TODAY IN THE WORD
In central Asian countries, such as Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, new Christians are considered traitors both to native religious traditions and to their own families. Many new converts are isolated or beaten to “bring them back to their senses.” Yet remarkably, Christianity is growing here. What the Thessalonian church experienced from nonbelieving neighbors has been repeated worldwide for the past two thousand years. In fact, what the Thessalonians endured had already been experienced by the Judean churches, as Paul notes in our passage.

Paul likely linked the experiences of the Thessalonian church with Jewish believers in Judea to show these Gentile converts that those who received the gospel at the very beginning were also persecuted. In other words, the Thessalonians hadn't done something wrong, rather persecution often went hand-in-hand with the gospel.

The mention of the Jews in today's passage is troublesome for some who may think it suggests anti-Semitic sentiments on the part of Paul or the early church. Recall, however, that Paul, a Jew, never opposed the Jews as an entire group simply because they were Jewish, but only those Jews who rejected Jesus as the promised Messiah. Moreover, not all Jews opposed the gospel, as Paul's own conversion makes clear. Also recall from our study on Acts (see September 2007), that Paul's strategy was always to minister first in local synagogues until he was forced to leave, just as he had done in Thessalonica.

In addition to rejecting God's Messiah, Jews who opposed the gospel made matters worse by seeking to prevent evangelism among Gentiles. As Bible scholar R. C. H. Lenski writes, “The worst feature of unbelief is not its own damnation, but its effort to frustrate the salvation of others.” This is the idea behind heaping up their sins and God's wrath coming upon these Jews (v. 16). Yet Romans 9 through 11 teaches that Israel's rejection of God's plan leads to the gospel coming to the Gentiles and that God's promises for Israel have not been voided in the process.

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TODAY ALONG THE WAY
Today's passage focuses on God's unique purposes for Israel. It also offers encouragement in a more general way that persecutors of the gospel aren't outside the scope of God's sovereign purposes. The International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church began in 1996 and has grown to become one of the largest days of prayer. As Christians pray for their persecuted brothers and sisters, it's also important to pray for those who persecute. To learn more, you can visit www.persecutedchurch.org.

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