hotcoffee
New Member
1 Thessalonians 3:11 Now may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus clear the way for us to come to you. 12 May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you. 13 May he strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones.
This letter says they pray to God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Some time ago a friend in the office asked "Who should I pray to, God or Jesus?". In this letter Paul, Silas, and Timothy say that they pray to both. (John 10:30) Jesus taught that He and the Father are one in the same. Mark 16:19 says:
Mark 16:19 After the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, he was taken up into heaven and he sat at the right hand of God.
So when a child of God [a Christian] prays to either God or Jesus, both are there and both hear the prayer. Jesus sticks up for us in spite of the things we do.
The commentary I've been using says that "when our Lord Jesus comes" refers to more than one event. I believe from the day we ask Jesus to take over our lives, we become children of God. Jesus is our big brother sitting right beside God the Father and talking on our behalf.
I'm the oldest of five children. My parents believed in spankings. When one of the kids did something wrong and wouldn't fess up to it, my dad would line us all up, youngest to oldest. He would say the same thing every time. "I'm going to start with the youngest and spank each of you if the one that did this won't come forward." I'd give my sisters and my brothers until the second my dad pulled my baby sister out of line to begin the punishment. I wanted to give them time to come forward. But if they didn't come forward, I would step up and take the spanking.
Now some of you will say.... that doesn't teach them anything if they don't suffer their own consequences. This is true. My brother and my sisters wouldn't always let me take their spanking. They knew better because they knew that if I took their spanking they I would find out who was at fault and they would owe me. Owing me was sometimes easier than getting the spanking, so sometimes I took the licks for things that I didn't do... but they would always have some consequence. The innocent parties really appreciated that, let me tell you. I really couldn't let them take a spanking for something I was sure they couldn't have done.
Paul, Silas, and Timothy are praying that the Thessalonians will do their very best so that they won't have many consequences to repay.
When we become Christians all our sins are forgiven. Jesus already took our punishment for those sins. If we do things after that.... well, there will be consequences [good or bad]. Our love for our Lord Jesus Christ should keep us from stacking up more bad consequences. Right?
