The Divine Lamp

Note: To see previous posts on this letter go HERE.  Placing your browser on the biblical references colored blue will cause a box to appear containing the cited text.
Today we look at 1 Thess 2:13-16. These verses represent the end of part one of that Epistle, which, you may recall, had the following concentric structure:

A1) Salutation and thanksgiving for the Thessalonians reception of the word (1:1-10)

B) How the Missionaries acted among them (2:1-12)

A2) Another thanksgiving for the Thessalonians reception of the word (2:13-16)

Text 2:13-16
13. And for this cause we also thank God without ceasing, that, when you received from us the word of God from hearing us, you accepted it no as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also works in you that believe.

14. For you, brothers, became imitators of the churches of God which are in Judea in Christ Jesus: for you also suffered the same thing from your own countrymen, even as they did of the Jews;

15. Who killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out, and pleased not God, and are adversaries to all men;

16. forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they may be saved; to fill up the measure of their sins always: but wrath has come upon them at last.

In the above outline it can be seen that the section labeled “A1″ (1:1-10) parallels that labeled “A2″ (2:13-16), which is the section we are currently examining. Highlighted text in the verses emphasize verbal and thematic parallels with 1:1-10.

Verbal and thematic parallels between 2:13-16 and 1:1-10. The significance of the parallels will be treated in the next section of this post labeled “notes.”
13. And for this cause we also thank God without ceasing, that, when you received the word of God from hearing us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also works in you that believe.

We also thank God without ceasing draws a parallel to 1:2 which reads: “We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers”.

That, when you received the word of God from hearing us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also works in you that believe. parallels 1:5, which reads: “How our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power, and in the Holy spirit, and in much assurance; even as you know what manner of men we showed ourselves towards you for your sake.” The two references to “the word of God” In 2:13 also parallels 1:8-”For from you has sounded forth the word of the Lord…“
14. For you, brothers, became imitators of the churches of God which are in Judea in Christ Jesus: for you also suffered the same thing from your own countrymen, even as they did of the Jews, draws a parallel with 1:6-”And you became imitators of us, and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Spirit.”

15-16. Who killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out, and pleased not God, and are adversaries to all men; 16. forbidding us to speak to the Gentilesf that they may be saved; to fill up the measure of their sins always: but wrath has come upon them at last. These verses parallel 1:1- “Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, to the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: grace to you and peace.” They also parallel 1:3- “Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labor of love, and teadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, before our God and Father.” Finally, they parallel 1:8-”For from you has sounded forth the word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place your faith in God has gone forth; so that we need not say anything.”

Notes:

1 Thess 2:13 And for this cause we also thank God without ceasing, that, when you received the word of God from hearing us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also works in you that believe.

Paul’s thanksgiving in 1 Thess 1:1-10, which he described as “constant” (1:2), had focused on “how our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit, and in much assurance” (1:5). Now Paul mentions that he prays and thanks God for the readers “without ceasing.” As Paul preached the Gospel to them he did so with power and with assurance (1:5). The ideas expressed in 2:13 are related to this, though the focus is no longer on Paul, but on his addressees. The word which had shown itself powerful in Paul’s preaching ministry has also shown its power in relation to those who heard it, for it “works in you who believe.” The word’s power in Paul’s ministry, and its work in believers, confirms for Paul that what the Thessalonians received when they heard the preaching, was the word of God, and not “the word of man.”

14. For you, brothers, became imitators of the churches of God which are in Judea in Christ Jesus: for you also suffered the same thing from your own countrymen, even as they did of the Jews

Paul’s first reason for his thanksgiving had been motivated by the fact that the Thessalonians had received the word “as it is in truth, the word of God” which works in believers (vs 13). In verse 14 he gives a second reason: the suffering being experienced by them. From a worldly perspective, giving thanks for suffering would seem odd, but this verse recalls 1:6-”And you became imitators of us, and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Spirit.” The context of that passage shows that for Paul, when the Thessalonians received the word with affliction, it was a sign of their election, and that they were not a “second-string” church in comparison to “The churches of God that are in Judea.”

In the New Testament, affliction (Greek: thlipsis) is related to the sufferings of the eschatological (end time) age. The Passion and Death of Jesus was his thlipseis (Col 1:24) and it inaugurated the end time. Those who bear up under this thlipsis (tribulation) are like the good soil on which the seed is sown, rather than like the seed sown on rocky soil. A man who is like rocky ground “receives the word with great joy, but he has no root and only lasts for a short time. When sown and some tribulation or suffering comes because of the word, he falls away.” (see Matt 13:20-21). Due to the nature of the Gospel, especially its moral demands, it will arouse hostility, and lead to persecution: “Then they will hand you over to persecution (thlipsis), and they will kill you. You will be hated by all nations because of my name” (Matt 24:9). But because we know who Jesus is, and that such suffering is expected, we can, as odd as it seems, have peace: “I have told you this so that you may have peace in me. In the world you will have trouble (thlipsis), but take courage, I have conquered the world” (John 16:33). Christians, and especially missionaries, are called upon to “fill up…that which is lacking of the afflictions (thlipseis) of Christ…for the sake of his body, which is the Church” (Col 1:24). This is part of the Christian’s vocation (see 1 Thess 3:3-4), for “it is necessary for us to undergo many hardships (thlipsis) to enter the Kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22). We are thus co-workers in Christ’s sufferings. Because Paul and his fellow missionaries have suffered so much (see 1 Thess 1:2; 2 Corinthians 11:21-28), because they are co-workers with Christ, by his grace (Rom 15:18), they can be imitated, for thy imitate the Lord. So too, the Thessalonians can be said to be imitating “the churches of God which are in Judea in Christ Jesus.” inasmuch as they have suffered at the hands of their own countrymen as the Lord had, and the Judean churches were.

15. Who killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out, and pleased not God, and are adversaries to all men.

Some scholars, in the name of “ecumenism” and on the pretext that this and the following verse have caused anti-semitism, seek to dismiss these verses from the letter, this in spite of the fact that no shred of textual evidence exists for them to do so! If one can excise a text from scripture so casually, merely because it has been abused, how many texts would survive excision? Earl Richards, in his commentary on 1 Thessalonians in the Sacra Pagina Series, claims that a concrete event narrated by Luke in Acts 17 (The Jewish opposition to Paul in Thessalonica) “has been taken up…and transformed, in a fit of passion, presumably, to condemn all Jews as actively conspiring, out of hatred of all non-Jews, against the God-directed mission for the salvation of the Gentiles” (see pgs 123-124). But it should be noted that Paul nowhere speaks of all Jews being culpable, and his language, when considered sanely, cannot bear such a meaning. The Jews he is referring to are those who persecuted the churches in Judea (vs 14), killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets, drove out St Paul from Thessalonica, and hinder the preaching of the Gospel. The very description of their actions qualify the meaning of “Jews” in the context, so by what right does Richards insinuate that all Jews are being described? This is nothing more than a cheap attempt to muddy the text in order to justify its cleansing.

The fact is that verbally and thematically, verses 15 and 16 fit nicely into the overall context of part 1 of the letter (1:1-2:16). SOME Jews “killed the Lord Jesus” inasmuch as they conspired to get the Romans to do the actual deed. SOME likewise killed the prophets and drove out the missionaries and hindered the preaching of the Gospel to all men; in this they stand in marked contrast to the Thessalonians who “became imitators of the Lord” and of the missionaries when they “received the word in much affliction” (1 Thess 1:6); and who, after having received it, “sounded it forth throughout Macedonia and Achaia”, and indeed, everywhere (i.e. to all men. See 1 Thess 1:6-8).

16. forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they may be saved; to fill up the measure of their sins always: but wrath has come upon them at last.

The wording of vs 15 gives the sense of an accumulation of sin: “Who killed the Lord Jesus AND the prophets, AND drove us out, AND pleased not God, AND are contrary to all men” It is in these ways that they fill up the measure of their sins. To fill up the measure of sin is an Old Testament phrase (Gen 15:16; Dt 18:23; 2 Mc 6:12-15). ” God has fixed certain moments of history for the punishment of sin and the rewarding of good actions; it is a mark of divine displeasure when this chastisement is postponed (2 Mc 2:6-13). Jews who are hostile to Christ and persecute Christians are left to multiply their sins in view of divine vengence. Wrath has already come upon them: God’s avenging justice is already manifest in his failure to effect their conversion” (Jerome Biblical Commentary 48:18, pg 230).

Earlier, in 1:10, Paul had written that Jesus delivers (present tense) us from the wrath to come (future tense). In 2:16 however, the wrath of God is present. The pagan Thessalonians who accepted the Gospel were delivered from God’s wrath by turning from idols and serving the living and true God (1:9); whereas the Jewish monotheists, who rejected the Gospel have essentially made themselves the equal of idolaters. See Romans 1:18-32 (Gentiles), along with Romans 2:1-29 (Jew and Gentile). Note how the themes of wrath and salvation are connected with how one responds to truth.