On January 5 we will read message four of the Life-Study of First Thessalonians.
Click here to see a calendar with the full reading schedule for the entire month.
In this message, Brother Witness Lee reviews chapter one of First Thessalonians again, focusing on “Some Basic Matters,” which is the title of the message.
The sections of this message are:
I. THE TRIUNE GOD
II. SELECTION, DELIVERANCE, AND TRANSMISSION
III. THE TRIUNE GOD EMBODIED IN THE WORD
IV. BORN OF GOD AND PUT INTO CHRIST
V. SERVING AND WAITING
VI. THE WORD OF THE LORD AND FAITH TOWARD GOD
Let’s keep reading and sharing our enjoyment!
“Once we know the writer’s spirit, we can learn his purpose, intention, goal, and aim. In order to learn what was the burden in Paul’s spirit in 1 Thessalonians 1, we need to consider some basic matters in this chapter as indicated by the words Paul uses and by the way this chapter is constructed… When the Thessalonians accepted the word preached by Paul, they accepted the Triune God. :)))” Wow! what a pattern!
question which I have to bring to the Lord:” In your experience, is the word of the Lord simply the word, or is it also faith? “…
I am touched also The word SERVE used in verse 9 is all-inclusive. IT NCLUDES EVERYTHING WE DO IN OUR DAILY LIVING… Wow!
Very supplying is to see more meaning of the verse 1:10 “The deliverance is taking place right now, but the wrath is coming… Although the wrath will come in the future, He is now delivering us, and He will deliver us to the uttermost, until there is no longer any wrath.”
THANK YOU LORD 🙂
I was enjoyed that today’s portion brought out the matter of the burden in Paul’s spirit.
I particularly enjoyed that when the word of the Lord is sounded out our subjective and objective faith goes out. “This indicates that the word of the Lord and our faith toward God are synonymous”
Also the Triune God’s selection, deliverance and transmission: God chose us! The Son is delivering us right now!, and the Spirit is the enjoyable transmission!
I really enjoyed this question: In your experience is the word of the Lord simply the word, or is it also faith? I really want to pray about it, that the word would be faith in my daily living. Praise the Lord!
” if the word is faith to you, this means it has brought you a view, and you have seen this view. This seeing of the view results in your believing. In this way the word becomes your faith!”
I enjoyed this portion too. We just don´t have to read the Word to look for the Lord-because we already have Him, it has to get into to us as a revelation, an experience so our faith can increase in us, to become our constitution. Lord be our faith!
”Objective faith denotes that in which we believe, and subjective faith denotes the action of believing.
In your experience, is the word of the Lord simply the word, or is it also faith? If the word is faith to you, this means it has brought you a view, and you have seen this view. This seeing of the view results in your believing. In this way the word becomes your faith. Now when the word of the Lord is sounded out, it is not merely an objective word; it is also your subjective faith. Therefore, when such a word is sounded out, your faith goes out.
Faith is the foundation of the structure of a holy life for the church life. Upon this foundation a building is taking place.”
Oh Lord, keep us in your Word. Help us to receive your Word and increase our subjective faith.
“If we read 1 Thessalonians 1 carefully, we shall see that even in such a short chapter there are indications of what the Father has done, of what the Son is doing, and of what the Spirit has done and continues to do.”
Praise the Lord! God the Father selected us! Christ the Son delivers us now and from the coming wrath! The Spirit propagates and imparts for transmission! Thank You Triune God for all the many things you have, are, and will do foemr us!!
“…the title Christ denotes that aspect of the Lord’s history related to resurrection, whereas the name Jesus denotes that part of His history related to incarnation and human living.”
To many in Christianity and in the world The Lord is only Jesus, denoting incarnation and human living, but Hallelujah! The Lord Jesus is Christ, “Christ our life” Paul says in Colossians! To us He is Christ denoting that aspect of His resurrection, we are so grateful to see this, that in His Resurrection He became the Life Giving Spirit! Strengthening us, regulating us, balancing us, indwelling us! To us He is Christ! This is wonderful! 🙂
Faith is working, love is laboring, and hope is enduring.
I also enjoyed the same thing 🙂
“Jesus, the Son of God, delivers us from the wrath which is to come. Although the wrath will come in the future, He is now delivering us, and He will deliver us to the uttermost, until there is no longer any wrath…”
Does this mean that as the Lord is spreading in us, working Himself into us, we are gaining His smile and not His wrath? What does it meand that He is delivering us from the wrath which is coming in 1:10? Hallelujah, He is now delivering us! He is doing it!
Amen, His Delivering us from the wrath which is coming also refers to delivering us from the self, the world, and all negative things. From the book The Christian 3, by brother Nee, my husband helped me to see that the extent of His delivering and of our enjoying Him in this age will be the extent of our enjoyment of Him in the next. The wrath is reserved for the world, however if we His children partake of the love for the world today we will partake of the wrath that is coming to the world. To the degree we enjoy the Lord in this age that will be the degree we will enjoy Him in the next. If we are enjoying Him now, we will continue doing the same thing in the next. Hallelujah Our Lord today is delivering us now from all negative things!
“And await His Son from the heavens, whom He raised from the dead, Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath which is coming.” 1 Thess 1:10
I love this portion,
“The Triune God is conveyed to us, transmitted to us, through the Word. In verse 6 Paul speaks of accepting the word, and in verse 8, of sounding out the word of the Lord. No doubt in Paul’s concept the Triune God today is fully embodied in the Word. The Word may be compared to a battery that contains electricity. As a battery is the embodiment of electricity, so in the spiritual realm the Word of God, a divine battery, is the embodiment of the Triune God. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit are all embodied in the Word. Thus, when we preach the Word, God is conveyed to others. Through the Word the Triune God is transmitted to others.”
… how much we need to DIG DEEPER into the life-studies and the portions of the ministry so that the Word would minister Christ to us and we would minister the Triune God to others when we speak the Word!
Amen Lord!! Get Your word and mnistry deeper into our being!!
If we see the basic matters in chapter one of 1 Thessalonians—the Triune God, the word as the embodiment of the Triune God, the mark of being in the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, and the work of faith, the labor of love, and the endurance of hope—then we shall know the burden in Paul’s spirit when he composed this portion of the Word.
Lord, we humble ourselves. Grant us the full wisdom and revelation that we may see.
Our serving and our waiting mark us out as those who are in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ. If we were not in the Father, we would not be serving a living God, and if we were not in Jesus Christ our Lord, we would not be waiting for Him.
What a rich portion! As believers, we have all been put into the triune God… and now what should we do? We just enjoy serving the living God. “The word serve used in verse 9 is all inclusive. It includes everything we do in our daily living (35).” In all of the small things, the many and varied matters that we touch and pass through, we can enjoy our Fathers choosing, the saving and delivering of the son, and the rich dispensing of the Spirit! How sweet!
Hallelujah! I enjoyed that “selection is of the Father, and deliverance is of the Son, but what is the work of the Spirit?… The Spirit is for transmission”!
As we come to this word everyday, the Triune God is transmitted into our beings! The word is the embodiment of the Triune God! So when we speak this word into others, the power of this word does not come out of ourselves, but the power of the Holy Spirit embodied in this word.
Praise the Lord! The Triune God is not stagnant. He is moving and He is transmitting! We can present this word which is the means by which the Triune God is transmitted into others!
This message shows us how wonderful our Triune God is. And we, the church, are in Him!
1 Thes 1: 8 “For from you the word of the Lord has sounded out,… but in every place your faith toward God has gone out,…”
“This indicates that the word of the Lord and faith toward God are synonymous… In your experience, is the word of the Lord simply the word, or is it also faith? If the word is faith to you, this means it has brought you a view, and you have seen this view. This seeing of the view results in your believing. In this way the word becomes your faith. Now when the word of the Lord is sounded out, it is not merely an objective word; it is also your subjective faith.”
I was very enlightened by this point. My prayer: Lord, may Your word not just be simply word. Open my eyes to see the view. I want your word to become my faith that goes out when I speak.
I was also touched with this matter of faith. I have struggled to understand why one of my family members always questions the Lord when something bad happens to her, even though I have shared many times things that I consider should answer her questions. But even though she is a believer she doesn’t spend much time in the Word. One time she related to me the supply she got and the peace that came from her reading the Bible. Now I see how important the Word is in relation to our subjective faith. I was touched with my inadequacy in this area which shows in my not being of much help to my family member. May the Lord grow in us for His Body’s sake.
I am enjoying the Triune God revealed in the book of 1 Thessalonian chapter 1. Selection is of the Father, deliverance is of the Son, and transmission is of the Spirit. Triune God is working in such a way for His purpose.
This was what the Paul deeply exercised in writing this book. So may the Triune God be our focus as well in reading on this book and the life study.
“Faith is the foundation of the structure of a holy life for the church life. Upon this foundation a building is taking place. This is the labor of love.”
These words touched me in the reading. Our strength and foundation of our Christian life is in faith, which is essentially the truth becoming a part of us by seeing, and believing/receiving. O, Lord, ground us in faith! This LS corporate reading has definitely contributed to the building of this foundation! Then, we will be strongly grounded and love will blossom on top of it. Thank you, Lord Jesus!
“in this way, we have the complete structure of a holy life for the church life: the work of faith, the labor of love, and the endurance of hope.”
I enjoyed that the complete structure of the holy life for the church life is crucially linked to the triune God in our spirit!
Today I’ve learned…
“The Father, the Son, and the Spirit are all embodied in the Word. Thus, when we preach the Word, God is conveyed to others. Through the Word the Triune God is transmitted to others.”
Hallelujah!!
In message 4, I enjoyed the matter of the Triune God being found in the Word of God. Even though the Thessalonians were new believers, Paul’s writing to them was full of the Triune God. I enjoyed the church being in God the Father and the Son, the Father having selected us in the past, the Son’s delivering us, and the Spirit coming to us as the gospel and responding in us as our joy.
Amen may we know the intention of Pauls writing in the book of Thessalonians and be encouraged to labor in love, work in faith, and hope in endurance!
Who would have thought that the phrase, “in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” would have so much meaning? It implies that the believers are not heathen, not Jewish, serving the living God, and waiting for the Son’s return! Wow!
Praise You, Triune God! I was freshly impressed in this message by our wonderful Triune God. Hallelujah! The Father selected us, the Son delivered us, and the Spirit is transmitting/imparting the word into us! I enjoyed the point that in verse 6 Paul reminds the Thessalonians that they accepted the word with joy of the Holy Spirit! Isn’t this marvelous? O Lord, continue to reveal to us our wonderful Triune God as we dig deeper into 1 Thessalonians 1!
The word of the Lord has to become our faith. Faith comes from hearing the Word. We need to get more word, so that we can have more faith. Amen.
I enjoyed the summaries of all the basic matters we needed to know in order to see the burden in Paul’s spirit when he composed the epistles to the Thessalonians. I was especially touched by the matter of the word of the Lord becoming our faith.
“In your experience, is the word of the Lord simply the word, or is it also faith? If the word is faith to you, this means it has brought you a view, and you have seen this view. This seeing of the view results in your believing. In this way the word becomes your faith. Now when the word of the Lord is sounded out, it is not merely an objective word; it is also your subjective faith. Therefore, when such a word is sounded out, your faith goes out.”
We must ask ourselves, “is the word of the Lord simply the word, or is it also faith?” May our faith go out along with our sounding out of the word!
Not only that, faith is the “foundation of the structure of a holy life for the church life, and upon such a foundation a building is taking place”. We must take time to get into the word, let the Lord reveal the spiritual scene to us, and let His word become our faith for the building up of the church.
The word “serve” as used in verse 9 is all-inclusive–it includes everything we do in our daily living. May all we do in our daily living truly be our serving of our living God who is true.
“…turned to God from the idols to serve a living and true God.”
In order for us to study any portion of the word, we must find out what was in the spirit of the writer! This will show us his intention, goal, desire, and aim. The basic matters presented in first Thessalonians include the Triune God, the word as the embodiment of the Triune God, the mark of being in the Father and the lord Jesus Christ, and the work of Faith, labor of love, and the endurance of hope. I thoroughly am enjoying the section on the Triune God. The Father selected us, the Son delivers us, and the Spirit is transmitting Himself into us. We should be filled with praise because of the Father’s selection. Our believing into Him was because of our merciful Father. Next, the Son delivers us from the coming wrath. He is delivering us from all the old things to walk in newness of life! Finally, the Spirit is for imparting. The Spirit imparts all the riches of the processed Triune God into us. Dean Alford points out that verse 1 indicates a communion and participation. This means fellowship is going on, the fellowship of the divine life. Our organic union is taking place because of the fellowship of the Spirit, the Spirit’s transmission. Hallelujah!
On the Thursday when we were to read this portion of the ministry, I totally forgot to read! Oh Lord, remind me to get into the ministry! Build up this habit in me!
“If the word is faith to you, this means it has brought you a view, and you have seen this view. This seeing of the view results in your believing. In this way THE WORD BECOMES YOUR FAITH.”
Even though I’m a little behind, I am still reading and will try to catch up over the weekend! 🙂
Amen, I am a little behind too, but praise the Lord we can enjoy Him together!
“The Triune God is conveyed to us, transmitted to us, through the Word.”
Amen! OH LORD JESUS! Keep us eating your word! Receiving it, digesting it, and speaking it to others! We pray that more of the Triune God would be wrought into us day by day!