February 19, 1995
As the apostle Paul sought to clarify his ministry in this letter to the Thessalonians, he commended them for recognizing and responding to the Gospel as the very word of God. Alistair Begg helps us to understand the process of preaching and receiving God’s Word as well as the product that results from that exchange. These words challenge us to become imitators of faithful churches like the one in Thessolonica, even in the face of persecution and suffering.
13And we also thank God constantly4 for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men5 but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers. 14For you, brothers, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea. For you suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they did from the Jews,6 15who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out, and displease God and oppose all mankind 16by hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles that they might be saved—so as always to fill up the measure of their sins. But wrath has come upon them at last!7
Copyright © 2023, Alistair Begg. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Text provided by the Crossway Bibles Web Service.