A Commentary in Simple English on 1 Thessalonians

Chapter 5

Verses 1-11 Dangers and what we must do about them

In these verses Paul still speaks about the second coming of Jesus. Now, however, he does not speak about the comfort which thinking about it brings to Christians. He says first that the coming of Jesus will be sudden Jesus will come at a time when people do not expect Him. Then he says that we must be ready.

He begins by saying that he will not write about the time of the second coming (verse.1). He had given them teaching about this. When we look at 2 Thessalonians 2 we find that Paul does have to write to them about this after all. In this first letter, he says that the coming of Jesus will be sudden. The thief (verse 2) does not tell the man whose house he is going to rob that he will come along on a certain night. If he did, the man of the house could sleep every other night and stay awake to deal with the thief on the night he had chosen. A woman knows that she is going to have a baby, and she gets ready all the things she will need when it is born. She does not know quite when the pains of birth will begin, and when they do begin, she cannot stop them (verse 3).

‘Peace and safety’ is something which we often hear the leaders of nations saying. They know that ordinary men and women long for peace and safety. Yet we know that Paul is right. So often when men who have power over nations talk like this, the peace for which we long does not come. Jesus only is the Prince of Peace! Only when He comes will there be real peace in the world.

The picture of the thief in verse 4 may be a little different. Here the thief feels his way about in the darkness doing his bad work. He is so busy that he is caught when day breaks. Christians are not ‘in darkness‘; Jesus is ‘the Light of the World’ (verse 5). We have light in our minds because God has given us His Holy Spirit when we put our trust in Jesus to save us. Paul now begins to give us another picture of the Christian. He is a soldier of Christ. (See Ephesians 6: 10-17. There are similar ideas in the Old Testament: see, for example, Psalm 91 : 4; 5 : 12; 18 : 2; Isaiah 59 : 17.)

Soldiers in our time do not carry shields although they may wear something to stop themselves from being wounded. We cannot stop gunfire from killing and wounding soldiers in battle. Paul knew about Roman soldiers. The Roman soldier, however, fought enemies who used spears and swords, so he wore metal clothing (‘armour‘) to make it harder for the enemy to kill or injure him. [5.1] In time of peace, when there was no enemy anywhere near, it was easy enough to fit ‘armour’ on. In time of war, far from home, the soldier would sleep in a tiny tent in a camp he had helped to build the evening before. He had marched all day, cut down trees, carried heavy loads. If there was an attack by the enemy in the darkest part of the night, he had to get into his armour and rush to his place to join in the fight. When the enemy is close, the soldier who is drunk is no use at all. Paul says here that faith and love are like armour for the chest, where so many important parts of our body are, such as the heart and lungs. Hope is like a helmet, armour for the head, the single most important part of the body. (For faith, love and hope, see 1 :.3.).

There are two ways we can take in life (verse 9). One way is to face the anger of God against sin. The other way is the way Christians go, thanks to God's grace to them. It is to enjoy being rescued through what Jesus has done for us. He gave up His life on the cross so that whether or not we ‘fall asleep’ we shall live with Him in glory (verse 10). The Christians are to talk to each other about these things. This will help them in the Christian life and make them stronger.

Verses 12-24 - Christian Living

Paul says a great deal in a very few words in these verses. It is all to do with the way Christians should live.

From verses 12 and 13 it is clear that there was a group of men who were leaders or ‘Elders’ in the church. God must have given them special gifts from His Holy Spirit so that they could do this work when they were still young Christians. (See 1 Timothy 3: 6.) Usually, men who have been Christians for some years will be made leaders. The leaders are to be honoured because of the work that they do, not just because of the office they hold in the church. They must speak honest and plain things to other members of the church; if they think they are doing something wrong, they must tell them about it. The purpose of this is that there may be peace in the church. They had enough enemies outside the church at Salonika!

It is not just to these leaders (‘brethren‘, verse 14) that Paul now speaks. It is to all the church. We know that there were people in the church who did not want to work. Perhaps they said: ‘God is our Father: He will give us what we want‘. They did not understand the teaching of Jesus (Matt 6 : 25-34) when He taught us not to worry. Paul says more about this in 2 Thessalonians 3 :10-12. We can quite rightly pray for work so that we can earn money to support ourselves and our family. That is our duty, if we can. More, we can pray for God's help to earn more so that we can give more for His service (Eph 4 : 28). A lazy Christian is not a good Christian.

Some people seem to make a weak beginning in the Christian life but they grow strong as months and years go by. They may seem frightened to go on with Jesus. Christian leaders must help such people and speak kindly to them. They must not give all their time and attention to the strong Christians. Jesus is our Great Shepherd. We are called to be shepherds who help Him. He loves the most frightened and weak of His sheep just as much as He loves the strongest.

It is only natural when someone does a bad action to us, to want to do something bad to him in return. But (verse 15) the Christian is not ‘only natural‘. He has the Spirit of God. When someone wrongs him, he should love him and he should do him good in return. This is true whether it is another Christian or someone who does not belong to the church. There are several places in the New Testament where joy (verse.16) and prayer (verse 17.) are put together like this: joy comes first. When we praise God with joy for what He has done for us, our hearts are warmed. We pray that God will do us still more good, and we pray that He will do good to others too. The Salonikans had plenty to be sorry about. They had enemies who caused them trouble; they were very poor. (See 2 Corinthians 8: 2: this also includes Philippi and Beroea.) They had to work hard. Still, they were to feel joy and pray.

In verse 19, Paul says that the Holy Spirit is like a fire. We want that fire to burn more and more! We do not want to put the fire out. The ‘fire of the Spirit’ was the great work which God had done among them and in their hearts. There are times of ‘revival’ when God pours out His Holy Spirit on His people. Why is it that such times fade away and come to an end all too soon? It is because we ‘put out the Spirit's fire‘. Some of you may know this power of the Holy Spirit among you. You do not want to lose it! So look at Ephesians 4: 30. ‘Do not grieve the Holy Spirit‘. We shall grieve Him when we do anything wrong, but notice that both verse 29 and verse 31 in Ephesians 4 are mostly to do with what we say. Bad, silly talk, shouting in a temper, these things are enough to put out the Spirit's fire.

In verses 20 and 21, Paul looks at the Holy Spirit's work in the church in a different way. When the church met for worship, (and perhaps at other times too), people were moved by the Holy Spirit to speak. This was ‘prophesying‘. Paul says that the church must listen carefully when anyone speaks like that and be thankful to God. Yet they were to test it. They hope they can say ‘Yes! we think that message really was from God!’ Sometimes, however, the leaders of the church would feel that the message was not right (See 1 Corinthians 14: 29: 1 John 4: 1-3.) It would be very difficult to tell someone that the message they had been moved to bring did not come from God, but it must be done. What was good in such messages must be thought about with care. Those of us who preach or speak in the name of God must be ready to listen to what people say to us.

There are so many different sins in the world today (verse 22) that it is not easy to keep away from all of them; but we have to keep away from anything which even seems to be wrong. Now (verses 23,24) Paul bursts out in praise to God. He is the God Who is at peace with us because Jesus has saved us; and also because He gives us peace within ourselves. He is the God Who makes us holy - every part of us, our body, our mind and our heart. We are not yet free from sin, but we shall be when Jesus comes again. God Who had called them to be followers of Jesus will not let them down: ‘He is faithfull‘.

Verses 25-28 Final Words

Paul was a great man of God, yet he felt that he needed the prayers of other ordinary Christians. We too must pray for one another.

In many parts of the world it is not usual for men to kiss one another. In many places it is not the custom for men to kiss women, certainly not in public. So we should remember that Paul wants the Christians to welcome each other warmly, whether or not our custom is to kiss one another. (verse 26).

In verse 27, Paul asks for the letter which he has written to be read out to the whole church. Of course, some of the people in the church might not be able to read. One of the good things about the Good News is that it is open to everyone. There are no secret truths which are kept back and only known by a few people. We have nothing to hide.

So (verse 28) Paul closes this letter with a short prayer. Not long after, he would have to write a second letter to this church. This is what we know as ‘The Second Epistle to the Thessalonians‘.