Receiving the Word of Men as the Word of God
Text: “and you became imitators of us and of the Lord when, in spite of severe persecution, you welcomed the message with the joy from the Holy Spirit” (1 Thess. 1:6).
“Also, this is why we constantly thank God, because when you received the message about God that you heard from us, you welcomed it not as a human message, but as it truly is, the message of God, which also works effectively in you believers. (1 Thessalonians 2:13, Holman Christian Standard Bible)
Date and Occasion of Writing: “Fill with anxiety for the church in Thessalonica, from Corinth, late A.D. 50 or early A.D. 51, Paul wrote this letter: Would the brethren stand fast under the persecution which had come upon them? Would they begin to question the trustworthiness of either the gospel (3:5) or him (3:6)? Would they have misunderstood his continued absence from them (2:17-18)?
Introduction
1. The context of 1 Thess. 2:13 is one where Paul must prove the genuineness of both his ministry and the faith of the Christians at Thessalonica, against the background of insincere Sophists and fraudulent Cynics.
2. Sophists were itinerant philosophers who made a living from attracting groups of people to hear them give advice on how to climb the ladder of civic life. Often they were accused of hypocrisy—touting virtues only to gain approval and earn a wage rather than live what they preach.
3. Cynics, on the other hand, preached the wretchedness of the unreflective human life and of the need to live independent of the world—they too were accused of living an indulgent life as anyone else in private.
4. It is against they backdrop that Paul preached in Thessalonica.
I. We Must Receive The Word As Precious
A. “Having received [welcomed] the word in much tribulation” (1:6) conveys how they valued the Word—despite tribulation, they welcomed it. “Having received” is from a word that is used in Luke 2:28 to describe Simeon actions, the receiving of a guest in Luke 10:8, 10—“it includes the thought of a warm welcome.”
B. Note that there is a difference between “receiving” and “accepting.” You can receive something without accepting it.
C. Psalm 19:10 refers to the Word of God as “more precious than gold, than much pure gold” (NIV).
D. “Tribulation” refers to trouble that inflicts distress and oppression. It literally refers to “pressing, or pressure.”
E. Like Job, “I have treasured the word of his mouth more than my daily food” (23:12).
II. We Must Receive The Word As Pleasant
A. “With the joy of the Holy Spirit” conveys how pleasant the Word was to them.
B. It is “like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and hid again; and from joy over I he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field” (Matt. 13:44).
C. Christians must delight in the Word of God, having found it precious.
D. “Joy of the Holy Spirit” is the inner serenity that comes from knowing that one is doing the will of God (Acts 5:41; 2 Cor. 7:4).
E. Honey is not sweet unless it has been tasted (1 Pet. 2:1-3).
III. We Must Receive The Word As Practical
A. “So that you became an example” conveys the transforming power of God’s Word in the life of those who have received it and applied it.
B. Note the two ways that the Word became practical in their life:
1. They became “examples” to all the believers round about (v.7).
2. In that they “turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven…” (9, 10).
C. This practical nature of receiving the Word illustrates very well what Jesus says in the conclusion of his Sermon on the Mount (Matt.7:24-27).
D. Note these words to Israel in Deut. 32:46-47.
Conclusion
1. We must mediate on the Word (Psalm 1:2, 3).
2. We must let the Word dwell richly in us (Col. 3:16).
3. And that is how we accept the words of men as the Word of God.
