The Effective Word
THE EFFECTIVE WORD
1 THESSALONIANS 2:13-16
God has allowed you not only to believe in Christ but also to suffer for his sake.
Paul was filled with a sense of thanksgiving whenever he thought of the way in which the gospel had been received in Thessalonica. It would have been possible for the crowds that milled through the streets and bazaars to regard him as just one more peddler of popular religious philosophy or morality. His readers, however, had listened to his message and welcomed it as the word of God. They saw plainly that while the way of speaking was his own, God was expressing his own powerful, creative word through him (2:13). What distinguished the apostolic word from what was proclaimed by a Greek teacher was its ability to impart life. The word had taken root in the hearts of believers and showed its power in daily experience.
That effectiveness was particularly clear in the endurance of the church under the pressure of disruption and persecution from other residents in the city. The apostles saw in this perseverance proof that they were being faithful to Jesus Christ. Jewish-Christian and Gentile-Christian congregations were united in a common bond of faithfulness to Jesus Christ and a common experience of suffering because they were Christians (2:14).
The words which follow (2:15-16) should be recognized as an expression of heartbreak and exasperation on the part of one who had suffered much from his own compatriots. From the time he became a Christian in Damascus (see Acts 9:24) to his present experience in Corinth (Acts 18:5ff.) Paul had been the object of repeated attack by zealous Jews who saw in him a threat to true piety. At Thessalonica it was Jewish leaders who instigated the riot which made necessary Paul’s sudden departure from the city (Acts 17:5ff.); not content with this achievement they had pursued him to Berea as well (Acts 17:13).
The mention of suffering inflicted by the Jews (2:14) was like pulling a plug from a dike. With a rush of emotion the apostle spills out his grief that his own people should be so insensitive to God’s purposes. The catalog of sins reaches its most poignant expression when Paul speaks of the roadblocks raised by the synagogue to the preaching of salvation to the Gentiles. It is the rejection of the gospel which moves Paul to bitter denunciation reminiscent of the prophets of God.