First Coming, Second Coming #9: a wonderful blessing to carry us through this day
Welcome to the first letter to the Thessalonians! In this month in which we prepare to celebrate the first coming of Jesus to this earth, we focus on the theme of Jesus’s second coming in this letter from Paul.
Paul wrote this letter from Corinth to the believers in Thessalonica in around AD 51, making this probably his first letter that features in the New Testament. At the time, Thessalonica was a busy and important seaport city, the largest city in Macedonia and the capital of its province. Acts 17 documents Paul’s brief visit to Thessalonica and how he was hounded out of the city by some jealous Jews, who ‘formed a mob and started a riot in the city’. The new believers (some Jews but mainly Gentiles) in the city were left with little external support to deal with the pressure and persecution they were facing as followers of the Way. Paul therefore writes this letter to encourage the new converts in their trials and to give instruction concerning how to live as God intended. Paul teaches these believers about the second coming of Christ – and so teaches each one of us too!
CHALLENGE: to summarise 1 Thessalonians 5:23-28 in exactly 100 words!
May God Himself, the God of peace, sanctify you – purify you and make you holy – through and through.
May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Never forget – the one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it all.
Please keep praying for us – we all need to remember each other in prayer as this path we have chosen to walk is not easy.
Greet all God’s people you encounter in love.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you, now and forever.
Amen.
REFLECTION:
Take some time to allow God to speak to you directly from the words you have read.
Invite God to speak to you individually.
Invite the Holy Spirit to open your ears, open your heart, open your mind.
Here I am waiting…come, Lord Jesus.
Read the words again. Which word or phrase stood out to you and stuck in your mind?
What is God saying to you?
