It was a great day, a day never to be forgotten, when Paul brought his gospel into Thessalonica. It was indeed "the day that changed the world" to some; and they told it abroad till all the country around had heard of that wonderful entry of Christ's apostle into their midst. ("For they themselves report concerning us what manner of entering we had unto you." 1 Thess. 1:9.) Paul again recalls the event in 2:1--"For yourselves, brethren, know our entering in unto you, that it hath not been found in vain." By an earthen vessel was the water of life ministered to those perishing souls. There is peculiarly frequent and varied reference here to the entry of the gospel. "We waxed bold in our God" (it certainly required boldness) "to speak unto you the gospel in much conflict." He calls the message he brought as "our exhortation"; "the gospel" which he spoke, "not as pleasing men, but God, who proveth our hearts." He imparted "the gospel of God" to them; he preached . . . the gospel of God" unto them; they "received from us the message, even the word of God" (2:2, 3, 8, 13.) All the change that was wrought in Thessalonica, all the salvation and good and blessing that came to the dwellers in that city, came through that gospel as ministered by these true messengers, who, not in word only, but in life and example also, proclaimed the good tidings of God to them.

PAUL'S NOBLE MINISTRY AND SERVICE

      In this (second) chapter we see a sample of that high ministry of the Word--the earnestness, the conscientiousness, the unselfishness, the zeal, the love, with which the gospel was brought to these people by these devoted servants of the Lord. There was no catering to men's foibles and weaknesses; no pleasing and comforting errors, no condoning of sin, no tricky methods of guile. As he tells us elsewhere--"we are not as the many, corrupting the word of God; but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God, speak we in Christ" (2 Cor. 2:17)--so did he here "speak, not as pleasing men, but God who proveth our hearts." (2:4.)

      Three pitfalls endanger the preacher's career; one is the desire to win popular favor; the second is covetousness; another is self-exalting ambition. These often hang together. There is the preacher that flatters his people--and as Lord Chesterfield said, "make people well pleased with themselves they will be pleased with you." Covetousness goes hand-in-hand with time-serving and man-pleasing. Somewhere in the Millennial Harbinger I saw this statement: "Pay a servant of the Lord well and you will soon make a servant of the devil out of him." Alas, there is too much truth in that! Then there is the passion for fame and eminence--the self-seeking desire for "the chief seats in the synagogue," the scramble for high place and praise which some run after; whereof cometh envyings and jealousies, and hatred and strife, and a whole brood of evils that have cursed the ministry of the gospel.

      From all these plagues the service of Paul was free. "For neither at any time were we found using words of flattery, as ye know, nor a cloak of covetousness [for covetousness wears many different cloaks] God is witness; nor seeking glory of men, neither from you nor from others when we might have claimed authority as apostles of Christ." (2:5, 6.) But there was much gentleness, tenderness, self-sacrificing love; hard work for self-support "that we might not burden any of you";¹ holy, righteous, blameless conduct in their midst, exemplifying the purity and holiness of the gospel; and much individual dealing ("personal work," it is called today) which is exacting and difficult, and brings little notice or praise: "as ye know how we dealt with each one of you, as a father with his own children, exhorting you, and encouraging you, and testifying, to the end that ye should walk worthily of God, who calleth you into his own kingdom and glory." (2:7-12.) [9]

RECEIVING GOD'S WORD

      Thus came the word of God to those Thessalonians. And now Paul thanks God especially for one thing--namely that when they received the message from him, they accepted it not as the word of men, but, as truly it was, the word of God. On what ground did they so regard it? They surely had reason, even aside from "the signs of an apostle" (2 Corinthians 12:12) such as accompanied his preaching elsewhere (but which are not mentioned in connection with Thessalonica) there is something self-evidencing in the gospel to honest hearts, especially when presented by such men as these. The Bereans convinced themselves of the truth of the message by carefully checking up on it, by their scriptures (Acts 17:11). God does not ask for blind, irrational faith. Intelligent conviction rather than mere credulity is what He wants. And the word of God in various ways bears its own valid testimony to itself. Whatever the ground was on which their faith was based, the Thessalonians received Paul's message "as it is in truth, the word of God." And if indeed it is the word of God, then it should certainly be received as such. (2:13.)

      All the riches of their salvation, the new life and power and hope, came to them through this Word of God. It did its pure and perfect work in their hearts. For it worketh in them that believe. As the word of good tidings did not profit Israel of old "because it was not united by faith with them that heard" (Heb. 4:2), so it is still. If it is received by faith into the heart, then it works. "Faith conditions its efficacy. Gospel truth is an active force, when it is within the heart; but it can do nothing for us while doubt, pride, or unacknowledged reserve, keep it outside."

      But when one does receive God's word into the heart, straightway he will encounter trouble. It cannot be otherwise. The word of God is so adverse to the thoughts and ways of men, and so contrary in all its spirit to the world's ideas and ideals, that clash is inevitable. Sooner or later you stand [10] marked; for in your aims and manner of life, your views and judgment and your stand in regard to the world and its principles, it will be perceived that you are different and distinct from your fellowmen, from y our former friends and associates, yea, perhaps even from your own family and relatives. They will resent that. They will think it strange that you no longer run with them in their ways, speaking evil of you. They may think that it is all a fad, or that perhaps your mind has become affected with this new teaching, or that you want to attract notice to yourself, or that you want to show how much better you are than others. Such things will be said and thought about you; and you will have to work a long time before you are able to convince your friends and neighbors of your sincerity and the reality of your new life in Christ. The world at large will never be convinced. "If ye were of the world, the world would love its own; but because ye are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you." (John 15:19.) It is always the word of God, by faith received into the heart, that causes this enmity and opposition of the world. "I have given them thy word," said the Lord Jesus in his great prayer--"and the world hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world." (John 17:14.)

      So it was in Thessalonica. No sooner had those poor souls received the word of salvation than persecution broke loose. "For ye brethren became imitators of the churches of God which are in Judæa in Christ Jesus: for ye also suffered the same things of your countrymen, even as they did of the Jews . . . ." (2:14.) Something of the trouble is told in Acts 17:4-9. There is something peculiar in the animosity against the gospel. If Paul's preaching had been of error, or of uncleanness, or of guile (2:3) there would have been no strife over it. But against this pure gospel, the message of God's love and mercy through Christ, what hate, what rancor, what an outbreak of riot and mob-madness! One wonders, why? Human nature and psychology might explain some of it; but after all that is allowed for, we are still in the presence of a fact for which we cannot find an adequate cause. Back of the phenomenon is a supernatural factor, not open to human observation: it is "the prince of the powers of air: the spirit that now worketh in the sons of disobedience." (Eph. 2:2.) He is the great world-spirit, "the god of this world" ( 2 Cor. 4:4), who understands perfectly what the preaching of the gospel means to his kingdom. When one accepts the gospel and turns to Jesus Christ, he thereby serves notice of war to the devil, and he will be sure to take up the [11] challenge. That what happened in Thessalonica. They was had to suffer the same things at the hands of their countrymen as the churches in Judæa suffered at the hands of the disobedient Jews, Paul said. And really the disobedient Jews were the prime movers of the persecution in Thessalonica also. (Acts 17:5.)

      The Jews--how they had filled up their measure! (Matt. 23:32.) How the Lord Jesus had pleaded with Jerusalem, and with Israel! (Matt. 23:36-39.) "All the day long have I spread forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people," said the prophet of God. (Rom. 10:21.) But they would not hear. They went further and further in their rebellion. They "killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove out us [the apostles], and please not God, and are contrary to all men; forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they may be saved; to fill up their sins always: but the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost."

      This wrath abides upon them unto this day. The Jews indignantly repudiate the charge that they killed the Lord Jesus; and there are many sentimentalists who hope to win the Jews by denying their national guilt. However there will be no hope or forgiveness for that people until they turn and confess their guilt and accept their Messiah in humble penitent faith. "Antisemitism" (the hatred of the Jews) is abhorrent to all true Christians. But we do the Jew no favor when we clear him of the national crime, which alone can account for their present and age-long dispersion and affliction. The man who penned these words, Paul, loved the Jews better than he loved himself. Though for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ he had gladly suffered the loss of all things, yet he would have been willing to be anathema from Christ, for his brethren's sake, his kinsmen according to the flesh. (Rom. 9:3; Phil. 3:8.) But facts are facts, and nothing is gained by calling things by a false name. Such is the desperate condition of the Jew; and so it will continue to be until they shall say, "Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord." (Matt. 23:39.)

PAUL'S CONCERN AND HOPE

      Ever since he had left them, Paul had desired to go back to his beloved Thessalonians. But he was providentially hindered. He said Satan hindered him. (2:17, 18.) Sometimes [12] he recognized to be of Satan. Nevertheless, even what Satan does works into God's plan (Acts 4:28). As He makes the wrath of man to praise Him, so does God restrain and overrule the wrath of Satan, and in the end all things work together for good to them that love God.

      One reason for Paul's great concern for his Thessalonian converts is seen in the hope which he expresses regarding them at Christ's Coming. Then he hoped to present them with loving pride before the Lord--as if he might say, "See, Lord Jesus, I have not come alone: behold this one, and this one, and another, and all this train, whom I have gathered for Thee in sore toil and with prayers and tears--I have brought them with me." And as one of our songs says, then

"For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of glorying? Are not even ye, before our Lord Jesus at his coming? For ye are our glory and our joy."

      How real and near was the hope of Christ's return to Paul's mind and to the Thessalonian brethren! Should it not still be so? Ah--but it has been so long, and the Lord has not come--how can we still expect Him? That would be perilously near the scoffer's thought, "Where is the promise of his coming? For from the day that the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation." (2 Pet. 3:3, 4.) The unfaithful servant also said something like that. (Luke 12:45.) The fact that the Lord has so long deferred His promised coming makes it all the more certain and imminent.

      Walking worthily of God. (1 Thess. 2:12.) We are so closely identified with God that what we do reflects honor or dishonor upon Him. Our lives should be a credit to the name of God. There is a section of the book of Leviticus which enjoins items of daily conduct upon Israel on the ground oft repeated, "I am Jehovah your God." (Lev. 19-20.) Yet more should Christians walk worthily of their God, who called them out of darkness into His marvellous light. (1 Pet. 2:9.) [13]

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