New Testament
1 Thessalonians
Encouragement for a young church on holy living and the Lord's coming.
Overview
- Who
Written by "Paul, and Silvanus, and Timotheus" (1:1). Paul also speaks in his own name (2:18, 3:5).
Written to "The church of the Thessalonians" (1:1), believers who "turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God" (1:9).
- When
Traditional view: About AD 50-51, during Paul's second missionary journey, soon after the church was founded (Acts 17:1-10).
Scholarly view: Nearly all scholars accept that Paul wrote it, and many count it his earliest surviving letter, about AD 50.
- Where
Written to Thessalonica, a city of Macedonia with a synagogue of the Jews (Acts 17:1).
Written from The letter does not say. It is usually placed at Corinth: Timothy had just come back from Thessalonica (3:6), and Acts 18:5 has Silas and Timothy rejoining Paul at Corinth.
- Why
To give thanks for their "work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope" (1:3); to remind them how Paul lived among them (2:1-12); to encourage them in affliction (3:3-4); to urge holiness and brotherly love (4:1-12); and to comfort them about believers who had died, for "the dead in Christ shall rise first" (4:13-18).
Paul preached in Thessalonica, but the Jews who believed not set the city in an uproar, and the brethren sent him away by night (Acts 17:1-10). Unable to come back (2:18), he sent Timothy to establish them (3:1-2), and Timothy brought good news of their faith and love (3:6). They suffered from their own countrymen (2:14).
Outline
- 1:1-10 Greeting and thanksgiving for their faith
- 2:1-12 How Paul lived among them
- 2:13-20 Receiving the word; Paul's longing to see them
- 3:1-13 Timothy's good report and Paul's prayer
- 4:1-12 Holiness and brotherly love
- 4:13-18 The dead in Christ shall rise first
- 5:1-11 The day of the Lord
- 5:12-28 Closing instructions
Key themes
- Faith, love and hope (1:3, 5:8).
- Waiting for God's Son from heaven (1:10, 4:16-17).
- "This is the will of God, even your sanctification" (4:3).
- The day of the Lord comes "as a thief in the night" (5:2), so watch and be sober (5:6).
From the letter's own text, compared with Acts 17-18; dating views summarized from standard introductions.