Lessons #581 and 582
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+ 1. It is best to use this note after you have listened to the lessons because there are +
+ comments given in the actual delivery not in the note. +
+ 2. The Bible abbreviations are as follows: CEV =Contemporary English version, +
+ CEB = Common English Bible, ESV= English Standard Version, +
+ GW = God’s Word Translation, ISV = International Standard Version, +
+ NAB=New American Bible, NASB= New American Standard Bible, +
+ NEB= New English Bible, NET = New English Translation, +
+ NLT = New Living Translations NJB = New Jerusalem Bible, +
+ NJV = New Jewish Bible, TEV = Today’s English Version. +
+AMP = Amplified Bible, UBS = United Bible Society +
+ 3. Notes have not been edited for grammatical errors. +
+ 4. Text is based on 1984 edition of the NIV +
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Mystery of end revealed (1 Cor 15:51-57)
51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— 52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53 For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. 54 When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”55“Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” 56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
We have come to our last consideration of this section of 1 Corinthians 15:51-57. Its message, as we stated previously, is that Not everyone will experience physical death, but everyone will undergo a bodily transformation necessary for existence in the eternal state. We have considered in verse 51 the statement of the secret, that is, the mystery, the apostle revealed in our section that indicates that not everyone will die but that everyone will be changed or transformed. We considered the descriptions of the change or transformation given in verses 52-55. We noted how instantaneous it will be and that the event will take place following the sounding of the last trumpet and the raising of the dead. We considered Apostle Paul’s citations of OT Scriptures that would be fulfilled when this transformation takes place. To end our section, we began with the final concern of the section which is thanksgiving to God in verses 56-57. However, the actual thanksgiving is preceded by explanation of sting or pain associated with death in verse 56. We ended our last study by asserting that thanksgiving must always have a basis. Therefore, we stated the apostle provides the reason for his thanksgiving as given in the last sentence of 1 Corinthians 15:57 He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. We ran out of time, so it is with this reason for the apostle’s thanksgiving that we begin our study this morning.
The apostle’s reason for thanksgiving is concerned with victory but before we get to that we should recognize that the apostle focused the reader’s or the audience’s attention on the God who is the object of his thanksgiving. We say this because the sentence of 1 Corinthians 15:57 He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ is literally the one giving us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
The sentence He gives of the NIV implies that the Greek used a finite verb, that is, that the verb “gives” agrees with the pronoun He when that was not the case. The apostle could have used a finite verb in the Greek as reflected in the NIV’s translation, but He did not. Instead, He used a definite article and a participle (a word that has characteristics of both a verb and an adjective) leading to the literal translation the one giving. So, there must be a reason for doing that. The reason we contend is that the apostle wants to describe further the God to whom belongs thanksgiving and the reason for the thanksgiving. Our reason for this interpretation is that the apostle used a definite article with the participle of the Greek word used, indicating that he wanted to describe God, the object of the thanksgiving, in terms of what He has done that certainly warrants Him receiving the thanksgiving of the apostle. Although the participle used here is primarily in the sense of an adjective that describes further God who is the recipient of the thanksgiving, there is also the implication of the reason for the thanksgiving in the apostle’s use of a participle. The explanation we have given could not easily be realized if the apostle had used a finite verb in the Greek instead of a participle. Thus, we maintain that it is because the apostle not only wanted to describe further God the recipient of the thanksgiving but also the reason for such that he used a Greek participle. There is more to what the apostle conveyed in the use of a participle in the Greek in the verse we are considering, and I will get to it shortly after we examine the Greek verb used in our verse.
The word “gives” of the NIV is translated from a Greek word (didōmi) that may mean “to give” as an expression of generosity as the word is used in Paul’s quotation of a saying of the Lord that was not recorded in any of the gospels but probably in other sources, as we read in Acts 20:35:
In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”
The word may mean “to offer” as in bribing someone as it is used to describe the expectation of Governor Felix to be bribed by Apostle Paul during his trial as we read in Acts 24:26:
At the same time he was hoping that Paul would offer him a bribe, so he sent for him frequently and talked with him.
The word may mean “to command” as it is used to describe what God instructs us in 1 John 3:23:
And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.
The sentence he commanded us is literally he gave us commandment. The word may mean “to give” in the sense of instructing someone as it is used in 1 Thessalonians 4:2:
For you know what instructions we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus.
The word may mean “to give” in the sense of offering counsel or advice as it is used to describe what Jewish authorities did in order to kill Jesus recorded in Mark 3:6:
Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus.
The verbal phrase began to plot is literally began to give counsel. In our passage of 1 Corinthians 15:57, it has the sense of “to be granted.”
The apostle used the present tense in his description of God as the One that grants victory to believers. The use of the present tense by the apostle could be interpreted in three ways. The apostle could have been describing God as the One that would certainly bring about the victory in the future that he described His granting of victory as something already taking place at the present. Another possibility is that the apostle views the granting of victory as something that is going to take place soon. Still another interpretation of the present tense is that the apostle describes God as One who has begun to grant victory to believers but will complete that victory when Jesus Christ returns and when the bodily transformation takes place. All three interpretations declare things that are true of God and may well be in the apostle’s thought as he used the present tense. Nonetheless, it is probably that the apostle’s focus was on the third interpretation that indicates that God has begun to grant victory to believers at the present time but that the granting of final victory would take place in the future. We say this because the Holy Spirit through Apostle John implies that believers are already victorious or have overcome the evil one as we read in 1 John 2:13–14:
13I write to you, fathers, because you have known him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I write to you, dear children, because you have known the Father. 14I write to you, fathers, because you have known him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God lives in you, and you have overcome the evil one.
The evil one is a refence to Satan who has power over death. So, if believers have overcome him at the present, there is a sense we have become victorious over death although we may still die physically but because we are in Christ and Christ has overcome death we can say that even at the present we have overcome eternal death in that we will no longer be eternally separated from God.
Be that as it may, God has begun and will complete the granting of victory to believers as in the NIV of 1 Corinthians 15:57 He gives us the victory or literally the one giving us the victory. The pronoun “us” refers to all believers although in the context, the apostle used it for the Corinthians and himself. Of course, we have already established that this epistle although addressed to the Corinthians is for the universal church of Christ. Therefore, it is fitting to understand us as a reference to all believers.
The thing granted to all believers is described in the phrase of 1 Corinthians 15:57 the victory. The phrase refers both to the victory over sin and death evident in bodily transformation, the apostle had been expounding. We say this because of the definite article the apostle used is to focus on something specific he had been discussing in the context. As we have indicated, the apostle had been discussing bodily transformation that results from the defeat of death and sin so that when he used our phrase the victory, he must have had in mind these two concepts that we mentioned.
In any case, Apostle Paul indicated that the victory he had in mind is achieved through our Savior, Jesus Christ as in the last phrase of 1 Corinthians 15:57 through our Lord Jesus Christ. The word “through” is translated from a Greek preposition (dia) that has a range of meanings. In our verse, it is subject to at least two possible interpretations. It can be interpreted as a marker of reason so that it would mean “because of” implying that victory God grants to believers is because of Christ. A second interpretation is to take the preposition as a marker of a personal agency with the meaning “through.” This interpretation means that the victory God gives is through the agency of Christ. Both interpretations make sense in the context and may well be what the apostle had in mind as he wrote the phrase. He realized that what God does for us is because of Jesus Christ and it is through Him. It is because of Christ’s work on the cross and through that work that God does everything for believers in Christ.
Be that as it may, the phrase through our Lord Jesus Christ is an important one with the apostle since he recognized the centrality of Jesus Christ in God’s salvation for humanity. The apostle used the phrase to indicate that Jesus Christ is not only our savior but our creator as implied in his description of the unique God of the universe as he penned in 1 Corinthians 8:6:
yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live.
By the way, the last usage of the phrase through our Lord Jesus Christ in this first epistle to the Corinthians is here in 1 Corinthians 15:57. However, that does not minimize the fact that the apostle recognized the centrality of Jesus Christ in our salvation and its final consummation in glory. No! The apostle made sure through his epistles that we understand the importance of Jesus Christ that he communicated to the Thessalonians that salvation is through Him as recorded for us in 1 Thessalonians 5:9:
For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Apostle Paul not only used the phrase through our Lord Jesus Christ or its equivalent to indicate that Jesus Christ is central to God’s plan for our salvation, but he also used it in various elements of our salvation. For example, he conveyed that our reconciliation with God is through Jesus Christ using the phrase through our Lord Jesus Christ in Romans 5:11:
Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
A result of reconciliation with God is peace so the apostle also indicated that such is through the Lord Jesus Christ as we read in Romans 5:1:
Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
Another result of our salvation is our adoption into God’s family. This, the apostle indicates occurs through Jesus Christ as we read in Ephesians 1:5:
he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—
Adoption is really a legal term that describes the transfer of a person from one natural family into another family so that the person so received becomes a beneficiary of all the rights, privileges, and responsibilities of the new family. Our adoption into the family of God was carried out through Jesus Christ and because of Him. Another result of our salvation is the receiving of eternal life. Consequently, the phrase we are considering is used by the apostle to describe Jesus Christ as the agent of receiving eternal life by those who believe in Him, as stated in Romans 5:21:
so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
The Lord Jesus Christ is the One who grants eternal life to believers as part of His function as a member of the unique God as He stated in His priestly prayer recorded in the seventeenth chapter of the gospel of John, specifically in John 17:2:
For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him.
The Lord Jesus prior to His priestly prayer conveyed the truth that He is the member of the Godhead that grants eternal life, as we read in John 10:28:
I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.
This declaration of the Lord Jesus is clearly an assurance that a saved person would never be lost. There are those who are unsure about how secure their salvation is. Such individuals should hear clearly what the Lord promised here. By the way, those who think they can lose their salvation seem not to understand what eternal life means. Eternal life is an “unending life.” Thus, it is difficult to perceive how Jesus Christ would grant someone an “unending life” and some sin causes the unending life to end. That kind of thought contradicts the meaning of “eternal life.” Still another result of our salvation is justification linked to sanctification to which the apostle described Jesus Christ as the agent of both as he penned in 1 Corinthians 6:11:
And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
We have studied this passage in detail but let me just remind you that the sentence you were sanctified means that God has dedicated the Corinthians and so all believers to Himself. Likewise, the sentence you were justified means that God has declared us to have satisfied all the claims of the Law because of the atoning death of Jesus Christ and so in good standing with Him. Believers have been declared righteous before God not because of what we have done as demanded by the Law but because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Thus, Apostle Paul recognized that without Jesus Christ we do not have any possible way of being declared righteous or considered as those who belong to God. So, one gets the point that for the apostle, Jesus Christ is central to God’s redemption plan or salvation. Not only this, but the apostle also recognized Him as central in operating as a believer in Christ. It is for this reason that he offers thanks to God the Father through the name of Jesus Christ as we may gather from Romans 1:8:
First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being reported all over the world.
It is because of the centrality of the person of Jesus Christ in living the Christian life that the Holy Spirit directs the apostle to issue the command of Colossians 3:17:
And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
The point is that the apostle sees the centrality of Jesus Christ in our salvation and in living the life of a Christian. Therefore, it is fitting that the apostle should end his thanksgiving to God for the victory over death and sin with the phrase through our Lord Jesus Christ.
We noted the things the apostle stated that convey that Jesus Christ is central to God’s redemptive plan, but the question we should explore is why the apostle used the phrase Lord Jesus Christ or its equivalent several times either in his thanksgiving to God or in referencing God’s salvation. The simplest answer is that the phrase is one that speaks to the person of Jesus Christ or who He is. To understand this answer we should consider the three words in the phrase Lord Jesus Christ the apostle used in our passage of 1 Corinthians 15:57.
The word “Lord” is translated from a Greek word (kyrios) that may mean “owner” as it is used to describe the owners of the colt that Jesus requested to be brought to Him for His entrance into Jerusalem, as recorded in Luke 19:33:
As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, “Why are you untying the colt?”
The word may mean “lord, master” as a person in a position of authority. It is in this sense that the word is used to describe Abraham in relationship to his wife Sarah as one with authority hence Sarah described Abraham as her master meaning that he has authority over her, in 1 Peter 3:6:
like Sarah, who obeyed Abraham and called him her master. You are her daughters if you do what is right and do not give way to fear.
The word may be used to describe God in a general sense without distinction to the person of the Godhead in view as in Matthew 4:7:
Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”
The phrase Lord your God implies that Lord refers to God without distinction of the persons of the Godhead. It is in the sense of God the Father that the word is used in Matthew 11:25:
At that time Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.
The word “Lord” may refer to Jesus Christ. This may be the case in some quotations from the OT Scripture. Take for example, in Jesus’ quotation from Psalms in the question He posed to the Pharisees about the Messiah as reported in Matthew 22:43–45:
43 He said to them, “How is it then that David, speaking by the Spirit, calls him ‘Lord’? For he says, 44 “‘The Lord said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet.”’ 45 If then David calls him ‘Lord,’ how can he be his son?”
The Lord Jesus quoted from Psalm 110:1 where we have the sentence The Lord said to my Lord. In this psalm “Lord” refers to God in a general sense of the supreme creator whereas the phrase my Lord refers to the promised Messiah who is, of course, the Lord Jesus Christ. Thus, the second “Lord” refers to Jesus Christ. The word “Lord” is applied to Jesus even when there is no quotation from the OT. Thus, the word was applied to Him when He had ordered His disciples to get Him the colt, He would ride into Jerusalem in Luke 19:31:
If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ tell him, ‘The Lord needs it.’”
The word is applied more often to the Lord Jesus Christ in the epistles of Apostle Paul, as for example, in Ephesians 3:11:
according to his eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The apostle’s use of the word to refer to Jesus Christ implies that he recognized Him as God as, for example, in Romans 12:11:
Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.
As we have indicated, the apostle uses the word “Lord” to refer to Jesus Christ so if he encouraged serving the Lord, he must mean serving and worshipping the Lord. The apostle would not have in any form advocated for worship of any person other than God so even in this passage in Romans 12, he implied that Jesus Christ is God. As we have stated, Apostle Paul, when he is not quoting from the OT uses the word often to describe Jesus Christ although in some passages it is difficult to be certain whether he means Jesus Christ or God in a general sense, as in 1 Thessalonians 4:6:
and that in this matter no one should wrong his brother or take advantage of him. The Lord will punish men for all such sins, as we have already told you and warned you.
This notwithstanding, the point is that Apostle Paul used the Greek word translated “Lord” to describe Jesus Christ as God and not an ordinary human.
The second word in the phrase our Lord Jesus Christ of 1 Corinthians 15:57 is “Jesus.” The name Jesus is a common name among the Hebrew people being equivalent to Joshua (Hebrew yehôšuaʿ) a name that means either “Yahweh is salvation” or “the Yahweh saves.” The Greek word (Iēsous) translated “Jesus” is translated Joshua, the successor of Moses, in Stephen’s sermon as we read in Acts 7:45:
Having received the tabernacle, our fathers under Joshua brought it with them when they took the land from the nations God drove out before them. It remained in the land until the time of David,
That the name Jesus was a common name among the Jews in the NT is evident in the fact that there are others with that name as we find, for example, in Colossians 4:11:
Jesus, who is called Justus, also sends greetings. These are the only Jews among my fellow workers for the kingdom of God, and they have proved a comfort to me.
The name Jesus as a proper name to be given to the child that was to be born through Mary via virgin pregnancy is explained in relationship to salvation in Matthew 1:21:
She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
That the name of the son to be borne by Mary is “Jesus” is differentiated from all others that bear that name because this Jesus would be involved in forgiveness of sins. Hence, the name “Jesus” speaks to both the humanity of the Son of God and His role as savior.
The third word in the phrase our Lord Jesus Christ of 1 Corinthians 15:57 is “Christ.” The word is one that distinguishes Jesus, the Son of God, from all others that have the name “Jesus.” Anyway, the word “Christ” is translated from a Greek word (Christos) that means “the Anointed One, the Messiah, Christ” as it is used in Herod’s description of baby Jesus that he pretended to the Magi that he wanted to worship when in fact he wanted to kill him as narrated in Matthew 2:4:
When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Christ was to be born.
The Greek word may be used as the personal name ascribed to Jesus as we read in 1 Corinthians 2:2:
For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.
In our passage of 1 Corinthians 15:57, the word is used in the sense of “Anointed One,” that is, “Christ.” It is not used here as a proper name but a title. To the Jews of the NT times, the word Christ or Messiah was a title that referred to the promised Davidic King that would bring an everlasting peace to the people of Israel. Consequently, in the NT, many Jews believed the Messiah would be a political-military figure that would free them from foreign oppression. This we can learn from the confession of the two men that were on their way to Emmaus that the Lord Jesus appeared following His resurrection, as we read in Luke 24:21:
but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place.
Furthermore, it is because of this expectation that the Messiah or Christ would be a political-military figure that caused Herod to panic and so attempted to kill Him as recorded in the passage we cited previously, that is, in Matthew 2:4.
Our examination of the words Apostle Paul used in the phrase our Lord Jesus Christ of 1 Corinthians 15:57 reveals that he used the phrase to convey that Jesus Christ is both God and human in one person. This is important because it was necessary to establish why victory over death and sin is through Jesus Christ. On the one hand, unless, He is God He could not have defeated Satan on the cross. On the other hand, unless Jesus Christ is human, He could not have died for our sins so that we could have victory over death and sin. If Jesus Christ is not both God and man in one person, He could not be our mediator as the apostle stated in 1 Timothy 2:5:
For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,
The apostle’s use of the word “man” here recognizes the fact that the unique Lord took on human nature to carry out His work of reconciling humanity to God and so we should recognize that the apostle implies that Jesus Christ is both God and man in one person in order to be our mediator. The picture the apostle painted when he described Jesus Christ as the agent of our reconciliation to God as we noted previously is that of two parties who are at odds with each other that needs to have peace between them but there is no way one side could contact the other, so to say. We were enemies with the unique God, the creator because of our sins. The problem then is that God could not reach out to us because we wronged Him and because of His character, so a mediator was necessary. This mediator must be God and man in one person. So, Jesus Christ, the apostle said is that mediator to help bridge the gap and reconcile us to God. The implication is that Jesus Christ in humanity is the only being qualified to bridge the gap between God and man because of His dual nature in one person. Furthermore, the fact that as human He resurrected with a resurrection body gives the assurance to believers that they will also have a resurrection body that is similar to His as Apostle Paul stated in Philippians 3:21:
who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.
So, if Jesus Christ is both God and human then we can have confidence that He would indeed transform our bodies so that we can say that we have victory over death. Thus, let me repeat that it is important for the apostle to end his thanksgiving for the victory believers have now over sin and death that would be fully realized at the second coming by referencing the Lord Jesus Christ.
We have considered the apostle’s reason for bursting into thanksgiving in the section that he has been dealing with the subject of bodily transformation which is the victory over death and certainly over sin that belongs to believers because of the work of Christ on the cross. But before we leave this section of 1 Corinthians 15:51-57, let me return and comment further regarding the concept of thanksgiving. Thanksgiving as an act of expressing thanks for the benefit one receives is an important one. Many of us forget or ignore that it is important to offer thanks to anyone who shows us kindness. When you receive a favor from someone, it is necessary for you to express thanks for it. The Lord Jesus demonstrated its importance in the question He posed to the only man of the ten persons who were healed of leprosy that returned to express thanks to Him that was healed as recorded in Luke 17:17–18:
Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? 18 Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?”
It is true that the focus of Jesus Christ here is that of praising God for what He did for those healed of leprosy but there is also the implication of giving thanks in His question. Although expressing thanks to people are important when they show us favor but it is more important that we express thanks to God for His untold benefits that we receive. Its importance is conveyed in the OT Scripture in that several times, worshippers are commanded or encouraged to give thanks to Yahweh as we read, for example, in 1 Chronicles 16:34:
Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever.
In the NT Scripture, we are also commanded to offer thanks to God as, we find, for example in Colossians 3:15:
Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.
The instruction and be thankful is literally from the Greek and keep on being thankful. The word “thankful” is a translation of the Greek word (eucharistos) that also means “grateful, mindful of favors.” So, to be thankful implies being mindful of favors one has received. The command be thankful is in the present tense in the Greek suggesting that believers are to form the habit of being thankful. It is clear to me based on the context of this instruction in Colossians 3:15 that the only way a person could keep on being thankful is if the individual is always mindful of the grace of God towards the person. Hence, a person who is constantly experiencing the peace of God should always remember that the individual enjoys peace as a special favor from God. When a person thinks this way, the individual would have no other choice but to return thanks to God who has graciously allowed person to share in His peace.
There are several reasons for offering thanks to God. Without doubt, the topmost reason for thanksgiving is the blessing of salvation as Apostle Paul did in the passage of 1 Corinthians 15:57 that we have studied. The thanksgiving for spiritual blessing or salvation the apostle offered is also conveyed in Romans 7:24–25:
24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.
Part of our spiritual blessing or salvation is eternal inheritance so that we should thank God for it as implied in Colossians 1:12:
giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light.
It is true that the upmost reason for thanksgiving is our personal salvation, but we must move beyond ourselves as the focus in thanksgiving to God regarding salvation related matters to salvation matters related to others. In other words, I am saying that you should not only focus on your salvation as reason for thanksgiving, but you should also look beyond self to others. This being the case, you should offer thanks to God for the faith of other believers as Apostle Paul demonstrated regarding the Roman believers as we read in Romans 1:8:
First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being reported all over the world.
The phrase your faith here is subject to two possible interpretations. A first interpretation is that it refers to their believing in the Lord Jesus Christ for their salvation. A second interpretation is that faith here refers to quality of faith of the Romans and could be understood as their faithfulness in the Christian faith. While it is possible that the apostle could thank God because many people in Rome were being saved through belief in Christ, it is most likely that the apostle thanked God because of the faithfulness of the Romans. This would be similar to the apostle’s thanksgiving to God because of the Thessalonians as reported in 2 Thessalonians 1:3:
We ought always to thank God for you, brothers, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love every one of you has for each other is increasing.
The growing of the faith of the Thessalonians referred not on the initial faith they exercised in Christ when they heard the gospel message but to the quality of their faith. There is the sense that they were learning to trust the Lord more and more. Their faith could refer to content of doctrines they have received since the Greek word that translates “faith” could also refer to “the body of truth” or “doctrine” believers have. Thus, the apostle would have been thanking God that the Thessalonians were increasing their knowledge of the Christian doctrine. The growing of the faith of Thessalonians could refer to their faithfulness to Christ. Each of these meanings of faith that the apostle could have had in mind calls for thanksgiving. I am saying that if you see that a fellow believer is becoming more faithful to the Lord in the sense we described, that should be a cause for your thanksgiving to God. There is more! The apostle thanked God for the love exercised by the Thessalonians as in the last clause of 2 Thessalonians 1:3 and the love every one of you has for each other is increasing. Love in a believer is part of the fruit of the Holy Spirit, therefore it does not increase or decrease so to speak. So, to say that love is increasing should be understood to mean that the ways the Thessalonians were demonstrating their love for each other was increasing. In other words, love being an action-oriented word would be recognized by what someone does. Consequently, the more the Thessalonians demonstrated their love for each other, the more it would be said to be increasing. This aside, the fact remains that the apostle thanked God for the ways the Thessalonians were demonstrating their love for each other. We should thank God when we observe spiritual growth in others.
Apostle Paul not only thanked God for the faithfulness of other believers and for their conduct in living out their faith but also for believers’ attitude towards the word of God. Consequently, he thanked God for some believers’ response to the word of God as, for example, the reception of the word of God by the Thessalonians as we read in 1 Thessalonians 2:13:
And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is at work in you who believe.
It is not only the preaching of the gospel that the apostle would have meant as the word of God here. He most certainly included the Christian doctrines he taught the Thessalonians. They received the teaching of the word well; so, that called for his thanksgiving to God. The implication is that if you see a believer respond positively to the word of God, you should also thank God for such a person.
In any event, there are several reasons that you should thank God. We mentioned few of these, but you should be ready to thank God anytime you notice His goodness towards you. The psalmist advocated that worshippers in Israel should thank God for His goodness or because He is good and loving as, for example, in Psalm 107:1:
Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever.
By the way, part of being thankful to the Lord for His goodness includes offering thanks in prayer over your food as Apostle Paul demonstrated as recorded in Acts 27:35:
After he said this, he took some bread and gave thanks to God in front of them all. Then he broke it and began to eat.
Anyway, it is important that you develop the habit of being thankful to God for His continued goodness. Of course, as we considered previously, you are required to thank God in all circumstances of your life. As we end our study of this section of 1 Corinthians 15:51-57, let me once more remind you of its central message which is that Not everyone will experience physical death, but everyone will undergo a bodily transformation necessary for existence in the eternal state.
12/15/23