Lesson for November 8, 2020
The Book of II Thessalonians
Chapter 2:13-17
“But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth. It was for this He called you through our gospel, that you may gain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. So then, brethren, stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught, whether by word of mouth or by letter from us. Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us eternal comfort and good hope by grace, comfort and strengthen your hearts in every good work and word.” Gratitude means thankfulness, appreciation, or gratefulness. Knowing who we are and what we have as a result of being in union with Jesus Christ should cause us to be grateful. As we grow up spiritually our gratitude will also grow. If we understand that our lives are in God’s hands and that He will direct our paths if we choose to allow Him to, we can have gratitude in any circumstance of life. (Colossians 2:6-8)
We must also learn to be grateful for even the hardships in life. Quite often these situations are used by God to teach us valuable lessons. They can also reveal areas of weakness with which we need to deal. How we handle these hardships can be a springboard to advance us in the Christian Way of Life by increasing our faith in God and our dependence upon God. (I Corinthians 15:54-57; I Thessalonians 5:18)
Christ’s obedience to the Father’s plan is the example for us to follow. Did Christ complain about or find fault with the Father’s plan? Of course not! His attitude was one of humility and obedience. Jesus Christ had a personal sense of destiny. He knew exactly what the plan entailed and willingly executed it. We should be grateful that He did, because it was for our benefit, not only for salvation, but also as an example of how to live the Christian Way of Life. (Philippians 2:5-16; II Corinthians 2:14)
A part of gratitude is being content with what you have. God warns against a lustful attitude and encourages us to be satisfied with what He has already provided. His promise to all believers is that He will never leave us nor forsake us. God knows even before it happens what each of us will face in life, and He has made every provision for us. Our responsibility is to exercise our faith by always giving thanks regardless of circumstances, knowing that God is working things out to benefit us. (Philippians 4:11; Ephesians 5:20; Romans 8:28)
Gratitude is a matter of having the right attitude. And attitude is everything! Our attitude is a mirror into our soul. God’s Word is very clear on this subject. We are told time and again throughout the Scriptures
that we are to do everything without grumbling and complaining. (Philippians 2:14-15) An attitude of gratitude and an attitude of grumbling, complaining and fault-finding are mutually exclusive. Our attitude lets us know whether or not we are trusting God in every situation. Life is not always easy but trusting God should be. After all, doesn’t He have the best in mind for us? (Ephesians 4:29-32) A part of gratitude and thanksgiving is being content with what you have. God warns against a lustful attitude and encourages us to be satisfied with what He has already provided. His promise to all believers is that He will never leave us nor forsake us. God knows even before it happens what each of us will face in life, and He has made every provision for us. Our responsibility is to exercise our faith by always giving thanks regardless of circumstances, knowing that God is working things out to benefit us. (Philippians 4:11; Ephesians 5:20; Romans 8:28)
Because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth. Election is the plan of God for believers only, whereby He chooses or selects certain things to be true. The Greek word for chosen is “eklektos” and means picked out, selected, or elected for privilege. The question that must be answered in order to clearly understand this doctrine is “What are these things that God chooses for the believer?” Please notice that it is not God choosing a person for salvation as some teach; rather it is God choosing certain things to be true of the believer. An unbeliever must still use his volition to choose to believe in Christ or to reject Christ. (Ephesians 1:4)
The false doctrine, “that God chooses some to saved and others to be lost,” is called “limited atonement.” What the Bible teaches is “unlimited atonement.” The Bible teaches that any person may come to Christ by faith. God is not willing that anyone should perish but that all should come to know Christ as Savior. (II Peter 3:9) At salvation, God has decreed (chosen or elected) certain things to be true for those who have believed.
The Church Age believer has been chosen by God for a service. This service is to be Royal Family of God, the royal family of the Lord Jesus Christ. Every person who believes in Christ during this dispensation (a period of time in history when God deals with mankind in a certain way) becomes Royal Family of God. As royalty, it the responsibility of each believer to fulfill his election by the execution of the Christian Way of Life. (II Thessalonians 2:13-14)
The Christian Way of Life involves a life of discipline in order to learn God’s grace system for success. There is no shortcut when it comes to learning Bible doctrine and applying it to daily experience. Even Jesus had to learn Bible doctrine by studying. His study, of course, was from the Old Testament Scriptures. At the age of twelve, He confounded the Hebrew scholars with His knowledge of God’s Word. (Luke 2:41-52)
If we are to make certain about our election as it says in II Peter 1:10, we must become knowledgeable of the doctrines of God’s Word and how they apply to our lives. This requires a life of consistent and persistent intake of accurate Bible teaching. In order to fully understand spiritual information from the Word of God, the believer must rely upon the teaching ministry of God the Holy Spirit. Spiritual things are revealed only by the Holy Spirit to the spiritual believer (those who are in fellowship with God and controlled by the Holy Spirit). Control by the Holy Spirit is strictly a matter of a believer’s volition (free will). Sin removes fellowship and the control, while naming or acknowledging your sin to God restores that fellowship and control. This is God’s grace system and the only one that works. (I John 1:5-10)
Notice in this verse how God chooses you. He chooses by the Holy Spirit placing you into union with Christ, which is the meaning of sanctification and faith in the truth of the Gospel. Only those who use their free will to believe in Christ are chosen by God for a service and for a privilege. God does not choose who to save or who not to save. Sanctification of the Spirit is a reference to positional sanctification whereby a believer is placed into union with Christ through the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Faith in the truth is a reference to believing in Jesus Christ for salvation.
It was for this He called you through our gospel, that you may gain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ means that in eternity past God knew that we were going to believe, and He provided everything for our life on earth and in eternity. His omniscience knew what we would need and what the situation would be
at every moment in our lives. Therefore, he provided 40 spiritual assets, an encapsulated environment called the Divine Dynasphere, a protocol plan and much, much more. We enter the plan of God by faith in Jesus Christ and we gain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ by executing the Protocol Plan of God and reaching spiritual maturity and supergrace.
So then, brethren, stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught, whether by word of mouth or by letter from us. The Greek word for stand firm is “steko,” which means stay firm or continue to abide. The Greek word for hold is “krateo,” which means to seize and to hang on to. The Greek word for traditions is “paradosis,” which means that which is handed down or handed over. It is reference to the doctrine that Paul and the other pastors had taught these believers in Thessalonica. It is used in this same way in I Corinthians 11:2 and II Thessalonians 3:6. So, Paul was encouraging these believers to reject the false teachers and their message and to stand firm in the accurate doctrine he and others had taught them both face-to-face and by a letter from him.
Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us eternal comfort and good hope by grace, comfort and strengthen your hearts in every good work and word. Divine love is constant, non-emotional and unconditional, though human emotions are often ascribed to God in the Bible in order to assist us in our understanding. Divine love is based on God’s integrity (complete, honest, pure, virtuous love based on truth) and His virtue (strength of character). God loves the believer because the believer possesses the righteousness of God. God loves His own righteousness wherever He finds it. Therefore, divine love expresses the deep, constant love and interest of a perfect God towards imperfect, and therefore unworthy, objects (unbelieving mankind). Upon faith in Christ, this love and interest has the potential of producing in these now perfect and worthy (positional sanctification) objects (believers) a love towards God. In turn, God’s love is able to produce in the life of the believer virtue-love towards others. Virtue-love is a synonym for divine love. Virtue-love is love based on the virtue of the one doing the loving. This virtue-love desires to see others come to know the source of this love. (I John 4:18-21) Under the control of the Holy Spirit, this divine love can be reproduced in the life of the believer. This unconditional love, whether exercised towards believer or unbeliever is not emotional, it is a matter of the right mental attitude. It does not depend on the “love-ability” or compatibility of the object. This love seeks the welfare of others. (Romans 13:8-10, 15:1-3; Galatians 6:10; Colossians 3:12-13)
The Greek word for comfort is “paraklesis,” which means to call to one’s side for encouragement, consolation or exhortation. A believer’s eternal comfort can be found only in Bible doctrine and the filling of the Holy Spirit. This Greek word is the same word for the Comforter that Jesus said He would send to His disciples when He departed to Heaven. (John 15:26-27)
The Greek word for hope is “elpis,” which means confident expectation. The greatest comfort a believer can have is the confidence of his eternal relationship with God through faith in Christ. The assurance that God will keep us secure forever brings comfort and stability. The assurance that we are in the plan of God and living that plan on a moment-by-moment basis is our confidence that God will pour out blessing into our lives while here on earth. And when we arrive in Heaven to be with our Savior for all eternity, we are confident in the eternal rewards we will receive because of our faithful execution of the Protocol Plan of God. Therefore, hope by grace means that God provides everything we need to live our lives in light of eternity.
The Greek word for strengthen is “sterizo,” which means to establish, to set or to fix. Paul wanted these believers to be stable and set in their minds with regard to accurate doctrine and stopped being tossed here and there by every wind of doctrine as he stated in Ephesians 4:14-16. In every good work is a reference to divine production which is good of lasting value and can be accomplished only by a believer with a stabilized mind. (James 1:8) A stabilized mind is a mind that thinks in terms of divine viewpoint. The Greek word for word is “logos,” which is a reference to Bible doctrine in the stream of consciousness. Thinking Bible doctrine is the way we live our spiritual lives and glorify God.