To Walk and to Please God E-Book

Andrew Malone

• Herausgeber: Crossway
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Serie: New Testament Theology
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 232

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Beschreibung

An Introduction to the Theology and Themes of 1 and 2 Thessalonians  Like Paul's other early churches, Thessalonica experienced great societal pressure to conform to the surrounding culture. But amid persecution, the Thessalonians remained faithful to their call to holiness as they patiently awaited Jesus's return. These epistles provide a positive and practical example of what Christians should believe and how they should behave today.  In this volume of the New Testament Theology series, author Andrew Malone explores 1 and 2 Thessalonians to highlight the life cycle of Christian discipleship—turning away from idols, trusting in the gospel message, having hope that the Lord will return, and continually pleasing the one true God until that return. Through clear and engaging theological examinations, Malone expounds on predominant themes—enhancing gospel reputation, persistence in the face of opposition, Christian life within an unbelieving society, and more—explaining how they are relevant for the church today. - Part of the New Testament Theology Series: Other volumes include Ministry in the New Realm; United to Christ, Walking in the Spirit; and more  - Ideal for Church Leaders: A great discipleship resource and tool for modeling after a healthy church  - Written by Andrew Malone: Author and lecturer in biblical studies at Ridley College

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“Andrew Malone has synthesized the contents of the apostle Paul’s Thessalonian letters, offering a coherent narrative of salvation that traces the life of the believer from one’s turn to God to the return of Christ. With an eye to application both in pastoral ministry and in everyday life, this is a useful resource for all who wish to appropriate the letters of Paul as a word for today.”

Timothy Brookins, Professor of Early Christianity, Houston Christian University

“If Paul’s letters to the Thessalonians are often on the back burner of our reading lists, Andrew Malone clearly demonstrates why they should move up the pecking order. In a pastorally sensitive way, Malone unpacks Paul’s gospel language, his images of salvation, and his call to walk in holiness as we seek to please God between the ‘now’ and the ‘not yet’ of Christ’s sure and certain return. I warmly commend this little book to the church.”

Trevor J. Burke, Former Professor of Bible, Moody Bible Institute; visiting lecturer; author, Adopted into God’s Family: Exploring a Pauline Metaphor

To Walk and to Please God

New Testament Theology

Edited by Thomas R. Schreiner and Brian S. Rosner

The Beginning of the Gospel: A Theology of Mark, Peter Orr

From the Manger to the Throne: A Theology of Luke, Benjamin L. Gladd

The Mission of the Triune God: A Theology of Acts, Patrick Schreiner

Ministry in the New Realm: A Theology of 2 Corinthians, Dane C. Ortlund

United to Christ, Walking in the Spirit: A Theology of Ephesians, Benjamin L. Merkle

Hidden with Christ in God: A Theology of Colossians and Philemon, Kevin W. McFadden

To Walk and to Please God: A Theology of 1 and 2 Thessalonians, Andrew S. Malone

The God Who Judges and Saves: A Theology of 2 Peter and Jude, Matthew S. Harmon

The Joy of Hearing: A Theology of the Book of Revelation, Thomas R. Schreiner

To Walk and to Please God

A Theology of 1 and 2 Thessalonians

Andrew S. Malone

To Walk and to Please God: A Theology of 1 and 2 Thessalonians

© 2024 by Andrew S. Malone

Published by Crossway1300 Crescent StreetWheaton, Illinois 60187

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Cover design: Kevin Lipp

First printing 2024

Printed in the United States of America

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Scripture quotations from The Message, copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson, are used by permission of NavPress. All rights reserved. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers, a Division of Tyndale House Ministries.

All emphases in Scripture quotations have been added by the author.

Trade paperback ISBN: 978-1-4335-7831-1 ePub ISBN: 978-1-4335-7834-2 PDF ISBN: 978-1-4335-7832-8

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Malone, Andrew S., author.

Title: To walk and to please God : a theology of 1 and 2 Thessalonians / Andrew S. Malone.

Description: Wheaton, Illinois : Crossway, 2024. | Series: New Testament theology | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2023022740 (print) | LCCN 2023022741 (ebook) | ISBN 9781433578311 (trade paperback) | ISBN 9781433578328 (pdf) | ISBN 9781433578342 (epub)

Subjects: LCSH: Bible. Thessalonians—Criticism, interpretation, etc. | Patience—Religious aspects—Christianity.

Classification: LCC BS2725.52 .M335 2024 (print) | LCC BS2725.52 (ebook) | DDC 227/.8106—dc23/eng/20240102

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2023022740

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2023022741

Crossway is a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

2024-05-08 02:28:05 PM

To Erin and Zoe

Now may our God and Father himself,

and our Lord Jesus,

direct our way to you,

and may the Lord make you increase

and abound in love for one another and for all,

as we do for you,

so that he may establish your hearts

blameless in holiness before our God and Father,

at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.

1 Thessalonians 3:11–13

Contents

  List of Illustrations

  Series Preface

  Acknowledgments

  Abbreviations

  Introduction

A Church in Good Standing

1  You Turned to God

Salvation and the Start of the Christian Journey

2  To Walk and to Please God

Christian Living between Jesus’s First and Second Comings

3  Until the Coming of the Lord

The End of (Current) Earthly Life

4  Delighted to Share Our Lives as Well

The Ministries of Leaders and Church Members

5  The Living and True God

The Triune God Who Commences, Continues, and Completes the Journey

  Epilogue

Excel Still More

  Recommended Resources

  General Index

  Scripture Index

Illustrations

Figures

1  Thematic sections in Thessalonians

2  Eschatological passages in Thessalonians

3  Passages concerning prayer in Thessalonians

4  Passages focused on eschatology and on prayer

Series Preface

There are remarkably few treatments of the big ideas of single books of the New Testament. Readers can find brief coverage in Bible dictionaries, in some commentaries, and in New Testament theologies, but such books are filled with other information and are not devoted to unpacking the theology of each New Testament book in its own right. Technical works concentrating on various themes of New Testament theology often have a narrow focus, treating some aspect of the teaching of, say, Matthew or Hebrews in isolation from the rest of the book’s theology.

The New Testament Theology series seeks to fill this gap by providing students of Scripture with readable book-length treatments of the distinctive teaching of each New Testament book or collection of books. The volumes approach the text from the perspective of biblical theology. They pay due attention to the historical and literary dimensions of the text, but their main focus is on presenting the teaching of particular New Testament books about God and his relations to the world on their own terms, maintaining sight of the Bible’s overarching narrative and Christocentric focus. Such biblical theology is of fundamental importance to biblical and expository preaching and informs exegesis, systematic theology, and Christian ethics.

The twenty volumes in the series supply comprehensive, scholarly, and accessible treatments of theological themes from an evangelical perspective. We envision them being of value to students, preachers, and interested laypeople. When preparing an expository sermon series, for example, pastors can find a healthy supply of informative commentaries, but there are few options for coming to terms with the overall teaching of each book of the New Testament. As well as being useful in sermon and Bible study preparation, the volumes will also be of value as textbooks in college and seminary exegesis classes. Our prayer is that they contribute to a deeper understanding of and commitment to the kingdom and glory of God in Christ.

Tucked away at the tail end of Paul’s congregation-focused correspondence, 1 and 2 Thessalonians might easily be regarded as truncated versions of the more famous and longer epistles. Dispelling this misunderstanding, Andrew Malone’s engaging volume on Paul’s Thessalonian letters reveals their immense value for understanding our lives as Christians and worshiping the true and living God. Here we find a remarkably comprehensive treatment of the Christian journey, from Paul and his coworkers’ first steps of planting and nurturing a church through what it means to come to faith to living in consistency with our new identity in Christ and persevering to the end. All this is set within Paul’s most overt and compelling teaching about the completion of our salvation at the return of Christ. Malone shows how the two letters offer every Christian great assistance in learning how “to walk and to please God.”

Thomas R. Schreiner and Brian S. Rosner

Acknowledgments

Praise be to God for the first church in Thessalonica. How encouraging it is to watch his effective work among these young believers, maturing them from his first calling and strengthening them to endure with a view to the return of Jesus. It is a privilege for us to study and learn from his labors and theirs.

I am grateful to many scholars who have already delved into these letters in far more depth than this modest volume permits. I have chosen to interact more regularly with commentators, Pauline specialists, and systematic theologians of the last two decades, who, in turn, have clearly benefited from those who preceded them. (Zondervan Academic kindly provided a preview of Seyoon Kim’s Word Biblical Commentary volume, even though I was unable to engage it extensively.) I hope to have faithfully showcased something of their industry. Like a judicious sample container of chocolates or other confectionaries, I trust I have given readers an adequate taste of the many options available, raised awareness, and enticed further investment. I am especially satisfied if this exploration of Thessalonian themes results in greater interest in and use of these two letters themselves.

Sections of this book have been improved by input from Mike Bird, Mark Burbidge, Matthew Halsted, Scott Harrower, Matthew Jensen, and Andy Judd. (Several of these could be addressed as professor. At least one wants to be known as supreme leader.) I have received additional encouragement and input from my coworkers in ministry at Ridley College. And I am indebted to the leadership and board of the college for their generous sabbatical program, which facilitated much of my research and writing. Finally, the series editors and the publishing staff at Crossway have professionally shepherded the finished product.

Andrew Malone

Abbreviations

AB

Anchor Bible

ANF

Ante-Nicene Fathers

BBR

Bulletin for Biblical Research

BECNT

Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament

BETL

Bibliotheca Ephemeridum Theologicarum Lovaniensium

BNTC

Black’s New Testament Commentaries

BST

Bible Speaks Today

BTFL

Biblical Theology for Life

BTNT

Biblical Theology of the New Testament

CTJ

Calvin Theological Journal

DPL1

Dictionary of Paul and His Letters. Edited by Gerald F. Hawthorne and Ralph P. Martin. 1st ed. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press; Leicester, UK: Inter-Varsity Press, 1993.

DPL2

Dictionary of Paul and His Letters. Edited by Scot McKnight, Lynn H. Cohick, and Nijay K. Gupta. 2nd ed. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2023.

FET

Foundations of Evangelical Theology

IVPNTC

InterVarsity Press New Testament Commentary

JETS

Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society

JSNTSup

Journal for the Study of the New Testament Supplement Series

NCB

New Century Bible

NCCS

New Covenant Commentary Series

NDBT

New Dictionary of Biblical Theology. Edited by T. Desmond Alexander and Brian S. Rosner. Leicester, UK: Inter-Varsity Press; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2000.

NIBCNT

New International Biblical Commentary on the New Testament

NICNT

New International Commentary on the New Testament

NIDOTTE

New International Dictionary of Old Testament Theology and Exegesis. Edited by Willem A. VanGemeren. 5 vols. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1997.

NIGTC

New International Greek Testament Commentary

NIVAC

New International Version Application Commentary

NSBT

New Studies in Biblical Theology

NTT

New Testament Theology (Crossway)

NTTh

New Testament Theology (Cambridge University Press)

PNTC

Pillar New Testament Commentary

SGBC

Story of God Bible Commentary

SP

Sacra Pagina

THNTC

Two Horizons New Testament Commentary

WBC

Word Biblical Commentary

WBT

Word Biblical Themes

WUNT

Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament

ZCINT

Zondervan Critical Introductions to the New Testament

ZECNT

Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament

ZNW

Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft und die Kunde der älteren Kirche

Introduction

A Church in Good Standing

So much of biblical studies involves comparing and contrasting. As we witness the transition from the old covenant to the new covenant, which of God’s interactions with humanity remain the same, and which aspects of his game plan are expressed differently? The same applies to the way we learn, not least to the way we learn about the Bible. We venture into new topics by comparing and contrasting them with what’s already familiar to us. As Paul Ellingworth puts it, “We understand something new only in relation to other things that we know already.”1

An Underknown Church

Thinking about the paired tools of comparing and contrasting is a useful way to approach 1 and 2 Thessalonians. Of course, some Christians know these letters well. But I suspect that for many of us, venturing into these letters is like visiting a nearby country that speaks the same language. Whether it’s Americans visiting Canada, Australians visiting New Zealand, or neighboring nations visiting Switzerland or Kenya or China, there is plenty that’s almost like home—but there are enough sights and sounds that are sufficiently foreign to remind us that we are somewhere else. In tourism and in biblical studies, it can be the minor differences amid major similarities that cause culture shock. We make mistakes when we fail to expect and respond to these differences.

By accident of length, the Thessalonian correspondence falls at the end of Paul’s congregation-focused letters. When we approach Paul in canonical order, we have already been exposed to Romans, two letters to the Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians: more than five dozen chapters.

By accident of historical focus, many of those longer letters are on higher rotation in evangelical churches and seminaries. Romans and Galatians are prize exhibits from the Protestant Reformation and remain at the heart of much teaching about salvation. The Corinthian letters are popular in churches wanting to correct believers’ behavior (though I’m sure 1 Corinthians is used more than 2 Corinthians). Ephesians invites us to glory in God’s magnificent work in salvation, Colossians lets us thump the pulpit again as we warn against syncretistic heresies, and Philippians returns to practical advice for Christian behavior. When seeking guidance on church leadership, we leap ahead to the instructions addressed to Timothy and Titus.

The Thessalonian letters thus languish in an unfortunate position. They are like the eighth and ninth shops offering similar products after we’ve browsed the preceding seven or yet two more tourist stops after we’ve exhausted ourselves exploring the prior attractions along the route.

The language of tourist routes may also describe our reading of Acts. The founding of the church in Thessalonica in Acts 17:1–9 is often not a highlighted destination in a preacher’s itinerary. It lacks the detail and drama of Philippi in the preceding chapter (Acts 16:11–40). The rest of Acts 17 gives glimpses of the faithful, Bible-studying Bereans (Acts 17:10–12) and of the evangelistic contextualizing of the gospel message for pagan intellectuals in Athens (Acts 17:16–34). Apart from a single verse promoting some success, the Thessalonian encounter can feel like (1) an odd regression into Old Testament territory when the gospel is supposed to be bursting into Gentile Europe or (2) rather ambivalent in terms of the gospel’s progress, if not (3) an outright failure of the gospel to gain newsworthy traction, especially when compared with more stimulating “power encounters” and “triumphs” in Philippi and Corinth and Ephesus in surrounding chapters. (Even if some of those locations present mixed success, I wonder if we warm to them more because of our familiarity with subsequent letters to their churches.) We could well misunderstand Luke’s purposes for each narrative. Unless we are disciplined or exhaustive in our reading and preaching programs, the events in Thessalonica are unlikely to make our highlight reel.2

An Underappreciated Church?

In addition to these external factors, I wonder if the content of the Thessalonian letters also contributes to their neglect. Perhaps they are too autobiographical: modern congregants and their preachers want to hear more about believers’ conduct than about the past practices of church planters. Perhaps they are too repetitive or too short: when we do care about church-planting practices, we have already scrutinized the longer details in the Corinthian correspondence. Perhaps the sense is that this congregation is too passive: they may appear as the set dressing against which the authors speak of their own past labors. Perhaps the tone is too sedentary: as with the bland Thessalonian narrative in Acts, we may prefer vibrant contention about spiritual gifts or robust doctrinal dispute or scandalous ethical misconduct. Perhaps the Thessalonian church is simply too uncontroversial: some modern churches, and especially some preachers, want something fiery like 1 Corinthians or Galatians to jolt miscreants from their complacency.

Both the external and internal factors are reminiscent of an urban legend about the demise of the great library at Alexandria. The attacking general allegedly decreed that if the library’s books challenged the invaders’ established worldview, then they were dangerous and should be destroyed, and if the books merely reiterated that worldview, then they were superfluous anyway. I wonder if this is how many of us approach 1 and 2 Thessalonians. Assuming these letters are truncated versions of what we’ve already mastered in Paul’s more established epistles, why would we revisit another, shorter remix? (Once we’ve viewed a director’s extended cut of a movie, how often are we attracted to an “incomplete” draft?) While few believers would suggest that anything in Thessalonians conflicts with other Pauline writings, I am confident that any alleged discrepancies would be resolved in favor of the more ingrained letters.3

Compare and Contrast

I hope I have overstated my fear of Thessalonian neglect. But I’ve done so in order to alert us to any conscious or unconscious resistance we might face in reading the letters for ourselves or in sharing them with others.

This Book’s Approach

A consideration of how we compare and contrast letters also introduces the approach of this book. An author like me must walk a tightrope. How much should I encourage the study of Thessalonians because the two letters clearly affirm much of what we read elsewhere in Paul and the rest of the Bible? How much should I highlight the distinctive differences the Thessalonian epistles contribute? There is even a third, intermediate option: How much should I emphasize those elements that do both, that reinforce and elaborate on concepts found elsewhere? With an eye to Ellingworth’s quote in the opening paragraph above, I am attempting all of these! I want to assure us that the Thessalonian correspondence deserves a hearing because of its consistency with the rest of the canon. I want to promote those elements that extend our understanding of particular concepts. And of course, we must pay special attention to those unique contributions that God gifts to us only in these two books of the Bible. Comparing and contrasting is core to biblical theology—the method emphasized in this series—and it excels at allowing each canonical book its own voice.4

This kind of balance also plays out in the ranges chosen for such comparison and contrast. Obviously, I wish to show how Thessalonians accords with and contributes to the Pauline corpus (in which I include all thirteen letters traditionally associated with the apostle). In turn, I want to draw connections with the other letters beyond Paul’s—which themselves can suffer from being placed and promoted behind the apostle’s. The rest of the New Testament’s teaching about the triune God and his plans warrants occasional mentions of the remaining books. Such a balance must necessarily dwindle for each successive range, as reflected in my Scripture index. That index also witnesses scant interaction with the Old Testament, a disappointing necessity. Chapter 4 shows that the writers and readers of the Thessalonian letters were not unfamiliar with what was, for them, the entirety of God’s written revelation. But in contrast with other letters such as Romans and Hebrews, Old Testament doctrines and images are not a substantial tool in the epistolary nurture of the Thessalonian church.

I must also mention my openness to treating the two Thessalonian letters together, as do a good many studies. When it comes to synthesizing two letters with the same senders and recipients that were written bare months apart, we ought not to be surprised to find significant overlap in their themes and emphases.

Because we are rarely working systematically through either letter, it will aid readers to regularly read through the biblical text. It’s the Bible’s own words that this volume aims to illuminate and serve and that retain authority over scholarly insights and syntheses. Likewise, in only some places do I have the luxury of unpacking passages in as much detail as commentaries can.

Coming Attractions

By previewing our pending discoveries here, I can highlight major contributions of 1 and 2 Thessalonians. I have necessarily organized these into categories for readability, but I trust their selection is governed by the letters’ own emphases.

The letters foreground the extended nature of the Christian journey. The Thessalonian epistles devote significant space to talking about how believers come to initial saving faith and to considering the conduct expected of them as they persevere through earthly life. Thessalonians also presents some of Paul’s most overt teaching about how the triune God will once again intervene directly in his world to wrap up its present existence. These stages include some insightful theological elements, but these are not raised to stroke intellectual curiosity or to ignite doctrinal controversies or to fuel end-times speculation but to pastor Christians at every step. Believers at all stages of their Christian journey are invited to map their own progress and to encourage others in persevering.

As much as any of the other letters associated with Paul, Thessalonians gives us a number of detailed insights into the practices and emphases of Paul’s team and their initial steps of planting and nurturing a church. Those workers involved today in related ministries are encouraged to explore which ingredients remain relevant, including the place of every-member ministry.

Everyday believers, church leaders, and scholars alike are concerned to understand Paul’s comprehension of the triune God, on whose behalf they minister. Thessalonians contributes both consistent and surprising features, especially to the full divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ through prayers directed to him.

And unsurprisingly and reassuringly, we observe how all these contributions align with, extend, or make more accessible some of the contents of the other Pauline letters. Some topics, such as the life cycle or journey of a Christian believer, benefit from being compressed in these shorter letters. We can especially relate to ministry topics because the church at Thessalonica was largely composed of Gentile members, who are then nurtured through “Gentile” arguments. For those who trace any development in the doctrines and practices of Paul and of the early church, it is significant that the two Thessalonian letters are among the first extant writings of the New Testament. Galatians may have been composed earlier, but even if so, we have before us the next earliest records of God’s new covenant church written only a year or two later.5 At the same time, we dare not misjudge Paul and his team as novice theologians or even novice authors. These are merely among the first of their preserved letters, written in light of substantial experience. As Douglas Moo observes, “A decade and a half of study, preaching, and interaction with other believers was behind Paul before he first put quill to parchment.”6

Assumptions about Authorship and Structure

Evangelical commentators generally agree that both Thessalonian letters were written shortly after the church was founded, placing them around AD 51. Some skeptical scholars wonder if the second letter was a forgery written years later, but I fail to be persuaded by one of the core arguments, that the letters are so alike that one must have been plagiarized.

I am sympathetic, though, to interpreters who take seriously that there are three named collaborators. (Multiple authors appear in most of Paul’s other congregation-focused letters; the most frequent coauthor is Timothy, as also here in Thessalonians.) Most commentators view these figures simply as associates in Paul’s church-planting ministry who made little significant contribution to the writing of the letters. But Randolph Richards argues attractively and persuasively that letters could be composed corporately. While we may sometimes envision Paul as a solo apostle scribbling away with his feather quill or dictating to a scribe, it is entirely plausible to contemplate these letters as “the product of a committee.”7 The two Thessalonian letters speak almost exclusively in the plural—at least 148 terms concerning “we” and “us”—with Paul only five times interjecting in the singular as the authoritative team leader (1 Thess. 2:18; 3:5; 5:27; 2 Thess. 2:5; 3:17).8 Several commentators lean in the “committee” direction, even if convenience or tradition often sees them revert to “Paul” as a shorthand.9 Taking the letters’ language as intentionally inclusive, I resist this convenience and strive to speak of all three contributors. This still permits Paul to lead the team and to authorize key points if not also the final form of the letters. Similarly, just as the letters are comfortable to describe Silvanus and Timothy as “apostles,” I use this broader title for them (see 1 Thess. 2:6/7).10

We are familiar with how the Jewish apostle Saul chooses to go by his Roman name, Paul, not because of his conversion but because he pivots as the gospel moves from more Jewish territories into more obviously Roman settings (Acts 13:7–9). Something similar applies to Silvanus, who’s known by this Roman name in the letters (1–2 Thessalonians; 2 Cor. 1:19; 1 Pet. 5:12) and by his alternative name, Silas, throughout Acts.

Scholars generally agree about the structure of the letters. The chapters break in helpful places, although they can be subdivided into smaller thematic sections as shown in figure 1. These sections are sometimes further subdivided; at other times, there is merit in noting how consecutive sections build into bigger movements.

Figure 1 Thematic sections in Thessalonians

For the sake of orientation, I give some rudimentary descriptions of these sections. My wording focuses on content, recognizing that the purpose and placement of such content is discussed in coming pages.

1 Thessalonians

1:1–10  Thanksgiving for the believers and their conversion

2:1–16  Recollection of the apostles’ loving ministry

2:17–3:13  Longing and prayers for visits and further growth

4:1–12  Detailed instructions for ongoing holy conduct

4:13–18  Assurance about dead believers at Jesus’s return

5:1–11  Living in light of Jesus’s time-unknown return

5:12–28  Succinct instructions for Christian conduct

2 Thessalonians