In the midst of suffering and imprisonment, the apostle Paul maintained his integrity and faithfulness in declaring the Gospel of Christ. He sought to please only God and reveal the truth of mankind's redemption, to all mankind. To Paul suffering for the sake of the Gospel of Christ did not produce fear. Suffering actually engendered Christ-centered honesty, clarity and Holy Spirit-based boldness.
To Paul the Church in Thessalonica was a model witnessing paschal faith community. They embraced, taught and modeled the Gospel of Christ with clarity, confidence and steadfast faith. As proof of their faith, these Christ-centered believers manifested the fruit of the spirit in their daily lives and relationships (Galatians 1:22-26, 1 Thessalonians 2:1-2).
These Christ-centered spiritually awake brethren were faithful stewards of the Paschal Mystery. In the mind of the spirit, they followed Jesus Christ and the apostle Paul is seeking, worshipping and serving Christ, ADONAI, in the spiritual body of Jesus Christ, as Messiah, and in the spiritual body of all persons. They not only suffered, but they actually embraced, allowed and facilitated death of the mind of the flesh, in their hearts, minds and lives for the sake of Christ, and the sake of the Gospel of Christ. In the mind of the spirit, they followed Jesus Christ and Paul in living the Paschal Mystery (1 Thessalonians 2: 1-2).
Paul's proclamation of the Gospel of Christ to the Thessalonians was not contaminated with the deceit and divisiveness of the mind of the flesh. Paul experienced radical transformation, resurrection from spiritual death and conversion on the road to Damascus. In Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit, Paul realized what it meant to have a clean heart. He had no guile and contempt for others who also shared their understanding and experience of the Gospel of Christ (1 Thessalonians 2:3).
The effective and true stewardship of Paul and these Thessalonian believers of the Gospel of Christ was pleasing to God. In the mind of the spirit, their affirmations of the Gospel were not based in empty human flattery, but in Christ-centered, Holy Spirit-based integrity. In the midst of suffering and persecution, they sought no earthly honor or human glory. Their witness manifested their perseverance, caring, courage, true faith and dependence on God (1 Thessalonians 2:4-6).
Gentleness and solicitude characterized their dialogue and sharing within their witnessing paschal faith community. Through God's grace, agape love and self-sacrifice, these believers cast down and cast out the inappropriate and destructive dominion of the mind of the flesh. In the mind of the spirit they showed great zeal and enthusiasm, as they experience the deliverance of their souls, hearts, minds and lives from slavery to sin. Their lives manifested the fact that they were passing over into the freedom, love and glory of God, through the indwelling and incarnation of Christ (ADONAI) in their lives, through their spiritual bodies (I Thessalonians 2:7-8).
How does the effectiveness, gentleness, integrity and Christ-centered stewardship of the Gospel, within your witnessing faith community, compare with that of these Thessalonian believers? Have you personally experienced a Christ-centered spiritual awakening from the spiritual death of the mind of the flesh, in your own life? Are you now discerning and actually experiencing the joy and new life of being born from above, as you follow Jesus Christ and the apostle Paul in living the Paschal Mystery?
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