![]() ![]() No wonder that in 1 Thess 3 Paul is concerned about the Thessalonians’ fidelity to God and his ongoing redemptive project, i.e., to the missio Dei. Others in Thessalonica most probably felt that this put their city in danger and tried to bring this troublesome group into line with social ostracism, verbal harassment, possible political sanctions, and perhaps even sporadic physical violence. When those in the church turned to “the living and true God” and stopped engaging in the “commonsense” practice of giving loyalty to the gods and goddesses who were understood to guarantee the peace and security of their society (see 1 Thess 1:9), the trouble began. There Paul mentions the pressures and persecutions that were continuing to afflict the Thessalonians. 4).ġ Thessalonians 3 and its setting provide the most relevant background for these verses. ![]() As beneficiaries of these divine gifts, all churches are called upon as Spirit-inhabited communities to be God’s channels of granting that same grace and shalom to others in Thessalonica, Tucson and Topeka-even in the face of persecution from those to whom they may offer these gifts (v. Its reality in the church stems from God’s graceful provision of saving justice (aka “righteousness”) that restores and reconciles relationships between God and humans and between people at odds with each other. This isn’t simply some “inner peace of mind,” but rather the overall well-being toward which God is steering his creatures and all of creation. So Paul re-extends the grace and peace to the church that they/we have already experienced as coming “from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” Everything that follows presumes that God’s grace-God’s own personal presence in the person of the Holy Spirit-is prior to anything the church does or is asked to do, and that God’s peace/shalom is available to them even in their persecuted present. To describe a local church as being “in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” emphasizes that they have been brought into existence by divine grace in order to share in the life of “the God/Lord of peace” (1 Thess 5:23 2 Thess 3:16). ![]()
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