(1Th 4:1)  “Furthermore then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more.”  It always fills me with wonder when I see the word, “beseech”, written to you and me. And that is it in truth. The Bible is written to you and me. “Beseech” means “to beg”. The Lord Who suffered Calvary for our sins is begging us to live our lives to please Him in a greater and greater way! I don’t know about your heart, but mine says, “All right, Lord. Show me the way.”   

 “For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming?  Oh what a thought! Jesus could come today! Today! While I am getting dressed to go to gather with His Church; while I am on my way there; or when I am gathered with them; or….when I come home for the afternoon – He might very well call me and my brethren up into the clouds! Keep listening this day for the trumpet, for it might sound! Keep looking towards the heaven, for they might part! Today might be the day we see the face of Jesus our Lord!

(1Th 2:19)  “For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming? (20)  For ye are our glory and joy.”  I draw your attention to the fact of the focus of Paul – not self’s growth, self’s walk with God. When the Lord comes for us at the Rapture, Paul’s glory and joy will not be in himself, but in others he has brought to Christ. How different than how we think today! We speak of  how much we have grown in the Lord. Our focus is all wrong.

(1Th 2:16)  “Forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved, to fill up their sins alway: for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost.”  Israel is a great picture of the surety of our salvation. It is given us through the Lord Jesus as a covenant, thus the term “New Testament” – New Covenant. God made a covenant with Abraham, with Israel, and with David, all concerning Israel. Although they cause Him to judge their sin and were placed as it were “on the back burner” – that covenant still stands and will be fulfilled. So it is with our salvation. God always keeps His Word. He promised to save my soul and did. He even sent a guarantee – His Holy Spirit placed within me. I am already there in the mind of God.  

(1Th 2:15)  “Who both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they please not God, and are contrary to all men:”  There have been vile men over these many years since the crucifixion of Christ, who took this verse as justification to persecute the Jews. They were lost men. I say this because the heart of the repentant saved man says, “I am the reason Christ died! I crucified Christ!” 

(1Th 2:14) “For ye, brethren, became followers of the churches of God which in Judaea are in Christ Jesus: for ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews:”  Those that are persecuted for embracing the Lord as Savior and then seeking to walk as He walked, join others before them that have suffered for the same thing. That persecution can come from family, on the job, and even for one’s political position “if” the reason for that position comes from a conviction towards God’s Word. Our love for our God and Savior is to exceed all others and guide our conduct upon this world.

(1Th 2:13) “For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.”   Since our King James Bible is the Word of God, you can embrace and act upon everything it says. Every saved child of God is living evidence of this. The Word of God continues to speak to the saved soul and the Spirit of God empowers that soul to greater and greater heights of understanding and holiness of living.

 (1Th 2:13) “For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.”  Because man has the tendency to look at individual passages rather than the Bible was a whole book; because man has a tendency to take away “the sting” of confronting people with their sin and thus speaking of the need to repent and ask forgiveness; man speaks of “believing” only, to the saved. “If  you believe God will save you.” Belief in Scripture is the embracing of and acting up the message of the gospel, “Turn fully in your heart from the sin that caused the death of Jesus and the Lord will save you through His blood and His resurrection life from a sentence of hell.”