(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.”  

(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.”  Here we have the correct outlook towards the Bible. It is God’s Word. It bothers me when I hear men say, “Well, Paul was saying this because….” as if it was his motivation instead of writing what the Holy Spirit said. Men spoke as they “moved”, carried along, by the Spirit of God to pen His Words. The only words in the Bible that are the words of men are found in the historical books that recorded what took place accurately in every way! You can trust your King James Bible

(1Th 2:12) “That ye would walk worthy of God, who hath called you unto his kingdom and glory.”   Yesterday I wrote of walking worthy of the Lord in a literal sense of where we take Him. The true sense of the Word is “in all our attitudes of heart and thoughts of the mind” – both things that precede and cause our actions. We need to walk worthy of the Lord. In other words, in the same way our Lord would. We are to seek to reprogram our minds (Rom 12:1-2) as to walk worthy of the Lord. Do you desire this? Are you seeking daily to so this? To truly walk worthy, we are going to have to put action (the seeking of changing the way we think to conform to God’s Word) to a desire to please Him.  

(1Th 2:12) “That ye would walk worthy of God, who hath called you unto his kingdom and glory.”  I wish to first look at this verse from that the literal standpoint of “walking”, taking the Lord along inside us. Are the places we take Him worthy? Do we expose the Holy Spirit to uncleanness? Do we expose Him to blaspheme against Himself!? When I worked among the unsaved and heard the damning of my God, I would say, “It’s not His fault! Your Words have meaning and in your frustration you are damning the God I love.” You have to work, but do you take Him and subject Him to that which you do not have to?  

 (1Th 2:11)  “As ye know how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you, as a father doth his children,”  Paul did not look upon those of the church as pawns to be moved, or people that worked for him. He looked upon them as members of his family – his children. He encouraged them in the things of God. He was there to comfort them in times of distress or failure. And he instructed them in the hard things (charged) as well as the things that are easier to receive. May the Lord take each of us to such as pastor.  Let these words enlighten our ministry towards brothers and sisters in the Lord.

 (1Th 2:10)  “Ye are witnesses, and God also, how holily and justly and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that believe:”   “Ye are witnesses,….we behaved…”  God’s people are watching you and me. That is a fact. They compare our life to what they know of God’s Word. What do they see in your life? It is one of faithfulness to the teaching there, or is it hit and miss? Hit and miss says my love for Him is so-so; I and me-and-mine come first. It is the Lord who should come first and not anyone or anything should come before Him.   

(1Th 2:8)  “So being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because ye were dear unto us.”  Oh, to have such a heart for the souls of others! Honestly, I have never come close to such a heart as this for souls. I will not seek excuses for such a selfish heart as mine. I will only say, “Lord, help me to care enough about souls to be willing to do what I can to reach them!”