Sunday 16th February
Read 1 Thessalonians 2:14-16
“For you, brothers and sisters, became imitators of God’s churches in Judea, which are in Christ Jesus: you suffered from your own people the same things those churches suffered from the Jews 15 who killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets and also drove us out. They displease God and are hostile to everyone 16 in their effort to keep us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be saved. In this way they always heap up their sins to the limit. The wrath of God has come upon them at last.” (NIVUK)
It will be unsurprising for those reading these words to hear that commentators over many centuries have spilt much ink seeking to find reasons to remove these verses from the letter. The key argument is that the last sentence must refer to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70AD, and hence the verses were added by someone other than Paul many years later. This becomes obvious they argue when you read from verse 12 straight to verse 17 and the flow of the letter is uninterrupted.
However, each section of Paul’s letter deals with the wrath of God, often in the context of suffering, so to read these words here is not unexpected. Paul also expands on his theme of imitation. The Thessalonian believers imitated Paul, who imitated Jesus. They in turn were imitated by the churches who heard of their faith and work. Paul points out that the suffering that they are experiencing now is part of a divine pattern that began with Jesus and is entirely consistent with God’s plans for salvation. Just as Jesus was conspired against by Jews and Romans, and the early church was scattered from Judea in the same way, so too they are victims of a conspiracy of Jews and Gentiles also. When the good news goes forth it is always opposed by vested interests. Jesus said as much when he walked in Judea (cf Mark 12:1-12).
Words such as these look harsh to our relatively unpersecuted eyes. For those on the receiving end they are words of encouragement. They tell the believers they are part of God’s salvation plans for the world, and part of a family of believers who have walked before them, and in the very footsteps of their Lord. Strangely enough, they are words of hope.
