Paul, and Silvanus, and Timotheus, unto the church of the Thessalonians which is in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Thessalonians 1:1
As we read in each of the four Gospel accounts, during His ministry, the Lord Jesus quoted from and referred to many different portions of the Scriptures. So did the apostles, in the book of the Acts. They used the Scriptures to teach and preach, and to explain their doctrine. The early Christians studied the Scriptures to learn how they contained the prophecies and illustrations of the Messiah Who had come and fulfilled His mission. As we grasp how important the Scriptures were to those early saints, we must realize that the Scriptures they were using were the Old Testament, and only the Old Testament. None of the New Testament had been written during the time period contained in the Gospels or in the Acts. That is why our text today is so critically important. It is the very first verse of the New Testament to be written. With the penning of 1 Thessalonians, Paul and his companions usher in a new era of God’s revelation of Himself in written form. This letter, and all of those that followed it, along with the Gospels and the book of the Revelation, are just as much the Scriptures as the Old Testament is. Of these new books, the same can be said as was said of the Old Testament: holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost (2 Peter 1:21).
It is doubtful whether Paul realized, as he set out to write this epistle, that he and his companions were breaking new ground. At the time, he had a good reason to write the letter. He had received a report from Timothy about conditions in Thessalonika in the months after he had visited the city and had seen an Assembly planted there. His letter was to address several concerns and to encourage and teach the Believers there. Today, his letter has been read untold millions of times by Christians in untold thousands of different Assemblies. Paul could not have known that, although there were occasions when he urged those he sent letters to to pass them on to other Assemblies, and to read the letters he had sent to others (Colossians 4:16). 1 Thessalonians forms a valued part of the canon of Scripture, recognized by the early Christian leaders as divinely inspired, part of that which Paul spoke to Timothy: ‘All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness; that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works’ (2 Timothy 3:16-17).
The epistles, as written by Paul, Peter, and John, form a distinct division within our Bibles. They serve a critical function in God’s revelation to us. They are not narratives as are the Gospels and Acts, and even the Revelation. But they provide a deeper reflection on the ministry and sacrifice of Christ than the Gospels do. They also provide us with a presentation and explanation of doctrine, and contain definitions and descriptions as to the manner of life that God expects from individual Christians and from New Testament Assemblies. It is in the epistles where we find the writers establishing the links between what they were writing and the Old Testament writings.
Praise God for His scribes who gave to us the epistles. Without them we would be terribly confused. With them we have God’s purposes for us made clear. – Jim MacIntosh