1 Thessalonians 1
1Th 1:1 Paul, and
Silvanus, and Timothy, unto the church of the Thessalonians which is in God the
Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our
Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I don't understand why so many still fight against the trinity or the deity of
Jesus Christ. I disagree with the making of creeds, the union of church and
state and many things that was decreed during the making of the Nicene creed,
but it is clear from the scriptures that there is a Father, there is a Son and
there is a Holy Spirit. I don't understand everything about the trinity but I do
know from scripture itself that there are three that are one in unity and
purpose. If we
teach a doctrine that leaves out anyone of the three, we are missing all God has
for us.
We need all that God gives us. We need the Father of course, because from Him
proceeds all the rest. To be saved from sin, we need the Son who died for
our sins and we also need the most neglected of all, the Holy Spirit. To neglect
this part of God's gift is to deny ourselves of the power to even present the
gospel that will save men's souls.
What happened during the middle ages to cause people to hate, kill, burn others
at the stake and other things that happened even in the name of Jesus? If we
study those times, they had somehow lost the Holy Spirit. They just had a
religion of doctrines and creeds that long since left the teachings of the
original Holy bible.
They had a form of godliness on the surface for man to see in rituals,
sacraments, and ordinances but there was no real power to change lives and cause
the love of God to enter into the hearts of believers. This comes by the Holy
Spirit. A church without the Holy Spirit is a dead church.
Here we have the faithful apostle Paul writing another great letter to the
church in Thessalonica.
1Th 1:2 We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in
our prayers;
Do we thank God for all our brothers and sisters in Christ even in other places?
Do we pray for them and desire to them to be successful in the work of the God?
One sign of a true believer is the love they have for fellow believers even when
another believer disagrees with them on some point of doctrine. We don't
have to compromise on important doctrines of the faith but we must be patient
and love those who disagree with our doctrine. We must be careful to avoid
false accusations.
The church of today may not kill physically but they will kill in
other ways. I am Pentecostal and I grieve so much when I go on the
Internet and see what the non- Pentecostals say about us because we believe in
the gifts of the Sprit and especially the gift of tongues. To strengthen
their cause they look at the prosperity preachers, and the accesses they heard
through rumors and the words of witnesses. The bible says ye shall know them by
their fruits but they only see those that are out front so to speak. They
do not see all of us. If a Baptist commits adultery, do we blame the all the
Baptist churches? There are many Pentecostal believers that do not agree
with the prosperity doctrine. I do not know what went on at Pensacola or
Toronto but the majority of Pentecostal believers have never been there. As for
holiness. There are still many Pentecostal believers that believe in
living in holiness. To top it all there are still some of us that still
sing the old hymns of the church. I don't know if choreographic dancing is
wrong but most of our churches do not have that and have no desire to have that.
It may be okay to sing choruses over and over but some of us do not do that
either. We do not all do the same things and what you see on television
does not represent most of us. If you must fault us, use the scriptures against
our doctrine. I don't think you will find anything in scripture though
especially if you read the book of Acts. If one studies the scripture carefully
without just taking one verse out of context, you will not find fault with
Pentecostal doctrine. Even Paul's chapter on the use of tongues ends
the chapter by saying that we should never forbid any to speak with tongues.
Tongues are part the Holy Spirit. They are gifts from God. I refuse
to apologize for this gift or even refer to it as a lesser gift. How can
anything from God be less than something else?
1Th 1:3 Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labor of love,
and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our
Father;
We should rejoice in the faithfulness of other believers and never be envious.
We should share in their burdens and never harden our hearts toward them.
1Th 1:4 Knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God.
Election means chosen of God. Like God chose Abraham, God chose Israel to become
the means by which He sent His Son into the world. He chose Paul to preach the
gospel to the Gentiles. When we receive the gospel, we also become part of God's
elect. This never means an exclusive group apart from everyone else. This means
that we are called according to His purpose to receive and preach the gospel.
All who believe becomes part of this elect group. It is not closed to anyone. It
is only closed to those who refuse to receive the gospel and refuse to believe
the gospel. I would say that it is closed only to those who have already refused
and are dead physically. As long as any group of people are still alive upon the
face of the earth, they still can become part of the elect of God.
If this election was only for certain people and we had no way of knowing for
sure who those people where, why even preach the gospel and we know from the
words of Jesus Himself that we are commanded to take the gospel to the entire
world.
Some believe God's elect is the church and no longer Israel. That is false
because there are thousands of Jews that are even now receiving the gospel. Ever
hear of Messianic Jews? That is Jews who have received the Messiah. They may
call themselves a congregation instead of using the word church but they are
just as much part of the elect as those that call themselves by the name of
church.
The elect are simply those that believe in Jesus and have trusted in Him to save
them of their sins. In other words, they have been "born again" by God's spirit
and have been "baptized into the body of Christ" by the same Holy Spirit.
We are elect or chosen because God chose us but I believe God has chosen all to
become that elect. If any refuse then naturally they are not part of the elect
of God but it is by their own choice. I realize that God knows ahead of time who
will be saved and who will refuse but the opportunity is for all.
The original elect of God was of course Israel. They were the elect of God as
a nation to bring forth the savior who was to save us from sins. The
Gentile believers in Jesus, become part of the elect when they receive Jesus
Christ. Unbelieving Jews are cut off because of unbelief but the
scriptures are clear in the fact that they will again become the elect of God in
latter days.
Proof:
2Pe 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count
slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish,
but that all should come to repentance.
John 1:12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the
sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:
Joh 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that
whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Joh 3:17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that
the world through him might be saved.
I don't get from the above scriptures any thought of anyone being predestined to
be lost and have no chance of salvation.
1Th 1:5 For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and
in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance; as ye know what manner of men we were
among you for your sake.
1Th 1:6 And ye became followers of us, and of the Lord, having received the
word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Ghost:
The Holy Spirit brings joy. He is the one Jesus sent to us when He went back to
the Father.
1Th 1:7 So that ye were examples to all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia.
1Th 1:8 For from you sounded out the word of the Lord not only in Macedonia and
Achaia, but also in every place your faith to God-ward is spread abroad; so that
we need not to speak any thing.
1Th 1:9 For they themselves show of us what manner of entering in we had unto
you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God;
It takes the power of the Holy Spirit to convict of the sin of idolatry. It
takes power to have made these people who once served idols into people that
love the real true God. True conversion is by the power of the Holy Spirit. If
we try to operate without Him, we are not going to see any change in anyone's
life. They may receive a religion we call Christianity but they will not have
any power to overcome sin or love their neighbors, much less their enemies and
Jesus said to love our enemies. We can't do this if we do not have the Holy
Spirit. It is more than just a religion we need. We need to be born again by the
Holy Spirit by repenting of sin and turning to Jesus Christ. After we are
changed by the spirit of God as a result of our faith in Jesus Christ we then
need to be fully baptized in the Holy Spirit to be able to spread the gospel to
others.
Water baptism shows outwardly what is taking place within us. We become
dead to sin and reaised in the newness of life. Water baptism shows that
we are dead in Christ and alive unto God. It shows that are sins are
washed away by the shed blood of Jesus Christ. The inner man or real us
are baptized into the body of Christ by our faith as we repent of sin and
believe in Jesus for salvation. The water itself has no power to save the
soul but the Holy Spirit that is present is the living water that comes within
us when we truly repent of sin and trust in Jesus to save us from sin. The Holy
Spirit has the authority of Jesus who
has the authority of the Father to save anyone who believes in Jesus and the
work that He did on the cross when He died for our sins.
If we do not believe Jesus died for our sins and rose from the dead and is now
at the right hand of the Father in heaven then of course there is no salvation
for those who do not believe this.
The first requirement for salvation is to believe those simple basic facts. The
second requirement is to believe to the point of turning from sin and turning to
Christ. Next requirement is to obey the Holy Spirit as He leads us so that we
never want to return to the sin we were saved from.
It is sin that takes a soul to an eternal hell. A baby doesn't need to be
baptized as a baby because he or she has not reached the age of accountability
and has not sinned. If a baby dies before he sins, he will not be lost so he
doesn't need to be baptized.
The one who is baptized in water must understand what is occurring before it
does any good. A baby would not understand that he is being saved from sin
and becoming a child of God.
Sin takes us to hell and most of us over the age of accountability has sinned at
one time or another. This sin will destroy our souls. That is why we need a
savior. We need the salvation that Jesus provided for us by dying for our sins.
To neglect His salvation is to be lost forever. If we don't accept His death for
our sins, we will have to die for our own sins. The death for sins is hell
forever.
1Th 1:10 And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead,
even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.
Now our hope is His return. We should desire His return. He is coming again and
this should motivate us to spread the gospel and occupy ourselves by doing His
will until He returns and He can say to us that we are good and faithful
servants and tell us to enter into the joy of the Lord forever.
There is a lot of good things in the bible if we would just study and seek understanding. You don't have to believe my words, just read God's words.
