by Darrel Cline (darrelcline biblical-thinking.org)
Chapter # 1 Paragraph # 2 Study # 9 April 10, 2024 Broadlands, Louisiana (Download Audio)
I. The Overall Paragraph In Terms Of Its Focus.
A. Paul's prayers because of the response the Thessalonians gave to the message of the Gospel.
1. Began with "thanksgiving" expressed to God.
2. Moved from this gratitude to incessant, intercessory, prayer.
3. Focused upon the obvious changes that occurred when the Thessalonians heard and believed the Gospel.
4. Rooted in a "rational, deductive knowledge" of the "election" of the Thessalonians.
a. "Election" is revealed in Revelation 17:8 to be a matter of "names written the Lamb's Book of Life from the foundation of the world" and a "pattern of behavior that revealed loyalty to Christ in the face of extreme physical danger up to, and including, execution".
b. This "rational, deductive knowledge" was not a claim to be "inerrant", but to be "reasonable".
1) The "reasonableness" is rooted in the "imitation" of Paul whose "pattern of behavior to be imitated" was by the working of God in Acts 9 because he was "an elect vessel" to be used by God to carry the Gospel from "the Jews" to "the Gentiles".
a) Because Paul "knew" (intimately by experience) that his own "pattern of behavior to be imitated" could only be attributed to God since his own behavior before his salvation was deeply hateful, he "knew" (rationally) that because the Thessalonians were showing the same "patterns of behavior", they must also be "chosen vessels of God".
b) Because their "patterns of behavior" were made manifest as expressions of the "fruit of the Spirit", Paul was "reasonably sure" that he had been led of God to Thessalonica because there were "elect vessels" there who were destined to serve God by making His Gospel widely known (Note Acts 18:8-11 and 2 Timothy2:10 and Acts 16:7-10).