LIVING WATERS
For the proclamation of the Gospel and the edification of the Body of Christ
Examples in Suffering
The church in Thessalonica was a suffering church, but a beautiful church. Like Smyrna, to which the Lord said: "I know your works, and your tribulation, and your poverty (but you are rich)" (Rev. 2:9). In the same way, the Holy Spirit, through Paul, comforted the Thessalonians in the midst of their tribulations, pointing out to them the immense wealth they possessed.
No sooner had they received the word of God, than they soon became an example to those in Macedonia and to those in Achaia. Paul tells them: "In every place your faith in God has spread so that we have no need to speak anything" (1 Thess. 1:8). They loved one another, so much so that Paul says to them: "But concerning brotherly love you have no need that I should write to you", and not only to one another, but also to the brethren in all Macedonia.
The epistles to the Thessalonians are full of praise to God and praise to the church. What was the cause of their beauty? They had been purged by tribulations. "You have suffered from those of your own nation the same things that they (the churches of Judea) suffered from the Jews", Paul tells them in the First Epistle. And he adds in the Second: "We ourselves boast of you in the churches of God, because of your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations which you endured" (2 Thess. 1:4).
For the same reason, Paul spends much time speaking to them about the Second Coming of Christ. In the First Epistle is the most vivid description of the 'parousia' of the Lord Jesus Christ. What can console more than that? The Thessalonians are comforted, "that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope" (1 Thess. 4:13). "Wherefore encourage one another with these words" (4:18).
The apostle's joy is expressed again and again for the sake of the beloved church: "For what is our hope, or joy, or crown, that I should boast? are not ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming? Ye are our glory and joy" (1 Thess. 2:19-20). "In all our need and affliction we were comforted by you through your faith" (3:7).
When the Thessalonians heard of the apostles' tribulations, they were greatly distressed. Then Paul and the brethren sent Timothy to comfort them, "lest the tempter have tempted you, and our labor be in vain" (1 Thess. 3:5). What a warm relationship between the apostle and the church! He forgets himself to think only of them and comfort them for the bad news they had received.
The beauty of a church, as well as that of a Christian, is the beauty of the sufferings, when they are borne in faith and obedience. As the Lord Jesus Christ himself gave us an example, who "learned obedience by what he suffered; and being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation to all them that obey him" (Heb. 5:8-9).