Paul's Defense of His Ministry, Message & Method, Pt. 1.

There are plenty of false teachers out there. There always have been. Our Lord warned us about this. For example lately, you have, no doubt, read about the scandals in the Catholic Church. G. K. Beal: “Ironically, one of the greatest obstacles to the spread of the gospel is the church itself. It is not hard to recall Christian leaders from the past twenty years who have been so immoral and greedy that even the world itself has been repulsed.” pg. 63.

To be sure there are indeed fakes and frauds, quacks and kooks, but we must not allow Satan to discredit God’s servants lest we harm ourselves and the churches of God. The enemies of the gospel always attack the messengers of the gospel to the believers of the gospel. That is Satan’s strategy. But in spite of accusation and persecution, the Apostle Paul faithful proclaimed the gospel in its purity. 

In chapter two we see the Apostle address an issue at which he has been hinting. There are some who are assaulting the faith of the Thessalonian Christians by seeking to discredit Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy. In Paul’s absence, he has been unable to defend himself and the church had only their memory of him upon which to rely for a defense. What were the slanderous things being said about these men of God? 

• That Paul had wooed them with flattering words.
• That he only wanted their money.
• That he had left them hastily and wasn’t going to return.

By reminding them of what and how they had received the gospel, Paul helps them distinguish the truth from the slander. Make no mistake. This is about much more than Paul’s ego. He is defending the validity of the gospel and therefore, of their faith in Jesus Christ. If Paul was not trustworthy then these people had been believed a lie and therefore they were free to abandon the principles taught by him. As an Apostle of Christ, Paul is aware of this and is compelled to defend his ministry to the Thessalonians. 

You and I may learn from this as well. Of course, there is the primary application that the gospel preached by the Apostle Paul is the same preached by Christ Jesus Himself. There are those in our day who continue to do the work of the false teachers by working to divide Paul from Jesus by teaching that Paul taught things that Jesus did not. This is false. It was attempted during Paul’s lifetime and demonstrated to be false. It was false then and it is false now. In fact, this brings us to the next application, that this same slanderous method has been often used against some of God most faithful messengers of the gospel. 

How does Paul deal with this? In chapter two he addresses it head-on without hesitation. Thessalonians themselves are witnesses to Paul’s faithfulness.