The Infant Church

Song: When The Roll Is Called Up Yonder

Scripture: 1 Thessalonians 2:1-20

The church in Thessalonica was one of the products of the vision Paul received in Troas: a man of Macedonia, saying “Come over and help us.” The work in Thessalonica was not easy as our reading, along with the record in Acts 17, admits. Paul and Silas were forced out of town shortly after making new disciples there. The persecution of these new converts continued. Paul, traveling South to Greece, felt compelled to write and encourage these young Christians in their faith. We can learn much from his words and from their conviction.

The local church is a family, not a club. We can learn from the tenderness and affection of Paul for these brethren whose faith was imperfect and whose understanding of the second coming and the resurrection was erroneous. The ties that bind are broken too easily and discarded too readily when brethren have not invested themselves in the care and teaching of their fellows as Paul did.

Distinguish your cause from the Lord’s cause. Paul was interested in the allegiance of the Thessalonians to the Lord not himself. That interest may be lost in the volatile mix of emotion and conflict and prejudice that comes in trying to teach the lost and resolve problems in local churches. Learn to see difference. Our labor is vain without it.

Learn to let go. Paul let the Thessalonians, these new converts, suffer persecution. He didn’t rescue them. He couldn’t. But he was there to encourage, and more importantly to remind them that God was with them. They were growing their own faith. Learn to nurture that kind of growth.

Jason Moore