WORD
1TH 4
13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.
14 For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.
15 For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.
16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.
17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.
18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.
1TH 5
1 Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you.
2 For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.
42 Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.
43 But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into.
44 Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. MAT 24:42-44
3 While people are saying, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.
4 But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief.
5 For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness.
6 So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober.
7 For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night.
8 But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation.
9 For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,
10 who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him.
11 Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing. 1TH 4:13-5:11
One of the primary themes of 1 Thessalonians is Christ’s second coming. Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy address the concerns and questions of the Thessalonian believers directly (1Th 4:13-5:10). As believers, Christ’s glorious return and the resurrection of the dead are truths we hold on to with faith and hope. These truths should affect how we live every day. While we don’t know when these will specifically happen, the letter reminds us of who we are in Christ and the disposition we must take: We are to wait patiently and be sober-minded, continually building one another up in the faith. In this lesson, we will look at some of the final instructions these leaders gave to the church in Thessalonica.
But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. 1JN 1:7
Encourage one another
11 Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.
12 We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you,
13 and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves. 1TH 5:11-13
Because we face different challenges and can get frustrated, disappointed, or even tempted to quit, we cannot live in isolation. We need one another and the encouragement that comes in community. To encourage is to give a person the courage, strength, and inspiration to persevere. Share about a person who encourages you to stand fast in your faith. What impact has it made on you?
28 Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.
The lips of the righteous feed many,
but fools die for lack of sense. PRO 10:21
Rashi
The lips of the righteous feed many, etc.—Many eat in his merit and because of his prayer.
35 In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” ACT 20:28, 35
Admonish one another
And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. 1TH 5:14
Believers don’t just share the responsibility of encouraging one another. We are also to admonish one another—to warn, urge, and correct. In this case, Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy were reiterating their charge in 1Th 4:11-12 for the believers not to be idle. Though admonishing others is not easy, we can do so when we speak the truth in love (Eph 4:15). What do you think will happen if we speak truth with no love, or speak with love but no truth? Recall a time when someone admonished you in a way that led you closer to God.
Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ . . . EPH 4:15
These are the things that you shall do: Speak the truth to one another; render in your gates judgments that are true and make for peace . . . ZEC 8:16
Rashi
Judgments that . . . make for peace—I.e., compromise.
Sanhedrin 6b:6
Rabbi Yehoshua ben Korha says: It is a commandment to mediate a dispute, as it is stated: “Render in your gates judgments that are true and make for peace” (Zec 8:16). Is it not that in the place where there is strict judgment there is no true peace, and in a place where there is true peace, there is no strict judgment? Rather, which is the judgment that has peace within it? You must say: This is mediation, as both sides are satisfied with the result.
Tractate Derekh Eretz Zuta, Section on Peace 2
There they taught: Rabban Simeon b. Gamaliel used to say: By three things does the world endure: justice, truth and peace. R. Muna said: The three are one, because if justice is done, truth has been effected and peace brought about; and all three are mentioned in one verse, as it is stated, Render in your gates judgments that are true and make for peace, indicating that wherever justice is done peace is to be found.
11 and to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you,
12 so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one. 1TH 4:11-12
FUTURE HOPE Living for God’s Pleasure in View of Christ’s Coming: Walk in God’s peace
Because the Thessalonian believers thought that Christ’s return was very imminent, some of them stopped working. They became idle, and were even like parasites, totally relying on others for their daily needs. Some became busybodies, minding others’ business instead of their own. But, even if we are waiting for our future hope, we are called to live in peace by working and living our lives so as not to be a burden and annoyance to others. This hard work and dependence on God becomes a testimony to those who don’t know him yet. How have you learned to apply the instructions in this passage to your own life?
Better is a handful of quietness than two hands full of toil and a striving after wind. ECC 4:6
Rashi
Better is a handful of quietness—To acquire few possessions, but with his toil, so that his Creator should have satisfaction from them.
Than two hands full—Many possessions through sin, which is toil and grief to the Omnipresent.
It is good that one should wait quietly
for the salvation of the Lord. LAM 3:26
Rashi
It is good that one should wait quietly—The vav of וְיָחִיל is superfluous like the vav of Gen 36:24: “Ayyah (וְאַיָּה) and Anah.” It is good that a man wait and remain silent and hope for the Lord’s salvation.
It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his servants in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to stay awake. MAR 13:34
Pray for one another
23 Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
25 Brothers, pray for us. 1TH 5:23, 25
Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy encouraged the church to pray without ceasing (1Th 5:17), prayed for the Thessalonians, and asked the believers to pray for them as well. Lifting up our concerns to God, giving him our burdens, and trusting him to take care of those we love shows that we are relying on God, not ourselves. What was the final prayer of Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy for the church (1Th 5:23)? Following this example, how can we pray for one another?
. . . pray without ceasing . . . 1TH 5:17
8 Keep my statutes and do them; I am the Lord who sanctifies you.
You are to speak to the people of Israel and say, “Above all you shall keep my Sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I, the Lord, sanctify you.” EXO 31:13
Rashi
You are to speak to the people of Israel—And you, although I have mandated you to command them concerning the work of the tabernacle, do not let it seem to you that you may easily set the Sabbath aside on account of that work.
Above all you shall keep my Sabbaths—Even though you be anxious and alert to do the work promptly the Sabbath nevertheless you must not set aside on its account. The words אַ and רַק have limitative force, to exclude the Sabbath from the work of the tabernacle.
For this is a sign between me and you—There is a mark of distinction in the relation that exists between us, viz., the fact that I have chosen you by letting you inherit for rest my day of rest.
That you may know—So that the nations should know that I, the Lord, sanctify you.
26 You shall be holy to me, for I the Lord am holy and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be mine. LEV 20:8, 26
Rashi
And have separated you from the peoples, that you should be mine—If you hold yourselves apart from them then you will be mine, but if not, you belong to Nebuchadnezzar and others like him. Rabbi Eleazer ben Azariah said, “Whence do we know that one should not say, ‘My soul loathes pork,’ or, ‘I have no desire to wear clothes which are a mixture of wool and linen,’ but one should say, ‘I would, indeed, like them, but what can I do—my Father in heaven has imposed these decrees upon me?” Because Scripture states: “And have separated you from the peoples, that you should be mine”—your very distinction from them should be for my sake—that one should keep aloof from sin and take upon himself the yoke of the kingdom of heaven (Sifra, Kedoshim, Chapter 12 23).
And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth. JOH 17:19