Deeper Reflection
PAUL’S FORCED DEPARTURE FROM THESSALONICA RESULTED in a separation from his new converts, which he describes as “we were made orphans from you” (v.17a, NIV). Paul uses the word, aporphanizō, which means “to cause to be an orphan”⁴¹, to describe the “extremely painful”⁴² separation. Paul felt a great sense of loss, like a child who has lost his parents. We need to capture Paul’s intense feelings, which shows how much the Thessalonians meant to him.The separation was unbearable even though it had been only “for a short time”. While being separated “in person”, for Paul, it was “not in heart”. Although they were separated physically, Paul carried the church in his heart and thoughts. It was out of sight, but never out of mind. In a similar vein, Paul said to the Philippians, “I hold you in my heart” (Phil 1:7), and to the Corinthians who had brought him many heartaches (cf. 2 Cor 2:1) he spoke of “the abundant love I have for you” (2 Cor 2:4) and the “earnest care I have for you” (2 Cor 8:16).These intense emotions of Paul tell us the importance of people to him. Disciplemaking is not just a task to be done or a mission to be accomplished. It is essentially about building people’s lives. Paul sees people as the “interests…of Jesus Christ,” and because of this we ought to be “genuinely concerned for the welfare” of people (Phil 2:19-21). How we sensitively feel for people and are consciously concerned about them is an indicator of the importance of people to us.

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⁴¹ Johannes P. Louw & Eugene A. Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semantic Domains, Second Edition, Volume 1 (UBS, 1988, 1989), 85.17 ⁴² Gene L. Green, 150