1 Thessalonians

In our small group study last Sunday, we were to study 1 Thessalonians. There are two readings from 1 Thessalonians in our lectionary this month, so it looked like a good place for us to go. 


Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your point of view), our entire group was invited to a "new backyard" party hosted by another member of our congregation, a member who doesn't join us for our little Bible study. The invitation was "Bring your whole group. We'll incorporate your study into our party." So, for various and sundry reasons, we did.


At the appointed time, we were invited into the house to begin our study (actually, we were invited to sit around the new backyard fire pit, in the dark, on a hard brick wall, in the chilly night air - but hey, we're old people - we're old, we're cold, we hurt, we can't see, we can't hear, so we asked to have a place inside the house), and we found ourselves alone in a room while a few lingering party-goers, including the host and hostess remained outside. We sat in our dimly lighted room hoping others would join us, including one of our church elders, but it didn't happen. We tried to do our study, but we all felt so awkward that we soon disbanded. 


Well, it was worth a try. Even though the study was very awkward for us, maybe God used it in some way we can't know about. We'll leave it at that. Our ways and His don't always jibe. In the end, God wins, and that's all that counts. We "win," too, even when we don't know it.


This, however, was the jist of our study. Paul and Silas, and probably Timothy, too, were on what is known as Paul's Second Missionary Journey, and having been chased out (more or less) of Philippi, they came to Thessalonica where Paul taught for perhaps 3 weeks. Some experts think more, but it doesn't seem it could be much more. As usual Paul starts out in the synagogue, and some synagogue Jews and a "large group of God-fearing Greeks and quite a few prominent women" heard what Paul said and believed him. (Paul and his companions were quickly banished from Thessalonica, too, when some of the synagogue members, becoming jealous, challenged what Paul said.)


Oh, there's so much to think about as a result of this short account of history and this small epistle. Here are some of the things we "thought" about (and would have thought about more had we not felt so "out of place" at the party):

• "God fearing." This is a phrase we read several times in the Bible. What does it mean? In the New Testament, it means these people were Gentiles (not Jews). In our lives, we could take it to mean "not Christians" or "not Christians like us." So, who are these God-fearing people in our lives?

• We had some Jews (these were the synagogue members) who didn't like Paul's message and who effectively booted him out of town. The interesting thing is that apparently there weren't enough of them to make a good protest. They went to the marketplace and found "some worthless men" to join the protest. When we see protests today, how many really believe in the protest? How many are protesting just because it's a protest? How many are the "worthless men" (or women) of the marketplace. (Now, I wouldn't call them "worthless," but this is the adjective used in the historical record, so I use the term only as a parallel.)

• Does the good news of Jesus Christ still stir people up? Think about it.

• Think about why you believe someone and why you don't believe someone else. One of our group answered, "I tend to believe those who are consistent in their message." Good point. Paul was surely consistent. Persistent, too!! (I actually think there's something else at work here, especially when the gospel is preached. More about that later.****)

• Paul knew (face-to-face) these people of Thessalonica for only a short while. Yet, when he's chased from town, he can't forget them. What's this all about, huh? He's so obsessed with their well-being that he has Timothy go back and check on them, to make sure they're doing ok and haven't forgotten what they learned. Then, within a year, more or less, he writes this passionate letter to them. The people of Thessalonica aren't the only people Paul's been ministering to all this time. But he just can't forget them.

• So what does Timothy find out when he makes the requested trip back to Thessalonica? Those people are doing so well that everyone in neighboring towns, cities, and countries know about their new faith, the faith in Jesus. So, what does this tell us? Paul's short visit + the Word of the Gospel + an encounter with the living God, through Jesus = ________.

And on we go. There's much to think about in this epistle. The upshot of it for me is:

• We have a man on fire for Jesus - Paul. He is infused with the lovingness of our great God. He has but one mission for the rest of his life - Go love the world for Jesus! In the epistle to the Philippians, written while Paul is a house prisoner in Rome, Paul writes: "As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ." Phil 1:13
I don't think he means he's literally in chains. Or even if he does, that's not the whole meaning. I think he means "My life belongs to Christ, and everyone here knows it. I exist for the Gospel!"

•  ****When the Word is spoken, some hear it, and it has its own power. When I say "hear," I don't mean just hear a sound - they hear this Word throughout their bodies, their minds, their lives. The Word takes root. I can't explain it, nor can I fully understand it. The Word took root in Thessalonica. They heard. They lived. They told.

Paul ends his letter with a list of things for the Thessalonians to do with and in their lives. He gives "instructions" for living the faith. He never preaches "salvation through works," but, like James, Paul knows that the faith that saves you changes you - not just for a future life, for eternity, but for now. It changes the way you live. It changes the way you love. It changes the way you are. This is a God thing, not a mankind thing.

Romans - Resources for this study

I'll use a variety of resources for this study.

• Our primary resource, which will serve as our outline and guide, is a study in the God's Abiding Word series, published by Concordia Publishing House, authored by Charles A. Gieshchen. It's categorized as an "expert" study, although I think it's "expert" at the casual lay level. Because it's Lutheran, I can have confidence that I'll not stray too far from sola fide. Unfortunately, it would be too easy to do that when it's humanly dificult to separate works and faith in our daily lives. Our minds get tangled with those concepts. Gieshchen's study is 16 chapters long. We want to take 8 weeks for this study, so we will be combining some things and adapting other areas to develop the study for our purposes. This resource is the only resource we will use in class. I will use other resources to develop discussion points and other information.
• Paul for Everyone Romans Part One and Part Two, Tom Wright, published by Westminster John Knox Press. Tom Wright is N. T. Wright, and I enjoy thinking about how he thinks once I get past his wordiness. This is a resource I will use, not a resource the group will use.
• N. T. Wright Romans, one of the Bible studies in the For Everyone Bible Study Guides. Again, a resource for me, not for the group.
• Encountering the Book of Romans by Douglas J. Moo, published by Baker Academic. Moo writes from a Reformed / Lutheran point of view.
• The NIV Application Commentary - Romans, by Douglas J. Moo, published by Zondervan. This probably repeats much of Encountering the Book of Romans, although it's presented in a different style and it's a book that resides on my Nook, not on paper.
• The 1984 version of the New International Version (NIV1984) Bible, the version in our pews, published by Zondervan.
• The New Living Translation (NLT) Bible, Life Application Study Bible version, published by Tyndale House. (A personal favorite.)
• The New American Standard Bible (NASB), published by The Lockman Foundation. (My other personal favorite.)
• I almost forgot this one, even though it's a nearly daily event for me: a study on Romans by Robert Cara of Reformed Theology Seminary (RTS), via iTunes University. Although I feel Cara is sometimes flippant about certain topics, and I mentally have taken issue with him about his comments to a female student (perhaps the only female student) in this class, he knows his stuff from a "teaching Reformed theology" point of view. Reformed theology re sole fide  is nearly the same if not exactly the same as Luther's theology.
• Internet searches, with a majority of those searches begun at Wikipedia. It's amazing the number of good articles and links to other sites I can find on Wikipedia.
• One more resource of high importance for this study is http://bible.org/, the home of the NET Bible.****

***The NET Bible translation philosophy seems to be similar to the New Living Translation, a modern combination of formal equivalence and functional equivalence. It's very readable, and it comes with many, many translaters notes.

To best understand the translation philosophy of the NET bible, see this page: http://bible.org/article/preface-net-bible-first-edition The best thing about the NET Bible for me is that it's a very credible modern translation that allows me to distribute more than 500 verses, including even a whole chapter or book of the Bible, without copyright violations!!! This avoids my using a small portion of a translation for illustrations, and then having our group read the balance from their various and sundry translations while the rest of us try to translate from the other's translation into ours, perhaps entirely missing the point of the study. Thank you, NET Bible!

A study of Romans

For the past 6 months or so, I've been moderating a monthly Bible study at the home of some friends. We've been meeting for several years, but up until just before Lent this year, someone else usually set the agenda. Our studies began as movies enacting various gospels, and then we moved into a comercially available study on Genesis. I think people ran out of ideas, and the group asked me if I would prepare something.

Me, moderate a Bible study - you betcha! There's nothing I enjoy as much! It had been a few years since I'd had an opportunity to do so.

So for the past 6 months, we've taken a section of the Sunday readings for the month and I prepared a study based on those readings. The study consists of the text of the readings and then some questions to get us off into a discussion. With the discussion questions, the group leads itself. It's worked really well.

Another pair of friends recently asked me if I would be interested in leading a women's evening Bible study. It didn't take much thought on my part to agree. We decided that the study should be 8 weeks, long enough to get into something meaningful and short enough that we would know quickly if our idea was going to work.

Romans came to mind for me. It's such a beloved epistle. I have always especially liked the parts that tell you how to live amongst others, how to treat one another, and what our responsibility is to each other.

And the best part is that Paul starts out very early in this letter saying something like "I want to encourage you," AND "I want to be encouraged by you." To my mind, that's what a thoughtful study of God's word should do - encourage everyone there.

The study won't start until January, but I'm already heavy at work on it. Although the parts of Romans that I love speaks plainly, there's a whole lot else that deserves more than a simple "what do you think this means" and a "let's try to treat one another better" approach.

Romans isn't an easy epistle. It covers the entire gospel, and it's theologically heavy.

However, I want to stay away from the controversies (and they are numerous). The very heart of evangelical and reformed beliefs arises from Paul's theology in Romans, and entire protestant denominations are divided over their interpretations of Paul's words. So many of the controversies seem akin to the quest to learn how many angels can sit on the head of a pin. That's so nonproductive for a thoughtful study.

It's my thought that many Christians aren't sure what their church's stance is concerning many of the controversial points currently being discussed - and furthermore, they probably don't care. If they were encouraged to care, I believe the controversies would be more destructive to their faith than instructive or productive. I do want to carefully explain concepts like "imputed" and "imparted" because I think the distinction is important in our understanding of our relationship to Christ. But whether or not Jews depended on grace or works in the second temple era makes little difference in the way we live our day to day lives and relate to God.

(Although I have read many articles and books over the years, I am put off quickly when I see one man's writings (yes, these writings are usually authored by men) so heavily laced with why another man is wrong that you can't figure out what either man's beliefs really are. Sometimes I think it's just a big game for them. As much as I have enjoyed reading some N. T. Wright, I am downright irritated when I read, in some of his works, the reasons others are wrong. Come on, Tom, just tell me what you think. Don't tell me what you DON'T think!)

In this study, I want the Word itself to teach us. As a leader and moderator, I need to study the nuiances so I don't let us get off track in our discussions. I want to inform my own understanding. As much as I love leading a Bible study, it's not a frivolous undertaking. People tend to believe some of what you say. They look to you. And I don't want to lead anyone astray because of my careless approach to a very serious business.