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But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness Gal 5:22 |
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Dear
Friend,
If you do not already have a habit of gathering daily manna the first thing in the morning (we can look at the example given to us in Exodus 16 and find the pattern for make it a habit. Establish your life and your schedule to allow you the necessary time to do your daily collection first thing every morning to give you the strength to make it through the day. And remember that today’s manna will not be sufficient for tomorrow; tomorrow’s manna must be collected tomorrow morning. Wednesday, May 12, 2021
Today's Passage : Today's Passage :The Faithfulness of the Church Bible Verse:1 Thessalonians 1:2-5 (DP) "We always remember you in our prayers, giving thanks to God for every one of you, and especially recalling the steadfastness of your hope in Jesus Christ and the many good works that have flowed out of your faith and love. We think of you as our brothers and sisters, called by God to a Gospel not made of words alone, but a Gospel that came to you by the power and certainty of the Holy Spirit. DP Literal Translation 2 We give thanks to god always concerning each (or all) of you, remembrance making in the prayers of us, without fail (or unceasingly) 3 remembering of you the work of faith and of the labor of love and the persistence of the hope of the 4 knowing, brothers being loved by God, the selection of you, 5 that (or because) the gospel of us not was created in you in word only but also in power and in spirit holy and in certainty much, just as you know what kind we were among you for you. " Message:
What a wonderful way to start a letter! We can see, right off the bat, why Paul was so successful at bringing people to Christ. The opening verses of 1 Thess. are positive and powerful. Unlike what one sometimes hears today, Paul's assurance that he and the other named authors remember the Thessalonians in their prayers is not polite jargon. It is a realistic and meaningful portrayal of how both the Pauline group and the Thessalonians entered the presence of God every day, trusting that He would hear their words, filled with certainty and hope that, if it were His will, He would respond to them.
There is a point to make from Greek grammar, so bear with us. English has an active and a passive voice, e.g. “I threw the ball” (active), and “The ball was thrown” (passive). In active voice, the subject does something; in the passive voice, something is done to the subject.
Ancient Greek had a third voice, called the middle voice, halfway in-between. “Pontius Pilate washed his hands” is a perfect example of how the middle voice was used in Classical GreekThe dialect in which the Bible was written is called Koine Greek. (Koine means “common”.) It is a less refined language than Classical Greek and the middle voice was greatly corrupted in Koine. But Paul uses the middle voice here with the refined inference that it had had in its classical days, 300 years earlier.; Pilate actively washes, but a part of him is washed.
In our passage today, Paul writes “we remember you” in this middle voice. The prayers to remember the Thessalonians are not only meant for God, but also for the people praying. He is saying that they themselves recall, with warmth and thanks, the great works and faith of the addressees, and implies that he considers these memories to be helpful to himself.
Some translations read “we remember without ceasing”; this comes across even stronger in 5:17, the famous words “pray without ceasing”. This must be taken as hyperbole, to some degree, and certainly as regards Paul's remembering the Thessalonians. Even at the extreme of literalism, a cloistered monk must sleep. But it is better taken to mean “regular, heartfelt, and at some length”.
We immediately run up against an unavoidable issue in Paul, that of predestination. There is a lot of support for the doctrine in Paul and we see it right away, for he describes the church members as “chosen” or “selected”. You don't have to be a Calvinist to be a Biblical Christian, but you can't deny the support it gets in the Bible. It is a topic, however, that demands a lengthy discussion, so we will reserve it for the future.
The good works and steadfastness of the Thessalonians are tied to the manner in which they received the Gospel, that is, the fact that the Holy Spirit came to dwell in them, the power of the Spirit, their ability to endure hardships, are all packaged together. Receiving Christ is a transformative experience, where the reborn Christian loves Christ with his full heart; they have not simply altered their behavior after coming to believe in a religion; they have been entirely changed.
Meditation : Prayer : O Sovereign and almighty Lord, bless all your people, and all your flock. Give your peace, your help, and your love unto us your servants, the sheep of your fold, that we may be united in the bond of peace and love, one body and one spirit, in one hope of our calling, in your divine and boundless love.......Amen |
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