{"id":3569,"date":"2012-04-23T03:30:01","date_gmt":"2012-04-23T10:30:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ministryofgrace.org\/blog\/?p=3569"},"modified":"2012-04-22T21:53:17","modified_gmt":"2012-04-23T04:53:17","slug":"1-thessalonians-15-holy-spirit-enlightenment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/1-thessalonians-15-holy-spirit-enlightenment\/","title":{"rendered":"1 Thessalonians 1:5 – Holy Spirit Enlightenment"},"content":{"rendered":"

For our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit and in much assurance, as you know what kind of men we were among you for your sake.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Truth to Learn<\/u><\/strong><\/h3>\n

The empowering Spirit<\/p>\n

Behind the Words<\/u><\/strong><\/h3>\n

The word “gospel<\/span>” is translated from euangellion<\/em><\/span>, which is made up of eu<\/em><\/span>, meaning “good” or “well” and angell\u014d<\/em><\/span>, meaning “a message.” Thus, quite literally, the word euangellion<\/em> <\/span>means “a good message” or “good news.”<\/p>\n

“Power<\/span>” is the translation of dunamis<\/em><\/span>, from which we get our English word dynamite. It refers to “power” or “a great force.” This is probably a reference to the power of the gospel message rather than the power of any miracles that Paul may have performed because Paul never uses this particular word to refer to miracles. He used dunamis<\/em> <\/span>in a similar manner in reference to the kingdom of God in 1Corinthians 4:20<\/strong><\/span>.<\/p>\n

The word “assurance<\/span>” is translated from pl\u0113rophoria<\/em><\/span>, which is made up of pler\u0113s<\/em><\/span>, meaning “completely full” and a form of phore\u014d<\/em><\/span>, which means “to repeatedly bring.” Initially this word meant “an act which is fully completed over and over again.” Later it came to mean “a proof or assurance that something would happen just as it has in the past.”<\/p>\n

Meaning Explained<\/u><\/strong><\/h3>\n

Paul has told the members of the church in Thessalonica that he prays for them and praises God for them on a regular basis. His praise was for their deeds of faith, their labor of love, and their patience, based on their hope for spending eternity with God. His reason for praise is based on the fact that he has seen (evidenced by their works and patience) that they are certainly among God’s elect.<\/p>\n

We talked in the previous verse about the fact of God’s choosing those who will be saved. The other side of that coin, however, is the responsibility of man. Only those who believe the gospel message, confessing Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, will be saved. How these two doctrines can both be true is nearly impossible for us to understand. However, it is that very gospel message that Paul talks about in today’s verse.<\/p>\n

The gospel, or good news, that Jesus Christ died to pay for the sins of the whole world and rose from the grave to prove that He is the Son of God, is not just a bunch of words. There is power in the gospel, the power to save souls from Hell, the power to change a sinner into a saint, the power to reconcile filthy sinners with a holy God.<\/p>\n

Paul also tells us that the gospel is somehow energized by the Holy Spirit. We know from Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians that Satan blinds the minds of people so that they cannot believe the gospel (2Corinthians 4:4<\/span><\/strong>). We also know from the same letter that the veil of blindness is removed when one believes the gospel (2Corinthians 3:14-16<\/span><\/strong>). Paul implies here that it is the Holy Spirit who opens the minds of those who believe.<\/p>\n

Application<\/u><\/strong><\/h3>\n

If you are a born-again Christian, can you remember the day that you accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior? If so, can you identify what it was that finally allowed you to understand the gospel and believe it in your heart? It was the Holy Spirit!<\/p>\n

In God's service, for His glory,<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/strong><\/p>\n

Copyright © 2012 Will Krause. All rights reserved<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit and in much assurance, as you know what kind of men we were among you for your sake. Truth to Learn The empowering Spirit Behind the Words The word “gospel” is translated from euangellion, which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[2574,1036,2572,119,2573,212],"class_list":["post-3569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-assurance","tag-dunamis","tag-euangellion","tag-gospel","tag-plerophoria","tag-power"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd5geA-Vz","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3569"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3569\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3571,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3569\/revisions\/3571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}