We left off yesterday, with the proverbial “baited breath,” asking to whose conviction Paul was referring in 1 Thessalonians 1:5: “our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction…” We are studying how to study the Bible by analyzing sentence structure and the flow of Paul’s thought. Whose “conviction” is Paul referring? His? The Holy Spirit’s? The Thessalonians’?
This is a question you will have to answer as a Bible student. It seems to me that because Paul is saying that he knows the Thessalonians were chosen by God (verse 4) because the Gospel came to them “with full conviction,” that he is talking about the Thessalonians’ conviction, their response to the Gospel.
So, theologically, what Paul is saying is that the Holy Spirit worked through Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy through their miraculous powers, preaching the Gospel and establishing the Gospel as truth through those miraculous powers and the Thessalonians’ conviction led them to obey that Gospel. That’s how Paul knows that they were chosen by God.
Knowing that the church of Christ in Thessalonica (according to Acts 17) was established in the midst of persecution and Paul is going to refer to that persecution a few times in chapter 2: how is this statement going to impact the Thessalonians and how is it going to impact you in your personal life of faith?
Regardless of what we go through in life; regardless of the crises we experience in our faith, just like the Thessalonians, if we have responded to the Gospel with full conviction then we can know that we have been chosen by God. We might be rejected by the world but we have been chosen by God. Isn’t that worth praying about and thanking God for? Aren’t we studying so that we can have our own faith? You, just like the Thessalonians, are beloved by God, chosen by God, based on your obedient conviction to the Gospel sent by the Holy Spirit.
The next, last, phrase in this paragraph, is an adverbial phrase: “just as…” Because it is an adverb, we know that it must modify a verb. What verb does it modify? Look back up at our list and see what verb this adverbial phrase modifies…
“We give thanks to God… just as you know what kind of men we proved to be…”? Or the closest verb/participle, which happens to be the same verb (both in English and in Greek): “knowing…” (vs 4). It seems to me, that this latter is the correct option, so we indent this phrase underneath that phrase:
just as you know what kind of men we proved to be
among you
for your sake.
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The Holy Spirit is not going to work through an ungodly life to teach and influence others to live godly lives. So, as the Thessalonians responded to the Gospel message, they could see the Holy Spirit’s message working through and in the lives of Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, which helped them respond to that message with full conviction.
Take a step back and look at what Paul has said now in this paragraph, even removing some of the excess (although not unnecessary) verbiage. This summarizes my thoughts going back to last Friday:
We give thanks to God
making mention of you
bearing in mind
knowing God’s choice of you.
That is Paul’s basic sentence. What does that show you about Paul’s feelings for the Thessalonians? Remember, they are being persecuted, even as young Christians. How would that make them feel, knowing they were objects of Paul’s prayer to God, a prayer of thanksgiving?
Finally, how does this affect your prayer life? Does it give you anything to pray for? Does it inspire you in any way in your Christian life
–Paul Holland
