I Thessalonians 2:17-20 - Paul’s Forced Absence from Thessolonica

it was Paul that was forced to remove himself from the Thessalonians!

•The father being separated from his new-found child of God, who he had nurtured like a mother for her child, and also

•“Exhorting and encouraging and imploring each one of you as a father would his own children,” 1 Thessalonians 2:11

•So, I think the separation was more moderate; perhaps like having a child leave for college, or taking an unaccompanied assignment to South Korea.

“9 After the city officials had received bail from Jason and the others, they released them. 10 The brothers sent Paul and Silas off to Berea at once, during the night.” –Acts 17:9-10— NET

Summary

“So Paul encouraged the Thessalonians with the truth that he did love them, evidenced by his desire to see them, the supernatural opposition it took to keep him away, and his view of heaven in which they would be central to his eternal joy. They also were his glory, which is the true honor bestowed upon him by God, who used him to reach them. The pronoun you is in the emphatic position so as to remove any doubt that Paul was identifying his Thessalonian brethren as the source of eternal honor and happiness.” –John MacArthur, Thessalonians, p.74

Application Questions

•What would you say is comparable to Paul’s forced separation from his Church in Thessalonica?

•Do you think the bail bond posted by Jason and others factored into Paul’s desire to revisit Thessalonica?

•When I think of Satan hindering the spread of Christianity, a whole host of agents comes to mind, from Jews to Muslims to the “separation of church and state”. What comes to your mind?

•Seeing the Day of the Lord as a singular event at the end of the age is supposedly an amillennial viewpoint, which I was not aware of previously. Was I brought up wrong?