Malcolm Cox

You have found a daily devotional podcast on 1 Thessalonians. These recordings accompany the teaching and preaching series for the Thames Valley and Watford churches of Christ.

The brief devotionals are aimed at encouraging, comforting and urging you to live lives worthy of God” 1 Thessalonians 2:12

“We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labour prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Thessalonians 1:3 NIV11

More notes, lessons and resources can be found here:

www.malcolmcox.org

“The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.” (1 Thessalonians 5:28 NIV11)

God bless, Malcolm

You have found a daily devotional podcast on 1 Thessalonians. These recordings accompany the teaching and preaching series for the Thames Valley and Watford churches of Christ.

The brief devotionals are aimed at encouraging, comforting and urging you to live lives worthy of God” 1 Thessalonians 2:12

“We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labour prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Thessalonians 1:3 NIV11

More notes, lessons and resources can be found here:

www.malcolmcox.org

“The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.” (1 Thessalonians 5:28 NIV11)

God bless, Malcolm

You have found a daily devotional podcast on 1 Thessalonians. These recordings accompany the teaching and preaching series for the Thames Valley and Watford churches of Christ.

The brief devotionals are aimed at encouraging, comforting and urging you to live lives worthy of God” 1 Thessalonians 2:12

“We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labour prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Thessalonians 1:3 NIV11

More notes, lessons and resources can be found here:

www.malcolmcox.org

“The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.” (1 Thessalonians 5:28 NIV11)

God bless, Malcolm

You have found a daily devotional podcast on 1 Thessalonians. These recordings accompany the teaching and preaching series for the Thames Valley and Watford churches of Christ.

The brief devotionals are aimed at encouraging, comforting and urging you to live lives worthy of God” 1 Thessalonians 2:12

“We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labour prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Thessalonians 1:3 NIV11

More notes, lessons and resources can be found here:

www.malcolmcox.org

“The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.” (1 Thessalonians 5:28 NIV11)

God bless, Malcolm

“We always thank God for all of you and continually mention you in our prayers.  We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labour prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. For we know, brothers and sisters loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not simply with words but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and deep conviction.” 1Th. 1:2-5 

Introduction, v2-5

Theme verse for 2023

“We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labour prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.” v3

Faith…love…hope: 1 Cor. 13:13; Col. 1:5; 1 Th. 1:3; 5:8

1. Faith

'work': While Paul insists that salvation is all of God, he also insists that faith is busy.

Elsewhere he says:

“The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.” (Galatians 5:6 NIV11)

There faith leads to love. 

Here faith leads to work. 

“But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds.” (James 2:18 NIV11)

Living by faith, living out our hope and living a life of love are work. Not work to earn anything from God, but work nonetheless. Are we afraid of work? Would we be known as a congregation labouring for God?

Question: What helps your faith to be busy? How do you avoid the danger of a works mentality - thinking the works make you more acceptable in God’s eyes?

2. Love

'labour' prompted by love Paul means more than small deeds of kindness done without hope of reward. The word kopos denotes laborious toil, unceasing hardship borne for love’s sake. Tyndale

Toiling to build the church well

'love' - agape. A love that loves whether the object of that love has merit or not. A love that seeks to give rather than receive. Indeed, gives without thought of return.

The love Christ showed us: John 3:16; Rom. 5:8; 1 John 4:10.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 

This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”

(John 3:16; Romans 5:8; 1 John 4:10 NIV11)

Question: How do you connect with the love that God has for you in such a way that it motivates you to toil for him?

3. Hope

Endurance - Hypomonē, means not a negative, passive acquiescence, but an active, manly endurance: ‘not the resignation of the passive sufferer, so much as the fortitude of the stout-hearted soldier’

Hope, in a Christian context, always has an air of certainty about it. It is a confident expectation, not the unfounded optimism we often mean by the word. Tyndale

'hope': not a grinding endurance, but an inspired one because our eyes are fixed on Jesus.

We have access to the endurance of Jesus - “May the Lord direct your hearts into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance.” (2 Thessalonians 3:5 NIV11)

Question: What difference does it make that our hope is ‘in Christ’? How does that help you to endure?

Conclusion

Maybe a year has gone by since their conversion. Already people for hundreds of miles around are talking about them. God is clearly at work - through their work.

See also the three linked here: (Rom. 5:2–5; 1 Cor. 13:13; Gal. 5:5–6; Col. 1:4–5; Heb. 6:10–12; 10:22–24; 1 Pet. 1:21–22).

“let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds,” (Hebrews 10:22–24 NIV11)

Please add your comments on this week’s topic. We learn best when we learn in community.

Do you have a question about teaching the Bible? Is it theological, technical, practical? Send me your questions or suggestions. Here’s the email: [email protected].

If you’d like a copy of my free eBook on spiritual disciplines, “How God grows His people”, sign up at my website: http://www.malcolmcox.org.

Please pass the link on, subscribe, leave a review.

“Worship the LORD with gladness; come before him with joyful songs.” (Psalms 100:2 NIV11)

God bless, Malcolm

v1 Greeting - personal; God-focus; grace & peace
v2 - thankful for all; prayerful
v3 - hard work for God inspired by Jesus
v4 - family relationships; 28 times - ‘brothers’
v5 - God changed you dramatically
v6 - Accepted suffering; joy from the Spirit
‘If Christ wore a crown of thorns, why should His followers expect only a crown of roses?’ Martin Luther
v7 - modelled Christianity to other Christians
v8 - their reputation is connected to God’s work
v9 - turned to serve God
v10 - Trust in God revealed by patient service

God
We find 15 references to the Godhead in the 10 verses of chapter 1 and 97 mentions in all 89 verse of the letter.
He gives grace and peace, and joy despite suffering which inspires their work for Him such that it inspire others.

Turn to serve, v9
Repentance is a lifestyle and a radical one at that. Turn from: desire to be comfortable; compromise; fear; laziness; sins, halfheartedness; guilt; shame
"It would be like asking people in a modern city to give up using motor cars, computers and telephones.”  N.T. Wright.
Turn to: God; hope, love, faith, exploration of the Spirit’s desires, listening to God, risk, adventure, stretch, the new

Discussion

1. God-focussed
What does it mean to be God-focussed?
What resources will help you to be God-focussed this year?

2. Turning to serve
Turning away: Do you have something to turn away from in order to serve God? If you are struggling with this, what resources do you have to help you?
Turning towards: What opportunities has God given you to serve one another and the lost? What will help you to serve in faith, love and endurance this year?

Please add your comments on this week’s topic. We learn best when we learn in community. 

Do you have a question about teaching the Bible? Is it theological, technical, practical? Send me your questions or suggestions. Here’s the email: [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]). 

If you’d like a copy of my free eBook on spiritual disciplines, “How God grows His people”, sign up at my website: http://[www.malcolmcox.org](http://www.malcolmcox.org/). 

Please pass the link on, subscribe, leave a review. 

“Worship the LORD with gladness; come before him with joyful songs.” (Psalms 100:2 NIV11) 

God bless, Malcolm

You have found a daily devotional podcast on 1 Thessalonians. These recordings accompany the teaching and preaching series for the Thames Valley and Watford churches of Christ.

The brief devotionals are aimed at encouraging, comforting and urging you to live lives worthy of God” 1 Thessalonians 2:12

“We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labour prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Thessalonians 1:3 NIV11

More notes, lessons and resources can be found here:

www.malcolmcox.org

“The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.” (1 Thessalonians 5:28 NIV11)

God bless, Malcolm

Two examples from one section of 1 Thessalonians chapter 4

“It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control your own body in a way that is holy and honourable, not in passionate lust like the pagans, who do not know God; and that in this matter no one should wrong or take advantage of a brother or sister. The Lord will punish all those who commit such sins, as we told you and warned you before. For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. Therefore, anyone who rejects this instruction does not reject a human being but God, the very God who gives you his Holy Spirit.” (1 Thessalonians 4:3–8 NIV11)

1. Emphasis on holiness

'sanctified' (v3), 'holy' (v4), 'holy' (v7) - emphasis in this section
This was how Israel was to stand out among the nations: Exod. 19:5–6 LXX; Deut 26:18-19 LXX; Lev. 11:44 LXX [cf. 11:45; 19:2; 20:7, 26; 22:32.
“Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites.”” (Exodus 19:5–6 NIV11)
Paul was clear on this as a Pharisee - 'the separated ones’.

1. Spirit in messianic age

Ezek. 36:25-27; 37:6, 14.
Link between Spirit's arrival and enabling obedience to God: Jer. 31:31–34 [38:31–34 LXX]; 32:40; 50:5; Isa. 55:3; 59:21).
““As for me, this is my covenant with them,” says the LORD. “My Spirit, who is on you, will not depart from you, and my words that I have put in your mouth will always be on your lips, on the lips of your children and on the lips of their descendants—from this time on and forever,” says the LORD.” (Isaiah 59:21 NIV11)
Paradoxical and wondrous that Gentiles (not know God, not part of Covenant, given to sexual laxity) now have the Spirit promised to the people of God. They are main beneficiaries of Messianic age. Surprise, surprise!

"It seems clear, therefore, that Paul viewed the conversion of Gentiles at Thessalonica as a fulfilment of the eschatological promises made to Israel. The Thessalonian believers were no longer simply “Gentiles who do not know God”; now they were members of the renewed Israel, the covenant people of God." OT in NT

Conclusion

• What resources do you use to make sure you don’t read the NT rootless?

Why not sign up for the Old Testament Survey module: https://www.aimukandireland.com. Send me an email expressing interest if you cannot find what you need on the site.

Please add your comments on this week’s topic. We learn best when we learn in community. 

Do you have a question about teaching the Bible? Is it theological, technical, practical? Send me your questions or suggestions. Here’s the email: [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]). 

If you’d like a copy of my free eBook on spiritual disciplines, “How God grows His people”, sign up at my website: http://[www.malcolmcox.org](http://www.malcolmcox.org/). 

Please pass the link on, subscribe, leave a review. 

Keep calm and carry on teaching.

God bless, Malcolm

You have found a daily devotional podcast on 1 Thessalonians. These recordings accompany the teaching and preaching series for the Thames Valley and Watford churches of Christ.

The brief devotionals are aimed at encouraging, comforting and urging you to live lives worthy of God” 1 Thessalonians 2:12

“We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labour prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.”  1 Thessalonians 1:3 NIV11

More notes, lessons and resources can be found here: 

www.malcolmcox.org

“The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.” (1 Thessalonians 5:28 NIV11)

God bless, Malcolm

You have found a daily devotional podcast on 1 Thessalonians. These recordings accompany the teaching and preaching series for the Thames Valley and Watford churches of Christ.

The brief devotionals are aimed at encouraging, comforting and urging you to live lives worthy of God” 1 Thessalonians 2:12

“We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labour prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.”  1 Thessalonians 1:3 NIV11

More notes, lessons and resources can be found here: 

www.malcolmcox.org

“The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.” (1 Thessalonians 5:28 NIV11)

God bless, Malcolm