1 Thessalonians 1-3
Observation: Take note that in chapter 2 Paul describes his relationship with this church as both a mother’s care and a father’s exhortation. His point is not to obscure the value of God’s design in creating men and women, but to emphasize his investment in this church of sharing his life with them.
Question: How were the opponents experiencing the wrath Paul describes in 2:16? The easy answer is that we are not totally sure. It seems obvious they are not experiencing the ultimate wrath that will be poured out by God. Some say he is just saying they have filled the cup of God’s wrath. I suspect something bad is happening to them in the moment and that we don’t know what it is.
Application: Notice that Satan is described as preventing Paul from visiting Thessalonica again. We don’t know how, but it is a reminder that Satan is still a powerful foe even though Jesus has defeated him. He can only do what God permits so we pray for God to protect us from the evil one.
Prayer: Father, help me to increase and overflow in love for other believers and may that occur throughout our church family.
One Comment
A 2009 George Barna poll found that:
Four out of ten Christians (40%) strongly agreed that Satan “is not a living being but is a symbol of evil.” An additional two out of ten Christians (19%) said they “agree somewhat” with that perspective. A minority of Christians indicated that they believe Satan is real by disagreeing with the statement: one-quarter (26%) disagreed strongly and about one-tenth (9%) disagreed somewhat. The remaining 8% were not sure what they believe about the existence of Satan.
ttps://www.barna.com/research/most-american-christians-do-not-believe-that-satan-or-the-holy-spirit-exist/
The fact is Satan is real. Jesus was not tempted by a symbol. Jesus said: Satan is “the prince of the demons” (Matthew 12:24), and Satan is “the ruler of this world” (John 12:31) Paul had a good reason to worry about the Thessalonians, we have a good reason to worry about our Christian brothers and sisters and to pray for them.