. We are not trying to please men but God, who tests our hearts. 5You know we never used flattery, nor did we put on a mask to cover up greed – God is our witness. 6We were not looking for praise from men, not from you or anyone else.
In Paul's day many of the mystery religions and Greek cults practiced and even exalted sexual perversion. Those religions were very popular because in most of them the primary religious experience centered on the cult adherents having sex with a ritual temple prostitute or the cult leader. Thus wicked, unscrupulous leaders would seek converts for the purpose of having a sexual encounter with them. (MacArthur, John: 1 & 2 Thessalonians. Moody Press)
In saying "not from error", Paul seems to be referring to the flaws found in other religious teachers. It seems that some of those teachers had just been in error and had been proven wrong. Others of those teachers were lead by impure desires, most likely sexual desires. And some of those teachers had used trickery or flattery to get what they wanted. Others had made up explanations to cover up their true motive, greed. Paul's team was not like that.
By saying "God, who tests our hearts" Paul reminds the Thessalonians that his team was not without authority – they had been tested and approved by God. This idea is important in the context of that time.
"Despite the fact that he was chosen by God to be an apostle even before his birth (Gal. 1.1, 15), there was a period during which he was tested and after which God set his seal upon him as one approved for the ministry. Cultural norms of the day required that a person be tested and approved before being commissioned for some office. Not only the inscriptions but also a number of texts indicate that those who served as public officials should first be approved for the post. […] Josephus notes that, under Moses, the tribal chiefs were those 'approved by the whole multitude as upright and just persons.' Having been approved by God, the apostles were entrusted with the gospel by God himself."3
Paul also reminds them that his team had not been trying to please men. If they had been trying to please men they would have modified their message to bring in more people and avoid persecution.
"In the ministry, there is always pressure to mitigate the message, to be inoffensive to sinners, to make the gospel acceptable to them. But such a compromise had no place in Paul's strategy. Instead, he had full confidence in God's power to overcome all opposition and achieve His redemptive purpose. The servant of God preaches the true, unmitigated message God has laid out in His Word, not some other message. He does so for the sake of truth, not for personal popularity. And when opposition comes, he trusts in the power of God and stays obedient to his calling. All that was true of Paul and his companions. As with all dedicated preachers of the gospel, they counted the cost of faithfully confronting sinners with the truth and rested boldly in the sovereign, supreme power of God."4
6[…] As apostles of Christ we could have been a burden to you, 7but we were gentle among you, like a mother caring for her little children.
The end of verse 6 is clearer in the AramaicNT where it says "when we could have been honored as Apostles of the Messiah". The position of Apostle is the highest level in the Christian hierarchy and therefore was deserving of some honor and special treatment. But they expected none of that from the Thessalonians. Instead the Apostles treated the Thessalonians as cherished people. This description points out another difference between the traveling religious leaders and Paul's team. Those leaders wanted the honor and special treatment.
8We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us.
Here is another difference with the traveling religious leaders. Instead of living a life aloof and above the people, Paul's team lived with them and shared with them.
9Surely you remember, brothers, our toil and hardship; we worked night and day in order not to be a burden to anyone while we preached the gospel of God to you.
Paul continues to show the differences. Where the traveling religious leaders lived off of the people, Paul's team took jobs that they might support themselves. This was Paul's practice and from other Epistles we know that Paul worked as a tent-maker (Acts 18:3).
10You are witnesses, and so is God, of how holy, righteous and blameless we were among you who believed.
Paul encourages the Thessalonians to remember the totality of what they saw and heard of Paul's team. In summary the Thessalonians will see that Paul's ministry was faultless and blameless.
11For you know that we dealt with each of you as a father deals with his own children, 12encouraging, comforting and urging you to live lives worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory.
"The former simile [of a nursemaid or mother caring for children v.7] stresses the tenderness of the missionaries' dealings with their converts; [this] simile of the father shows the sterner aspect of their love for their children. The apostles dealt with them not with the severity of the taskmaster but with the earnest concern of the father intent upon training his children according to their individual needs. The figure of a father was commonly used by Jewish teachers to denote their relationship to their pupils. Converted under their ministry, the Thessalonian believers were indeed the writers' spiritual children who needed their instruction and guidance. "5
We also see here a hint of the thread that runs through Thessalonians – the kingdom. "The kingdom indicates God's righteous rule or dominion and as such is a dynamic rather than a static concept. That is, the kingdom has already been inaugurated by the coming of Jesus, and is to some extent a present reality. However the full manifestation of the kingdom of God awaits a future revelation, when God will fully establish His rule over all creation at the return of the King of kings to establish His Millennial Kingdom which will be follow[ed] by the New Heaven and New Earth. In short the kingdom of God has both a present and a future or eschatological aspect."6 Paul will deal with the future kingdom more directly in later chapters.
13And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is at work in you who believe.
The Gospel presented by Paul was not just words that sounded wise or logical to the thinking of men but the words came with deep conviction, as Paul says in Chapter 1:5. Thus the Thessalonians knew it was not the reasoning of man, but the word of God.
"The Thessalonians had of course heard and accepted God's initial call, which first came to them through the preaching of the gospel. But God is ever calling believers to increased efforts and higher goals. The Christian life is a matter of advancement and growth. God's call is 'a continual beckoning upwards, until the privileges offered are actually attained.' God's call to His saints will find its consummation at the return of Christ."7
14For you, brothers, became imitators of God's churches in Judea, which are in Christ Jesus: You suffered from your own countrymen the same things those churches suffered from the Jews, 15who killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets and also drove us out. They displease God and are hostile to all men 16in their effort to keep us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be saved. In this way they always heap up their sins to the limit.
If we merge verses 13 and 14 together an interesting message emerges: "[by] the word of God, which is at work in you, [you] became imitators of God's churches in Judea, which are in Christ Jesus. So Paul is saying that the word of God converts us all into similar peoples, who are subject to similar persecutions.
16[…]The wrath of God has come upon them at last.
The wrath of God referred to here is an "inner, deep resentment that seethes and smolders, often unnoticed by others."8
Other translations render the NIV's "at last" as "until the end". The intent seems to be that God's deep resentment will be against the Jews, his people, until the second coming.
Paul says you know we were not one of those traveling religious leaders because:
Paul undoubtedly knew about the traveling religious teachers and knew that some people would be suspicious of Paul's team. He wanted to distance himself as far as possible from the example set by the traveling religious teachers. In doing so Paul sets his ministry to the Thessalonians as a model for us in our ministries.
1 NIV Standard Lesson Commentary, Christian Commitment in Today's World, Unit 1, Lesson 2
2 Bruce, F F: 1 and 2 Thessalonians. Word Biblical Commentary. Dallas: Word, Incorporated. 1982
3 http://preceptaustin.org/1thessalonians_23-4.htm#2:4
4 MacArthur, John: 1 & 2 Thessalonians. Moody Press
5 Hiebert, D. Edmond: 1 & 2 Thessalonians: BMH Book. 1996
6 http://preceptaustin.org/1thessalonians_210-12.htm