First Book of Thessalonians

Click here for the previous book, Colossians.

CHAPTER 1

This is another letter by Paul that Biblical scholars think really was written by Paul.  It’s only five chapters long – and they are some mighty short chapters.  It’s very different from most of his other letters because it is full of good tidings.  This isn’t a dysfunctional group like the Corinthians, or one in revolt like the Galatians.  This is the model Christian community.  That leaves Paul little more to do that congratulate them and focus on the fundamentals.

That opening paragraph was meant to be about the entire book, but really ….there isn’t much more to say about the first chapter.  It’s only 10 verses long; features Paul congratulate them and offer some basic generalities of the faith.

CHAPTER 2

This is more of the same, but with a few notable moments.  First, Paul notes his time building the church among them, how it was filled with “toil and drudgery.”  Yeah, you see plenty of toil in the Acts of the Apostles book, but not much drudgery.

Also, Paul makes a few pen strokes that will help justify centuries of anti-Semitism.  “For you suffer the same things from your compatriots as they did from the Jews, who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets and persecuted us; they do not please God, and are opposed to everyone.” 

I wonder how much anti-Semitism would be in Christianity if Paul hadn’t been so upset with Jews for rejecting Christ (and Paul’s message as well).  Sure, there is plenty of it in the gospels with the story of Pilate – but the gospels were written after Paul’s letters, and generally by writers influenced by Paul. 

CHAPTER 3

It’s another short chapter – just 13 verses.  In fact, the entire five-chapter book is just 88 verses. There are single chapters in the gospels about that long.

This one is about travels of Paul’s underlings.  He sent Timothy to the Thessalonians to see how it was going, and he found out things were going great.  Huzzah! 

CHAPTER 4

Paul gives some basic advance.  Avoid immorality – especially in sexual matters.  (Again, we have a lifelong celibate telling others how to manage their sexuality.  There is just something strange about that).  Paul also supports charity.  That’s nice.

Finally, we do have one somewhat interesting note.  Paul has to consul them about what will happen do the believers who have died.  That might sound strange, because we’re used to Christians dying – it’s been happening for centuries now.  But at the time, Paul wasn’t just preaching about God’s return to earth, but about God’s IMMINENT return to earth.  Heck, in one of his letters (sorry – I’m too lazy to track back and see which one it was – probably one of the Corinthians or maybe Galatians) Paul flatly states that this world is ALREADY passing away, getting ready for the new one.  Now that’s an imminent return.

The point is, people became Christians believing that they would live to see Christ’s return and the coming of the kingdom of heaven here on earth.  So what happens to someone who dies before that day happens?  Will they get to see the kingdom of heaven?  Paul says sure they will.  After all, if Christ can rise from the dead, so can his believers, as we’re all one with Christ through the ritual of the Last Supper.

Keep in mind how different that would be from a modern answer.  Now when someone dies, it means they get to go to heaven to be with Christ.  That’s the viewpoint adopted because 2,000 years later, Christ still hasn’t come back.  But that isn’t the viewpoint Paul had.  It isn’t the viewpoint of the early church.  Our modern notion of heaven only came because theirs wasn’t happening on schedule.  So it’s been flipped around over the centuries.  Instead of the kingdom of heaven being when Christ comes to us here on earth, it’s when the faithful go up to him in the clouds above.  But that isn’t how Paul saw it.  There really isn’t much sense of an afterlife at all.  There can’t be – because the time between then and Christ’s return is so quick that there’s no point thinking of an afterlife.

CHAPTER 5

Every once in a while I’ll come across a famous line I had no idea originated from the Bible.  First Thessalonians, Chapter 5, verse 2 is one of those times.  It reads: “For you yourselves well know that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.”

A thief in the night: a Bible quote!  Even better – Paul is comparing the coming of Jesus Christ to the coming of a thief!  Yeah, that’s not the context I would’ve guessed for the formation of that analogy.  It’s a really good line, so I can see why it caught on. But it’s not really a good analogy for God, so I can see why people don’t think of it as a Bible quote.

Aside from that, Paul encourages sobriety.  By and large the Bible isn’t a temperance work at all.  There is wine and booze all over it, from Christ’s first miracle in the Gospel According to John, to the Last Supper’s wine-as-blood, to various parts of the Old Testament.  But every once in a while it goes dry on us. The wisdom books in the Old Testament did so, and now Paul does so here. 

That’s about it.

CONCLUING THOUGHTS

There really isn’t much to it, but recapping the more striking parts, there are some interesting details.  No, there is no great theological thrust to it.  This is one more a grab bag of points; most of which we’ve heard before.  But despite that, some moments do stick out as notable.  Those points aren’t really building to anything, but it’s better than nothing.

Click here for Second Book of Thessalonians.