Monday 29th September
Read 2 Thessalonians 1:1-2
“Paul, Silas and Timothy,
To the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:
2 Grace and peace to you from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” (NIVUK)
As we embark upon our month long journey into Paul’s second letter to the church in Thessalonica let us reflect on the authors and recipients first. For the letter did not come solely from Paul’s hand. Like the first letter it was a joint missive from people they clearly knew and trusted. Grace is multiplied with the authors.
What is fascinating is how the recipients are described. They are the church ‘in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ’ (v1). They may be physically located in Thessalonica but their true location is ‘in God and Christ’. In one sense this is not new or novel at all – everyone lives and breathes and has their being in God. All exist by His grace alone. But Paul intimates something else.
Paul intimates that the church, as Christ’s body, participates in the mysterious Godhead in the same way that the incarnate Lord Jesus relates to the Father. The union of the Father and the Son is extended to the Thessalonians. This may seem a rather long bow to draw from a simple introduction in a letter yet when we consider Peter’s words in his second letter it seems to be a thought shared in the early church.
“His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.” (2 Peter 1:3-4) (NIVUK)
Though our instinct is to consider what it means personally, i.e ‘we individually participate in the divine nature’. What does it mean that this truth is applied to the church? An entire lifetime could be spent reflecting on that truth.
