Spiritual Afflictions, II Thessalonians 1, NT S1:E240

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This is episode 240 season one of the Family Bible Journey New Testament podcast.

Today we're looking at 2nd Thessalonians chapter 1.

The title of today's podcast is Spiritual Affliction.

In our key verses for today, the entirety of 2nd Thessalonians chapter 1, where we read,

Paul, Sylvanas, and Timothy.

To the Church of the Thessalonians, in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, grace

to you in peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

We are always to give thanks to God for you brothers as is right, because your faith

is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you is for another is increasing.

Therefore we ourselves boast about you and the churches of God for your steadfastness

and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions that you are enduring.

This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God that you may be considered worthy of

the kingdom of God for which you also are suffering.

God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you and to grant relief

to you who are afflicted as well as to us.

When the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels and flaming fire,

inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel

of our Lord Jesus.

They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord

and from the glory of his might.

When he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints and to be marveled at among

all who have believed because our testimony to you was believed.

To this end we always pray for you that our God may make you worthy of his calling and

may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power so that the name

of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you and you in him.

into the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

This is the word of the Lord.

So second Thessalonians it is Paul's second letter that we have to the Thessalonians.

It's possible that he may have written them other letters but these two have been preserved

for us as holy scripture and we receive these letters as a gift especially as we live

in troublesome and difficult times.

The Thessalonians Christians for a variety of reasons they were persecuted.

They seemed to suffer more for the gospel than many of the other churches that Paul had

planted and yet they persevered.

They endured.

They knew the exceeding glory and riches and hope that were there in Christ Jesus and

so they bore those afflictions with great grace.

And so we have a wonderful example in the Christians there around Thessaloniki as

to how it is that we as God's people are to bear with afflictions and all afflictions

from the perspective of faith.

They have a spiritual root.

God made everything in the beginning.

He made it good.

Part of the goodness of his creation was that he gave certain creatures, many of the angels

and also human beings a free will, a will that allowed them to choose for themselves

whether they would walk in the Lord's way and be a tremendous blessing forever on planet

earth or go their own way and by so doing become a curse.

And because God gave Adam, dominion and authority over everything that he had created here

on earth, when Adam sent, he led the rest of creation into sin.

This is why anything bad happens in the world.

It is a spiritual problem, even our physical suffering, even things like cancer and broken

bones and broken relationships.

These are all symptoms of a systemic problem that we in the church call sin.

And so for us as Christians, as we are processing the realities of living in a difficult and

a broken and a world that is afflicted, in many ways suffering the pain of death because

mankind has let it into sin.

Sometimes we can make a very clear correlation, you know, if somebody grabs a gun and anger

and shoots another person and that person dies, well done, that clearly is murder and

the death of that person, especially if it is an innocent death, well that is clearly

a direct byproduct of sin in the heart of the other person.

But as we said earlier, even things like cancer, broken bones, the common cold, the degradation

of so many environments and beautiful places in the world whose climates are changing

and whose creatures are having a difficult time adapting, all of this is the result of

human sin.

And Paul blesses these Christians by encouraging them in their affliction, even saying that

the afflictions and the persecutions that they were experienced were evidence of a genuine

faith that God had given to them.

So I have a few notes that I want to share with those who are journaling with us through

the Bible on this chapter.

I have a note on verse three where it says, Paul builds them up before addressing difficult

subjects that were unsettling.

This is a good pattern to follow when discussing hard topics with others you need to work with.

The Bible is not just a spiritual manual, there is a lot of practical wisdom at work in

it.

And the fact that Paul begins his letter with an encouragement and a blessing before tackling

difficult subjects.

This is a good pattern for those who work with other people, especially those who may

be employers or bosses or leaders or teachers or coaches.

If all we do is go right to the bad stuff and right to the hard stuff, this can be very

disheartening for the people that were trying to build up.

And so it is good for us to begin with a word of encouragement even.

And I would dare say, especially when we have to talk about difficult subjects.

I have a note on verses four and five, it says, persecution and affliction are evidence

of a real faith.

And this is another place that we would point to that theology of the cross that when

we follow Christ, we like Christ oftentimes are going to suffer for it.

And then I know also on verse six, it's one of those words of wisdom sections, that's

in all caps and black ink, it says, don't take matters into your own hands, exclamation

point.

And then my further explanation there, it says, we have no need to afflict others, inventions.

God will avenge all wrongs.

This is why we as the people of God can be people of peace, even in the midst of difficult

and troublesome times, even when people are hurting us, even when they are depriving

us of our jobs or harming our reputations, if we feel like we have to set the record

straight all of the time, even if we are right, we can often appear as insecure and out

of control as the people that we are trying to correct.

And so we as Christians, when we are tempted to lash out, when we are tempted to retaliate,

it is important for us to resist this temptation.

And instead to trust the Lord with these things, speak truth, absolutely, be loving, kind,

be respectful, but in all things, resist that temptation to take matters into your own

hands.

Because if you do, scripture even goes so far as to say that if we take matters into our

own hands, that sometimes God Himself might end up taking the place of the person in the

wrong, because we as human beings, we don't ever want to just get even, we always want

to get a little better than even.

And so the best thing for us to do as people of faith, who trust in the Lord and His work

in our lives, is to relax, to let Him work it out, and to see how it is that He will

bless us in our afflictions and persecutions, and how it is that He is going to make things

right, and rectify the record for us so that we need not worry about these things, but

rather trusting Him with our future, stay the course in faith, and follow where He leads,

knowing that because He is the God of justice and righteousness, that He is going to make

all things right in the end.

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Our blessing for today.

May God make you worthy of His calling by washing away your sin, placing your heart of stone

with a heart of faith that is both tender to His call and tender to the needs of others.

Amen.