Both the readings from Judges and the letter to the Thessalonians have common characters: those who go against the flow of their communities to follow God. Gideon cuts down the tools of idol worshipers (which shouldn’t have been there in the first place!) and incurs the wrath of his countrymen, while the Thessalonians are commended by Paul for enduring despite persecution. Certainly, that has been a common theme of the faithful since Jesus started his ministry. John Stott summed it up well in his book Life in Christ: “If we Christians compromised less, we would undoubtedly suffer more.”