by Hugh DeLong<\/p>\n
Text: II Thessalonians 1<\/p>\n
It’s not fair!<\/strong>\u00a0I thought God loved us! We are striving to follow His instructions! Yet, what we live with is persecution, trouble, and being ostracized by the people!<\/p>\n I don’t know if that is how I would react if I were one of these disciples in Thessalonica during the church’s early years. How do you wrap your head around this? I would suggest three basic concepts.<\/p>\n First, you (if you were one of these disciples) were warned that this was part of what you were signing up for! Not <\/b>an easy, comfortable life here <\/b>and now<\/strong>. This is the part of discipleship that is often ‘hidden’ from people we study with and new converts. That wasn’t Paul’s approach to generating faithfulness. Read II Thessalonians 1 again.<\/p>\n Second, this <\/strong>is the very example <\/b>that Jesus lived out for us! This is at the heart of the story we tell each Sunday in the fellowship of the Lord’s Supper. But<\/strong>\u00a0in that there is always the ‘rest of the story’ (as Paul Harvey used to say!). Yes, he was rejected, he suffered, he died on the cross, but <\/b>he was raised and glorified as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Thus, we declare his death until he comes<\/strong>. Paul wrote about this coming and tells us he talked about it while among them at Thessalonica. We must not let the troubles and discouragements of life now <\/b>override our hope <\/b>and expectations<\/b> for the future.<\/p>\n Third, while it isn’t, in our estimation, fair, Paul assures us that God is just<\/strong>. There will come a time of recompense! For us – relief from such persecution (II Thessalonians 1:6). But <\/b>also for affliction, retribution, and eternal destruction (II Thessalonians 1:6, 8, 9) to those who ‘know not God and obey not the Gospel.<\/p>\n Many in the church at Thessalonica were <\/b>living through this and living with hope, faith, and love.\u00a0They lived with the expectation of\u00a0Jesus’ return and of\u00a0our\u00a0<\/strong>life in the new heaven and earth, where there is peace and the experience of God’s very presence.\u00a0These three basic concepts should be at the heart of our thinking as we struggle through this life.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Hugh DeLong Text: II Thessalonians 1 It’s not fair!\u00a0I thought God loved us! We are striving to follow His instructions! Yet, what we live with is persecution, trouble, and being ostracized by the people! I don’t know if that is how I would react if I were one of these disciples in Thessalonica during…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[523,572],"class_list":["post-96270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-justice","tag-persecution"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":50421,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/reaction-to-heresy\/","url_meta":{"origin":96270,"position":0},"title":"Reaction to Heresy","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 30, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"by Irven Lee via Truth Magazine, December 3, 1970 \"Heresy must needs come\" (I Corinthians 11: 19). Paul said, \"I know this,\" when he warned the elders that wolves would enter the flock (Acts 20:29-32). Peter said, \"There shall be false teachers among you\" (II Peter 2:1-3). John said, \"Many\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":58162,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/more-fair-minded\/","url_meta":{"origin":96270,"position":1},"title":"More Fair-Minded","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 20, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bryan Matthew Dockens \"Then the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. When they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":56979,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-effective-is-your-congregation\/","url_meta":{"origin":96270,"position":2},"title":"How Effective Is Your Congregation?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 16, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"by Gilbert Alexander Evaluating a local congregation and its effectiveness in a community is not a simple task. Population shifts affect the number of members in a local church. Such shifts may be caused by economic changes, persecution, or the relocation of people who have an interest in spiritual things.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":96157,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/afflicted-for-jesus\/","url_meta":{"origin":96270,"position":3},"title":"Afflicted for Jesus","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 17, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"by Hugh DeLong Text: I Thessalonians 3 Here in Thessalonians, Paul writes because these new disciples were facing difficult times. Everywhere Paul established disciples, there was pushback from the community! Remember the story in Acts 17, \"But the Jews, becoming jealous and taking along some wicked men from the marketplace,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":57417,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/early-persecution\/","url_meta":{"origin":96270,"position":4},"title":"Early Persecution","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 29, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"by Andy Sochor via\u00a0Unmasking Sophistry, October-December 2022 As the apostles were commissioned to \"make disciples of all the nations\" (Matthew 28:19), this would include preparing these disciples to face persecution for the cause of Christ. Jesus warned about this in His Sermon on the Mount: \"Blessed are you when people\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":55656,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-gospel-of-the-kingdom\/","url_meta":{"origin":96270,"position":5},"title":"The Gospel of the Kingdom","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 13, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton \u00a0 Text: Psalms 2 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0An important event happened during the first century that many today have ignored or have declared did not happen \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Jesus spent time teaching that the kingdom of God was at hand - Mark 1:14-15 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a01.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0It was the good news about the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96270\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}