FAITH and conversion in Jesus Christ means receiving the gospel by the example of life whereby one’s transformation becomes a life model to others (1 Thessalonians 1:5c-10). The greatest commandment is simply a life of love for God and others as the core of conversion (Matthew 22:34-40).
Life imitation in Christ
Paul recalls and analyzes to the Christians of Thessalonica how they converted to Jesus Christ. From their pagan, polytheistic backgrounds, they received the word of the gospel and turned from their idols to God. They have learned to serve the living and true God. They have found their faith in Christ, as God’s divine Son, who was put to death but whom God raised from the dead. They now, together with all believers, await God’s Son in His coming and return from His glory in heaven. It is this faith in Christ Jesus that delivers them all from the approaching wrath in the judgment of the whole world. They now proclaim with all the faithful: Christ has died; Christ is risen; Christ will come again.
This saving conversion to God in Christ on the part of the Thessalonians happened, Paul now emphasizes, by way of example of life. The gospel passed to them through the ministry of Paul, Silas and Timothy. The apostle could frankly tell the Thessalonians, “You know what sort of people we were among you for your sake.” The manner of living on the part of Paul and his missionary companions converted them to Christ. The personal examples of the three in their own lives of faith moved them and powerfully passed on to them the message of the gospel. The Thessalonians became imitators of Paul and his companions. In imitating them, they become followers of the Lord Jesus.
A model for all
The Christians in Thessalonica opened themselves to the Holy Spirit who guided Paul and company to go to them. In the power of the Spirit and in joy they received the gospel, even if it means getting involved in the great affliction, the tribulations associated with the end time. For one, it concretely means being seen as subversives by others who do not accept the one God as they do, which had actually resulted in Paul’s own expulsion from the city. In the midst of affliction, the gospel was brought to them; they received the gospel in the midst of affliction, and in the midst of affliction they give witness to it to others.
“With joy from the Holy Spirit” in their life of faith, the Christians of Thessalonica have become “a model for all believers in Macedonia and in Achaia.” Throughout the Roman provinces in eastern Greece, the reputation of the conversion and profound change among the Thessalonians has become known. “In every place your faith in God has gone forth.” For Paul, there is no need any more to boast to anyone about the Thessalonians; the details how they received the bearers of the gospel, and how they have been transformed from their lives of idolatry into faithfulness to God are well-known already.
As the greatest command
After the priestly and aristocratic group failed to pin down and shame Jesus in public, the next to try were the Pharisees, the pious lay group known for their strict adherence to the Mosaic Law. To identify the most important commandment is very tricky, considering that there were then 633 commandments for the Jewish people: 365 prohibitions (one for each day of the year) and 268 prescriptions (one for each bone in the body). Whatever Jesus says would surely be contested by some, especially among experts.
Jesus, instead of singling out any one statute, endorses the most significant prayer of the Jews, the Shema (Deuteronomy 6:5): The injunction to love God with all one’s heart and soul, adding “with all your mind” to emphasize the total engagement of the person. This love of God, which must not be superficial rather occupying one’s entire being, has a companion commandment like it: love of one’s neighbor as oneself (Leviticus 19:18). The two are not identical but interrelated and inseparable. Jesus is asserting that the entire religious tradition is dependent on this commandment of love.
Alálaong bagá, there is no genuine religiosity and fidelity to God’s will that does not flow from the love of God and love of others. Life itself is grounded in love. Out of love we have been created, and we exist in the order of love and in order to love. We can be happy only if we live in love. Christ’s direction that we love God and love one another is simply telling us how to be in accord with our God-given nature.
The Christians of Thessalonica received with joy this gospel of love in Christ. They experienced Paul’s and his companions’ lives filled with love of God and of Christ and of one another. They were inspired and became their imitators in spite of the consequent alienation from their former world of idolatrous self-love. Belonging now among God’s own beloved, the Thessalonians have in turn become a model worthy to be imitated by others.
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