The Hope We Share

Read aloud

Paul thanks God for the way the Thessalonians received the word they heard from the missionaries. They did not accept it as a human idea or a clever speech. They received it as the word of God, and Paul says that word is now at work in those who believe.

The sentence does not mean every sentence spoken by a religious leader is automatically God's word. Paul is describing the gospel he and his companions proclaimed, and he points to the Thessalonians' reception of it. The claim is about the source and activity of that message, not a blanket endorsement of every teacher who uses God's name.

The church became an imitator of the churches in Judea that are in Christ Jesus. The Thessalonians suffered from their own countrymen the same kinds of things those churches suffered. The gospel has brought them into a wider family, but it has not removed their local opposition.

Paul condemns opponents who killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets, drove out the missionaries and hindered Gentiles from hearing how to be saved. He says their sins have reached full measure and God's utmost wrath has come upon them. This is severe judgment on opposition to God's saving message. It gives no permission to blame Jewish people collectively; Paul himself is Jewish, and the Judean churches he commends belong to Christ.

Paul then returns to his own longing. The missionaries were torn away from the Thessalonians in person, not in heart. Paul tried again and again to return, but says Satan obstructed him. He does not identify how the obstruction occurred, but it has not ended his longing to see them.

The Thessalonians are Paul's hope, joy, and crown of boasting in the presence of the Lord Jesus at His coming. This is not self-congratulation. The people are evidence that the gospel has borne fruit, and their future joy is tied to Jesus' coming rather than to Paul's reputation.