24 Faithful is he that calleth you, who also
will do it. 25 Brethren, pray for us.
26 Greet all the brethren with an holy kiss. 27 I charge you by the Lord that this epistle be
read unto all the holy brethren. 28 The
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen. « The first epistle to
the Thessalonians was written from Athens. »
Here is a great definition of the word, “faithful.”
Someone who is faithful will do what they have promised to do.
For instance, stewards of the mysteries of God, such
as pastors and teachers, should be faithful to God’s word.
1Corinthians 4:1
¶ Let a man so account of us, as of the
ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God. 2 Moreover it is required in stewards, that a
man be found faithful.
God has made promises to us, many of which are laid
out in this letter to the Thessalonians. Others include, as example from
1Corinthians, a promise to offer us a way out of any temptation we face to sin.
1Corinthians
10:13 There hath no temptation taken you
but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to
be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way
to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.
And so, in keeping with the last verse discussed
where Paul prayed that the Christians be preserved blameless in their soul,
their spirit, and their bodies, we have that proof of the promise from God, who
also promises to be faithful to do that very thing.
1Corinthians 1:4 I thank my God always on your behalf, for the
grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ; 5 That in every thing ye are enriched by him,
in all utterance, and in all knowledge; 6
Even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you: 7 So that ye come behind in no gift; waiting
for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ: 8
Who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the
day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 God is
faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ
our Lord.
Again, in verse 25, the exhortation is repeated to
pray. Paul asks that these Christians in Thessalonica pray for him and his
group of ministers. How often do we pray for our pastors and our teachers and
other ministers to be guided by the Holy Spirit, to be blessed in their
personal lives, to be kept from sin, to be drawn closer to the Lord?
Verse 26 presents a problem for those people who take
literal statements in the Bible to an extreme, denying that there are specific
instructions for a historical reason given to a specific church, cultural
customs, or personal opinions involved that do not necessarily apply to them.
For those of you who insist that a woman must have long hair, for instance,
when was the last time you gave someone in your church, “a holy kiss”? Do you
even know what a holy kiss is? Are you out of God’s will because you don’t
follow Paul’s admonition to give a holy kiss? I certainly don’t want any of you
giving me a holy kiss or anything resembling one. I don’t want you washing my
feet either and I’m not likely to offer to wash your feet. Am I wrong?
Romans
16:16 Salute one another with an holy
kiss. The churches of Christ salute you.
1Corinthians
16:20 All the brethren greet you. Greet
ye one another with an holy kiss.
2Corinthians
13:12 Greet one another with an holy
kiss.
Here is a mention by Paul of washing feet.
1Timothy
5:10 Well reported of for good works; if
she have brought up children, if she have lodged strangers, if she have washed
the saints’ feet, if she have relieved the afflicted, if she have diligently
followed every good work.
Foot washing here is listed as an example of a “good
work.” So, why don’t we do it today? Are we wrong?
The issue here is one of cultural custom. There is no
specific wedding ceremony in the Bible so Christians are required to come up
with their own or follow the cultural customs of the land in which they live.
When you read the Bible pay close attention to who is being spoken to and why.
It really is a matter of common sense. Adultery is a sin from the beginning to
the end of the Bible, as is murder. How you celebrate a landmark event like a
wedding, a graduation, or a birthday is something you have to figure out as
long as it doesn’t involve idolatry or sin against God. For instance, a drunken
wedding celebration goes against what a Christian is taught about what God
wants from their life but the wedding celebration in itself is not by necessity
sinful.
There are congregations of Christians who believe in
foot-washing, who have their own wedding ceremony, and, for all I know, who
give each other a holy kiss. If they are all under that conviction then so be
it. We often stand or fall under our convictions.
Paul charges that this letter be read to the church.
The Bible is not only meant to be read but to be read aloud.
Colossians 4:16 And when this epistle is read among you,
cause that it be read also in the church of the Laodiceans; and that ye
likewise read the epistle from Laodicea.
According to early church leader, Tertullian, Paul’s
original letters still existed in these churches as late as around 200AD after
the Old Latin Bible, the first complete Bible, a direct copy of Greek original
letters and the Hebrew Old Testament, had already been circulating from about
the middle of the second century. (The King
James translators, by the way, did not use the Septuagint, a complete Greek
translation of the Hebrew Old Testament miraculously translated because, in
their Letter to the Reader, they said it wasn’t reliable. And truthfully, the
oldest nearly complete copies of that version that exist are from the third or
fourth century and the only evidence that it existed before Christ is a letter
thought to be a fraud by many. There is the church scholar, Origen’s, belief in
the authenticity of a Septuagint along with some fragments of Hebrew books
translated into Greek from before Christ. Origen included what he claimed were
earlier versions of it in his Hexapla. I
think, logic can safely question the complete Septuagint’s existence in the
middle of the Second Century for the translation of the Old Testament into
Latin from Greek from Hebrew, although it remains a possibility.)
Paul finishes his first letter to the Thessalonians
with a prayer and wish for God’s grace upon them. The traditional postscript of
this letter reports that it was written from Athens, Greece, although this is
not considered to be part of the text given by inspiration and is not found in
many modern editions of our King James
Bible.
Paul begins and ends several of his letters with a
prayer for grace for the readers. Bible commentators call “grace,” unmerited
favor. In other words, you get mercy and kindness even though you didn’t
deserve it. The Bible defines grace as favor.
Esther
2:17 And the king loved Esther above all
the women, and she obtained grace and favour in his sight more than all the
virgins; so that he set the royal crown upon her head, and made her queen
instead of Vashti.
It is linked with glory God will give to His own.
Psalm
84:11 For the LORD God is a sun and
shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from
them that walk uprightly.
Proverbs
4:9 She shall give to thine head an
ornament of grace: a crown of glory shall she deliver to thee.
When the grace of God is on someone, as it was on
Jesus, there are other attributes that rise in them.
Luke 2:40 And the child grew, and waxed strong in
spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him.
It is why we are justified.
Romans
3:24 Being justified freely by his grace
through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
It is why we are saved.
Ephesians
2:8 For by grace are ye saved through
faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
God’s grace is upon us through no
reason of our own will but of His. No Christian has anything that would commend
them to God. It is all His own work.
Romans
5:8 But God commendeth his love toward
us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Whether it be Paul or the person
next to you God’s grace was extended to them because of who God is, not because
of anything the believer has done.
Paul will write a second letter to the Thessalonians
in which he will feel compelled to correct some misunderstandings as the
Thessalonians began to look for Christ to return immediately. Who could blame
them? Every Christian worthy to be called one is looking for Christ’s return to
remove His church from this present darkness from an earth that suffers from
the ravages of mankind’s sin.
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