Words in italic type have been added for clarity. They are not found in the original Hebrew or Aramaic.

I Thessalonians 2

• About the title: God entrusted Paul with the Gospel.
  However, an encrusted heart is a hardened heart.
  
  Hebrews 3:7 “Today, if you will hear His voice, ⁸ Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion,
  in the day of trial in the wilderness, ⁹ Where your fathers tested Me, tried Me, And saw My works forty years.
  ¹⁰ Therefore, I was angry with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart,
  And they have not known My ways.’ ¹¹ So I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest.’ ”
  
  But exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today”, lest any of you be hardened (Encrusted) through the deceitfulness of sin.”
  

Paul’s Conduct

I Thessalonians 2:1 For you yourselves know, brethren, that our coming to you was not in vain (emptiness).

I Thessalonians 2:2 But even after we had suffered before and were spitefully treated at Philippi, as you know, we were bold in our God to speak to you the gospel of God in much conflict.

Some are Entrusted, Some are Encrusted

I Thessalonians 2:3 For our exhortation did not come from error or uncleanness, nor was it in deceit.

I Thessalonians 2:4 But as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, even so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who tests our hearts.

• God entrusts those who are endowed with the Holy Spirit to be the Good News (Gospel), not imprinted with writing, but baptized, raised from the waters of eternal death into the encompassing rays of eternal life, sealed, mustered, and sent out as Light to expose the darkness.
  Hearts are tried and tested, fruit grown and watered by tears, counted and weighed, documented for the day when the Book of Remembrance and the Book of Works are retrieved from the shelves of God’s Temple in heaven. Then God will judge men, and, like the stars of the heavens, they are destined to either shine with the Glory of God – or be extinguished forever.
  
  Therefore, daily I wipe away my tears, review my commission, take upon my shoulders the weapon of war, the cross, and like a good soldier of Christ, I go out, leaving the footprints of God’s love for all men, taking territory with my very life.
  
  “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” (Gal 2:20)
  

Every Decision Starts with a Choice, and like the Cross, Jesus is in the middle of the Crossroads.

I Thessalonians 2:5 For neither at any time did we use flattering words, as you know, nor a cloak for covetousness (pretext for greed)—God is witness.

• Humiliated, rejected, mocked,
  I die upon my cross.
  Not once, not twice, nay – daily,
  For one, even only one – the lost.

He, a Just One for Just One.

I Thessalonians 2:6 Nor did we seek glory from men, either from you or from others, when we might have made demands as apostles of Christ.

The Demand on Satan’s Unlimited Credit Card of Debt Must Be Paid – By Death, and in Blood.

• Guilty! Say the Stones of Fire!
  By God’s own Laws,
  The debt that’s made,
  Must be paid,
  To man’s accuser, Satan.
  

Until the Debt of Sin is Paid in Full
Satan Feasts on the Interest,
Eating away at Man’s Own Soul.

I Thessalonians 2:7 But we were gentle among you, just as a nursing mother cherishes her own children.

I Thessalonians 2:8 So, affectionately longing for you, we were well pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God, but also our own lives, because you had become dear to us.

I Thessalonians 2:9 For you remember, brethren, our labor and toil; for laboring night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, we preached to you the gospel of God.

I Thessalonians 2:10 You are witnesses, and God also, how devoutly and justly and blamelessly we behaved ourselves among you who believe;

I Thessalonians 2:11 as you know how we exhorted, and comforted, and charged (implored) every one of you, as a father does his own children,

I Thessalonians 2:12 that you would walk worthy of God who calls you into His own kingdom and glory.

• The Kingdom of God (The All in All) swallows up the Kingdom of Heaven.
  
  

Their Conversion

I Thessalonians 2:13 For this reason we also thank God without ceasing, because when you (the Thessalonians) received the word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe.

I Thessalonians 2:14 For you, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God which are in Judea in Christ Jesus. For you also suffered the same things from your own countrymen, just as they did from the Judeans,

• In blood, in tears, in sweat, in death.
  The demand that’s made
  must now be met.

I Thessalonians 2:15 who killed both the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they do not please God and are contrary (hostile) to all men,

Crucified, Died …

I Thessalonians 2:16 forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they may be saved, so as always to fill up the measure of their sins; but wrath has come upon them to the uttermost.

Arose, ALIVE!

Longing to See Them

I Thessalonians 2:17 But we, brethren, having been taken away from you for a short time in presence, not in heart, endeavored more eagerly to see your face with great desire.

I Thessalonians 2:18 Therefore we wanted to come to you—even I, Paul, time and again—but Satan hindered us.

I Thessalonians 2:19 For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Is it not even you in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at His coming?

I Thessalonians 2:20 For you are our glory and joy.

• Romans 5:7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. ⁸ But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us

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