4 For when we were with you, we kept telling you beforehand that we were to suffer affliction, just as it has come to pass, and just as you know. 5 For this reason, when I could bear it no longer, I sent to learn about your faith, for fear that somehow the tempter had tempted you and our labor would be in vain.” (1 Thessalonians 3:4–5 (ESV)
A biblical pastor does not tell his congregation what they “want” to hear from his wisdom. Rather, the biblical pastor tells his congregation what they “need” to hear from God’s Word. In other words, the biblical pastor is not audience driven but obedience driven. He proclaims to the congregation what God’s Word says, what it means and how it may be applied in their lives.
When writing to his young protégé Timothy when he was pastoring the church in Ephesus, the Apostle wrote the following in his second letter to his beloved son in the faith.
“I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: 2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. 3 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, 4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. 5 As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.” (2 Timothy 4:1–5 (ESV)
Paul was consistent. What he wrote to Timothy he also communicated to the Thessalonians. It was the same encouraging message from the same biblical God of truth.
Paul wanted the Thessalonians to understand that believers in Christ are destined to suffer afflictions for their faith in Christ. To suffer affliction (θλίβεσθαι; thlibesthai) means to encounter distress or oppression. It also means to press down hard upon an object. Affliction carries the concept of being pressed down into a narrow confinement. Oppression for their faith in Christ occurred in the church’s past and in its present circumstances.
It was with this knowledge of their past and present distress, the Apostle Paul personally wanted to know their spiritual and physical well-being. He could bear it no longer not knowing, he sent Timothy to establish and exhort them ((I Thess. 3:2).
“Paul had told them to expect him to suffer as he had already suffered before his Thessalonian experience (2:14–16; Acts 13–14). During (Acts 17:1–9) and following (Acts 17:10–18:11) his time at Thessalonica, Paul also knew tribulation,” explains Dr. John MacArthur.
One commentator explains, “When I was young, I worked at a steel plant. My responsibility was to check the temperatures on these engines that would come in these big blocks of steel. They would have to be heated so that they could be rolled out into what were called “slabs,” in preparation for rolling them out into metal that would be used in automobiles. We had to watch the temperature closely because if it got too hot it would melt, but if the steel remained too cool it would ruin the roller when we tried to roll it through the mill. There was a balance that needed to be kept.”
“This is similar to how God applies pressure to us. We need enough pressure (heat) to make us pliable, but if there is not enough, we remain hard and brittle. But God is in control. He knows where to set the pressure gages for each of us. Sometimes we may think that we are melting, but then we are reminded that He is in total control, and He knows how much pressure we need.”
“God’s testing makes us pliable. It isn’t something strange that is happening to us. It seems that sometimes believers think they are being punished if they are experiencing trials in their life. But that is not necessarily the case. God has a plan that is preparing us for glory, and that includes ” afflictions.” Not only that, but Paul said he had warned them “in advance.”
1 Peter 4:12 says, “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you.” Peter says we are not to be surprised at our “fiery ordeal.”
Finally, Paul was also concerned Satan had tempted the Thessalonian believers to sin thereby making Paul’s, Silas’ and Timothy’s ministry useless.
“Satan had already been characterized as a hinderer (2:18) and now as a tempter in the sense of trying/testing for the purpose of causing failure (cf. Matt. 4:3; 1 Cor. 7:5; James 1:12–18). Paul was not ignorant of Satan’s schemes (2 Cor. 2:11; 11:23) nor vulnerable to his methods (Eph. 6:11), so Paul took action to counterattack Satan’s expected maneuver and to assure that all his efforts were not useless (cf. 1 Thess. 2:1),” concludes Dr. MacArthur.
This is a wakeup call for believers in Christ. Christians need to be willing to do whatever is necessary-working, strengthening, encouraging, or whatever else in order to help other believers become strong in their faith in Christ.
May the Lord’s truth and grace be found here. Have a blessed day in the Lord.
Soli deo Gloria!
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