The church in Thessalonica was undergoing quite serious persecutions, which became known to other churches as well. That is why Paul hastens to support...
The church in Thessalonica was undergoing quite serious persecutions, which became known to other churches as well. That is why Paul hastens to support the Thessalonian brothers, reminding them that for a Christian in the fallen world persecution is something inevitable and, in general, normal. Of course, persecution is not always meant in the literal sense, as, judging by the apostle's words, it was in Thessalonica, but rejection always takes place, both on the part of secular people, "Gentiles," and on the part of religious people, "Jews." The Savior Himself warned His followers about this during His earthly ministry.
And the issue here is often not some special malice on the part of the persecutors, though that too happens, but simply the incommensurability and incomparability of the Kingdom and the fallen world. And not because this world is natural, but because it is fallen. The issue is not nature as such, but the fact that people to whom God offered another law and another way of existing in His world chose life according to the law of nature, a law intended not for man but for the animal kingdom.
But man cannot by definition become a normal animal; he can become only a human being who does not answer to his own divine calling and divine definition, which is far worse. In such a state every manifestation of the Kingdom objectively becomes destructive for him, if not for his outward life, then certainly for his inner life. The very fact that there exists in the world an alternative to the laws of the natural world, which fallen man considers his own because he senses himself primarily as an animal, already deprives man of peace.
The world must be one; it must live according to one set of laws; there is and must be no alternative to the existing order. This is how man understands the natural totality of the natural world, which animals feel instinctively and within which they live, without, of course, any reflection and without any discomfort, from which man cannot free himself no matter how much he wants to.
Of course, thinking about the existing order of things is in itself a purely human property connected with man's spiritual principle, but fallen man does not much like to do this precisely because he does not want at all to remember himself as a spiritual being. Culture, and especially religion, may sometimes remind him who he really is, but here everything is still not so unambiguous: something can be understood in one's own way, something can simply be ignored, since all culture and even religion still belong to the fallen world. But the manifestation of the Kingdom is an entirely different matter. It clearly and distinctly manifests its otherworldliness.
The alternative becomes obvious, intensifying anxiety and the desire to make it either not exist at all or at least not be so noticeable. Hence the inevitability of rejection of Christ and the Kingdom, and therefore of Christians, if they remain Christians not only in name. Sometimes such rejection remains within the bounds of propriety, but it can also go beyond them, especially when there are many witnesses and the light of the Kingdom shines brighter than usual. This was the situation in which the Thessalonian church found itself, and Paul supports it in his letter: persecutions are precisely what show that the Thessalonian Christians' witness is in order.
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3:3 We are appointed hereto - Are in every respect laid in a fit posture for it, by the very design and contrivance of God himself for the trial and increase of our faith and all other graces. He gives riches to the world; but stores up his treasure of wholesome afflictions for his children.