{"id":8372,"date":"2022-01-31T00:00:06","date_gmt":"2022-01-30T14:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/?p=8372"},"modified":"2022-02-02T07:06:27","modified_gmt":"2022-02-01T21:06:27","slug":"sticking-to-it-no-matter-what","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/2022\/01\/31\/sticking-to-it-no-matter-what\/","title":{"rendered":"Sticking to It No Matter What"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>2 Thessalonians 1:4 <em><sup>4<\/sup>so that we ourselves boast in you among the churches of God for your perseverance and faith in all your persecutions and afflictions which you endure.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Like the first letter (1 Thessalonians 1:6), Paul gives further insight into the difficult situation of the Thessalonians. His opening is similar to his first letter to the church. The verse opens with an emphatic result clause, using an infinitive with its subject in the accusative case. This has the effect of showing the an expression of Paul&#8217;s thanksgiving for their faith and love. His thanksgiving has resulted in his boasting about how they are standing up to their trials. They have not given up their faith in Jesus Christ but actually grow stronger in it. Word of their faith has gone out to\u00a0<em>the churches of God<\/em>. There is no geographical description of these churches, which is not the point, but simply that people have heard about the Thessalonian church. They have become an inspiration and example to others.<\/p>\n<p>Paul uses two words to describe the Thessalonians&#8217; difficulties and two words for their response. They faced <em>persecutions and afflictions<\/em> and persevered and endure them. We cannot know the specifics of their suffering, but we can imagine as new Christians in a pagan city that they faced ridicule and shaming as a small minority. Some many have had problems with their families or close neighbors. They also could have experienced more official persecution from the Jews and civil authorities in follow up to the problems Paul, Silas, and Timothy had recorded in Acts 17:5-9. They did not give up their faith, however, and stuck through this.<\/p>\n<p>This is an amazing testimony of relatively new believers. Their faith in Jesus was deeply planted in their souls and could not be removed. That does not mean they were invulnerable. They still needed the encouragement and love of one another. Outside encouragement from other churches and leaders such as Paul would also increase their hope. Shame, embarrassment, harassment, and being minorities in a hostile culture can also wear on believers today. We must nurture our faith and increase our love for one another to endure.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">For older posts, click\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/blog\/\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/feedburner.google.com\/fb\/a\/mailverify?uri=DavidAckermanDailyDevotions&amp;loc=en_US\">Subscribe to Daily Devotions by Email<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>2 Thessalonians 1:4 4so that we ourselves boast in you among the churches of God for your perseverance and faith in all your persecutions and afflictions which you endure. Like the first letter (1 Thessalonians 1:6), Paul gives further insight into the difficult situation of the Thessalonians. His opening is similar to his first letter [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotions","post-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8372"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8372\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8386,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8372\/revisions\/8386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}