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Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted Isa 53:4 |
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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. Tuesday, July 15, 2025
Today's Passage : Today's Passage:Paul’s Writing Style BibleVerse:1 Thessalonians 1:10 "And now you await the coming of His Son, whom He raised from dead; for He will come from heavens to deliver you from God’s wrath. " Message:
Verse 10 gives us an elementary example of an issue that will become difficult later on: Paul’s oblique writing style. Let us divide the verse into four parts and number them in order of theological progression: 3) The Thessalonians await the return of Christ; 2) They believe Christ was resurrected; 1) The wrath of God is coming; 4) Christ will save them from God’s wrath.
Paul would have scored poorly on the essay portion of the SAT’s (although he would have aced the vocabulary section). We rarely see the modern craftsmanship of a topic sentence followed by orderly expository steps. He will pile parenthetical and prepositional phrases, all of them important, into a great hodgepodge, until it is difficult to know which phrase is modifying what.
To get the full brunt of Paul’s style, look at Young’s Literal Translation of Eph. 1:3-14. (This is not an anomaly. Try Eph. 3:2-13.) If you really want to have some fun, take out a pencil and paper and try to diagram it. Every translation breaks this into several sentences — and almost every one of them is different!
Repentance of St. Peter by Ribera
Returning to today’s verse 10, we might see how and why these problems occur. Consider the circumstances under which he wrote. Paul, who was often forced to work as a manual laborer to feed himself, did not have the luxury of editing and rewriting. Writing took time and money. So, if he said something that reminded him of something else that needed to be said, he could not just start over. He had to say it as a parenthetical.
The four statements are not in correct order, in the sense of the proper progression of theological thought. For example, until one understands and believes in Christ’s resurrection, the idea that He will return with power to save sinners is not credible or even sensible.
Why are they out of order? Paul’s immediate topic is the activities of the Thessalonians that the pagan Greeks are talking about. Waiting for Christ to return was much more prominent in their lives than in ours. They would wake up in the morning and think, “Is this the day Christ will return?” So Paul puts this first in the verse. This is the what the Thessalonians are doing, and what they are doing is what he is discussing.
But let us imagine, after writing this phrase, he realizes that he has not mentioned the resurrection anywhere in the letter. It must be stated! Even though it is not an “activity” of the Thessalonians, it is the logical underpinning for all he has written. So, he writes it as a subordinate clause modifying “son”.
We have not really examined the meaning of these verses, so we will have another look at them in our next installment.
Meditation : “He who desires to advance in the knowledge of God, ought to begin each day of his life with renewed vigor; he should hold himself in the presence of God, as much as possible, and desire no other end, in all his actions save the glory of God.” Prayer : Most High, Glorious God, enlighten the darkness of my mind. Give me a right faith, a firm hope and a perfect charity, so that I may always and in all things act according to Your Holy Will. Amen. |
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