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.