Chapter # 1 Paragraph # 3 Study # 2
March 16, 2014
Dayton, Texas
(028)
1769 Translation:
7 So that ye were ensamples to all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia.
8 For from you sounded out the word of the Lord not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith to God-ward is spread abroad; so that we need not to speak any thing.
9 For they themselves shew of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God;
10 And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, [
even] Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.
1901 ASV Translation:
7 so that ye became an ensample to all that believe in Macedonia and in Achaia.
8 For from you hath sounded forth the word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place your faith to God-ward is gone forth; so that we need not to speak anything.
9 For they themselves report concerning us what manner of entering in we had unto you; and how ye turned unto God from idols, to serve a living and true God,
10 and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, [
even] Jesus, who delivereth us from the wrath to come.
- I. You Became a "Type".
- A. This is the outworking of the earlier "you became imitators". The word order is a bit different, but the emphatic "you" remains; the verbal "became" remains; the response to the Word remains but in different terms (you ''embraced" becomes those "believing").
- 1. The plethora of details involved in being an "imitator" remains, as does the core issue: an "embracing" kind of "believing". This means that anyone who "believes" becomes an "imitator" and a "type" if the "faith" yields the Big Three of 1:5.
- a. Biblically, not every one who "believes" becomes an "imitator" or a "type" if the "believing" is significantly slow to develop. The Thessalonians were what they were because of the more remarkable work of the power of the Spirit in their case. In Jesus' parable of the soils, there were those who bore fruit up to "thirty" fold and there were those who yielded "an hundred". Both "believed", but some were more of a "type" than others simply because "an hundred" is more clearly seen than "thirty". [Interestingly, Luke's record in Luke 8 ignores the "sixty" and "thirty" in the record of the sowing (8:8) and ignores the distinction altogether in the interpretation (8:15).]
- b. There is this implication: "believing", with the result of becoming a "type", requires more of the Spirit's power in the removal of the hindrances than is often seen. The bottom line "ingredient" of what constitutes a "type" is the "joy" in the face of "much tribulation". If "faith" produces little, to no, "joy" it has nothing to recommend itself to others.
- c. There is also in our text this confirmation: the Thessalonians were a "type" to those who believe in the other mentioned places. If the faith of those others was as significant as that of the Thessalonians, they would be the "type" instead of those in need of being "imitators".