Deeper ReflectionAT THE MOMENT WHEN THE THESSALONIANS “RECEIVED
the word” and “in much affliction” – “in highly distressing circumstances”
46,
they “started out on a path of discipleship that entails imitating Jesus
and His apostles”
47 (v.6). The “affliction” refers to “outward trials and
not only the inward anxieties that quite naturally accompany such
trials”
48. For the Thessalonians, it was persecution in the form of
“severe social harassment and ostracism” like “their alienation from
unbelieving family members and friends; and the curtailment of their
opportunities to maintain, let alone to improve, their current economic
and social status”
49. We ought to take suffering – in whatever form – for
granted as the normal lot of faithful followers of Jesus, for “through
many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22). The
Thessalonians received the Gospel in severe suffering “with the joy of
the Holy Spirit” (v.6). This joy in severe suffering is “a manifestation
of the supernatural”
50, for it comes from the Holy Spirit and is not
humanly generated. This joy is built in endurance. It is rejoicing “in the
Lord” (Phil 4:4) – in union and communion with the Lord. This joy in
suffering is possible with a theocentric perspective and attitude, seeing
the suffering as the will of God and the “fellowship of His sufferings”,
which is part of knowing Christ (Phil 3:10). In his imprisonment, Paul
viewed himself as “a prisoner of the Lord”, not of Caesar (Eph 4:1).
46 Gary S. Shogren, 66
47 Gary S. Shogren, 67
48 Jeffrey A. D. Weima, 1-2 Thessalonians, Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Baker Academic, 2014), 101
49 Jeffrey A. D. Weima, 101
50 Gary S. Shogren, 67
