The Crown of Glory

If the Thessalonians remain faithful to the apostolic message, they will receive the Crown of Glory when Jesus arrives from Heaven – 1 Thessalonians 2:1-20.

Having turned from dead idols to serve the Living God, the saints of Thessalonica will receive a glorious crown when Jesus returns if they continue their present course. This includes remaining “blameless” in conduct and persevering in persecution and tribulation.

Unlike the opponents from the local synagogue of Thessalonica, the young congregation had embraced Paul’s message for what it was, “the word of God.”

[Crown - Photo by Markus Spiske (Upper Franconia) on Unsplash]

Some members of the synagogue welcomed the Gospel but turned against it once local Gentiles began to believe Paul’s preaching. Even after the Apostle left the city, synagogue leaders pursued him to Berea, resisting his efforts to share the message with Gentiles in that city:

• “And for this cause, we also thank God without ceasing, that, when you received from us the word of the message, even the word of God, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also is working in you that believe. For you, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God that are in Judaea in Christ Jesus. For you also suffered the same things of your own countrymen, even as they did of the Jews, who both killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and expelled us, and please not God, and are contrary to all men, preventing us from speaking to the Gentiles, that they may be saved, to fill up their sins always. But the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost” – (1 Thessalonians 2:13-16).

• “But when the Jews of Thessalonica had knowledge that the word of God was proclaimed of Paul at Berea also, they came there likewise, stirring up and troubling the multitudes” – (Acts 17:13).

Thus, the congregation of Thessalonica “became imitators of us, and of the Lord, having received the word in much tribulation.” Not only so, but Paul and his coworkers conducted themselves without “error or uncleanness or guile. <…> For neither at any time were we found guilty of using flattery or a cloak of covetousness.” They never used the Gospel for financial gain. Their conduct was without blame or scandal - (1 Thessalonians 1:5-6, 2:1-5).

Paul and Silas were “gentle as when a nurse cherishes her own children,” and if necessary, they would have given their own lives for the sake of the new congregation. Rather than soliciting contributions, Paul labored as a tentmaker to support himself, “night and day, that we might not burden any of you” - (1 Thessalonians 2:6-13).

Being found “blameless” is a key theme of Paul’s first letter to the congregation, and he prayed that the saints of Thessalonica would be found “blameless in holiness” when Jesus arrives; moreover, that God would “sanctify them wholly” in preparation for that final day.

The stress on proper conduct at the start of the Letter anticipates the later exhortations of Paul to church members who were refusing to work for a living and otherwise were behaving in a “disorderly” fashion - (1 Thessalonians 3:13, 5:23).

The afflictions of the Thessalonians followed the pattern of earlier believers who were persecuted in Judea by the Jews, hindering the preaching of the Gospel to Gentiles, “to the filling up of their sins continually. But wrath has overtaken them at length” - (1 Thessalonians 2:16).

Paul’s language echoes the Hebrew Bible and the teachings of Jesus, especially the notion of judgment on men after they have accumulated their full quota of sins and transgressions. The description of “the Mystery of Lawlessness” in the Apostle’s second letter to the Thessalonian congregation is conceptually parallel, the idea that a spiritual force will work until a pivotal final point when a powerful deceiver will be unveiled, the Man of Lawlessness, the Son of Destruction:

• “And in the latter time of their kingdom, when transgressors have filled to the full their measure, a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences, will rise up” – (Daniel 8:23).

• “Seventy weeks have been divided concerning your people and concerning your holy city, to put an end to the transgression, and to fill to the full the measure of sin” – (Daniel 9:24).

• “Wherefore, you bear witness to yourselves that you are sons of those who slew the prophets. Fill to the full, then, the measure of your fathers. You serpents! You offspring of vipers! How will you escape the judgment of hell? Therefore, behold, I send you prophets, and wise men, and scribes. Some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city, that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of Abel the righteous to the blood of Zachariah, son of Barachiah, whom you slew between the sanctuary and the altar. Truly, I am saying to you, All these things will come upon this generation” – (Matthew 23:31-36).

• “And what possesses at present you know, so that he may be revealed in his own fitting time. For the mystery of lawlessness is working already, only until he who possesses comes out of the midst. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will consume with the Spirit of his mouth and paralyze with the manifestation of his arrival” – (2 Thessalonians 2:6-9).

The spiritual forces of lawlessness and sin are working at present to prepare the way for the unleashing of this final deceiver, and these forces will continue to do so until the critical moment, when this malevolent creature will be unveiled. Or as John describes it:

• “This is the spirit of the Antichrist, concerning which you have heard that it is coming. Even now, it is in the world, already” – (1 John 4:3).

The Greek term for “wrath” or ‘orgé’ in 1 Thessalonians 2:16 is applied elsewhere by Paul to God’s judicial sentence on transgressors on “the day of wrath.” This includes the opening paragraph of the letter where the Apostle refers to the wrath from which Jesus will deliver us - (Matthew 23:29-36, Romans 1:18, 2:5).

• “For they themselves are reporting concerning us, what manner of entrance we had to you, and how you turned away from idols to serve the living and true God. and awaiting his Son from the heavens, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, who is delivering us from the coming wrath” – (1 Thessalonians 1:9-10. Verbal allusions to Isaiah 25:9, 59:18-20).

Many Jews of Judea rejected Jesus as their Messiah, but what sealed their fate in Paul’s mind was their opposition to the preaching of the Gospel to the Gentiles. The same pattern experienced years earlier in Judea was repeated in the city of Thessalonica:

• “We are bound to give thanks to God always to you, brethren, even as it is fitting, for that your faith is growing exceedingly, and the love of each one of you all toward one another is abounding, so that we ourselves glory in you among the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions which you endure. This is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God; to the end that you may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you also suffer; if so be that it is a righteous thing with God to repay affliction to those who afflict you” - (2 Thessalonians 1:3-6).

THE DAY OF HIS ARRIVAL

Next, Paul gives a word of encouragement for believers based on the future return of Jesus Christ:

• “Now we, having been bereaved away from you for the season of an hour, in presence not in heart, gave more abundant diligence your face to behold, with much longing; wherefore, we desired to come to you, even I, Paul, both once and again, and Satan thwarted us. For what will be our hope or joy or crown of boasting? Will not even you before our Lord Jesus at his arrival? You, in fact, are our glory and joy” - (1 Thessalonians 2:17-20. Verbal allusions to Zechariah 3:1-4, Isaiah 62:1-12).

Satan resisted or “thwarted” Paul and his mission, especially through the persecutors from the local synagogue. The description echoes the vision of Zechariah when the Devil resisted “Joshua the high priest”:

• “He showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of Yahweh, and Satan standing at his right hand to thwart him” - (Zechariah 3:1-4).

The English term “crown” in 1 Thessalonians 2:19 translates the Greek noun ‘stephanos’, which refers to a victor’s wreath rather than a royal diadem. This emphasizes the victory that the Thessalonians have achieved over opposition and hardship by emulating Paul’s blameless behavior, their perseverance through persecution, and their faithful witness to Jesus Christ (“From you has sounded forth the word of the Lord” - 1 Thessalonians 1:18).

The Greek verb used here for “boasting” or ‘kauchesis’ means “to glory, glorify, rejoice.” It reflects a passage from the Book of Isaiah that originally applied to “Zion.” However, it now includes the Gentile believers of Thessalonica:

• (Isaiah 62:1-3, 11-12) – “For Zion’s sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest until the righteousness thereof goes forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burns. And the Gentiles will see Your righteousness and all kings Your glory <…> You will also be the crown of glory in the hand of Yahweh, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God <…> Behold, your salvation is coming [‘paraginetai’]. Behold, His reward is with him.”

Paul is confident that the congregation will remain faithful despite opposition and persecution, so much so that he boasts because they will be his reward and joy when they all stand together before Jesus “at his arrival.”

The English noun “arrival” translates the Greek term ‘Parousia’ (παρουσια), the word applied frequently by Paul to the future return of Jesus in his letters to the Thessalonian congregation - (1 Thessalonians 2:19, 3:13, 4:15, 5:23, 2 Thessalonians 2:1, 2:9).

The verbal form of the noun ‘Parousia’ is used in the Greek Septuagint version of the passage to which Paul has just alluded (‘paraginetai’), Isaiah 62:11: “Say to the daughter of Zion, Behold, your salvation is arriving [‘paraginetai’].”

Thus, at his “arrival,” Jesus will bring salvation and reward for Paul and the Thessalonians. The Apostle places the time of this reward at the return of Jesus from heaven. As elsewhere in his letters, disciples are delivered from all suffering and receive complete salvation, including bodily resurrection and immortality, when the Son of God arrives at the end of the present age:

• “Because God did not appoint us for wrath, but for acquiring salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. <…> And the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly. And may your spirit and soul and body be preserved entire, without blame, at the arrival [‘Parousia’] of our Lord Jesus Christ” – (1 Thessalonians 5:9, 5:23).

[Note: Text printed in small capital letters represents quotations of or allusions to Old Testament passages]

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SEE ALSO:

• To the Assembly - (The Thessalonians received the Gospel of Christ in tribulation yet remained faithful while eagerly anticipating the return of Jesus – 1 Thessalonians 1:1-7)

• Waiting for Jesus - (The Church of Thessalonica began to serve the Living God and wait eagerly for the arrival of His Son from Heaven – 1 Thessalonians 1:8-10)

• Coming on the Clouds - (The whole earth will see the Son of Man arriving on the clouds of Heaven, and he will send his angels to gather his elect –Mark 13:21-27)

• Gathering the Elect - (The saints will be assembled before Jesus on the Last Day, and the wicked will be collected for judgment and cast from his presence)