Table of Contents
1 Thessalonians
Thessalonica was the capital of Macedonia, a busy port on the great Roman road across northern Greece. Paul preached there for three sabbaths in the synagogue (Acts 17:2) before a riot drove him out by night. He left behind a young church of new believers, many of them Gentiles who had “turned to God from idols,” facing persecution with almost no instruction. From Corinth, a few months later, he wrote to them. 1 Thessalonians is among the earliest of Paul’s letters, and perhaps the earliest book of the New Testament. Every one of its five chapters ends with the second coming of Christ.
This series reads 1 Thessalonians chapter by chapter, following this site’s studies of the Gospels, Acts, and the epistles from Romans to Colossians — the eighth epistle on the site. The Thessalonians were grieving for believers who had died before the Lord returned, and Paul’s answer gives the clearest picture in Scripture of what happens at His coming: the Lord Himself descending with a shout, the dead in Christ rising first from their sleep, and all the redeemed caught up together to be ever with the Lord.
List Of Articles
Ye Turned To God From Idols
a church only months old, driven into persecution the day it was born, becomes an example to all greece — faith that works, love that labours, hope that endures, and a people who turned to god from idols to wait for his son from heaven
1 Thessalonians 1Even As A Nurse Cherisheth Her Children
accused of being a fraud who used his converts and fled, paul reminds them what they saw — a man who worked night and day so as not to burden them, gentle as a mother, faithful as a father, whose only crown would be these believers at the coming of christ
1 Thessalonians 2Now We Live, If Ye Stand Fast In The Lord
alone in athens, paul sends timothy back into danger to learn how his converts are holding up — the good news gives him his life back, and he prays their love will grow until their hearts stand blameless at the coming of christ with all his holy ones
1 Thessalonians 3So Shall We Ever Be With The Lord
a grieving church learns that its dead are asleep, not lost — the lord himself will descend with a shout and the trump of god, the dead in christ will rise first, and all his people together will meet him in the air, no secret rapture but the loudest day in history
1 Thessalonians 4Ye Are All The Children Of Light
the day of the lord comes as a thief on a world saying peace and safety, but not on the children of the day — watching in faith, love and hope, rejoicing evermore, praying without ceasing, proving all things, and kept whole, spirit and soul and body, unto his coming
1 Thessalonians 5