(Through the Bible) 1 & 2 Thessalonians — Zac Poonen

Through the Bible: 1 & 2 Thessalonians

Okay, let's turn this morning to 1st Thessalonians. Even though Paul's letters in the Bible are beginning with Romans and ending with 2nd Timothy, as far as we know, they were not written in that order.

The Chronological Order of Paul's Letters

There are certain indications in some letters that as to the time in which they were written, Paul was probably converted about six years after Jesus died and rose again. And this was probably Paul's first letter in all the letters that are in the Bible, written probably about 15 or 16 years after his conversion.

And maybe five years or so after he had started his first missionary journey in Acts 13. So 1st and 2nd Thessalonians were, as far as we know, the first letters that Paul wrote. And if you'd like to know the order in which I think the other letters were written, Galatians, 1st and 2nd Thessalonians, then Galatians, then 1st and 2nd Corinthians, then Romans, and then we have four letters that were written in prison.

Ephesians, Colossians, Philemon, and Philippians. When you read those four letters, remember they were written from prison. It'll give you more light on those letters. And then we have the last three letters, 1 Timothy, Titus, and 2 Timothy.

2 Timothy was definitely his last. So that's the order in which they were written. And it's very interesting that the very first letter that Paul writes deals so much with the second coming of Christ.

Preparing a Persecuted Church for Christ's Return

The subject is basically being ready for Christ's return. And this church was a persecuted church and Paul was prepared to minister to this church by being persecuted in Philippi just before he came there.

I mentioned how we have to be mini forerunners for other people. You cannot encourage a persecuted church if you have not been persecuted yourself. And I look at it like this, that God knew that the church in Thessalonica was going to suffer a lot persecution.

So before God sent Paul to Thessalonica, what did he do? He allowed Paul to be imprisoned in Philippi. You read that in Acts 16. And he went through some persecution there and then he went to Thessalonica.

So he was fresh from an experience of persecution. And then later on when the Thessalonian Christians were persecuted, they realized that the great apostle who came and gave us the gospel and established the church was persecuted himself.

So when God prepares you for a ministry and he knows what that church is going to face over there, he will prepare you by making you go through the same thing so that you can minister to those people in that church in a powerful way and not just in theory.

So don't be surprised at the things God takes you through. That is a preparation for your ministry in the days to come. And here he says, he speaks of their faith, love, and hope in verse 3, their work of faith, labor of love, and steadfastness of hope.

Repentance as Turning from Idols to God

And in the closing verses of that chapter 1, he mentions what true repentance is. This is one of the clearest definitions of true repentance in any of the verses of scripture. It says that when they themselves report to us, that means the others who heard the word of God from you, how you turn to God from idols.

So repentance is, if you're facing idols, you turn around to God. When you're living in sin, you're facing idols with your back to God. Your idol could be yourself, could be a girlfriend, could be money, it could be a job, it could be your ambition, it could be just sinful pleasure, and it could be visible idols too.

There are many idols. All repentance is a turning from all those idols right around to God so that your back is to those idols. Now a person who has not turned his back to these idols that I just mentioned hasn't really repented.

See some people are trying to very face God and at the same time face their idols. They have got a lot of interests and ambitions in the world and they also want Christianity. They are the most unhappy people in the world.

The people who live totally for these idols of pleasure and money, they are very happy. And the people who live totally for God, they are supremely happy. But the most miserable people in the world are those who try to live for both.

It's like keeping your foot in two boats and the boats are going in different directions. It splits you right in the middle. So a lot of problems that people face in their Christian life, I said the other day, is because of a lack of a proper foundation.

And repentance is one of those essential foundations in the Christian life and it must be total if it is to be effective. So we need to examine our life and see if there's anything, an idol is anything in our life that takes the place of God.

It could be a Christian leader. He could be your idol. It could be a, you know, some people make an idol of a certain doctrine. They're always talking about that. So we must make sure that we don't worship anything other than the one living and true God.

And once you turn to God, it says in verse 9, we turn from idols to serve Him, to worship Him, to serve Him. We don't just turn. No, the rest of our life, if you're truly repented, is to serve the living and true God and to wait for His Son from heaven.

Now here's a perfect description of what repentance and faith is. This is conversion. And a person who's been converted like this, we can say has got a good foundation. He's given up all his idols, turned his back to them.

He's put money in its proper place, comfort in its proper place, sleep in its proper place, food in its proper place, everything on earth in its proper place, the opinion of people in their proper place.

And he's turned to God and he says, my life is to serve God. You may be in a secular job, but repentance still means that your primary aim in life is to serve God. And you keep on serving, not without any expectancy of anything, but we do expect and wait for the second coming of Jesus.

From heaven. When Jesus comes, He's going to deliver us, verse 10, from the wrath to come. So it's good for all of us to check whether our experience is corresponding to verse 9 and 10. In chapter 2, Paul reminds them, you know, you fellows are being persecuted, but you know, brethren, when we came to you, we had already suffered and been mistreated in Philippi, verse 2.

And as you know, we had the boldness to speak to you, the gospel of God amid much opposition. And if you read in the acts of the apostles, you'll find the opposition they faced. And in spite of all that opposition, Paul proclaimed the gospel.

And there he was an example to the Thessalonians of one who was not afraid to preach the gospel, lest he be persecuted. That was a great testimony. And he says there, our exhortation doesn't come from error or impurity or by way of deceit.

And notice what he says in something about his ministry, which we should take heed to. We preached, verse 4, we spoke not as pleasing men, but God who examines our hearts. See, that's a good word for anyone who preaches the gospel or who preaches any type of preaching or teaching of the word, to always be able to say, we're not speaking to please anybody sitting here.

We're speaking to please Almighty God, who has entrusted us with a gospel. And God examines our hearts, it says in verse 4, to see whether we preach in a way that is pleasing to him. Paul was telling the Thessalonians, this is how I preach to you, and this is how you must preach to other people.

Paul emphasized that to the Galatians too. He was frequently emphasizing the fact that he never sought to please men. It's one of the fundamental requirements. To seek the honor of men is a sin that is not recognized in Christendom sufficiently.

We recognize other sins, but we don't recognize this terrible sin of doing something to seek the honor of some man. It's a very serious sin because we saw in Galatians 1 .10 that such a person can never be a servant of Christ.

So then he says in our speech, verse 5, we never flattered anybody. We never said anything to please somebody sitting there, or somebody sitting there, or some rich person, or some influential person.

We never flattered anybody. When we spoke to people individually, we didn't use flattering words. There's a lot of use of flattering words by preachers to rich people and influential people to try and butter them so that they can get some help from them when they need that help.

A servant of God will never flatter. The other thing we read about the ministry here is we never preached anything in order to make money. Verse 5, nor with a pretext for greed. You know, people can preach in such a way that underneath they are motivated by greed.

For example, you go into a certain place and you know that if you preach in a certain way, they'll be happy and give you a good offering. But if you preach the whole truth the way God wants you to speak it, you may get nothing.

You may get a kick in the pants perhaps. And so you don't want that. So you speak in a way that pleases people. We must examine our motives. And then he says in our preaching, verse 6, we did not seek glory from you or from others.

Another thing he says, we did not assert our authority over you, even though as apostles, verse 6, we could have. See, there are a number of verses here that teach us how we should serve the Lord. It's a beautiful passage.

I believe anyone who serves the Lord must meditate on this passage. Not pleasing men, not with flattery, no desire for money, not seeking glory from people, and not asserting our authority. You know, a lot of preachers just impose themselves and assert their authority.

And in contrast to all these things he did not do, these are all a lot of negative things. Not pleasing men, not with flattery, not with greed, not seeking glory, not asserting our authority. Okay, now he says a couple of a few positive things as to how he ministered and served among them.

The Servant of God as Mother and Father

First of all, as a gentle nursing mother cares for her own children. You know, like a nursing mother who's just had a baby and feeds that baby. He says, that's how we cared for you. A true servant of God must be like a mother to people.

You know how a mother treats a baby gently? That's how we are to serve. And then he says in verse 8, we had a fond affection for you. No man is fit to speak God's word to people unless he has a great love for the people whom he's speaking to.

He doesn't have a real love for the people in his heart. I say, forget it. Don't preach. Go and do some other job. And here's another positive thing. He says, we wanted to give you not only the gospel of God, verse 8, but we wanted to give you our lives.

What an example. We didn't want to just give you a message. We wanted to pour out our life to serve you. And verse 9, he says, you know how we worked hard night and day. A true servant of God must be a hard working person, working night and day so that we don't become a financial burden on you.

See, a lot of full-time workers in our country today are not really doing much most of the day. They go in the evenings here and there for some meetings, and many of them just sleep and loll around in bed during the day, and they call themselves full-time workers.

They're not full-time. They're just evening workers. Full-time workers are those who are doing a secular job, and after they finish their secular job, they go and do something for the Lord. Now, that's not how Paul was.

Paul was working night and day, and he found something to do. And when he had spare time, he said, well, I can do something with my hands and earn my living so that even though I do get a burden to people, this man was so upright.

And he says there how devoutly, verse 10, uprightly, blamelessly we behave towards you believers. Wherever Paul went, he was always saying, it's not just my message. It's the way I live that demonstrates the gospel.

What a need there is for Christian workers in India to be able to say that. It's not just our message. It's the way we live that demonstrates the truth of the gospel. And he goes on to say, it's not only as a mother, verse 11, he says, we also exhorted you, rebuked you, and encouraged you, and implored you as a father.

So we see a true servant of God is a mother and a father. You know, the mother treating the baby gently and the father giving advice and discipline, both are necessary in a true servant of God or an elder of a church.

I would encourage anyone who wants to serve the Lord to read verse 4 to 11 and meditate on these negatives and positives deeply. I've just shown them to you. And if you are serious, you can meditate on this yourself and see how you should serve the Lord.

Satan's Opposition Cannot Defeat God's Purpose

And then we move on to verse 18. Paul says, he says about all the opposition he faced from different people. And then he says in verse 18, more than once, I wanted to come to you, but Satan hindered me, thwarted my purpose.

Now, think of that. We have often said, and it's true, that Satan was defeated on the cross. His armor was taken away. He has no power over us. Jesus has given us authority, Luke 10, 19, over all the power of the enemy.

And Paul was certainly an outstanding servant of God. But yet he says here that Satan hindered him at a certain point. He wanted to go to Thessalonica and Satan hindered him. We know in 2nd Corinthians, he speaks about a messenger of Satan that was constantly troubling him.

See, Paul was such an outstanding servant of God that Satan was after him more than anybody else in the world. He may have sent his junior demons after other Christian workers, but he was himself after Paul.

And I can imagine that whoever is the most outstanding servant of God in the world today, Satan will be after him personally. And he will send his junior demons after the other Christian workers. And among the demons also, there are different levels of power.

You know, it says principalities and powers and all that. So the stronger demons will go after the more outstanding Christian workers and the weaker demons will be sent after the other Christian workers and the useless Christian workers.

He just leave them alone because he knows that they won't harm his kingdom at all. See, some Christian workers running after money, the devil will say, just leave him alone. He'll just destroy himself and destroy other people.

Forget about him. So it's a great honor that if Satan thinks that you are worthy to be persecuted and harassed and troubled, that means he considers you to be a danger to his kingdom. I believe it's good to seek that honor, that Satan considers you to be a threat to his kingdom.

Satan was after Paul and he hindered him from going somewhere. But that did not hinder God's purpose. Just like the thorn in the flesh did not hinder God's purpose, even though it is a messenger from Satan, it fulfilled God's purpose by keeping Paul humble.

So even this hindering of Paul did not hinder God's purpose because he says, verse chapter 3, verse 2, we sent Timothy and Timothy came and he came back, verse 6, after visiting you and he brought us good news of your faith and love and we were greatly comforted when we heard about that.

So you see, when Paul could not go, Timothy went and that was good because that gave Timothy some experience in the ministry and it brought Timothy to some maturity, which was a good thing. Sometimes it's a good thing if a senior worker does not go and a junior worker goes and gets some experience.

So did Satan succeed there? No. God turned the tables on Satan like he always does, that when he stopped Paul, something better happened, that Timothy went and the ministry was fulfilled and not only the ministry was fulfilled, Timothy got some experience.

So what do we see from that? That in our ministry, if we live in the will of God, nothing that the devil can do can ever hinder God's purpose for our life. Let me move on to chapter 3 in verse 12 and 13.

Holiness Expressed Through Increasing Love

There are a number of expressions there of his great joy in them in chapter 2 verse 19 and chapter 3 verse 9 where he says, my greatest joy is found in you people, you Corinthians, you Thessalonians. He found his joy in the believers and I feel that a servant of God who does not find joy in those whom he serves, something is wrong with him.

So many people serve in a grumpy, long-faced type of way. We need to find joy in those we serve. In verse 12 and 13, we have a beautiful expression that teaches us what true holiness is. Just read verse 12 and 13 together and then you'll understand what true holiness is.

May the Lord cause you to increase and abound in love for one another, just as we also do for you, so that, why should you increase and abound in love for one another? Because that is the only way he can establish your hearts unblameable in holiness.

So what is holiness? Holiness is increasing in love for one another. That's what it says there. You cannot be established unblameable in holiness if you don't increase in love for one another. Now that's a very important corrective for people who think that holiness has got nothing to do with other people, it's just got to do with me.

You know a lot of people who pursue holiness in the world today, they're just careful about their dress and simple dress and try to keep their thoughts and eyes and tongue and all pure and they are so selfish, utterly selfish.

They're only thinking of their own purity and they don't have a concern for other people. They don't have a love, they're not growing in love for other people. Such people are not holy. They are Pharisees.

If you don't increase in love for other people, according to this verse, Almighty God can never establish you unblameable in holiness. Meditate on that verse. Don't think there's any holiness which does not make you increase in love for others.

It's a counterfeit holiness. True holiness is love. Love for God and love for our fellow believers and for all men. And if we continue in this, one day when the Lord comes, it says in verse 13, he'll establish us unblameable at the coming of our Lord Jesus.

That's what he's speaking about. This episode is preparing people for the coming of the Lord Jesus with all his saints. And again in chapter 4 verses 1 to 8, he's speaking about purity in the sexual area.

Sexual Purity and Sanctification

Verse 4 could be translated in two ways. Each of you must know how to possess his own body in sanctification and honor. That could be one translation where you must know how to keep your body holy and pure.

That's your responsibility. Because verse 3, this is the will of God. Your sanctification. There are many areas where we don't know God's will. But here is one area where we definitely know God's will.

We don't have to find it. Your total sanctification. Sanctification means separation from everything that is sinful, worldly, evil. And each of you must know how to keep your own body pure. Another way we could translate verse 4 is each of you must know how to acquire his own wife in sanctification and honor.

That means the way you get your wife must be in a holy way. Everybody must know how to get a wife in a holy way. There are a lot of unholy ways in which people try to get wives. By looking for dowry, for example.

That's one of those unholy ways. Each of you must know how to get a wife in a holy way. Did you get your wife in a holy way? Are you looking for a wife in a holy way? Or are you looking at unholy earthly considerations when you look for a wife?

And certainly not in lustful passion. Verse 5, like the heathen. When your desire for a wife is because she's attractive and you've got a lust for her, that's not the way to look for a wife. If you're a servant of God, if you're one who wants to live for God, you must look for a wife who's got a godly desire.

That's a very important word. And then it says here in verse 6 that no one should ever cheat his brother in this matter. That means don't fool around with somebody else's wife because God is the avenger of people who do these things.

If you ever try to get friendly with somebody else's wife, I tell you God will take revenge on you in some amazing way and make you an example to everybody else. We've got to be very, very careful in this area of sexual relationships in relationships with the opposite sex.

And particularly because we live in a society like the Thessalonians lived in a society where sexual immorality was not considered serious. There's a lot of it going on even in our country in the colleges among young people and outside.

There's a lot of it among Christian workers in all denominations. And it's essential that we become different, that we have a clear testimony. Every single person has got to know how to preserve his body in purity in this area.

Otherwise you'll just fail as a servant of God. Samson is an outstanding example and many, many others in the last 50 years around the world. And he goes on to say, verse 11, make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, to work with your own hands, just as we commanded you.

That's a good verse. We saw in 2 Corinthians 5, our ambition is to please God. And this does not contradict that ambition. Our ambition must be to lead a quiet life where we don't fight and quarrel with anybody, to mind my own business instead of being a busybody in other people's affairs.

So many believers are interfering in the affairs of other people. And to work with my own hands as far as possible to earn my own living. Verses 13 to 18, he speaks about how it'll be when Jesus comes.

The Resurrection and Gathering of Believers at Christ's Coming

He says, well, don't want you to be uninformed as to what's happened to those people who have slept in the Lord. That means those who have died in Christ, that Jesus died and rose again. So we believe that these people who died in Christ will also rise again and God will bring them with Jesus.

That when Jesus comes, we who are alive will not go before those who are dead in Christ before us. We will go together with them. They will rise from the graves. That will be the first resurrection. And we will go to meet the Lord.

The unbelievers will not rise for another thousand years. They'll rise in the second resurrection. But we who have died trusting in the Lord will rise up together to meet the Lord in the air. And those who are alive will be caught up.

Verse 17, and we will meet the Lord in the air. Now notice verse 16 and 17. What are the things that he said are going to be there at the coming of the Lord? The Lord will descend with a shout, the voice of the archangel, the trumpet of God.

And then all the saints will be caught up to meet the Lord in the clouds. Now, if you turn to what Jesus said in Matthew 24, he spoke about these very same things when he was on earth and he spoke to his disciples.

In Matthew chapter 24, he said about his coming, it will be like this. Don't believe people who say he's here or he's there or he has come secretly or any such thing. Verse 26, there is no secret coming.

When he comes, it will be like the lightning flashing from the east to the west. And when will his coming take place? Matthew 24, 29, immediately after the tribulation, not before. Now, I know some of you or perhaps many of you believe it is before, but I believe what Jesus said, it is after the tribulation.

And what's going to happen after the tribulation? The sign of the son of man will appear in the sky. Verse 30, he will, last part, he will come in the clouds. That's what we've written 1 Thessalonians 4.

There'll be a trumpet, verse 31. That's what we've written 1 Thessalonians 4. And the angels will go and gather the elect from one end of the sky to the other. We are the elect. That is, when is all this going to take place?

1 Thessalonians 4, which we read. Deuteronomy 24, Matthew 24, 29, immediately after the tribulation. So there's a period of tribulation immediately after that. It's so clear for me. For many years, I believed that Jesus would come before because I was young.

I didn't study the scriptures. I just believed what everybody else said. But I decided to believe scripture and not what everybody says. And this is what I believe today. That 1 Thessalonians 4 is exactly what Jesus said there in Matthew 24.

Living Alertly as Children of Light

Now 1 Thessalonians 5, he says, you know that the day of the Lord, verse 2, will come like a thief in the night. Now many people quote this verse. Jesus is coming like a thief in the night. But he says, verse 4, you are believers.

He's not coming for you like a thief in the night. Do you know that he's not coming for me like a thief in the night? If he's coming like a thief in the night for you, you must be an unbeliever. When a thief comes in the night, he doesn't give an announcement.

I'm coming tomorrow night at 1230 at night or anything. He just comes suddenly. And who's the one who's not expecting him? The unbelievers. I'm expecting him. So because I'm expecting him, he's not coming like a thief in the night for me.

So verse 4 makes that very, very clear. Because you are sons of light. I'm not living in the darkness. It's people who live in the darkness for whom Jesus comes as a thief in the night. So spiritually, let us not sleep.

But let us be alert. What is the difference between sleeping and awake, being awake? When we sleep, please listen, the things that are real around us seem unreal. I don't know what's happening. I don't know who's in the room.

I don't know what's happening in the world around me. And the things that are unreal in my dreams appear real. That is sleep. Sleep is a time when the unreal things appear real and the real things appear unreal.

And a believer we can say is spiritually asleep when the real things of eternity are unreal to him and the unreal things of the world are real to him. That means this world is like a dream and that is more real to him than the real things of eternity.

Such a brother or sister is fast asleep. For him, the Lord will definitely come as a thief in the night. But spiritually, a man who's alert for whom the things of eternity are real, he's not going to be caught unawares when Christ comes.

He's ready. And so he says, we look forward to that day and we wait for his coming. And people around us, verse three, will say peace and safety. That's what the world is. All the governments of the world are looking for peace and safety, but suddenly destruction will come.

And we are ready for that. We are ready for the tribulation. It says here like birth pangs upon a woman with child, verse three. Now every woman knows that before she gives birth to a child, there's a period of a number of hours of what they call labor of the preparation for the delivery of the child, which is a very painful process.

I've heard women say that sometimes they feel like dying. It's so painful. And then the child is born. And there the Holy Spirit is picturing the tribulation before the coming of Christ. There's going to be a painful time.

And then the birth child is born, the coming of Christ. Everything in scripture points to that. Even Jesus said it. These are the beginning of birth pangs. No child is born without those birth pangs. And the coming of the Lord is not going to be without this period of painful tribulation for God's people.

We're not afraid of that because I think it's a great honor if the Lord will allow us to be here, to be witnesses for him, and to lay down our lives for the sake of the gospel. In chapter five, he says in verse 12, you must appreciate those who diligently labor among you.

Practical Exhortations for Readiness

Here's a verse that tells us that we must highly appreciate those who are our elders and who preach and teach us God's word, especially those who give you instruction. Verse 13, esteem them very highly in love.

I'm sorry to say that many Christians, because they swing from to the other extreme of not worshiping messengers, they don't even esteem the Lord's messengers highly in love. That is their loss. It's not the Lord's messenger who's going to lose.

If you disobey a command, you're the loser. And then in verse 14 onwards, he gives a number of exhortations. Admonish those who are unruly, encourage those who are faint-hearted, help the weak, be patient with all men, don't repay anybody evil for evil, always seek what is good for others, rejoice always, pray always, that means have a spirit of prayer all the time, in everything give thanks, for all of this is God's will for you.

Here's some practical advice that you could spend a lot of time meditating on to be ready for the coming of the Lord. And don't, then he says something about spiritual gifts, don't quench the Holy Spirit.

If the Spirit of God is prompting you to serve him in some way, don't pour water on that fire, don't quench it, do something, respond to the Holy Spirit, don't despise prophetic utterances, don't make fun of prophecies, but at the same time don't believe the whole thing, examine everything carefully and see whether it is true and hold on to what is good, throw away the rest and abstain from every form of evil.

And if you do this, the God of Peace will sanctify you, make you perfectly holy in spirit, soul and body and preserve you for the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is the theme, being prepared and preserved for the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Spirit, Soul, and Body

And in verse 23, this is the one verse in the New Testament and perhaps in the whole Bible that teaches us that man is a trinity, just like God, spirit, soul and body. Because man is the tabernacle of God and the tabernacle as we saw had three parts, most holy place, holy place, outer court.

Man is spirit, soul and body. God dwelt in the most holy place, God dwells in the spirit. And that is the most important part of us. Our body, we can see our soul consists of our intelligence, that's our mind, our emotions and our will.

And the spirit consists of our conscience and the ability to receive God's life. So that's the first letter. We now move on to the second letter of Thessalonians, of Paul to the Thessalonians, which is also dealing again with the subject of the second coming of Christ, probably written about a year after the first letter.

Correcting Misunderstandings About Christ's Return

But here, the first letter was comforting them concerning the coming of the Lord. Here, the second letter is correcting them because they had some wrong ideas about the second coming of Christ. We need to be comforted with the thought of the second coming of Christ and we also need to be corrected when we have wrong ideas about the second coming of Christ.

You see, what happened was in the first letter, Paul said, well, the coming of the Lord is there, it's coming, so be prepared for it. And what some people did was, oh, the Lord is coming, why are we wasting our time working?

Let's resign our jobs and let's be ready for the coming of the Lord. And they were sitting around doing nothing. And Paul said, that's not what I meant, that you just sit around waiting for the coming of the Lord.

Even in the last few years, we're reading the paper sometimes of some crazy cult group somewhere, believes that the Lord is coming on such and such a date and they wait on top of some mountain, resign all their jobs.

And the leader of that group makes all that money from them, from these people who sell that property and give it to him. So he profits from the whole thing. And then they wait there and they find the Lord hasn't come.

We don't know the date or the hour of his coming. Jesus said that, no man knows of the day or the hour. We can know when it is near. We know that Israel has come back into the land, so we know the coming of the Lord is near.

We know there's a lot of strife around Jerusalem, so we know the coming of the Lord is near, but we don't know the day or the hour. It's not for us to know the times or seasons. So it's not for us to go and wait on some mountain or resign our jobs and say, we don't know when the Lord is coming.

Rather, we know the Lord is coming now, so we just wait for him. I don't know when he'll come. He said he's coming and 2 ,000 years have gone by. And all those people in Thessalonica, if they had been waiting without a job, they'd have been without a job forever.

So we must not be foolish like those people. In chapter one, he encourages them again to be faithful in tribulation. He says, we speak proudly of you, verse after 2nd Thessalonians 1 .4, for your perseverance in the midst of all your persecutions.

And your faithfulness and perseverance in the midst of your persecution, verse five, is a clear proof that you are worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are suffering. That it's a clear proof of God's righteous judgment on those other people.

And it's righteous for God one day to punish all those people who are persecuting you with affliction and judgment. And to you, when Jesus comes again, you'll get relief. Now that teaches us that persecution will continue until verse seven, the coming of Christ.