Day 184 – April 29, 2024: I Thessalonians 1-5 and Philemon

We find a number of really interesting nuggets in I Thessalonians. A little background. It is a church that Paul founded and he really longed to get back to see them and to encourage them but he was tied up so he sent Timothy. He was afraid that the people of the church had been tempted by Satan to abandon the faith because of the persecutions that were present within the body at the hands of both the Jews and the Romans of the day. So when Timothy comes back after a visit with a glowing report about the community, that it continues to pray for Paul and all of the saints, the believers, he is thrilled. This is one of those letters that Paul writes where it is obvious that he loves this community and can only say nice things about them.

In chapter 4 we find the often quoted verse 13 that tells us to grieve, when we do grieve, not like unbelievers, but with hope in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. That’s a comforting and strong verse for me. Immediately following that we read the primary verse in all of Scripture that many point to in order to prove that the rapture, the concetp of the rapture at least, is a real thing. This whole “left behind” concept comes from 4:16-17. I have a hard time basing my theology on two verses. I prefer focusing on I Thessalonians 5:2 that reminds us that the timing of when Jesus comes back is more like a thief in the night and not something we can predict or describe ahead of time.

Philemon is Paul writing to a friend to accept a former slave, Onesimus, within the community of faith and extolling this person’s faith.