So as not to reinvent the wheel or simply understate what others have taught previously, I share with you the Christian witness of a wonderful background history of context, culture, and some geography of Paul’s Letters to the Thessalonians as HOMEWORK for a Bible Study I will be teaching, God willing, next Sunday, 9:15 a.m. at Bender’s Mennonite Church. Please pray also for me.
The following is for benefit of ALL believers. Please SHARE YOUR COMMENTS.
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What’s the DIFFERENCE between Christians & non-Christians?
This is essentially the question by residents of every city and every town to first century Christians as they preached the Gospel.
“What makes YOU different from US?
How do you answer this question in your town for your 21st century non-Christian neighbors and unsaved relatives?
Do you get it right? Do you TELL them how DIFFERENT you are from them? Do you suppose that this DIFFERENCE sounds like “Good News” to unbelievers?
Many Letters of the New Testament make much mention of ‘Jews and Gentiles,’ from the language and cultures of the first century. What we fail to realize of this distinction is an important one of Holiness that requires separation to God from the evil and sin of the world.
- The Jew was separated to the Holiness of God.
- The Gentile was not yet adopted for separation to the Holiness of God. Gentile is a term meaning Nations or Ethic Peoples other than Jews.
- The Gospel, consistent throughout ALL Letters to the first century church, is Good News:
“The Perfect Sacrifice of Christ Jesus on the Cross is for ALL Peoples – Jew and Gentile.
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So in a nutshell, what was the first century Christian answer? Essentially:
There is NO difference between me (a follower of Christ Jesus) and you (an unbeliever).
You may read of it in great detail in Paul’s Letter to the Romans; or you may read succinct summary in Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians; OR you may study your Old Testament and the History of the first century Church as detailed by Luke in The Acts of the Apostles.
With some homework and study of the background leading up to the Letters to the Churches, God will reveal much more than the former and current relevance of all Scripture, including the Good News of these New Testament Letters.
The familiar New Testament story of witness is that a Jew from Judea, with Jerusalem as home of their God, travels to a town.
Take for example, Thessaloniki, Macedonia on the Aegean Sea, with local gentiles (Greeks) of their own traditions and culture. Thessalonians (as they are called) are ruled by the same empire (country) Rome, on the Tyrrhenian Sea, on the Italia peninsula across the Adriatic Sea from Macedonia, with power over all the lands of the Mediterranean.
(The embedded PowerPoint Slideshow by Cooper Church of Christ in Cooper, Texas, US is our homework.)
For 21st century readers of Thessalonians: Consider the hostile environment of the Roman Empire as compared to our current environment in all the world, hostile to Jesus Christ.
- Jews who had dispersed into the Nations (Gentiles) tended to act as if they were morally better than their native hosts.
- ALL Gentiles had in common a civil authority and local culture inclined toward godlessness, unless some rule of god could help maintain the political power of local, state, national, and international rule.
(Of course, 21st century governments are so much different in their attitudes toward religion and God. Right?)
These first century Christians acted different from other “religious” people.
HOW ARE CHRISTIANS DIFFERENT?
WHY would a non-believer WANT to accept our GOOD NEWS?
Learn a lesson from the first century evangelists.
We are ALL the same WITHOUT Christ. Yet ALL believers of every NATION are equal in CHRIST OUR LORD.
