1 and 2 Thessalonians

• 2Timothy 2:15 Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
• 16 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:

If we find ourselves abandoning these things then we will not see a life reflecting the gospel. Sin will eventually creep back in. We then lose our testimony and bring reproach upon the gospel of Jesus Christ. Even if we return to the Lord and retain our eternal salvation, we may end up losing others that may see our lives not reflecting a life lived for God and they may not receive the gospel because of it.

It is okay to seek to please God. It is great to keep seeking God more and more instead of relying on a past experience. Seek more and more of God's spirit. I know we walk by faith and not by sight or feeling but it is quite alright to experience God's presence in our lives. There is where worship and praise comes in. We are never to teach doctrine according to someone's experience but it is quite okay to have many experiences with God.

The word was given to us to check all that we experience with the word of God.

If someone claims to be baptized in the Holy Spirit and they speak in other tongues. We can accept that it is from the Lord. It is recorded as being given to believers at Pentecost and afterwards. It is   in the word of God. If someone claims that an angel appeared to them and told them to preach a doctrine not found in scripture, then we can reject it. If someone received a miracle of healing by the laying on of hands and prayer in Jesus name, we can accept it if it is proven to be true. If someone claims to receive healing by a dead saint, Mary or by any other god other than God or His Son, Jesus Christ even if they appear healed, do not accept it as doctrine. It is not in the scripture.

No true saint of God will accept the worship of anyone. We are to pray only to God and there is no other intercessor between God and man other than Jesus Christ. There is no co-redeemer. There is no other name under heaven whereby we must be saved. We must not rob God of glory by attributing any healing, salvation or miracle to anyone but Jesus. I don't know if every person that is known for having the gift of healing is for real or not, but if he is for real, he does not do any healing apart from the Holy Spirit. He is not supposed to receive any glory for any healing. If people get their eyes off Jesus and on us as individuals, we should weep and cry out against it at once.

The apostle John almost made this mistake. A saint of God who was already in heaven was seen by John in a vision. John fell down to worship him and was forbidden.

• Revelation 19:10 And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellow servant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.

We see from Revelation 19:10 that a true saint of God refused the worship that John offered to him.

• 1Thessalonians 4:2 For ye know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus.
• 3 For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication:
• 4 That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor;

Sanctification is what is needed to keep us from returning to sin after we have received Jesus as savior. Yet we never hear this doctrine preached any longer. To some this is a one time experience and to others they seem to grow into sanctification but it is something we need to seek so that we can overcome sin and not bring reproach to the body of Christ by claiming to be a believer in Jesus but living like those in the world and desiring worldly things.

Abstain from fornication. Sexual sin should never be among children of God. This involves living in a relationship with someone without being committed to marriage for life, sex outside of marriage of any kind is fornication. Fornication is also sodomy, bestiality, unnatural sex, and adultery.

If we find ourselves involved in this we must choose whether we continue in it or want to live for God and repent of this. If we belong to God, we must live in obedience to His word.

• 1Thessalonians 4:5 Not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God:

People who do those things do not know God. Concupiscence is lasciviousness which is sexual sin forbidden by God's holy word.

• 1Thessalonians 4:6 That no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter: because that the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also have forewarned you and testified.

Committing adultery with someone's wife is defrauding a brother. This is not love and not the fruit of the spirit but is a selfish type of lust that is evil. It can be forgiven yes, but it must be forsaken. To really repent is to forsake the sin, not continue to walk in it thinking one is saved by trusting in a past salvation experience, infant baptism or any other sacrament done to supposedly save the soul.    

• 1Thessalonians 4:7 For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness.

The church today needs badly to return to holiness. We have been so afraid of being legalistic that we have gone too far the other way and nothing is restrained. We cannot expect to enter heaven if we continue in sins forbidden by God's word without repenting.

• 1Thessalonians 4:8 He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God, who hath also given unto us his Holy Spirit.

If we despise those that teach sound doctrine and holiness, we are despising God because those that preach the word have the Holy Spirit. If we defraud a brother and sin against him or her if she is a female; we are despising them in a sense.

• 1Thessalonians 4:9 But as touching brotherly love ye need not that I write unto you: for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another.

When we walk in holiness, we must do so with brotherly love. Both must be within us by the Holy Spirit. We can't be truly holy without love and compassion. Holiness without love would be legalism instead of holiness. Without love we would become judgmental. When we are judgmental and have only a religious type of false holiness, it will turn people away from holiness and it opens the door for them to return to the sin they were saved from. They will see a false holiness right away and run the other way, right in the path of the worldly crowd that teaches you can be saved and still sin without any need to repent.

Love and holiness work together and they do not go beyond or stop short of the written word of God.

• 1Thessalonians 4:10 And indeed ye do it toward all the brethren which are in all Macedonia: but we beseech you, brethren, that ye increase more and more;
• 11 And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you;

A noisy busy body is not living in holiness and does not have the fruit of the spirit which is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance (self-control).

• 1Thessalonians 4:12 That ye may walk honestly toward them that are without, and that ye may have lack of nothing.

Sinners will see our good works and not have occasion to accuse us of anything. If they do, the accusations will be false. If we are criticized because of our own faults, then we deserve the criticism but it will bring reproach upon the name of Christ that we claim to serve.

• 1Thessalonians 4:13 But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.
• 14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.

Yes. This is our hope. When Jesus returns, He is going to bring with Him all believers that had previously died, as believers in Jesus.

• 1Thessalonians 4:15 For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
• 16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:

We see here that Jesus is going to bring the souls of the dead in Christ with Him and their bodies will rise first. Then those believers who are alive at His coming will go with Him.

• 1Thessalonians 4:17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

We are safe and with the Lord forever wherever He goes.

• 1Thessalonians 4:18 Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

This is a comfort. At this point the pre-tribulation believers believe this is the rapture rather than the time when Jesus returns to set up His kingdom. This is the Lord coming to take those who have died in the Lord or who are "born again" by the spirit of God. They are taken to be with Jesus before the wrath of God is poured out upon the evil kingdom of the antichrist.

After seven years or 3 1/2 as others teach, believers will return with Christ to rule over the earth. Believers are many times persecuted for their testimony of Jesus Christ but they are never under the judgment and wrath of God that will be poured out during the tribulation. I will mention here the post tribulation teaching. They believe that the rapture and 1st resurrection is when Jesus literally comes to set up the kingdom and it is at that time that we are resurrected and raptured if we are alive. If that is the case then the Lord would use another method to keep us hid from the wrath that is poured out upon the earth. 

We do notice that the bible only mentions 144000 of Israel being sealed to escape the wrath being poured out. Perhaps there are others but not mentioned or God uses another way to preserve believers from the wrath since we are promised an escape from His wrath. Then again the pre-tribulation or mid-tribulation people may be right and the other believers are not present at that time. I personally lean strongly toward the pre-tribulation teaching.

I know that Jesus said we will not know the day nor the hour at His coming. If we can pinpoint the time by counting 7 years after the signing of the treaty with the antichrist and Israel, we might guess when it will be. For mid tribulation believers then would be 3 1/2 years. The pre tribulation believers of course would not know when Jesus would appear. It makes for a good discussion if people would not blast each other for having differing views. I love discussing it myself.  

We may not escape persecution and tribulation from the world or from the false religious systems of the world but we will escape the wrath of God Himself. How we escape the wrath whether by rapture, being sealed or another way, we at times disagree on, but we know God is faithful to His faithful believers. It could be that perhaps the antichrist is not able to get complete control over all the earth in so short a time and believers may be in parts of the world where the wrath will not be poured out. This is speculation. I lean toward the pre tribulation teaching myself at I said previously, but if it turns out to be different than the way I believe, then I trust God to give me the grace to go through whatever comes our way. God saved Noah and his family though so God knows how to take care of those that love Him.

I have heard some use the comparison of Enoch and Noah to explain some of this. Enoch represents those that are raptured and Noah represents those that are saved by going through the bad times but still are protected by the Lord. DC

1 Thessalonians 5