What has God destined you for? What has he destined all of us for? Way back in 1985, Eddie DeGarmo and Dana Key sang that we are destined to win. And while that’s certainly true, it’s not the only thing that we’re destined for. According to 1 Thessalonians 3:3-4, we are also destined for trials, and for persecution. That’s a bit less encouraging. But God didn’t just throw this bad news at us without explanation. So let’s dig into the Scriptures and see if we can understand what God’s word is really saying.
1 Thessalonians was one of the Apostle Paul’s earlier letters, possibly his second. (Paul’s letters in the New Testament are not arranged by date, but by length, from longest to shortest, although letters addressed to the same person or church are grouped together.) Acts 17:1-9 records the short visit of Paul and Silas to Thessalonica during Paul’s second missionary journey. After leaving that city they traveled, along with Timothy, to Berea, then Athens, and eventually to Corinth, where they stayed for about a year and a half (Acts 18:9-11). It was probably while Paul was in Corinth that he wrote this letter.
One of the things that impressed Paul about the Thessalonians is how quickly some of them turned from idols to serve Christ, despite knowing that they would face persecution for doing so. He interpreted this, in fact, as a sign that the gospel was being spread by the power of the Holy Spirit, and not by human words alone. In his letter he writes:
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. You know how we lived among you for your sake. You became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you welcomed the message in the midst of severe suffering with the joy given by the Holy Spirit. And so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. The Lord’s message rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia – your faith in God has become known everywhere. Therefore we do not need to say anything about it, for they themselves report what kind of reception you gave us. They tell how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead – Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath (1 Thessalonians 1:4-10).
The suffering Paul writes about was real. Those who listened to the apostles’ message, or even showed friendship toward them, were being dragged before city officials and accused of serious crimes, including treason against the emperor (Acts 17:6-7). But people listened anyway, and many of them believed. Nor did they believe in secret; the Thessalonian believers spread the word of Christ throughout the entire region, as others could well testify – Paul specifically lists the believers of Macedonia and Achaia as witnesses to the zeal of the Thessalonians. Far from suppressing the message, opposition to the gospel seems to have increased its appeal.
Opposition was not limited to just the city of Thessalonica; the Thessalonians had been told what had happened to Paul and Silas in Philippi (described in Acts 16:16-40), how the apostles had been flogged and then thrown into prison, only to have the prison doors miraculously open during the night. And how God had used their faithfulness in the face of suffering to produce a harvest for Christ. It was immediately after that experience that Paul and his companions came to Thessalonica.
We had previously suffered and been treated outrageously in Philippi, as you know, but with the help of our God we dared to tell you his gospel in the face of strong opposition (1 Thessalonians 2:2-3).
The Thessalonians knew that God had not protected the apostles from being persecuted. Rather, he had used their suffering as the very means to bring glory to Christ, to advance the kingdom, and to bring salvation to the jailer’s family. And not only to that family, but to everyone else who would later believe because of their witness. That’s the historical context here. Far from being stopped by persecution, the apostles, when they arrived in Thessalonica, were actually encouraged by having gone through it.
But, brothers and sisters, when we were orphaned by being separated from you for a short time (in person, not in thought), out of our intense longing we made every effort to see you (1 Thessalonians 2:17)
Luke tells us in Acts 17 that Paul and Silas spent only a short time in Thessalonica – three Sabbaths preaching to the Jews, with no mention of any further time beyond that. And after they had been driven out and gone to Berea, a crowd of Thessalonian Jews came to harass them there as well (Acts 17:13). With such a short time of ministry, and in the face of such intense opposition, it’s no wonder the apostles were concerned that their efforts might have been undone:
For this reason, when I could stand it no longer, I sent to find out about your faith. I was afraid that in some way the tempter had tempted you and that our labors might have been in vain (1 Thessalonians 3:5).
In the face of persecution, Paul’s fear was not that the believers in Thessalonica would be arrested, or hurt, or even killed, but that they might fall into temptation. This is just what Jesus, years earlier, had also prayed that his disciples would be protected from:
I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one. While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled (John 17:11-12).
According to Christ’s own words, he had not protected “the one doomed to destruction,” that is, Judas Iscariot, which shows us that the protection he was speaking of was protection from falling into temptation. The ending of the Lord’s prayer in Matthew 6:13 shows something similar – the plea to be delivered from evil is contrasted with being led into temptation, not with physical danger. It strikes me as I read this, how often we in the church today ask God to protect us and our loved ones physically, and how seldom we ask him to protect us from temptation to sin. Paul, however, aligns with Jesus in his concern for the Thessalonians; it’s not the threat to their physical safety that worries them, but the danger that they might fall into sin.
From what we’ve already seen so far in this letter, however, it’s clear that what actually happened was just the opposite of what they’d feared. Despite everything, the believers in Thessalonica had remained faithful. More than that, in fact; they had been witnesses of Christ’s power to everyone in the region.
It’s in this context, now, that Paul writes:
We sent Timothy, who is our brother and co-worker in God’s service in spreading the gospel of Christ, to strengthen and encourage you in your faith, so that no one would be unsettled by these trials. For you know quite well that we are destined for them. In fact, when we were with you, we kept telling you that we would be persecuted. And it turned out that way, as you well know (1 Thessalonians 3:2-4).
Along with the gospel message, or more likely, included as a part of it, the apostles had warned the Thessalonians that if they turned to Christ they would be persecuted. The treatment Paul and Silas had received in Philippi, and even events within the city of Thessalonica itself during his visit, backed that up. We might expect that hearing about trials and suffering would discourage people from coming to Christ, but Paul refused to gloss over that part. He warned the Thessalonians clearly about what was coming, so that they would be prepared when it did. And he did it also because, as he says at the beginning of the letter, it was the Holy Spirit that the Thessalonians were responding to, and not just human words.
Like Paul and his companions, and like the believers in Thessalonica, we too are destined for trials:
In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evildoers and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived (2 Timothy 3:12-13).
The people who refused to listen to Jesus were not merely apathetic to him; they actively hated him. So much that they demanded he be crucified. After his resurrection, many of those who rejected faith in him for themselves worked hard to make sure no one else could believe either. And as I pray to become a faithful ambassador of Christ, it’s with the certain knowledge that those who hate him will also hate me. Jesus himself warned his disciples about this (John 15:19-21). Some people may even think they’ll be doing the world a service if they kill me.
It’s easy, sitting here at my computer, to say that I’ll do anything God calls me to do. Too easy. Peter made that promise and then, that same night, he denied three times that he even knew Jesus. As I related in a previous article, almost thirty years ago I asked God to make me the kind of man who would stay faithful even if every trace of his presence seemed to vanish. I asked that, foolishly believing I was already that kind of man. I was wrong. I don’t dare ever forget what I went through after praying that prayer. So when I see this warning in 1 Thessalonians, and consider the idea of being hated for the sake of Christ, I have to admit that I don’t know if I’m strong enough, or wise enough, or loving enough, to remain faithful. But I do want to be. I don’t want to fall away again. I really do want Jesus to be seen and heard in all that I do and say. And all I can do is submit to my Father’s will, and trust that he will hold me up when I’m not strong enough to stand on my own.
Paul and his companions faced that same hatred. They suffered because of it. So did the church in Thessalonica. But they came through it and remained strong, because they paid more attention to what God was doing than to what they were suffering. In fact, as a result of their experience, it became apparent, to themselves as well as to others, that they were not acting out of any kind of wrong motives. By taking away every earthly benefit from preaching the gospel, God proved that the apostles were working for him, and not for their own gain.
In the same way, I now look back on the things I wen through all those years ago, and I praise God for what he was doing in me, even though I don’t yet fully understand everything he did. One thing I can see now, although I didn’t see it then, was that God took away every earthly benefit to following him. And even when he brought me back, after I had turned away from him, those benefits were not restored. I learned, slowly, painfully, and imperfectly, to give up everything to follow Christ. To give up even the benefits of fellowship and love that normally come from following him. And every time I look back, I am once again called to remember who I am, and who Christ has shown himself to be. I know that I can not trust myself to remain faithful. But I also know that I can trust him.