1 Thessalonians Chapter 3
2021-2, This chapter starts with "Therefore...". Paul had just told them about not being able to come himself, and this "therefore" is introducing what he did instead.
IThess 3:1, 2 says Paul sent Timothy back from Athens to see them, though he himself still couldn't get there. So...Paul had been to Thessalonica, he'd left there, and was in Athens but could not get back to see them from there, and so sent Timothy. There are clues here. This might be the third journey instead of the second??? I just can't tell for sure. If he was in Athens though, he wasn't very far away from them at all. Paul sent Timothy to check on them, and Timothy has returned to him with a good report, and so Paul is writing in a complimentary way...and wants to see them even more than he did before.
2023 - I am aware only of the one time that Paul was in Athens, when he spoke at the Areopagus. Remember that he had gone there ahead of his companions when he had to leave in a hurry or be killed, and he waited in Athens for them to catch up with him. This tells us that they were in Athens for more than a few days if there was time for Timothy to catch up, to run over to Thessalonica and see how they were doing, get back to Athens, and then Paul writes them at least one letter from there.
NOPE...checked MSB and this letter was actually written from Corinth...at least that's what we think, and MSB says it coincides exactly with details in Acts 19-18. So the story of Timothy going to see them from Athens still tells us that Paul was in Athens for more than just a day or two, and perhaps he was there for an extended time, though we have no Biblical information that he tried to start a church there. But he was there, and for quite some time. (The map I have says Paul was in Athens on his 2nd trip, and, if I'm reading it right, also on his third, though it is not as clear from my map.) NO...I found another map that shows Paul skirted around Athens on his third trip. Perhaps he'd made some serious enemies there when he previously outstayed his welcome. He got run out of a lot of places on that second journey.
2021-2, Paul was quite concerned about this newly planted church in Thessaloniki. He hadn't been able to stay there very long before he was run out of town. He'd left this little fledgling church in the middle of a large city that had a significant Jewish population and those Jews did not have any qualms about using violence to shut down "The Way". There'd been no time to drill them in doctrine, no time to tell them how to meet in homes instead of in large gatherings to avoid too much attention. No time to tell them how to organize their church with deacons and elders. Who was preaching? Had anyone been trained at all? Paul had good reason to be concerned, especially given the problems he was having in Corinth, where he'd spent significantly more time training. Yet look how far they'd strayed!
In the Intro, it says Paul wrote these letters from Corinth. But last time we saw him, he was in Athens. So. Time had passed since Paul was in Athens, since he had sent Timothy to them to check on them, and since Timothy had returned. So sometime after Timothy left Paul for Thessaloniki, Paul must have moved on toward Corinth. Maybe Timothy had just rejoined him there, and given him an update on things in Thessaloniki, and that occasioned this first letter from Paul.
2021-2, The setting as to who is where and why they're there is now in the introduction above. I also note that there are almost no previous notes on this chapter 3.
2021-2, In vs 6, Paul tells them what Timothy reported to him. It starts with "But now that Timothy has come to us from you,...", lending credibility to the surmise above, that Timothy's return to Paul prompted the letter. And Timothy must have "returned" to Corinth, since Paul is writing from there. (2023 - But...how do we know he is writing from Corinth? Will we see that in the closing? No, there is nothing in Chapter 5 about where Paul wrote the letter. I don't know where they get that. Seems like we have better clues that say it was from Athens. This verse: 1 After this Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. [Act 18:1 ESV]. That's all we have. Ahhh! Here is the answer! 5 When Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul was occupied with the word, testifying to the Jews that the Christ was Jesus. [Act 18:5 ESV]. From vs 1 we know that Paul had left Athens and gone to Corinth. AFTER THAT, in vs 5, Timothy and Silvanus finally catch up. So Paul went from Berea to Athens to Corinth traveling alone. Not sure how Timothy and Silvanus knew Paul had gone on to Corinth, since they apparently had no church to ask in Athens, but somehow they found him. Tough times with no cell phones!)
He summarizes at the end of 3, as if ending a point, and I 4 starts with "Finally...".
2021-2, Look at how this verse is phrased: 13 so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints. [1Th 3:13 ESV]. These Christians at Thessaloniki are going to be dead before the second coming. Yet they will be present "at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints". Aren't they going to be with the saints? Won't these all be with the raptured - in fact, won't they be with the raptured even if Christ had come the next day after Paul wrote this and they'd all still be alive? At the rapture, Jesus does not come with all his saints, he brings them up to him. We have already seen that when Jesus comes to earth, he will come with his armies. So is this verse now telling us that either his saints are in his army, or he is coming with BOTH his army and his saints? What Saints will be available to come with him, other than raptured saints, and won't these people be among those? What does this verse mean?
Here is the MSB explanation, "His Saints. Since this exact term is not used elsewhere in the NT of angels (see note on Jude 14), but is commonly used for believers, it is best to understand the coming of the Lord to rapture all His church (see notes on 4:13-18) and take them to heaven to enjoy His presence (see notes on Jn 14:1-3). So the argument is that when Jesus comes at the end of t/gt, with his armies, those armies will include his angels. We know there are angels in his armies. By extension, we can say that MacArthur does NOT think there will be saints included in the army of Christ when he comes to earth for the battle before the Millennial. Therefore, Paul's use of the phrase "His saints" informs us that Paul is referencing the rapture and the time of the saints in heaven during t/gt. So MacArthur has rolled much into this verse. There may be other verses to corroborate, but for now this is the only one I'm aware of. It is an answer to my question about who exactly is in Christ's army at the second advent, and an answer to my question about where the saints will be during that battle - but not about where they will be during the Millennial itself, although the implication is that they will remain in heaven. Copying this to the end of my How Many Judgments notes, to address more rigorously in connection with that.
One more thing...If Jesus is coming to the rapture with His Saints, then who are they? Who is in heaven with Christ already that could come with him? Aren't the OT saints awaiting their own later time of resurrection? Or did "Abraham's bosom" empty out into heaven at the resurrection, and so all the OT saints are already up there, and will greet us when we arrive. This would require that it is our "spirits" only that go on to heaven when we die, and the reunion at the rapture will be one of spirit and body. Will the spirits of the dead saved come back with Christ to meet their own resurrected bodies on the way up? Is that how Satan can interfere, because he has some power over physical resurrecting bodies, but none over the spirit that goes on to heaven when we die? Great. Once again, for every answered question, I get ten more puzzles.
2022 - This year, it also occurs to me that Paul is not trying to tell the Thessalonians here about the order of end times events. He is going to get to some information about that in Chapter 5, addressing specific concerns that the Thessalonians expressed to Timothy when he was there. But in this last verse of Chapter 3, he is being general in what he says. It would be a mistake to take this verse meant generally and use it as proof text for how end time events will go. Better to look at it as a verse that end time events as understood from more direct scripture about them will not contradict, rather than as primary information about those events. So what is it that won't be contradicted? That Jesus will actively portray us blameless before the father. He's doing that now. I believe he will do that at the sheep and goat - so no contradiction there. This will happen "at Jesus' coming with all his saints". Those are not to be contradicted, but there is certainly not enough here on which to hang a full blown chronology.
2021-2, Isn't it interesting that I saw almost nothing here when I read it previously, and this time, I find a verse that unlocks many questions I've had and couldn't answer. It makes one think that it is a good learning tool to have an ongoing, broader study, like "How Many Judgments" going all the time you're doing your daily reading, so that scriptures that you had no context for understanding before might "light up like neon" when you run across them with the question they answer already in your mind.
2021-2, I note also that the end of Chapter 3 seems like a closing. He is bringing a section of the letter to a close, and will start something completely different in Chapter 4. That's my prediction.