A little while ago, I produced a verse by verse series in Philippians. I really enjoyed that exercise and have been wondering if I should take on another book. Well it turns out that 1 Thessalonians is the victim of my machinations, and hopefully, the thoughts produced by this fantastic book will edify and encourage the reader.

As with Philippians I am going to limit each post to one verse, and hopefully produce a short, succinct read for my friends who follow.

1 Thessalonians 3:1 Therefore when we could bear it no longer, we were willing to be left behind at Athens alone,

As a young believer, many many moons ago, I searched the Scriptures to find the truth regarding the premillennial pretribulation rapture teaching. For those who may not have heard of this teaching, it refers to the sudden catching up of the saints prior to the great tribulation that was/is to come upon the earth in the last days. I scoured and found every hint of teaching that might slightly refer or suggest such a glorious teaching. I was expert, taught it passionately and lived in anticipation of being taken up.

After all, Revelation 4:1 speaks clearly of the pretrib rapture.

Revelation 4:1 After this I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven! And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.”

Since John was told to “come up here”, obviously acting as a model for the church more than 2000 years in the future, and was called up before any of the following horrible depictions described in Revelation was provided, logic led me to believer this was irrefutable evidence of the pretribulational rapture.

Irrefutable logic!!! Or so I thought!

Our verse this morning seems to fight against that teaching though. It must be obvious to all that when Paul spoke of being “left behind”, he was referring to the teaching of the tribulational time schedule and date declaring that many find scattered throughout the Word.

Of course I jest, for when I saw the “left behind” term in our verse, my mind lept to foolishness. This minor side comment reminded me how easy it is, at least for myself, to find a passage and build a teaching that takes me down a garden path.

Irrefutable silliness!!!!

Suffice it to say, Paul is not speaking of the end times in this verse. I tend to think John wasn’t thinking end times either, but that is for a different time.

Paul is speaking of a self sacrificial giving up of one who was near and dear to him, one who was his closest ally while he is on mission, his child in the faith, the man he was grooming for great things. Timothy would be sent, with Paul left behind in Athens, a city he found little fruit in.

As a matter of fact, it appears that according to Acts 17, Paul had commanded Timothy and Silas to come to him as soon as possible in Athens. I assume that as these two men were on their way to minister to Paul, he gave instructions for Timothy to detour to Thessalonica.

Act 17:14-15

14 Then the brothers immediately sent Paul off on his way to the sea, but Silas and Timothy remained there. 15 Those who conducted Paul brought him as far as Athens, and after receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible, they departed.

So though this verse does not speak of end time escatological timing or provide a detailed rapture schedule, it does speak of the love of God, the self sacrificial love of God being expressed in the actions of an apostle that cared more for his people than for his own needs.

To balance out this self sacrificial act, Paul does speak of his inability to bear the burden of not connecting with his church, but even if we consider this to dull the point of the self sacrificial love he had for them, and that it was simply to provide him relief from this burden of taking care of the church, the end result is the same. He gave up for his church, not only out of love for them, but also to relieve the concerns and cares he had for his church because HE LOVED THEM.

No matter how you slice this little passage up, we can glean two truths, a varying importance from it.

Our first truth? This is definitely the greatest truth to cull from this passage!

Paul loved his church self sacrificially. This is a heart worth having, a heart that reflects the very love of God, in a sacrificial, other centered love.

Our second truth? This is definitely the least important, silliest “truth” to come across, even to the point that if you ignore it, my feelings wouldn’t be hurt in the least.

Paul was willing to be “left behind” for his church, modeling the church in relation to a tribulation schedule. Yes – this is a foolish statement, but it is good to remember the great teaching throughout the Word, and to avoid distractions such as time schedules and date settings.

Let us remember the major teachings of the Word, the infinite love of God, the sacrificial love of the Son and the patient endurance of the Holy Spirit in our lives as we seek to follow the Living God. Timing and schedules are for those who want to major on the minors, and miss out on so much. Leave the highly subjective and overly detailed schedules behind and focus on the One who leads us.

---

Follow Considering the Bible on WordPress.com

Thanks again for coming to visit. I hope you found something of interest in this post and would appreciate a comment, to begin a discussion.