Thessalonians Audio Teaching Series
Part 2
Estimated reading time: 23 minutes
Thessalonians: Session 2
Faith, Love, and Hope Intertwined
Dr. E.W. Bullinger produced a monthly newsletter called Things to Come.
You get a 19th-century flavor as you read his quote from Volume 2:
“If any brother wishes to speak effectively on the Lord’s coming so as to reach the hearts of believers, it is above all things necessary that he should know what it is that the Apostle Paul sets forth in the First Epistle to the Thessalonians.
From the questions put by enquirers and the answers given by teachers, as well as from the selections of passages of Scripture for addresses on the Lord’s coming, we make the sad reflection that the argument of the Epistle has not always been understood, and in extreme cases the Epistle itself not even valued as it should be.
The First Epistle to the Thessalonians is inexpressibly precious. It is a very wonderful piece of writing. The comfort in it is immense. It tells the Christian that an end is coming to all the groaning of his spirit, to all that sorrow which he must endure from the time that he first cries out, “Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” That an end is coming to the hatred of the world and the unkindness, it may be, of some of his brethren; that an end is coming to the warfare with wicket spirits in the heavenlies; that and end is coming to the ever-increasing disorder all around and to those hard saying against our God and His Christ that lacerate the heart in proportion as there has been growth in grace. It tells him that whatever causes may separate us now a time is coming when we shall all be one in heart and mind, when the Lord Jesus Christ shall have presented us holy and unblameable to our God and Father, gathered together in unalloyed happiness and perfect joy which shall be ours to all eternity.”
There are three doctrinal epistles: Romans, Ephesians, and Thessalonians.
Romans (doctrine)
Corinthians (reproof)
Galatians (correction)
Ephesians (doctrine)
Philippians (reproof)
Colossians (correction)
Thessalonians (doctrine)
Thessalonians does not have corresponding reproof and correction epistles
| Doctrine | Reproof | Correction |
|---|---|---|
| Romans | Corinthians | Galatians |
| Ephesians | Philippians | Colossians |
| Thessalonians | Thessalonians has no corresponding reproof and correction | |
The doctrinal epistles have a primary topic.
Romans: Faith (believing)
Ephesians: Love
Thessalonians: Hope
You can see examples of this in the opening prayers of each of the doctrinal epistles.
Romans 1:8–12 APNT:
8 First, I thank my God in Jesus Christ for all of you that your faith is heard in all the world.
9 For God is a witness to me, whom I am spiritually serving in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing at all times, I remember you in my prayers.
10 And I am imploring that perhaps even now a way would be opened to me by the will of God to come to you,
11 because I greatly long to see you and to give you a spiritual gift by which you may be strengthened
12 and together we will be comforted by your and my own faith.
Ephesians shows how faith (believing) and love work together.
Ephesians 1:15 APNT:
Because of this, behold, I also, since I heard of your faith that is in our Lord Jesus Christ and your love that is toward the holy [ones],
Thessalonians shows how faith, love, and hope work together.
1 Thessalonians 1:2–3 APNT:
2 We give thanks to God at all times for all of you and we remember you in our prayers continually.
3 And we recall before God the Father the works of your faith and the labor of your love and the endurance of your hope that is in our Lord Jesus Christ.
What’s the difference between faith and believing?
“Belief” in English does not communicate as it would in other languages.
When I was in Germany, people would look at me funny when I tried to explain that there is a difference between faith and believing. In German, glaube is the word for faith or belief, and glauben is the verb “to believe.” To them, it was just the noun or the verb, but in English, there’s a distinction between faith and believing.
The only reason there is a distinction for us is because of our English vocabulary. To believe means to rely on, to trust. Look at how the Amplified Bible1 inserts trust and confidence in brackets in its translation:
Romans 1:8 AMP:
First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith [your trust and confidence in His power, wisdom, and goodness] is being proclaimed in all the world.
Believing is trust and confidence. If you believe it, you will say it; I believe therefore I speak (2 Corinthians 4:15; Psalm 116:10).
A Semitic Idiom:
Romans 1:17 APNT:
For the uprightness of God is revealed in it from faith to faith, as it is written: The upright [one] will live by faith.
The phrase “from faith to faith” is actually an Eastern or Semitic way of talking, and it means from the beginning of faith to the end of faith.
For instance, you have the first faith when you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead (Romans 10:9). You keep on believing throughout your entire life. When you get to the end of your life, that’s the end of believing because you’re dead. Our lives are lives of faith, and we have to trust in and rely on God every day of our lives.
Ephesians 1:15 APNT:
Because of this, behold, I also, since I heard of your faith [believing and believing and believing] that is in our Lord Jesus Christ and your love that is toward the holy [ones],
In English, love is both a noun and a verb, but the word doesn’t tell us what love is. In Aramaic, the root picture gives you a clue. The root picture is “to kindle as a fire.”
Ephesians 5:1–2 APNT
1 Therefore, imitate God as beloved sons.
2 And walk in love, as Christ also loved us and delivered himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smell.
That kind of love is gentle and encouraging, it gives something to someone. We love because God first loved. Love always has an idea of giving and a communication of heat.
1 Thessalonians 1:1 APNT:
Paul and Silvanus and Timothy to the church of the Thessalonians, which is in God the Father and in our Lord Jesus Christ: Grace [be] with you and peace.
We looked at that in the first session.
1 Thessalonians 1:2–3 APNT:
2 We give thanks to God at all times for all of you and we remember you in our prayers continually.
3 And we recall before God the Father the works of your faith and the labor of your love and the endurance of your hope that is in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul, Sylvanus, and Timothy recall before God the Father:
- The works of your faith.
- The labor of your love.
- The endurance of your hope.
In the hardbound edition of the Aramaic Peshitta New Testament, one of the markings you see is for figures of speech (in this case “an”). In the back of the book, you see that “an” is antimereia (exchanging one part of speech for another). If you translated this verse according to the figure of speech (putting the second noun in front of the first), you would get something like this:
- Faith-filled works, or faithful works.
- Love-filled labor.
- Hopeful endurance.
I like the concept of being “filled.” Not just works; works by themselves are dead. But faith or believing-filled works is something greater. Labor by itself doesn’t do much. You can sweat and toil, but love filled labor accomplishes a lot more.
The root picture for the word “hope,” the simple word for “hope,” means to think or consider or to suppose. You must know that hope is a process of thinking. Hope is a very conscious, thought-through process where, time after time, you put in your mind: “This is what’s going to happen.”
The Aramaic word for “patience” is built from that same word to think, consider, or suppose. It means that you have thought it so often, so many times, that it is endurance. It becomes a habit that we do over and over and over, and therefore, we call it “patience.”
We need patient, enduring hope.
No reproof and correction corresponding to Thessalonians
This (1 Thessalonians 1:3ff) was the highest praise you could give the Thessalonians and is the major reason there is no reproof and correction. They “got it!” They understood the principle of how to live by faith, serve one another in love, and hold onto the hope.
Paul was not in Thessalonica very long, but there was a huge outreach among the Jews, Jewish proselytes (devout Greeks), Gentiles (Greeks), and not a few of the chief or notable women (those who had money, power, and authority) [discussed in Part 1].
The Gentiles didn’t start with a lot of knowledge about the true God, but they embraced the message. They got it.
Let’s look at some other passages showing how faith, love, and hope intertwine. You can also refer to the teaching entitled Sit, Walk, Stand. In that teaching, we see how sometimes you sit, sometimes you walk, and sometimes you stand. Faith, hope, and love are like that, too. Sometimes, you concentrate on believing, other times on loving, and other times on the hope. It goes back and forth.
It starts with, or the foundational understanding is, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16 KJV). God loved so man could believe.
Hebrews 10:22 APNT:
Therefore, we should come near with a steadfast heart and with the confidence of faith, our hearts being sprinkled and pure from an evil conscience and our body washed with pure water.
“The confidence of faith,” remember, that’s what believing or faith is; it’s trust!
All our sins from our entire lives can be sprinkled and washed, which refers back to the holy of holies, when once a year on the Day of Atonement the high priest would enter the holy of holies with the blood of the sacrifice and sprinkle it on the mercy seat. That would cover their sins for that year.
What happens when you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ is that our sins are sprinkled and washed once and for all. No other sacrifice is ever needed (or possible). We can remember this every day when we have sin in our life. That is our confidence.
Hebrews 10:23 APNT:
And we should persist in the confession of our hope and we should not waver, for he is faithful who promised us.
When we have believing, and we believe and believe and believe, we know that God is faithful, so we can be faithful. We can rely on God, daily.
Hebrews 10:24 APNT:
And we should gaze [King James says “consider”] on one another with an encouragement [King James says “provoke”] to love and good works.
We encourage one another to love and to good works. Love has the idea of encouraging, motivating.
Hebrews 10:25 APNT:
And we should not forsake our assembly, as is the custom for some, but we should desire [to be with] one another, especially the more you see that day approach.
“That day” is the gathering together. Our hope. We should love and fellowship with one another because of the hope!
Hope becomes a catalyst underneath both faith and love.
We really can’t continue to love people throughout our lives without the hope. Hope gives us the stamina to keep on loving and to keep on believing.
Galatians 5:5– APNT:
5 For we, by the Spirit that is from faith, wait for the hope of justification.
6 For in Christ Jesus neither is circumcision anything nor uncircumcision, but faith that is matured by love
King James says, “faith which worketh [is energized] by love.”
“Justification” means that you are completely free from blame. Your sins are washed. You can stand before God without any sense of shame, guilt, or condemnation because your sins are washed.
Every day, we are confronted with the situation that we still sin. But we can look forward to the hope, when we will have a new body, a completely renewed mind, and we will be with God for all eternity. Knowing that that is coming helps our belief to mature through love.
Loving people will energize more faith and more believing. Love motivates you to do things where your believing will be energized.
Hope, faith, and love work together. More hope = more love. More love = more faith. And so on.
1 Corinthians 13:13 APNT:
For there are these three that remain, faith and hope and love, but the greatest of these is love.
How could love be the greatest of them?
1 Corinthians 13:7 APNT:
[Love] endures everything, believes everything, hopes all, bears all.
Love:
- Endures everything
- Believes everything
- Hopes all
- Bears all
- Love never fails.
1 Corinthians 13:8-12 APNT:
8 Love never fails. For prophecies will be made void and tongues will be silent and knowledge will be made void.
9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part.
10 Now when what is completed comes, then what is partial will be made void.
11 When I was a child, I spoke as a child and I thought as a child and I reasoned as a child. But when I became a man, I stopped these [things] of youth.
12 Now as in a mirror, we see in an illustration, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know as I am known.
The love of God will remain after all these other things cease.
Without love, you will stop believing and you will stop hoping.
Without the hope, believing and love will cease to have meaning.
1 Peter 1:3-10 also discusses all three (faith, love, hope) together.
E. W. Bullinger’s Companion Bible offers a simple way to understand the structure of Thessalonians.
THE STRUCTURE OF THE EPISTLE AS A WHOLE.
(Introversion and Alternation.)
A 1:1. EPISTOLARY. INTRODUCTION.
B A | 1:2–3:10. THANKSGIVING. NARRATION. APPEAL.
B | 3:11–13. PRAYER.
B A | 4:1–5:22. EXHORTATION. INSTRUCTION.
B | 5:23–25. PRAYER.
A | 5:26–28. EPISTOLARY. CONCLUSION.
Bullinger outlines the first section like this:
B A C a | 1:2–4. Thanksgiving.
b | 1:5. Reason. The Gospel received not in word but power.
c | 1:6–9. Its effect.
d | 1:10–. Believers wait for God’s Son.
e | 1:10. Deliverance from the wrath to come.
D | 2:1–12. Paul and the brethren. Their teaching while present.
C a | 2:13–. Thanksgiving.
b | 2:13. Reason. The Gospel received as the word of God.
c | 2:14. Its effect.
d | 2:15, 16–. Unbelieving Jews killed God’s Son.
e | 2:16. Delivered to the wrath to come.
D | 2:17–3:10. Paul and the brethren. Their feelings while absent.
The first part is the “teaching” part of Thessalonians, and after Chapter 4, “practical” instruction starts.
1 Thessalonians 1:2–4 APNT:
2 We give thanks to God at all times for all of you and we remember you in our prayers continually.
3 And we recall before God the Father the works of your faith [faith-filled works] and the labor of your love [love-filled labor] and the endurance of your hope [hope-filled patience] that is in our Lord Jesus Christ.
4 For we know your calling, my brothers, beloved of God,
I titled this series The Hope of Our Calling. “Calling” is a key word. There are three aspects to the calling:
- The choosing.
- To be marked out (King James calls it “predestination”).
- The vocation or calling (what you do).
Ephesians 1:4–5 APNT:
4 even as he chose us beforehand in him, from before the foundations of the world, that we should be holy [ones] and without blemish before him. And in love, he marked us out beforehand for himself
5 and he adopted us in Jesus Christ, as was pleasing to his will,
How we were marked out for adoption (King James “predestining us to adoption”), is interesting in the Greek and Aramaic. It comes from the Greek word proorizō (the “orizō” part is where we get the English word “horizon”). He marked out our horizon; it’s not predestination in the sense of making us robots. Let’s look at how God sets our horizon.
Ephesians 2:8–10 APNT:
8 For by his grace we were redeemed by faith and this was not from yourselves, but is the gift of God,
9 not from works, so that no one would boast.
10 For we [are] his own creation, who are created in Jesus Christ for good works, those [works] which God prepared previously that we should walk in.
He marked out beforehand good works for us to walk in. Unlike the idea of predestination, it’s totally up to us whether we want to walk in those good works or not. But if you say, “Yes! I want to walk in them,” there will be many, many good works that God has prepared just for you.
1 Thessalonians 2:13 APNT:
Because of this also, we give thanks continually to God that you received the word of God that you received from us, not as the word of men, but as it is truly, the word of God, and is effectively working in you who believe.
Calling as vocation
When you get to the third part or aspect of our calling, the vocation, as we receive and believe the Word of God (not as the word of man), it will effectively work in you. It will accomplish some effect. It will have an effect. That effect becomes our vocation, our calling—to believe God’s Word every day. The effect is translated into things that we do.
Hebrews 3:1– APNT:
1 Therefore, my holy brothers, who are called with a calling [vocation] that is from heaven, consider this apostle and high priest of our confession, Jesus Christ,
2 who was faithful to him who made him, as [was] Moses with all his house.
We look to Jesus Christ, our example of one who was faithful to his calling, day after day, perfectly.
Philippians 3:14 APNT:
And I am running toward the goal, so that I would receive the victory of the high calling of God in Jesus Christ.
This passage is not just talking about being in the gathering together, but about the prize of the high calling, rewards, and crowns. The rewards are based on what we do. Faith, hope, and love are how to do it.
1 Thessalonians 1:4–5 APNT:
4 For we know your calling, my brothers, beloved of God,
5 because our preaching to you was not only in words, but also with power and with the Holy Spirit and with true conviction. Also, you know how we were among you on your account.
There are four ways they preached the Word there:
- With words
- With power
- With the Holy Spirit (manifestations)
- With true conviction or assurance
You have to back up the Word with power, otherwise it’s empty.
The gods that the pagans in Thessalonica were worshipping (e.g., Zeus on Mount Olympus) were powerless.
1 Thessalonians 1:6 APNT:
And you became imitators of us and of our Lord, in that you received the word in great trial and in the joy of the Holy Spirit.
See how the word “you” is in bold in the hardcover edition of the APNT? That bold means that the word (pronoun here) is emphasized. Sometimes, it denotes a change (such as from “we” to “you”). It should be emphasized in your mind.
The reason they could have joy in the midst of trials is because of the way Paul came and preached the Word to them. He showed them how to believe, how to love, and how to base it all on hope.
1 Thessalonians 1:7 APNT:
And you were an example [type] to all the believers who are in Macedonia and in Achaia.
You can look into the discussion about types in the teaching series, The Red Thread.
1 Thessalonians 1:8 APNT:
For from you the word of our Lord was heard [“sounded out” in the King James], not only in Macedonia and in Achaia, but in every place your faith that is in God was heard, so that it was not necessary to say anything about you.
They saw the demonstration of their believing, their faith. They saw the demonstration of their love. They saw the demonstration of their hope.
That Greek word from which the translation “sounded out” or “was heard” is only used here in this one place in the entire New Testament. The Greek word means “to echo.” That’s how the Word moved out, it echoed.
1 Thessalonians 1:9 APNT:
For they report what kind of entrance we had to you and how you turned to God from reverence of idols to serve the living and true God,
The light type (in the hardcover Aramaic Peshitta New Testament translation) for “reverence of idols” means that it is an idiom. Here in the APNT, I translated it idiomatically (reverence of idols). You can learn about the idiom in the section in the front of the book called Coding and Idioms. The word for idolatry is literally “awe or reverence for idols.”
In the hardcover book, you see an annotation next to “living” for the figure of speech hendiadys (two nouns used, one thing meant). Translating it according to the figure of speech requires translating it with more than one word—the living God, the true and living God—rather than just one word, “God.”
1 Thessalonians 1:10 APNT:
while you wait for his Son from heaven, Jesus, whom he raised from the dead [literally from the house of the dead], who has delivered us from the wrath that is coming.
In order to serve the living God, you have to love people. In that whole section we saw that they were doing these things because they believed (faith), they were laboring because they loved, and they endured because they had hope.
The word “wait” in verse 10 is from the Greek word anamenō. A different kind of “wait” (wait with an outstretched neck) is seen in Romans Chapter 8.
Romans 8:24–25 APNT:
24 because we live in hope. But hope that is seen is not hope. For if we see it, why do we wait [look with an outstretched neck] for it?
25 But if we hope for something that is not seen, we continue with endurance.
1 Thessalonians 1:10 APNT:
while you wait for his Son from heaven, Jesus, whom he raised from the dead, who has delivered us from the wrath that is coming.
The word “delivered” is like being delivered from the edge of a cliff. Unbelievers will go over the cliff into the day of wrath.
Romans 1:18– APNT:
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven on all the wickedness and the ungodliness of men, those who close off truthfulness with wickedness,
19 because the knowledge of God is revealed among them, for God revealed it among them.
God showed his love by every way possible. There will come a day when there will be no more excuses. That’s when the wrath will be poured out.
Revelation 6:16 APNT:
16 And they were saying to the mountains and the rocks: Fall on us and hide us from the face of the Lamb,
17 because the great day of their anger has come and who is able to stand?
Ephesians 2:3 APNT:
We also were occupied in those deeds previously, in the desires of our flesh, and we were doing the will of our flesh and of our mind and we were the sons of wrath [as] fully as the rest.
We need to preach the message so that people will be rescued from that wrath.
Romans 5:8–9 APNT:
8 here God has manifested his love that is toward us, because if when we were sinners, Christ died for us,
9 then how much more will we be justified now by his blood and be rescued from wrath by him?
The footnote (in the hardcover APNT) indicates that this is a kema question (along with the figure of speech erotesis), which should be answered in the affirmative. “If this is true, then how much more this is true.”
1 Thessalonians 2:14–16 APNT:
14 But you, my brothers, became imitators of the churches of God that are in Judea, they that are in Jesus Christ. For so you also suffered from your countrymen [sons of the people], as they also from the Judeans,
15 who killed our Lord Jesus Christ and persecuted their own prophets and us and are not pleasing God and are acting contrary to all men.
16 [These are they] who forbid us to speak with the Gentiles that they would have life, concluding their sins at all [other] times. But wrath will come on them to the fullest extent.
Romans 5:5 APNT:
And hope does not put [us] to shame, because the love of God is poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit that was given to us.
1 Corinthians 15:54–58 APNT:
54 Now when this [one] that is corrupted puts on incorruption, and this [one] that dies, immortality, then the saying will happen that is written: Death is swallowed in victory.
55 Where is your sting, death? Or where is your victory, grave?
56 Now the sting of death is sin and the power of sin is the law.
57 But blessed [be] God who gives us the victory by way of our Lord Jesus Christ.
58 Therefore, my brothers and my beloved [ones], be steadfast and do not be moved, but excel always in the work of the lord, knowing that your labor is not fruitless in the lord.
Footnote:
- Scripture quotations marked (AMP) taken from the AMPLIFIED Bible, Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987, 2015 by The Lockman Foundation, All rights reserved. Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org) ↩︎
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