The Apostle Paul's two letters to the Thessalonians were probably his first two canonical writings in the New Testament. As usual I have some odd questions to consider.
It was probably about fifteen years after his Damascus Road conversion that he penned these letters. Putting that in perspective....think back to about 2007. There is a heavy emphasis here in the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. It appears natural that believers were looking forward to His return.
So how are we to look at this? Was Paul a little bit impetuous at this early stage of his ministry....what with all 'the Lord is coming back' talk? Did he mature a bit in the next fifteen years? Well we know that this is not the case....but since we do not really think about it....do we in effect act as if Paul settled down a bit as time went on....thus not really taking these exhortations to look forward to Christ's return very seriously?
I believe that if we take the time to think about this that our conclusions will be that no....the letters to the Thessalonians are every bit as relevant as any of the other books in the New Testament. The problem is that we do not think about this....and if we are in the....'read the Bible in a year mode'....which I do not recommend....then we only come across these letters once a year....and probably pass by pretty quickly at that....having completed our reading task for the day.
Every theme for every New Testament book is relevant today. The book of Revelation is not something that a church is to explore every three to five years....just to say that they did study it. Nor are the letters to the Thessalonians to be passed over as early writings of Paul....before he started to get the whole picture.
Read through these two epistles again....and pay particular attention to the comments on the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. In fact take particular note in all of the New Testament of all the references to the return of Jesus. Hopefully if you do this you might see that for whatever reason we may have done just what I showed concern for in this post....glossing over comments on the Lord's return....as if they were just conversation fillers....pleasantries....and not the general hope of the church in the first century. There surely have been veils lifted and light given on the Lord's return....but our hope should always be in His appearance again....whether it would not happen for couple of thousand years....as was the case in Thessalonians....or is right at the doorstep as it is today.
Note: This is something I have done for many years....and find it very helpful in a number of ways....for one thing it requires that I spend more time on each and every verse. I color code the Bible verses as I read them. For me....I use orange on all verses that have any prophetic meaning to them at all. I use red for all verses where God speaks in the first person.....or the verse gives glory to God. I use green for all verses that speak to any doctrine....and I use yellow as a miscellaneous color for everything else. Staples has a very good highlighter set that I use....called Tru Red. As to the topic of verses pointing to the return of the Lord Jesus from the above post....it might be surprising to you....if you employ this method....just how many verses do look forward to or prepare for the coming of the Lord.
