Sabbath: Church Life
1 Thess. 5:12-28
Read for This Week’s Study: 1 Thess. 5:12-28, Matt. 5:43-48, Gal. 5:22, Phil. 4:4, John 15:4-6.
Memory Text: “Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast what is good” (1 Thessalonians 5:20,21, ESV).
Key Thought: Paul gives these Thessalonians, both leaders and lay members, very practical as well as spiritual advice about how to relate to one another.
Paul concludes his first letter to the Thessalonians with seventeen admonitions (1 Thess. 5:12-22) followed by a closing prayer (1 Thess. 5:23-27). This week’s lesson begins with three admonitions regarding the attitude of local church members toward their leaders (1 Thess. 5:12, 13). These admonitions are followed by six imperatives regarding how local church leaders should behave toward their people.
Eight brief admonitions follow in the next seven verses (1 Thess. 5:16-22). These can be organized into two groups; three counsels on maintaining a positive Christian attitude (1 Thess. 5:16-18), and five on how to relate to new light in the form of prophecies (1 Thess. 5:19-22).
In the concluding prayer Paul summarizes a main theme of this letter: that believers in Thessalonica and beyond would continue to grow in holiness until the Second Coming itself. In other words, they are to live every day in preparation for the Lord’s return. In one sense, what could be more of a “present truth” message than that?
Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, September 8.
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Abstain from all kinds of evil, the kind of music we listen to, the sex laced movies we watch, books we read are among the kinds of evil. The internet must be used cautiously because it offers an array of evil depictions in terms of pornography, we must live a prayerful life. I have been blessed.
Today I am blessed to have my lesson studies done on the laptop. I am young in teaching our Sabbath School, sometimes I use to feel that I can't make it but today the lesson study has prepared me for the coming Sabbath. God Blessed you. Soon as my laptop was installed today the first thing I did was to pray and look up Adventist.org. To God be the Glory. Please pray for me and the instrument to continue with God's work.
I am curious to see where the text is addressing mainly the leaders. I find it addressed only to the collective of the church.