1 THESSALONIANS 2.1-12

1Th 2:1 For yourselves, brethren, know our entrance in unto you, that it was not in vain:

• In this chapter Paul answers what appear to be questions that false teachers raised about his ministry being truly ordained by God.
• By reading Acts 17, we know that there was great opposition from the unbelieving Jews to the ministry of Paul and the others when they brought the gospel to Thessalonica.
• The opposition to the gospel came not only from the unbelieving Jews, but from lewd (Gr. Degenerate of virtue) men of the baser sort (vulgar). One pastor was reported as saying that The door of opportunity swings on the hinges of opposition.
• Perversion always causes a person to take exception to or be hostile towards the message of Christ. Those who speak out against the truth is because they love darkness rather than light. The Gospel is not only a message of grace and mercy, it is a message of truth. The gospel tells it like it is. Sin is still sin, it is not a genetic problem. Drunkenness is a sin, anger is a sin, lying is a sin; these are not behavioral malfunctions. Mans problems are sin problems whether it is a heterosexual being promiscuous or a homosexual being perverse.
• The answer for sin is a Saviour, not a psychologist or shock therapy. The wages of sin is death (that’s the bad news), but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ (that’s the good news). 
• The main point of chapter 1 was Paul’s thanksgiving for the grace that God had bestowed upon the Thessalonians’ to be a faithful and dynamic witness. The ironic climax of 1:6-10 was that Paul and his coworkers did not need to preach Christ as much in the areas where the Thessalonians faith had spread (1:8). Consequently, his visit was “not in vain.”
• The exhortation to all followers of Jesus tonight is this:
• 1Co 15:58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.
• Nothing that is done for The Lord Jesus is a waste or in vain beloved.

2 But even after that we had suffered before, and were shamefully entreated, as ye know, at Philippi, we were bold in our God to speak unto you the gospel of God with much contention (opposition; Gr. agon; from where we get the word agony).

• Much contention- This was a word often used in reference to the Grecian games. Paul uses it here to emphasize the great struggle he willingly endured for the sake of the gospel. Paul knew his preaching of the gospel in Thessalonica might result in the same suffering he received in Philippi.

• Suffered and were shamefully treated- In Philippi Paul and Silas had been stripped, beaten, thrown into prison, and their feet fastened in stocks. It had not only been an extremely painful experience but humiliating as well, since they were flogged naked in public, without trial, and in spite of their Roman citizenship.
• Also note here how in spite of the shameful treatment, they proclaimed the gospel of God. They were bold in our God, which in the Greek language means that they were, “frank in utterance, or confident in spirit and demeanor.” They did not compromise the message. They were not cocky or argumentative. They simply spoke the truth in love. The righteous are bold as a lion. May God grant us the boldness that reflects the character of Jesus Christ saints.

3 For our exhortation was not of deceit, nor of uncleanness, nor in guile:

• In this verse, Paul debunks three accusations surrounding his ministry. First, Paul’s ministry did not come from deceit; rather, it was grounded in the truth of God’s Word.
• Second, Paul’s ministry did not come from uncleanness (impurity) for he was a man of purity. Water flows through pipes. If the pipe is rusty, the water may flow but there will be discoloration and sediment in the water. It will taste of the pipe.
• Third, Paul’s ministry did not come from guile for he was an honest man. They were using Jesus to manipulate them for personal advantage.
• Paul didn’t use trickery or slick salesmanship to sell the gospel, assuring people of things that the gospel never promises.
• In other words, their motivation in sharing the gospel was pure.... The message that Paul delivered was upfront, straightforward about what it means to follow Jesus Christ. He did not come to them under the influence of any impure desire for personal advantage, but by the will of God and for His glory.
• They weren’t out to prove anything; they were only concerned with pleasing The Lord Who died for them by taking advantage of the door that He had opened to them.

4 But as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak; not as pleasing men, but God, which trieth our hearts.

• Allowed of God-God had given them the gospel as a trust. They were "stewards of the mysteries of God" [1Co 4:1]. They spoke as those who were seeking to please God instead of men. Ga 1:10 For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.
• It is interesting to note that the word allowed speaks of one that has been put to the test and approved to share the truth of God. Paul is not boasting in himself, but in the grace of God. It was by God’s grace that he was called to proclaim the Gospel and enabled to be a faithful and approved servant.
• As we learned last in chapter 1, our faith in The Lord must be more than words. Talk void of action is cheap, especially when it is fluent Those are most effective in sharing the truth of Jesus Christ by how they live out the truth in the day to day grind of life.  Christianeze The true entrance of the gospel into a person’s heart results in a life that has been radically changed by the power of The Holy Ghost and the truth of God’s Word.
• Not as pleasing men, but as pleasing God- What is meant by pleasing men has been explained in the Epistle to the Galatians, (Gal 1:10). Please note beloved that Paul contrasts pleasing men, and pleasing God, as things that are opposed to each other.
• A fundamental principle of being a disciple of Jesus Christ is placing His interests and will above all other people (including myself) and all other things. (Luke 14.25-33).
• Beloved if you have chosen to date an unsaved person, then you have chosen that person over Christ. If you have chosen to spend all of your time and money on keeping up your lifestyle instead of giving unto The Lord, than you have chosen things above Christ. It is that simple saints. If you choose to be silent about Jesus instead of speaking out or speaking up when you know you should, than you have chosen your own comfort over being faithful to Jesus.
• Paul’s enemies always sought to find some dirt of impure motive as the reason for his devotion to the work God had called them to. He simply sought to please Jesus Christ. He simply saying that as a man that has been called by God into ministry, the dominant goal and deepest desire in his life and ministry was to please God above all else
• We must be careful that we do not misunderstand what Paul is saying here. When Paul states that he only sought to please God, he was not saying that he did not care how he lived in front of people or what they thought about his way of life, but that he just answered to God. Sometimes you hear men say, “I don’t have to answer to people; I just answer to God” and they say that as an excuse for not being accountable to anybody or for indulging in a “liberty” that may in fact cause someone to stumble or be made weak. That’s not what Paul is saying here.
• Beloved, our life and work will one day come to an end and we will stand before God. Knowing this, as followers of The Lord Jesus Christ, we ought to make it our highest aim to do whatever God calls us to do from a heart that is set on pleasing Him. In other words beloved, we should not only seek to being doing the right things but from the right motives and always for His glory and honor.

5 For neither at any time used we flattering words, as ye know, nor a cloke of covetousness; God is witness:

• Paul calls God as a witness to the motives of his ministry.
• Flattering words- Paul would have used flattering words if he had sought to please men. Instead, he told them the plain truth about the gospel of Christ and their need to repent of their self-righteousness and unbiblical ideas about God and how a person is saved.
• He would go on to tell them about the call of God to live a life of holiness and sexual purity. He would go on to tell them about personal responsibility and the importance of hard work as opposed to being lazy and taking undue advantage of their brothers and sisters in Christ.
• He didn’t fashion his message based upon what he thought the people would want to hear....he didn’t cater his message to appeal to their flesh, but to minister grace and manna for their souls.
• Cloke of covetousness- Unfortunately, there are preachers and teachers who twist the Scriptures for their own financial and material gain. It has been rightly said that where avarice and ambition reign, innumerable corruptions follow.
• The apostles were not out to rip the people off financially. They did not use either The Name of Jesus or His gospel as a means of any covetous or selfish purposes.

6 Nor of men sought we glory, neither of you, nor yet of others, when we might have been burdensome, as the apostles of Christ. {been...: or, used authority}

• They did not push their spiritual weight around as apostles. They did not intimidate people or lord over people.
• There are some people who seek to be in ministry because of this deep need to be important or the longing to have power and authority over others.  How tragic when a person seeks glory for doing what The Spirit of God equips them to do and enables them to do.
• Ps 115:1 Not unto us, O LORD, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truth's sake.
• Jeremiah told the scribe Baruch, Jer 45:5 And seekest thou great things for thyself? seek them not:
• It has been said that we are never more like the devil than when in our hearts we hunger and thirst for the glory, the adulation or the praises that belong only to Jesus Christ.
• Revelation 4.11 tells us that we exist for His pleasure and for His glory.
• Matt 6.13 For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

The following verses indicate the kind of character these men of God had.

7 But we were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherisheth her children:

• Gentle; Lit, mild in bearing with the faults of others"; one, too, who is gentle (though firm) in reproving the erroneous opinions of others.
• As a nursing mother is ready to impart not only her milk to her child, but her life for them as well, so Paul and the others not only imparted gladly the spiritual milk of the word to these saints, they also laid down their own lives for their spiritual nourishment, imitating Him who laid down His life for His friends, the greatest proof of love (Joh 15:13)
• This spirit of gentleness is also to be demonstrated in our efforts to win the lost to Christ.
• 2Ti 2:24 And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient,  25 In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; 26 And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.
• The apostles knew (as I hope each and every one of us know) that every single person that has not repented of their sin and totally committed their lives to Christ, is living in the snares or traps of the devil. They blinded by the god of this world and his cunning philosophies that steal, kill and destroy life.
• The lost do not need legalism or criticism, they need the truth of the gospel combined with the compassion of Christ. 

8 So being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because ye were dear unto us.

• Affectionately desirous of you- In other words, they were men of compassion. God calls His children to be people of compassion and tenderness.
• They imparted their own souls unto them- Paul told the saints at Corinth, I seek not yours, but you: for the children ought not to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children.And I will very gladly spend and be spent for you; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved. (2 Cor 12.14,15).
• This is the responsibility of the church in the world. For too many Christians, the church has become a “bomb shelter” where we hide from the big bad people of the world. Beloved, the world is our mission field. We all bear the privilege and responsibility to share Christ with others. And a huge way that we share Christ is by being men and women of compassion. That is the emotion that is cited in the gospels when Jesus looked out at the multitudes. He was moved with compassion on them, because they were as sheep without a shepherd.

9 For ye remember, brethren, our labour and travail: for labouring night and day, because we would not be chargeable unto any of you, we preached unto you the gospel of God.

• Because the church was unable to take care them, they worked to provide for their own needs. No doubt the ground on which Paul was unwilling that his necessities should be ministered to, was —lest such a thing should put any hindrance in the way of the gospel. Likewise, he received nothing from the Corinthians, lest he should give the false apostles a handle for glorying as to this matter.
• However, if you read 1 Corinthians 9, Paul makes it clear in that passage that he doesn’t consider it wrong for a man to live off the preaching of the gospel.  And in 1 Timothy 5 he says that an elder who both rules and teaches is worthy of “double honor,” which presumes that elders would in fact be paid for their work.
• Paul’s work ethic was a pattern that could be followed. Beloved, your vocation is not only a calling of God, but an expression of worship unto Him. When our work is done as unto The Lord, it serves as a powerful witness. Tragically, many Christians give Christianity a black-eye because of either laziness or their poor work ethics.

10 Ye are witnesses (as to our outward conduct), and God also (as to our inner motives), how holily (towards God) and justly (towards men) and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that believe:

• So to defend his integrity against the accusations of his opponents, Paul has called on God as a witness of his conscience, and the saints in Thessalonica as witnesses of what they had known by experience.

• Holy- The word holy speaks of inward affections toward both God and man; the word justly refers to their outward behavior toward God and man.

• Unblameably- Paul means to say that no one could make an accusation against him and make it stick. No one could say, “Aha! I gotcha!” To be “blameless” means to live in such a way that no one can successfully make a serious charge against you. It means living in such a way that anyone who finds fault with you would have to be telling a lie to do it!

11 As ye know how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you, as a father doth his children,

• Paul says that he demonstrated his father-like care for them in 3 ways.
• Exhorting- speaks of pressing upon God’s people the need to live a life of godliness.
• Comforting- to draw one near in order to console them. He put fresh heart into those who were discouraged or afflicted.
• Charging- suggests the idea of insisting or requiring that a certain course of action be adopted. Some suggest the translation, challenged.
• Paul himself, in Ac 20:26, declares himself to be free from the blood of all men, because he did not cease to admonish all publicly, and also individually in private in their own houses.
• The next verse will explain to us the reason why Paul and the other apostles were nursing them like a mother and exhorting, comforting and charging them like a father?

12 That ye would walk worthy of God, who hath called you unto his kingdom and glory.

• "Worthy of the Lord" (Col 1:10); of the Gospel" (Php 1:27) "... of the vocation wherewith ye are called" (Eph 4:1). Inconsistency in walking worthy gives the unsaved cause to blaspheme The Name of Jesus. The Greek article is emphatical, "Worthy of THE God who is calling you."
• Later on Paul would write, 1Th 4:1 Furthermore then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more.
• Many times in our lives, it really isn’t a matter of doing what is right or wrong, but doing what pleases me or my Master. If pleasing Jesus doesn’t violate the will of your flesh, then you and I have never really known what it means to serve Jesus and have true fellowship with Him.
• Walking worthy of God is not always convenient. Walking in love and putting Jesus first will drive your flesh up the wall. We have been bought with a price in order that we might serve Jesus with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength.
• In exhorting them to walk worthy of God, may we observe that Paul doesn’t give them a list of rules, rituals, and regulations. Instead, he urges them to consider the grace and call of God upon their lives as the inspiration to walk worthy of God.
• The way to walk worthy of God is really simple….model all that you believe, think, say and do after the example and character conduct of  Jesus Christ. May KF be a city set upon a hill. A light in a world of darkness. May we purpose this week to make our lives count for Jesus and His kingdom.