Praise the Lord! The Lord has been good to us during the past week and He has blessed us with a new week and a fresh Scripture passage (2 Thessalonians 2:15-17) to meditate upon and rejuvenate our day-to-day spiritual walk with Jesus. When we look around us, the world looks very colorful and beautiful and joyful and peaceful and attractive, but if we carefully observe our surroundings, we may be able to see the dark side of our society that is filled with injustice, unfairness, prejudices, insufficiency, poverty, sufferings, hatred, restlessness, and so on (you name it). Most of the people who live in this world face one way or another some kind of discrimination in their life everyday. For many people, such situations have become part of their everyday life and they don’t think about it anymore as a problem, rather, they adjust with it and live on. In addition to all such situations, if you are a faithful follower of Jesus Christ (Christian believer) and if you don’t acquire a well-to-do status in the society, you will have more troubles in this world. This means, to live as a faithful Christian believer in this world is not an easy thing to do. Jesus Himself told His followers that In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world (John 16:33b). The world hated Jesus, so Jesus warned His disciples that the world will hate them also, as Jesus stated: If the world hates you, understand that it hated Me first (John 15:18). Apostles (Paul and Barnabas) also stated that We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God (Acts 14:22b). In the light of such situations, Apostle Paul urged the believers in Thessalonica to stand firm and hold fast to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter (2 Thessalonians 2:15).

The reasons Apostle Paul told the believers in Thessalonica to stand firm and hold fast to the teachings they have been taught are, primarily, they all have come to believe in Jesus Christ from various religious, social, political, and cultural backgrounds but now they have to leave certain things they were acquainted with behind and follow the teachings of Jesus Christ (Acts 17:1-4); secondly, they were going through severe persecutions and trials because of their faith in Jesus Christ (1 Thessalonians 1:6-7; 2:13-15; 2 Thessalonians 1:4); thirdly, most of the Jews who came to believe in Jesus Christ came to faith in Jesus Christ through the ministry of apostles or disciples of Jesus as a result of their visit and ministry in the Jewish Synagogues. Jesus (during His earthly ministry) and the apostles (after Jesus’ ascension to heaven) alike taught and preached the gospel in the synagogues. Whenever Apostle Paul passed on through a new place, he visited the Synagogues in that area and reasoned with the Jews from the Scriptures explaining and proving that Jesus is the Messiah they had been waiting for all these years (Acts 17:2-3). Before we focus on our meditation, let us briefly explain the Synagogue and its role in reaching out to the Jews with the gospel of Jesus Christ in the first century AD and thereafter.

According to the Biblical accounts, in the ancient days, the patriarchs built altars and worshipped Yahweh / offered sacrifices (Genesis 8:20; 12:7-8; 13:4, 18; 22:9; 26:25; 35:1, 3, 7; Exodus 17:15; Judges 6:24). During the wilderness journey they built the Tabernacle (or the Tent of Meeting) to worship their God Yahweh (Exodus 25:8-9). After the conquest and settlement in Canaan (the promised land), they continued to worship the God of their fathers in the Tent of Meeting, but it moved to different locations within the territories of Israel. For instance, immediately after the conquest of Canaan, it was set up at Gilgal (Joshua 4:19; 5:8-10; 10:43), later it moved to Shiloh (Joshua 18:1; 19:51; 22:9; Psalm 78:60), following that to Bethel (Judges 20:26-28). After that it was set up at Nob (1 Samuel 21:1-6), then in Gibeon (1 Kings 3:2-4; 1 Chronicles 16:39; 21:29; 2 Chronicles 1:2-6); then it was at Kiriath Jearim (1 Chronicles 13:5-6), then at Jerusalem where king David pitched a tent for the Ark of the Covenant (2 Samuel 6:17; 1 Chronicles 15:1). When Solomon succeeded king David as king in Israel, the Temple of Jerusalem, a permanent place of worship, was built to worship Yahweh, the God of their fathers. Later the Temple became the religious, political, social, and cultural center for the Jewish community. However, when the people of God failed to keep the righteous laws and decrees and commands of God, and in rebellion turned to the deities of the nations that God drove out from before them and worshipped these deities, He punished them by handing them over to their enemies (2 Chronicles 36:11-20; Isaiah 59:2; Jeremiah 22:9; Ezekiel 39:23). So, the Lord God let their enemies invade their land and destroy the Temple, the City, and take people into captivity. At the time of the invasion of Judah and Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, one of the most powerful and ruthless rulers in the ancient world, the city of Jerusalem and God’s Temple at Jerusalem that was built by king Solomon son of king David was destroyed by the Babylonian army. During the invasion of Jerusalem, countless Jews died (2 Kings 8:12; 2 Chronicles 36:17; Psalm 137:7-9; Hosea 10:1-15; 13:16; Nahum 3:10), untold number of Jews fled from Judah and Jerusalem (2 Kings 25:2-4; Jeremiah 40:11), while many were taken as captives and carried to Babylon and other regions where the Babylonians ruled (2 Chronicles 36:20; Jeremiah 39:9). The Babylonian army allowed the left behind poorest of the poor people to remain in the land to work in the farmland (Jeremiah 39:10).

Since the Jewish people were taken out from their homeland and the City and the Temple at Jerusalem was destroyed, the Jewish people did not have a place of their own to live in or a Temple to worship the God of Israel. Yet, they gathered together in homes and other similar places for prayer and fellowship wherever they settled in. From the time Israel and Judah went into captivity, the scattered Jews gathered together for prayer, studying the Law, and to hear the Word of God from the priests and prophets wherever they settled in the foreign countries during the Diaspora era. In the course of time, these gathering places turned out to be established worship centers of Jewish community. Such established places of gatherings came to be known as Synagogue, which is derived from the Greek word Συναγωγή (sunagogei or synagogi) means to come together or the place of assembly. Although, during the reign of Cyrus king of Persia (2 Chronicles 36:22-23; Ezra 1:1-6; Isaiah 45:13), the captives who returned from Babylon to Judah rebuilt the Temple in Jerusalem under the leadership of governor Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, high priest Joshua son of Jozadak (Ezra 3:2, 8; 5:2), while the prophets Haggai and Zechariah, a descendant of Iddo, were ministering among them as the prophets of the Most High (Ezra 5:1; 6:14), all the Jews were not able to return to their homeland. The Jews who remained in Judah/Jerusalem during the Babylonian captivity (Jeremiah 39:9-10) and the Jews those who returned to Judah/Jerusalem after seventy years of Babylonian captivity (Ezra 1:1-6; 2:1-2, 64-68; Jeremiah 25:11; 29:10) worshipped Yahweh in the Temple they rebuilt.  But those who living beyond the boundaries of Jerusalem, within or beyond Israel and Judah, and the scattered Jews continued to build synagogues for their community worship that included gathering for prayer, studying the Law, hearing the Word of God from the prophets and priests, and so on. By the time Jesus came to earth, Synagogues were all over Israel and Judah and beyond the borders of Israel wherever Jews settled down. During Jesus’ earthly ministry, Jesus ministered to His people on the Sabbath when they gathered in their Synagogues (Matthew 4:23; Mark 1:21, 39; 3:1; Luke 4:14-16, 43-44; 13:10; John 6:59; 18:20). Apostle Paul used to visit Synagogues for preaching/teaching the gospel of Jesus (Acts 9:20; 13:5, 14; 17:1-2, 10, 17). Paul taught in the Jewish Synagogues and all those who accepted his gospel message and believed in Jesus Christ joined with those who are called out and worshipped in their homes or a different place where they could gather together (Matthew 18:20; Acts 2:46; 12:12; 16:3-5, 40; 20:20; Romans 16:3-5a; 1 Corinthians 16:19; Colossians 4:15; Philemon vs 1-2). Thus, the New Testament Church is built upon people from all walks of life (Jews and non-Jews) who believed in Christ Jesus and became His followers. Once a person accepts Christ Jesus as the Lord and savior of their life, that person becomes a new creation in Christ Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:17). They are called to follow the example of Christ and they are called to live a life worthy of His calling (Acts 2:41-47; Peter 1:15-18 (also refer to: Matthew 17:1-5; Mark 9:2-7; Luke 9:28-36). The followers of Jesus Christ ought to follow His teachings and the lifestyle that He set forth for us, as Apostle Paul stated Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ (1 Corinthians 11:1; Ephesians 5:1-2; Colossians 3:13; 1 Peter 2:21; 1 John 2:6). This was the case with all the churches starting from the first century; that is, from its inception on the day of Pentecost – the day the New Testament Church began to take shape and expand to the rest of the world (Acts 2:41 [2:14-47]).

In connection with our meditation this week based on 2 Thessalonians 2:15-17, Apostle Paul urges the believers in Thessalonica to stand firm and hold fast to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter (1 Thessalonians 3:8; 2 Thessalonians 2:15 ). Apostle  Paul thanked God and prayed for the believers in Thessalonica for their perseverance in keeping their faith in Jesus Christ in the midst of severe persecution and the trials they were going through:

13 But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters loved by the Lord, because God chose you as first-fruits to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth. 14 He called you to this through our gospel, that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ (2 Thessalonians 2:13-14).

Apostle Paul in any way does not want them to give up their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as they face severe persecution and trials – rather he wants them to stand firm in their faith and hold fast to the teachings they passed on to them whether by a prophecy or by word of mouth or by letter (2 Thessalonians 2:2, 15), which is the Word of God. Paul also encouraged the believers in Corinth in a similar way to stand firm in their faith in Jesus Christ: Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain (1 Corinthians 15:58); and the believers in Galatia: It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery (Galatians 5:1). Paul continues to encourage the believers in Thessalonica, saying: May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word (2 Thessalonians 2:16-17). Paul’s prayer and encouragement for the people will help them stand firm against all kinds opposition, persecution, and discouragement that challenges their faith in Jesus Christ. Apostle Paul urged the believers in Thessalonica saying:

Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. 4 He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God (2 Thessalonians 2:3-4)

Dear brothers and sisters in the Lord, as the devout followers of Jesus Christ, we are called to stand firm in our relationship with our Lord God, we are called to love God, we are called to study and meditate upon the Word of God, we are called to do good works, we are called to be the faithful servants of the Most High God, we are called to care for each other, and we are called to live a life worthy of His calling in our lives. Let us stand firm in our faith in Jesus Christ and let the message of Christ dwell in us and among us to do everything for the glory of God, as Apostle Paul stated: Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him (Colossians 3:16-17). It is time for us to stand firm in our faith in Jesus Christ, in our walk with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, in our relationship with our fellow-believers, and let nothing stop or discourage us in our spiritual pilgrimage. May the Lord God Almighty bless us all! Amen!