Eternal Comfort and Good Hope

Thinking about 2 Thess 2.16,17, this morning. Paul says that the Godhead (God and Christ, thereby pointing out the divinity of Christ) gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace. I'm thinking Paul is using grace in the by grace you have been saved sense here. Thomas Constable quotes a commentator saying that secular writers at the time used the term good hope to refer to life after death, which makes sense from the context. It is grace that gives us hope of life after death in heaven with Christ.

The same eternal comfort and good hope is available to us that was available to the believers at Thessalonica. It comes to us in the same way also—through grace.

An Anchor in the Storm

Paul tells the Thessalonians in 2 Thess 3.3, that in contrast to wicked and evil men (who are not faithful), God is faithful. This is such a solid anchor of truth for us to lash ourselves to in the inevitable storms of life. God's character is that he is faithful. We can rely upon that. We can believe it. We can count on it.

The Virtue of Patience

My Bible reading highlight was from 1 Thess 5.14 today. Paul tells the Thessalonians to admonish the idle, help the weak, and encourage the fainthearted. Then he says, be patient with them all. I believe that he says this because he understands men. Few people who have deeply rooted problems change quickly. It takes many starts with a lot of stops on the way; it takes failure; it takes starting over. Thus the virtue of patience. Patience means understanding that people are human and frail.

The Christian's One Calamity

I was reading 1 Thess 4.1 this morning and Chrysostom had a great comment on that verse:

There is only one calamity for a Christian, this being disobedience to God.