Deeper Reflection
HAVING BEEN FORCED TO LEAVE THESSALONICA ABRUPTLY, Paul went south to Berea, then to Athens and to Corinth (Acts 17:10-16; 18:1). And it was at Corinth that Paul wrote 1 Thessalonians. Paul spent 18 months in Corinth “teaching the word of God among them” (Acts 18:11). However, in spite of such long-time good feeding on the Word of God, the Corinthians were still “infants in Christ”, such that Paul could not address them as “spiritual people, but as people of the flesh” (1 Cor 3:1). But in stark contrast, the new and young Thessalonian church – with which Paul spent only a short time, and was “left without leadership and without having received all the instruction they needed (cf. 1 Thess 4:13)”⁹ – was a glowing, growing church. The church was not flourishing in peaceful and pleasant circumstances, but rather, in the crucible of persecution (1 Thess 2:14). The church’s growth was inwardly intensive: “your work of faith and labour of love and steadfastness of hope” (v.3). The church’s growth was also outwardly extensive: they greatly impacted both believers and unbelievers “in Macedonia and in Achaia”, by their exemplary “faith in the Lord” and their proclamation of “the word of the Lord” (vv.6-8). The power of the Holy Spirit in which the Thessalonians received the Word of God (vv.5-6) continued to be actively present in this new and young church, even when apostolic instruction was abruptly discontinued. The work of God is the work of God.

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⁹ Gene L. Green, 51