"Our Entering In Unto You"
Paul reminded those who had accepted the word of the message as the word of God of his first contact with them. "For yourselves, brethren, know our entering in unto you, that it hath not been found vain: but having suffered before and been shamefully treated, as ye know, at Philippi, we waxed bold in our God to speak unto you the gospel of God in much conflict." (1 Thess. 2:1, 2)
From this we learn that the preaching at Thessalonica was fruitful. The apostles entering in was not found vain. These people accepted the gospel as the word of God in spite of the bad reputation that circumstances might have put upon the preacher — about 100 miles from Thessalonica, at Philippi, this preacher had been beaten severely and then thrown in jail. The scars from the beating would hardly have healed — and even in Thessalonica he had to preach the gospel in much conflict. "But the Jews, being moved with jealousy, took unto them certain vile fellows of the rabble, gathering a crowd set the city on an uproar," (Acts 17:5) and sought to get hold of Paul. How could an ex-convict, who was in trouble with the majority of the city because of his preaching, bring people to believe that the word of the message which he preached was the word of God? The boldness or assurance of the speaker as he proclaimed the word proved that he sincerely believed it. This boldness in face of danger, certain suffering and sacrifice had its good effect upon the hearers. It is not difficult to speak with boldness when the speaker's past experience in speaking the word has been pleasant and when he has no reason to expect anything but a courteous hearing and praise from all. It is a different thing to speak with boldness when past experience is that of being shamefully treated, the present filled with "much conflict" and the prospects "are to suffer afflictions" because "hereunto we are appointed." Those people who received the message as the word of God recognized the fact that such boldness could not be manifested against such odds if the preacher did not himself believe what he preached to be the word of God. More people would be accepting the gospel as the word of God if preachers were boldly preaching it. More preachers would be boldly preaching it if they themselves accepted it as the word of God. Boldness in preaching the gospel, the full gospel and nothing but the gospel, cannot exist in the face of certain suffering and sacrifice, without deep conviction of its divine authority.
Those people who accepted the gospel Paul preached as the word of God could easily remember "the labor and travail" of the apostle, "working night and day, that we might not burden any of you, we preached unto you the gospel of God." (1 Thess. 2:9) What could have induced this preacher to "die daily," to suffer mental distress, physical pain, social ostracism and "work night and day" to avoid being an economic burden to those who heard him preach the word of the message? It is for certain that Paul believed that "the Lord himself shall descend from heaven, with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we that are alive, that are left, shall together with them be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord." (1 Thess. 4:16, 17)
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