Paul for Everyone by Tom Wright

Author:Tom Wright
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: SPCK

1 THESSALONIANS 1.6–10

The Thessalonians’ Faith

6And you learned how to copy us–and the Lord! When you received the word, you had a lot to suffer, but you also had the holy spirit’s joy. 7As a result, you became a model for all the believers in both Macedonia and Achaea. 8For the word of the Lord has resonated out from you, not only in Macedonia and Achaea; your faith in God has gone out to people everywhere. This means that we haven’t had to say anything. 9They themselves tell the story of the kind of welcome we had from you, and how you turned to God from idols, to serve the living and true God, 10and to wait for his son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead–Jesus, who delivers us from the coming fury.

‘Well,’ I said last week when my son came home from a movie, ‘did you enjoy it?’

I knew the answer as I asked the question. The movie was OK, but not that great. If he’d really enjoyed it, I wouldn’t have had to ask. He would have come bounding in through the front door, eager to tell me about it.

There are some experiences which are so remarkable that you just have to talk to someone about them. Sometimes you hear a piece of music, read a book, watch a movie, or witness a scene which is so striking that you can’t help yourself. As soon as you meet someone you can tell, you say, ‘I must tell you about the movie…’ or whatever it is. Then it’s clear that it really has made an impression.

What happened when Paul and his companions arrived in Thessalonica made that sort of impression, not only on the people who heard and believed the gospel, but on people of all sorts, all around Greece and the neighbouring countries. Nobody had to say, ‘Have you heard about those peculiar Jews who are going around talking about someone called Jesus?’ because everybody who had heard about them was telling someone else without being asked. That’s the meaning of what Paul says here: the message was echoing around north and south Greece (Macedonia in the north, Achaea in the south), and everywhere else as well–presumably Asia and Bithynia (modern Turkey) to the east and Illyricum, Moesia and the other small Balkan countries to the north.

What people were talking about particularly was not just the new church, but the way it had come into being. In this passage and the following one Paul rejoices in the welcome that had been given to him and his companions, and more especially to the message they were bringing. The remarkable thing was the instant effect the gospel had had. At the heart of it–and this is never far from Paul’s mind throughout the letter–was the call to worship the true God rather than idols.

That was simply unheard of in Paul’s world. It would be like asking people in a modern city to give up using motor cars, computers and telephones.

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