Devotional Thoughts: Keep on keeping on

But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers loved by the Lord, because from the beginning God chose you to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth. He called you to this through our gospel, that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter. May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.

The above passage is from 2 Thessalonians 2:13-17 which comes after bunch of thoughts on the Return of Christ.

The theology of the Second Coming of Christ is complex but its bottom line is simple: Jesus will be victorious over evil and will balance the scales of justice at the end.

Interestingly, if you think about the last few decades, secularists also have end is near scenarios. There have been movies about dreadful visions of the future of life on earth (remember Logan's Run?) or the chaos of the planet due to overpopulation (remember Soylent Green?) and many other films probably a bit less obscure! Today's end of the world concern is global warming. As a brief tangent, from a Judeo-Christian world view (God is the creator and humans are stewards of the creation), there is justification to be concerned about our environment. The challenge is finding the balance of addressing current human suffering and forestalling future human suffering, i.e. should we spend a billion dollars to treat malaria or one billion dollars to fix global warming? Chew on that one a bit!

In the context of theology, though, I think the balance is shifted a bit toward the here and now and thus, the focus returns back to the here and now in Paul and co-worker's prayer for the Thessalonians.

Gratitude is the very first thing out of their lips.

Gratitude for what?

They are LOVED by the Lord. The daisy chain of God's love ... (1) begins with God's choice (2) saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit (3) your belief in the truth (4) called you through the gospel and (5) ends with sharing in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Thus, "end times" theology is only part 5 of the story! We are given enough details to know it will be challenging but that the end is good.

Stand firm and hold on!

So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter. Remember, this letter was received probably around AD 50-51. The body of teaching they had would have largely been oral. They would have had the Hebrew Scriptures. Of the 4 Gospels, it is generally held that Mark is the oldest with a date in the 50s. Matthew and Luke are thought to be compiled in the 60s drawing from Mark and other sources. John's gospel is believed to be from the 80s-90s. So perhaps the Thessalonians had possession of Jesus teachings in the form of circulated copies of Mark and in the form of oral tradition.

As for other NT letters, the Thessalonians would have copies of this letter and 1 Thessalonians. The 11 other letters of the New Testament written by Paul came later. The letters by the other NT writers also came later with the likely exception of James which is believed to be the earliest NT book dating to perhaps the 40s.

I wonder if one where a theology student, could one write a dissertation based these circumstances: "Elements of the teaching of James in 1 and 2 Thessalonians?" Or, "A chronological assessment of Pauline theology?"

In any case, the advice is hold on to what you have been taught. If one were to take 1 and 2 Thessalonians together and mark off which verses key in on how we should live and compare it to the number of verses that talk about the future hope of Christ's return, I wonder what the ratio would be?

My gut instincts tell me the ratio is 2:1 in favor of the here and now. Perhaps, I'll have to tally it up for a future blog post.

Blessing

Indeed, Paul closes out this section with a benediction where there is mention of the future but with the emphasis on the here and now: May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.

Lord, thank you that you sent Jesus to bring us back into relationship with you through his life, death and resurrection. Thank you that you have sent the Spirit to do the work of making us more holy. Help me to cooperate with you in the renovation of my soul. Lord, there are times I am discouraged by my faltering progress and my poor reaction to circumstances in life. Lord, strengthen and encourage my whole being toward doing good in word and deed. Help me to encourage others to do likewise. Amen.