The First Letter to the Thessalonians
The First Letter to the Thessalonians
This epistle, The First Letter to the Thessalonians, is from the New Testament written by Paul, Timothy and Silas in 51 A.D. During this time period ,Timothy, and Silas travel to their second missionary city in Europe where they create a new church and spread the good news about Jesus. This second city is called Thessalonica, after they were forced to leave this place, Paul and his friends left to Athens to spread more good news about Jesus. Soon as they settle, Paul sends Timothy back to Thessalonica to see how the church was doing. Then Paul travels to the next city called Corinth where he writes his letter of encouragement to the Thessalonians after hearing the report from Timothy about the persecution of the Christians. The basic purpose of this letter is to encourage the audience, Christian community in Thessalonica to stay strong and have faith in God. In this epistle, there were two main themes, one focus on encouragement to the Thessalonians and another focus on how they should live.
The first theme of this letter mainly focus on encouraging the Thessalonians faith in God through their rough times. During this time, many were persecuted for trusting in God and many were willing to suffer. This proves that their trust in God was sincere. This was shown in the text, “For they themselves openly declare about reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living a true God”(1 Thes 1:9). Because of their genuineness, Paul was very joyful and thankful in the letter. For example, in the text Paul says, “And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, receiving the word in great affliction, with joy from the holy Spirit”(1 Thes 1:6).
The second theme of this letter focus on the way they should live. God wants everyone to be holy but there were a few problems that was in the way. For example, during this time some people had sexual intercourse before marriage. This was explained in the
This epistle, The First Letter to the Thessalonians, is from the New Testament written by Paul, Timothy and Silas in 51 A.D. During this time period ,Timothy, and Silas travel to their second missionary city in Europe where they create a new church and spread the good news about Jesus. This second city is called Thessalonica, after they were forced to leave this place, Paul and his friends left to Athens to spread more good news about Jesus. Soon as they settle, Paul sends Timothy back to Thessalonica to see how the church was doing. Then Paul travels to the next city called Corinth where he writes his letter of encouragement to the Thessalonians after hearing the report from Timothy about the persecution of the Christians. The basic purpose of this letter is to encourage the audience, Christian community in Thessalonica to stay strong and have faith in God. In this epistle, there were two main themes, one focus on encouragement to the Thessalonians and another focus on how they should live.
The first theme of this letter mainly focus on encouraging the Thessalonians faith in God through their rough times. During this time, many were persecuted for trusting in God and many were willing to suffer. This proves that their trust in God was sincere. This was shown in the text, “For they themselves openly declare about reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living a true God”(1 Thes 1:9). Because of their genuineness, Paul was very joyful and thankful in the letter. For example, in the text Paul says, “And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, receiving the word in great affliction, with joy from the holy Spirit”(1 Thes 1:6).
The second theme of this letter focus on the way they should live. God wants everyone to be holy but there were a few problems that was in the way. For example, during this time some people had sexual intercourse before marriage. This was explained in the