group is
"The Future of Christ's Kingdom" as it was related to His
second coming (1 Thess. 4:13-5:9, compare 2 Thess. 2:1-17).
It was natural that, after so great a manifestation
of the Divine Christ, the earlier believers in Him
should make much of the promise that He said He would
come again, and amid their troubles and difficulties the
strong tendency would be to think that second coming
was close at hand. It is a well known fact however that
the near approach of a great joy or sorrow unfits men and
women for the ordinary pursuits of life. Paul, in his first
letter to the members of the church of Thessalonica,
spoke of the second coming of Christ to relieve their
minds of a worry over those who had died since he had
preached to them (lest they should not see the Lord when
He came), and also to encourage them in their faith
(1 Thess. 4:13-18). It seems that Paul was taken to mean
by what he wrote that Christ's coming was near at hand.
The believers in Christ, in Thessalonica, began to give up
their ordinary avocations and pursuits in speedy anticipation
of this great event. He therefore takes occasion in
his second letter to the church to correct the impression
that Christ's coming (2 Thess. 2:1-17) was near at hand.
He exhorts them to true and faithful living in the sight of
their Lord Jesus Christ (2 Thess. 3:1-18) as the best way
to serve their Divine Master. The principle of the true
Christian life is here set forth in a masterly way; it holds
good for all time and all peoples.

THE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE THESSALONIANS

+The Founding of the Church at Thessalonica+ (Acts
17:1-10).--Paul was on his second missionary journey
and this church was the second which he organized in
Europe. He entered into the synagogue at Thessalonica
and three Sabbath days reasoned with the Jews out of the
scriptures, "opening and alleging, that Christ must needs
have suffered and risen again from the dead; and that this
Jesus, whom I preach to you, is Christ" (Acts 17:3). Through
this preaching a few of the Jews believed "and
of the devout Greeks a great multitude, and of the chief
women not a few." It appears from this account that
the church was mostly made up of Gentiles. But through
the opposition of the Jews all the city was set in an uproar
and Paul was sent away by night to Berea.

+Occasion, Time, and Place of Writing.+--Paul left
Thessalonica unwillingly for he had a great affection for
his converts in thi