“For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.” (1 Thessalonians 2:13 KJV)
Although Paul and Silas were only in Thessalonica for a short time, the gospel message was received by many people (Acts 17:1-12). The message was God's and not Paul's, although he had the responsibility of presenting God's Word (Gk Logos) which is much more than mere words. It is the essence of the gospel, God's love, Christ's sacrifice and the Holy Spirit's power, expressed in words the people could understand.
Paul thanked God that when the people heard the gospel they knew that God was speaking to them. They welcomed it as God's personal message to them. The Holy Spirit was at work applying what the apostle said in such a way that they were convicted of sin and were able to relate to Jesus (John 16:7-15). Human words delivered the message but the converts knew that God was communicating directly with them.
The Word of God is like seed: it has life in itself. When sown into the human heart, it will germinate and get to work in the person. Truth cannot be erased, it has a perpetual quality: truth about God, about ourselves and about what He wants us to do ... it will not go away once it has been planted. Through God's Word, unbelievers are born again (1 Peter 1:23). When people believe in Jesus, they receive the Holy Spirit to teach them how God's Word applies to them. As they obey what God says, they develop a nature like Jesus’, and become productive workers in His 'family business' (Luke 8:15).
The Bible is God's Word. The work of the apostles was not only to establish the first churches but also to instruct us. They were God's human agents in writing the New Testament, in the same way that Isaiah and Daniel contributed to the Old Testament (2 Peter 1:20-21). The Holy Spirit instructed them. What they wrote is equally God's Word. In the Bible we have all we need to become like Jesus,and to serve the Father in the power of the Spirit. Read it, meditate on it, study it, and then do what the Lord says to you through it. And it is not just for you. Share it! Through it your friends and family will find the way to be saved, backsliders will be rescued, wounded believers will find healing and serving believers will find strength to work for the Lord and endure hardship (2 Timothy 3:16).
Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy wrote that the Thessalonians accepted what they heard not as a 'human word' but as 'God's word'. What exactly is the distinction being drawn here?
On the one hand, it can be argued that what the Thessalonians heard and received is precisely a human word: that is, a 'word' that is both proclaimed and interpreted by humans, much as we experience the 'word' in preaching today. This is borne out by the fact that when Paul uses the language of 'word' (i.e., logos) he is always referring to something that is spoken.
On the other hand, Paul, Silvanus and Timothy say that the Thessalonians did not hear these words as a 'human word' but as 'God's word'. I don't think that what they mean here is that the Thessalonians in some way took Paul, Silvanus and Timothy to be 'gods' (such as is reported in an incident in Acts...), nor that they believed the words spoken were not those of Paul, Silvanus and Timothy, but the voice of God speaking through them (as an oracle).
I believe that what the Thessalonians recognized was that the words spoken by Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy witnessed to the nature and activity of God, revealed in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. To put it another way, they recognized the very presence of God in the act of proclamation. God is made known and becomes visible at the very point in time, the social circumstances, the physical space in which the speaker and the audience meet. In that moment, we become alert to God with us.
God's Word
The message that is proclaimed may be, in one sense, a human word, but it is a word that has its origin in the life-generating nature and activity of God. 1 Thessalonians, unlike Romans, offers no grand exposition of 'God's word'. Rather, the primary Christological theme in the letter is 'the coming of the Lord Jesus' . This single focus underscores the 'contextual' nature of proclamation: in this letter the focus is on a particular concern that has arisen within the community of faith.
This is also the way in which God becomes truly known -- not in the abstract, but on the ground, in the midst of people's lives. What Paul, Silvanus and Timothy affirm, in addition, is that the whole of our lives are lived in the presence of God (4:1-2), a cause for thanksgiving, whatever our circumstances (5:18), because the power of God is at work, in life-giving ways.
A Word at Work
How do we know if the 'word' is at work within us? Write Paul, Silvanus and Timothy, it will be manifested by works that are expressions of our faith: a labor of love. Just as God's power is manifested in life-giving ways so, too, the 'word' generates in us both the desire and willingness to engage in life-giving activity. This activity includes not only proclamation of the word, but pulling our weight so as not to be a burden (literally engaging in labor that produces sweat), the sharing of ourselves and working on behalf of and for the good of the community so that it, too, might incarnate the word of God with us, in power.
Today's Prayer
God, whose Word is truth. Thank You for causing the Bible to be written so that I can know how to receive Your love, grace, and power to obey You. Forgive me for paying more attention to other voices than Yours and for not sharing the wonderful truth You have put into my hands. Please help me to treat Your Word with a fresh preciousness, an eagerness to learn from You and a desire to let Your Word work within me so that I may be fruitful and productive as a disciple of Jesus Christ. In His Name. Amen.
And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall. (2 Peter 1:5-10 KJV)
This passage builds on the implication of grace, that is, the gifts of God alluded to in the previous verses. Grace both enables or empowers us and makes demands on us by putting us under obligation. Titus tells us that the grace of God teaches us that "denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously and godly."
(Titus 2:11-12)
Receiving the grace of God puts us under obligation to respond.
Peter is teaching that the grace of God demands diligence or effort. Verse 5 reads, "giving all diligence [effort]." In addition, it is helpful to understand that Peter is saying in the word translated as "add" that we are to bring this diligence, this effort, alongside or in cooperation with what God has already given. God freely extends His grace, but it obligates us to respond. We are then to do our part in cooperating with what He has given to us—and He inspired Peter to tell us to do it diligently and with a great deal of effort.
Peter sees faith as the starting point for all the other qualities or attributes. He does not mean to imply in any way that faith is elementary, but rather that it is fundamental or foundational—that the other things will not exist as aspects of godliness without faith undergirding them. In the Greek, it is written as though each one of these qualities flows from the previous ones. We could also say that faith is like the central or dominant theme in a symphony, and the other qualities amplify or embellish it.
How much and what we accomplish depend on where we begin. Peter is showing us that there is a divine order for growth, and it begins with FAITH.
Peter writes in his letter that we should make every effort to cultivate Christ-like character qualities. Most of us have goals that revolve around what we want to accomplish rather than who we are, but God wants us to develop character. When we focus on being the person God wants us to be, then we will accomplish what He wants us to accomplish.
We must be diligent in cultivating Christian virtue, self-control and knowledge. We are able to pursue these things because we are partakers in God’s divine nature (2Peter 1:4). He makes us a slave to righteousness (Romans 6:19). In other words, we have a new Master (1Cor 6:19-20). It all starts with faith (Galatians 2:16). He gives us the desire to live a life of gives...", not "I do..." or "I get..." or "I try...", etc; see (Phil 2:13-, Ezek 36:27). If we are seeking God and spending time with Him, we will see progress in godliness (Matthew 6:33).
When we spend time with people on a regular basis, we become like them (Peter 13:20, Psalm 119:63, Mal 3:16, 1Cor 15:33). When we spend time with our Savior, we become more and more like Him.
RE-CALCULATE YOUR LIFE!
Listen to God, and He will shape you into the person that reflects His image.
Reflecting the image of Christ is what this first section of Peter is all about -- Peter is not trying to place you under a set of rules and regulations so that you try and try and try even harder to develop these Christ-like qualities. To the contrary, the necessary action on our part is to learn to relinquish control, to rest in Christ, to rely on His Spirit, to surrender our will to the will of the Father.Then, and only then, the Spirit will transform you step by step, from glory into glory into the image of God's Son (2Corinthians 3:18).
Humility preserves peace and order in all Christian churches and societies; pride disturbs them. Where God gives grace to be humble, he will give wisdom, faith, and holiness. To be humble, and subject to our reconciled God, will bring greater comfort to the soul than the gratification of pride and ambition. But it is to be in due time; not in thy fancied time, but God's own wisely appointed time. Does he wait, and wilt not thou? What difficulties will not the firm belief of his wisdom, power, and goodness get over! Then be humble under his hand. Cast "all you care;" personal cares, family cares, cares for the present, and cares for the future, for yourselves, for others, for the church, on God.
These are burdensome, and often very sinful, when they arise from unbelief and distrust, when they torture and distract the mind, unfit us for duties, and hinder our delight in the service of God. The remedy is, to cast our care upon God, and leave every event to his wise and gracious disposal. Firm belief that the Divine will and counsels are right, calms the spirit of a man. Truly the godly too often forget this, and fret themselves to no purpose. Refer all to God's disposal. The golden mines of all spiritual comfort and good are wholly his, and the Spirit itself. Then, will he not furnish what is fit for us, if we humbly attend on him, and lay the care of providing for us, upon his wisdom and love?
The whole design of Satan is to devour and destroy souls. He always is contriving whom he may insnare to eternal ruin. Our duty plainly is, to be sober; to govern both the outward and the inward man by the rules of temperance. To be vigilant; suspicious of constant danger from this spiritual enemy, watchful and diligent to prevent his designs. Be steadfast, or solid, by faith.
Here is a course by which we may be assured that we shall never fall. Those who are thus working upon the plan of addition in obtaining the Christian graces have the assurance that God will work upon the plan of multiplication in granting them the gifts of His Spirit. Peter addresses those who obtained like precious faith: 'Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord. By divine grace, all who will may climb the shining steps from earth to heaven, and at last, 'with songs and everlasting joy' (Isaiah 35:10), enter through the gates into the city of God.
Our Savior claims all there is of us; He asks our first and holiest thoughts, our purest and most intense affection. If we are indeed partakers of the divine nature, His praise will be continually in our hearts and upon our lips. Our only safety is to surrender our all to Him and to be constantly growing in grace and in the knowledge of the truth.
In conclusion, the apostle prays to God for them, as the God of all grace. Perfect implies their progress towards perfection. Establish imports the curing of our natural lightness and inconstancy. Strengthen has respect to the growth of graces, especially where weakest and lowest. Settle signifies to fix upon a sure foundation, and may refer to Him who is the Foundation and Strength of believers. These expressions show that perseverance and progress in grace are first to be sought after by every Christian. The power of these doctrines on the hearts, and the fruits in the lives, showed who are partakers of the grace of God. The cherishing and increase of Christian love, and of affection one to another, is no matter of empty compliment, but the stamp and badge of Jesus Christ on his followers. Others may have a false peace for a time, and wicked men may wish for it to themselves and to one another; but theirs is a vain hope, and will come to nought. All solid peace is founded on Christ, and flows from him.
Today's Prayer:
Dear Heavenly Father,
in glorifying Christ and sending us your Spirit, you open the way to eternal life. May our sharing in this gift increase our love and make our faith grow stronger. Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. AMEN
