True to Our Native Land, page 81
Were there some fellow travelers with Paul in Athens who made the trip with him to Corinth who are much less enthusiastic about returning to Thessalonica? Evidently so, especially in light of the continuing persecutions taking place there. Notice how Paul places what seems to be an unexpected and otherwise unnecessary emphasis in saying, “certainly, I, Paul wanted to” return to Thessalonica. In lofty terms, Paul then offers the highest compliment to the Thessalonians (v. 19). They will be his “hope, joy, crown” for boasting to Jesus when the parousia arrives.
3:1–5, Timothy Dispatched, and Continuing Persecutions at Thessalonica
Up to now Paul has indicated that others are traveling with him; indeed Silvanus (Silas) is a co-sender of the letter, and other unnamed individuals may also accompany him as he moves from city to city. Yet, in vv. 1–2, the apostle says, “we decided to be left alone in Athens and we sent Timothy . . . to strengthen and encourage you.” Why is Paul silent about Silvanus and others in his party (such as, possibly, Luke)? If by dispatching Timothy, who is described in elevated terms, Paul thinks of himself as being “left alone,” he is in effect making Timothy his most trusted representative!
3:6–10, Timothy Returns with Good News
Paul’s fears about the possibility of defection and backsliding among the Thessalonians, as just expressed in v. 5, prove wholly unwarranted when he receives the “good news” from Timothy, who had just rejoined Paul. Though the believers in the city were under constant threat from their powerful and influential pagan neighbors, Paul is relieved; his hope is fulfilled that all is well and that Timothy has accomplished his mission in safety. In v. 6 he mentions the other two elements in his familiar triad, “faith and love” (as in 1:3; 5:8; and 1 Cor 13:13).
Throughout this segment of the letter, the guiding term is “encourage.” Paul employs the first person plural of the aorist passive of the verb parakaleo, meaning “we have been encouraged.” He refers both to the contents of Timothy’s report and how that report has aided his own faithful resilience and the resilience of those with him in facing the trials and difficulties in their continuing, suffering witness.13
3:11–13, Literary Transition through Prayers
With Timothy’s mission to Thessalonica completed and the good report submitted to Paul, the apostle seems all the more eager to visit the Thessalonians himself. It is for this that he now prays, even as he petitions the Lord that they increase and abound in “love for one another and for all.”
A Deep Commitment to the Power of Prayer
For African Americans, prayer has traditionally been that which allowed believers to cope with untold sufferings, despite the youthful cynicism of a younger, more self-absorbed, and mean-spirited generation. The protagonist “Bigger Thomas” in Richard Wright’s classic novel Native Son wryly humors his mother’s desperate appeal for him to pray after Bigger has become an unrepentant murderer: “When I heard the news of what had happened, I got on my knees and turned my eyes to God and asked Him if I had raised you wrong. I asked him to let me bear your burden if I did wrong by you. . . . Listen, son, your poor old ma wants you to promise her one thing. . . . Honey, when ain’t nobody round you, when you alone, get on your knees and tell God everything. Ask Him to guide you. That’s all you can do now. Son, promise me you’ll go to Him.” . . . Slowly he stood up and lifted his hands and tried to touch his mother’s face and tell her yes; and as he did so something screamed deep down in him that it was a lie, that seeing her after they killed him would never be. But his mother believed; it was her last hope; it was what had kept her going through the long years.
—Richard Wright, Native Son (New York: Harper & Row, 1966), 277–78.
4:1–7, A Personal Life Pleasing to God
This unit opens with exhortations that resemble the kind of counsel one finds in Philippians 1:27 (“Only live your life in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ”). Here, in v. 1, Paul offers not so much new counsel as an approving observation about how the Thessalonians have indeed learned by his own example. Paul speaks inclusively for his coworkers, asking the Thessalonian house churches to continue living in ways (literally, “in the way it is necessary for you to walk”) that please God. Paul rehearses his so-called indicative of salvation sounded in Galatians 5:25 (the indicative is: “we live by the spirit”; the imperative is “let us walk/conduct ourselves by the spirit”). The teaching that informs such living is explicit in 1 Corinthians 11:1, where the apostle intones, “Be imitators of me as I am of Christ.”
For Paul, how a person manages their intimate relations is a crucial factor in establishing a life pleasing to God. In his view, the Christian vocation is one of striving for a new level of personal morality manifested in sexual “purity,” which must be understood against the background of unrestrained sexual liaisons that often prevailed in the ancient Hellenistic environment. Responding to the gospel with integrity therefore meant transposing the axiom of “moderation in all things” from a generalized philosophical observation into heightened self-control over one’s own body and greater respect for the sanctity of the bodies of others. This would become the hallmark of Paul’s emerging teachings on “sanctification.” Holiness is, first and perhaps foremost, a spiritual state that emerges from within, as contrasted to measuring up to outward standards.
4:8, Paul’s Holy Sentence
“Whoever rejects this rejects not human authority but God. . . .” The priority that Paul affixes to his teaching is underscored by the way in which he insists on divine warrant for it. Whereas Jesus of Nazareth, in Matthew 23:23, speaks of certain spiritual and moral issues (e.g., faith, justice, and mercy) as “weightier matters of the law,” here Paul considers sexual decency as a virtual “weightier matter of grace.” This “weightier matter” becomes for him a foundational teaching, emanating from his own direct revelation from God, but given as if it is on the same level as the Jesus tradition that he received after his conversion.
4:9–12, Guidelines for a Beloved and Self-Sufficient Community
This unit begins with more reflections on “the law of love” that is so central for Paul (Rom 13:8; Gal 5:14). In this context he appeals to the principle as a guideline for community self-sufficiency and a coping strategy for sheer survival in hostile and potentially hostile social settings. Verse 12, “Be dependent on no one,” really means “be interdependent within the Christian fellowship.” To some extent, the basis for this call to interdependence is evident in Paul’s own style of ministry (cf. 2:9). Even though Paul cultivated his independent “tentmaking ministries,” there were times when he expected to be paid or needed freewill offerings of material support. Indeed, the apostle celebrated the financial contributions made to him personally on more than one occasion while he was in Thessalonica: “You Philippians indeed know that in the early days of the gospel, when I left Macedonia, no church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving, except you alone. For when I was in Thessalonica, you sent me help for my needs more than once” (Phil 4:15–18). The emphasis in Philippians 4:15 is on the phrase “in the early days,” which means that such financial assistance that Paul needed and may have even depended upon was not a routine expectation or requirement in his ministry.
The author of 2 Thessalonians 3:12 exhorts persons to “work quietly” and to “earn their own living.” He focuses on the apparent breakdown of community solidarity and mutual self-help for which Paul so earnestly appealed here. Doubtless, 2 Thessalonians 3:6–13 represents a later problem that had developed wherein some Thessalonians were refusing to be gainfully employed; the resulting idleness destroyed the sense of community interdependence and led to such problems as stealing bread from other Christians.
4:13–15, Concerning the Eschaton and Believers Who Have Already Died
The apocalyptic framework of Paul’s thought in 1 Thessalonians should help readers understand why the apostle felt so constrained to resume his discussion about the end-time. Abraham Smith correctly notes that there are two bases for Paul’s apocalyptic hope: one is the resurrection of Jesus as the Christ; the other is the parousia (the Lord’s “second coming”).14 At this juncture, the primary focus is on the particular matter of the timing of the parousia. When will the second coming take place? Evidently, this has become a burning issue among the nascent Thessalonian believers, who have wondered aloud about the status of those Christians who have already died. Community members were “grieving for the dead” who once were within their ranks.15 How would these dead believers possibly benefit from the parousia, which lies in the future? Paul delivers an unequivocal answer at v. 14b: “God will bring with him [i.e., the returning, triumphant Lord Jesus] those who have already died.”
The theocentric character of Paul’s thought is worthy of special mention here; God is the principal figure who effects the events of the eschaton. The return of Jesus is made possible by God—the very God who “quickens the dead” and enables deceased believers to accompany Jesus during his triumphal reentry.
4:16–18, How the Parousia (Second Coming) Will Unfold
Commentators often acknowledge the summary nature of vv. 16–17. These verses offer a concise description of the parousia.16 The assertions of vv. 14–15 are now verified by the sequence of events now set forth. The Lord God will utter the command, confirmed by the voice of the archangel (Michael is named as an archangel in Jude 9; cf. Dan 10:13; 12:1).17 The trumpet of God will sound as Jesus descends from heaven, first raising the dead and then “forcibly taking up” or, more commonly, “catching up” those believers who are yet alive. The aspect of implied force in the Greek verb harpazo (“caught up”) should not be overlooked; it suggests some surprise and even resistance. The event will be sudden and alarming, inevitably prompting the human response of initial resistance. Paul’s vision is colorful, imaginative, and dramatic. It is also informed by such eschatological speculation as found in contemporary Hellenistic Judaism.18
5:1–5, On Discerning When the End Will Come
Despite some opinions to the contrary, Paul does not envision two distinct final events—a parousia in which the Lord comes and a separate rapture in which the faithful are gathered up on the day of the Lord. He envisions a single, orchestrated final event. And he expects this comprehensive parousia moment as fervently as Jesus anticipated the imminent in-breaking of the kingdom of God.
Despite this, the greater part of the emerging church advised against trying to affix a specific timetable on the eschatological actions of God. That day will come like a thief in the night. Multiple New Testament texts urge caution, advising that it is impossible to know the time or day when the final event will occur (Mark 13:32; Matt 24:36; Acts 1:7).19
In v. 5 Paul categorizes the believers at Thessalonica as “children of light and of the day;” he opposes them over against nonbelievers, whom he classifies as those of the night or of darkness. Of course, there is no hint of any racial association in the apostle’s words; that kind of interpretive thinking would take many centuries to develop within Western civilization. Paul merely aligns his followers with the extensive religious tradition in which the insiders saw themselves as associated with “the light” and saw others as in “darkness” or “ignorance.” It is well-known that the Jews of Qumran considered themselves in similar terms and “castigated those ‘born of falsehood’ who come from darkness (1QS 3:13–15, 20–21; 4:18–19, 22–23).”20
5:6–11, Encouraging Words on Vigilance
“So let us not sleep” (v. 6) is a clever metaphor similar to the provocative opening chapter of Thomas L. Friedman’s book The World Is Flat (2005),21 in which readers are reminded that many potentially dangerous things can occur while we allow ourselves to sleep. He notes that humans unwittingly miss how the global political economy of the world itself can change while we are caught “sleeping”!
“For you are sons of light” harks back to an image shared between early Christians and members of the Essenes at Qumran, but here Paul associates that light with daylight and the kind of moral behavior that is appropriate for those who are vigilant (fully awake), and sober (as opposed to drunk). “Breastplate, helmet . . . salvation” recurs in phraseology found in Ephesians 6:14–17. The expression “whether we are awake or sleep, we might live with him” (v. 10) is vintage Paul (compare Gal 2:20; 4:19; 2 Cor 13:5).
Sojourner Truth and the Second Coming
Sojourner Truth (born Isabella Bomefree [or more likely “Baumfree”] in 1797 in Ulster County) was an ardent nineteenth-century “womanist” who, like many other enslaved African Americans, took great comfort in a literal belief in the second coming: “By the time she left New York City she was a full-fledged Millerite. Following the teachings of William Miller, a self-taught Baptist minister whom his supporters believed had calculated the exact date of the Second Coming of Christ, Sojourner Truth also thought that the end of the world was near, and that Jesus would return soon to judge the living and the dead. . . . [She] was convinced that there was no time to spare. Souls needed to be saved, which meant that the Word of God needed to be preached. She had to tell all who would listen about Christ’s imminent return.”
—Juan Williams and Quinton Dixie, This Far by Faith: Stories from the African-American Religious Experience (New York: Morrow, 2003), 78, 92–93.
5:12–22, Resumption of Ethical Instructions
The infinitive eidenai technically implies “knowing” in the sense of understanding the sacrifices and faith commitments of persons in leadership positions. As derived from oida, it is best to render the infinitive as “pay proper respect.” In v. 13b, the admonition to “be at peace among yourselves” seems to imply that Paul has some knowledge of community unrest within the ranks of the believers. There are no fewer than fifteen exhortations with imperative force within this brief section. Paul’s tone is now that of the concerned but stern father (2:11) rather than the maternal nurse (2:7). The content of the paraenesis to which Paul appeals is a familiar cord in Paul’s rhetoric, found in the closing sections of many of his letters. The specific injunctions to “help the weak,” however, are seldom found elsewhere in Paul’s own writings. Even so, it is interesting that the Lukan “Paul” uses these same words in his speech to the Ephesian elders in Acts 20:35. Of course, that the strong should help the weak (the basis for building solidarity among the far-flung clusters of house churches and the foundation for the “collection for the poor among the saints at Jerusalem”) was axiomatic for Paul, but the particular phrasing found here in v. 14 is atypical. More standard paraenesis for Paul is the injunction to refrain from “paying evil for evil” (cf. Rom 12:17–21).
5:23–28, Final Injunctions and Benediction
The phrase “God of peace” in v. 23, typical of Paul, is found nowhere in the Hebrew Bible, but Paul uses it in such places as Romans 15:33; 16:20; 2 Corinthians 13:12; Philippians 4:9; it also occurs in Hebrews 13:20. For a final time, Paul makes a reference to the parousia, the coming of the Lord, as if to reassure the Thessalonians of its certainty. Not withstanding these teachings, serious doubts about the delayed parousia eventually arose among the Thessalonians (2 Thess 2:1–12). The closing instruction of v. 26, “Greet one another with a holy kiss,” also occurs in 2 Corinthians 13:12 and Romans 16:16.
Notes
1. Charles A. Wanamaker, The Epistles to the Thessalonians: A Commentary on the Greek Text (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1990), 4–6.
2. Cain Hope Felder, Troubling Biblical Waters: Race, Class, and Family (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1989), 150–60.
3. Abraham Smith, First Thessalonians in nib 11: 687. See further Gene L. Green, The Letters to the Thessalonians, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2002) 69–71.
4. D. Edmond Hiebert, 1 and 2 Thessalonians (Chicago: Moody, 1992), 40–41. See further Beverly Roberts Gaventa’s, First and Second Thessalonians, Interpretation (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 1998), 10–11.
5. Smith, First Thessalonians in nib 11: 688.
6. Hiebert, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, 42. See further Felder, Troubling Biblical Waters, 153–54.
7. G. K. Beale, 1–2 Thessalonians, The IVP Commentary Series 13 (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2003), 51–52.
8. Earl F. Palmer, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, Good News Commentary (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1983), 9.
9. Gene L. Green, The Letters to the Thessalonians, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2002), 106–7. See further Ernest Best, A Commentary on the First and Second Epistles to the Thessalonians (New York: Harper & Row, 1972), 82.
10. Beverly Roberts Gaventa, First and Second Thessalonians, Interpretation, 19–22.
11. D. Michael Martin, 1, 2 Thessalonians: An Exegetical and Theological Exposition of Holy Scripture, New American Commentary 33 (Nashville: Broadman & Holman), 78–79. See further Gaventa, “Maternal Images in the Letters of Paul,” in First and Second Thessalonians, 31–34.
