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“For you also suffered the same things from your own countrymen,
just as they did from the Judeans” (1 Thess. 2:14, NKJV)
There is a special bond in adversity. Veterans of war carry an understanding that those who have not been to war cannot really share. We can think in abstract terms and recognize to some degree the horrors and atrocities veterans speak of but we cannot truly relate.
Paul speaks to the Thessalonians as those who can relate. In Judea the apostle first was a dispenser of persecution and then became an object of it when he himself aligned with Christ. He addresses them as “brethren.” They not only shared the faith, they also shared in the sufferings of Christ.
Brethren here is layered with the idea of a band of brothers who experienced persecution for the sake of the gospel. “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” (1 Thess. 2:14).
In a sense, persecution was a badge of honor. Following His giving of the Beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount, our Lord Jesus amplified the final beatitude in Matthew 5:10 by saying: “Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Matt. 5:11–12). Luke records that, after being beaten and berated, Peter and the other apostles “departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name” (Acts 5:41).
When you represent a nation, there is a certain pride in fighting under its flag. How much more so is that the case with the kingdom of God, only our battle is not physical, it is spiritual! We do not wield the sword of steel. We wield the sword of the Spirit Whose piercings reach to heart and mind and soul in service to Jesus Christ, as has been in evidence in Paul’s work among the Thessalonians.
Paul brings to bear the suffering our Lord faced at the hands of the Jews, “who killed both the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they do not please God and are contrary to all men” (1 Thess. 2:15). He highlights opposition to God and His Christ.
What Paul, a Jew, is describing is not anti-Semitism. He is describing anti-evangelism. These Jews stood against the evangel, the gospel itself, which Paul describes to Timothy: “Remember that Jesus Christ, of the seed of David, was raised from the dead according to my gospel” (2 Tim. 2:8). The gospel is about Jesus, the seed of promise in victory over sin and death.
And the Jews stood against gospel proclamation. Paul goes on: “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” (1 Thess. 2:16).
Salvation is in God’s Messiah, Jesus Christ. John tells us that “He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name” (John 1:11–12). That promise is not only to Jews, nor is it only to Gentiles.
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, ‘The just shall live by faith’” (Rom. 1:16–17).
There are those who engage in political protest wanting to be arrested, wanting to suffer for their cause, particularly if it is filmed. But for us as Christians, while persecution is likely, it is not something we seek. What we seek is the kingdom of God and to walk in the manner of our Lord Jesus.
Why should we expect opposition and oppression in our service to the gospel?
If you have found this meditation helpful, take a moment and give thanks to God. Then share what you learned with a friend. This is how the grace of God spreads (2 Cor. 4.15).
Except as indicated, all Scriptures are taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
