Insight from 1 Thessalonians 2<\/p>\n
There is a definite note of defensiveness ringing throughout this chapter (Bible scholars would refer to this as an apologetic section). This is not the ugly sort of defensiveness that you or I are prone to exhibit when we\u2019re wrong but we don\u2019t want to admit it. Rather, in this chapter Paul musters a well-reasoned defense of the manner and methods in which the gospel came to Thessalonica and of the apostolic team\u2019s lengthy absence from the city.<\/p>\n
Before examining the apology itself, it is worth considering why the Holy Spirit led Paul to include this lengthy apology in the letter. It was not, as the following verse makes clear, because the Christians in Thessalonica had turned against Paul and his fellow workers.<\/p>\n
“But now that Timothy has come to us from you, and has brought us the good news of your faith and love and reported that you always remember us kindly and long to see us, as we long to see you \u2026” 1 Thessalonians 3:6<\/p>\n
Nor was it because the Christians in Thessalonica had turned against the gospel.<\/p>\n
“And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not say anything.” 1 Thessalonians 1:6-8<\/p>\n
It is quite possible that Paul, by the Holy Spirit\u2019s prompting, included this section because he knew that Satan may use Paul\u2019s prolonged absence from Thessalonica as a means to deceive and harm the church. After all, like the traveling philosophers that frequented cities like Thessalonica, Paul had come, convinced a group of people about something new and different, and vanished. Paul knew that others might use these facts to persuade the church in Thessalonica that he and his apostolic team were no different from any other snake-oil salesmen traveling the Via Egnatia.<\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"give_campaign_id":0,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_crdt_document":""},"class_list":["post-4681","reading-plan","type-reading-plan","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/handstotheplow.org\/am\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/reading-plan\/4681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/handstotheplow.org\/am\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/reading-plan"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/handstotheplow.org\/am\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/reading-plan"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/handstotheplow.org\/am\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}