Exegesis of 1 Thessalonians 4: 13-18

The letters Paul writes to the Church in Corinth are prompted by desire to save save their souls, because their actions are defying their claim to being God's children. He's clearly disappointed that they many members have continued practicing sinful behaviors - including, perhaps the most prevalent- sexual sin. Paul cautioned the church that continuing in these sins does not demonstrate that one has become a new creature in Christ Jesus, and that unrepentant, habitual sin will keep them out of heaven (1 Corinthians 6 vs 9-11). He questions how they can judge the church, as unrepentant sinners.

Main Idea and Outline In 1 Corinthians 13:8-13, Paul writes to make clear that love is the most excellent way, because it eternally endures. In extolling the superiority of love, Paul compares love with several coveted spiritual gifts, prophecy, words of knowledge, and tongues, and demonstrates that the gifts listed pale in comparison to love, because the gifts are incomplete and temporary, while love is both perfect and eternal. An outline of this passage of Scripture follows: I.

Sometime after his initial visit to Corinth, probably while he was ministering in Ephesus, Paul wrote a letter to the church, a letter to which he alludes in 1 Cor. 5:9, “I wrote to you in my epistle not to have any company with fornicators.” As D. Guthrie points out (p. 426), the gist of the contents of that previous letter may be inferred from 1 Cor. 5:9-13.

Paul’s letter continues to teach in Romans 1:18-25 and 8:18-25 that in creation God revealed himself. Nevertheless, even though he showed his power and gave people no reason for excuses, believers chose to not live by his ways. They turned their backs to God and worship things that were not of him. They lived in lust and sexual immoral behaviors. God designed a man and a woman to be fruitful, but they chose sinful desires and gave into same sex relations. And those who chose to live in their wickedness and live their life with being the only ones in control, God allowed them to live in their shamefulness. Furthermore, Paul tries to convey to the Christian eye that we should be focused on where we are with the lord and where we are taking the rest of the creation. Human nature and humanity were central focus in Romans 1:26-32 and 3:9-20 at essence their human nature was on no level of good. Humanity nature was corrupt. For they knew of God, but choose to live in unrighteousness. No one had a desire to

Philippians 4:13 states, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”(KJV). This verse is what I base my whole life around; sports, academics, and everyday life can be traced back to this quote. Without this promise from God, I would not be as honorable, athletic, or smart as I am today.

Paul writes in Corinthians that Christians should not let their bodily emotions control them. Sexual

1 Corinthians 7:3-5 is a great example of how a married couple should fulfill each other’s sexual needs, so sex was made to be a great thing. In verse nine of the same chapter it states that “it’s better to marry than to burn with lust”, which goes back to stating that sex is to be enjoyed in marriage so if someone feels like that they can’t control their sexual urges than they should just get married. The church has preached about this for many years and yet many Christian singles still engage in multiple sexual relationships, watch porn and masturbate and see it as a normal thing. There is an interesting article on Relevant Magazine’s website called “The Secret Sexual Revolution” where they mentioned a surprising statistic of the number of young adult Christians having premarital sex is at eighty percent. What I found most interesting about this article is this

In Galatians 1-6 we start off by learning that Paul the apostle was sent through Jesus christ and God the father to the churches of Galatians. Paul returns to Jerusalem and seks help to tell the converts that they don’t need to follow every Jewish law. Then he calls the Galatians foolish, then tells them that Jesus was crucified and now everyone can live for God and not worry about anything. The Galatians begin to question and all Paul wants is for them to stop worrying about Jewish holidays and to start living the way God wants them too. Now we learn that the Galatians are free and if they go and get circumcised, they will be forced to obey Jewish law. Paul then gives them advice about everyone's imperfections and how they

Within the first three chapters Paul shows the futility of false wisdom and human competitiveness and of attempts to demonstrate Christian freedom by violating the sexual conventions honored even by unbelievers. Other reference stating how too much emphasis was placed on the human reason can distract the simple message that Christ died for people’s sins so that they could be

I Corinthians offers the reader an insight into the early beginnings of the New Testament church, its structure, methods, and message. I Corinthians is Paul’s answer to a previous letter he has written to the Corinthians regarding the conditions in the Corinthian church. The picture Paul painted of the early church also includes a problematic, non-typical congregation (Utley 18). Paul is not questioning their salvation per say but challenging their sanctification (Wallace). The goal of this paper is to communicate Paul’s dilemma of how a Christian is supposed to conduct himself and live in an appallingly

I believe that there was possibly an array of issues occurring in the communities of the early Christians during the time that Paul wrote 1 Thessalonians. One of the main issues that could have been present at the time was the fact that Christianity was a new religion, which went against what the other major religions were practicing in society at the time. “Named after Alexander the Great’s half-sister, Thessalonica was a city with rich and varied religious heritage that reflected the diversity of its population” . It seems paganism had a great influence in society with allot of followers, which could be why Julius Caesar was emperor was worshiped and viewed as a god. I can envision that other leaders at the time of early Christianity may

Paul continues to instruct Christians in how they should live. He begins by stating that Christians should respect and honor the governing authorities because they have been appointed by God. Also, Paul commands us to love one another. As he explains, all of the other commandments will be fulfilled by loving our neighbor. Therefore, “love is the fulfilling of the law” (13:10). Finally, Paul urges Christians to live in preparation for the day that Christ returns. Constantly fighting sin, we must put on the mindset and character of Jesus Christ, in preparation for that day.

The frescoes excavated at Akrotiri by Greek archaeologist Spyridon Marinatos, form our knowledge on what is believed to have been a thriving port-city in the Bronze Age world. Due to the eruption at Thera, the frescoes were found preserved when excavated.

According to Paul, these “God haters” experiment with gay sex only as a way of seeking new thrills or in cultic worship. Clearly, he is not speaking about modern homosexuals which after all love God and want to honor God while living with integrity as who they are. In Romans 1:26-27 says, “For this reason God gave them up to degrading passions. Their women exchanged natural intercourse for unnatural, and in the same way also the men, giving up natural intercourse with women, were consumed with passion for one another. Men committed shameless acts with men and received in their own persons the due penalty for their error”. I would like to make the argument that idolatry, promiscuity and shrine prostitution are what Paul is addressing here in Romans 1 and not same-sex relationships!

Very few civilizations have had as profound an influence on the world as those of ancient Greece. The Greeks laid the foundations for fields varying from philosophy to political theory to war tactics. However, this influence was not just due to their intelligence or success, but their widespread presence in the Mediterranean. Greek culture was spread throughout their known world in two distinct manners, the foundation of apoikia in the Archaic Age (8th century to 500 B.C. ) and imperialists by poleis, primarily Athens of the Classical Age (490 - 323 B.C ). Though the culture of a mother city (mētropolis) may have spread through two very different manners of “colonization.” The word is not used in the literal sense, but rather hereafter used to mean “spreading of culture”, as the former can hardly be described using the contemporary definition of colonization and the latter was through Athenian empire-building. These developments had a significant impact on ancient Greece and our modern perception thereof. Like most of the ancient world, we can best analyze these methods of colonialism through extant artifacts. I will analyze an inscription of the foundation oath of Cyrene, which recounts the decision and manner in which the island of Thera sent its citizens to the form a new polis, and the fragments of the Lapis Primus, a marble monolith that documented tributes to Athens when the city was at the peak of its imperial age, evidencing the magnitude of their power and influence in the Greek region.