1 Thessalonians
1 – 3
Verse 1:6 opens with a description of the salvation
experience for most:
and you
have modeled your lives after ours just as we are modeling ours after the Lord.
You took to heart the word we taught with joy
inspired by the Holy Spirit, even in the face of trouble.
When we receive Jesus, we experience joy and are filled with
the life the word gives us. It’s easy to do as we are taught. Where it becomes
a problem is after some time when the world starts to consume our beliefs. I
know it still happens to me after 40 years of a walk with Jesus. It’s been up
and down, yet in the past 40 years all roads have led back to Jesus. The key point is to rely on the Holy Spirit
through good and bad.
Verse 1:10 shows we have been waiting for a while:
and how you now await the
return from heaven of His Son, whom He raised from the dead—namely,
Jesus—our rescuer from the wrath to come.
Throughout history we have been searching for that moment
when Jesus will return and clean the mess up. The early church was expecting
this to happen quickly and free them from the bonds of Rome. Through each
dictator and evil leader, Christians have hit their knees praying for Jesus’
return to hasten. The key that we forget is all peoples need to hear the good
news. Today we are closer to that than any other time, but it’s still some time
off in my opinion.
Verse 3:9 asks and interesting question:
What thanks would ever be enough to
offer God about you for all the jubilant celebration we’ll feel before our God
because of you?
When you think about it all should rejoice over the salvation
of just one. It’s the idea of the prodigal son, where the lost son gets a great
feast. We need to focus on God’s joy and salvation on this world not just our
own personal experience. Here is a tough question, if a killer of your child
received salvation would you rejoice? We have to continue to remind ourselves
that we are forgiven by God as we forgive here on earth. Even in this situation
we should overcome the desire to hate and feel joy over their salvation. No one
ever said this walk would be easy … refer to 1:6.
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