What did Paul fear?
Why was Jesus killed?
“For you, brothers and sisters, became imitators of God’s churches in Judea, which are in Christ Jesus: You suffered from your own people the same things those churches suffered from the Jews who killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets and also drove us out. They displease God and are hostile to everyone in their effort to keep us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be saved.”- 1 Thessalonians 2:14-16
Take a long look at this whole passage. Read Galatians and all the other works of Paul and you will see one undeniable truth. Paul was most concerned that people would leave Faith for works.
Leaving Faith for works would have settled things nicely with the Jews – the legalist – but this is where Faith grew!
The people who were displeasing God were the ones that tried to make this new belief about works – Not Faith in the cross! The ones that made God angry were the ones that wanted a religion and Not a relationship!
This is the very thing Jesus came to change and yet it is still a battle today for many as it is always easier to follow a checklist you can see than it is a Love and Forgiveness and Grace that the evil one tries to distort and make invisible.
It is easier and much more comfortable to rest in the “good works” you did than in the cross on which Jesus died! Will there be good fruit in the life of a believer? YES absolutely but fruit is a result of The Tree inside NOT an effort to produce what is missing or something that will comfort you.
For the Grace-Full the Only comfort is Jesus! This may come as a shock to some but Jesus did not have an American passport! In His culture in that day to say things like, “Love others as yourself and thus fulfill All the law and prophets” and for Paul to say, “Love therefore is the fulfillment of the law” – was paramount to heresy!
Yes the same heresy that I get accused of most of the time – that is how I know I am on the right track!
