Love for one another was an established feature of the church in Thessalonica. This love expanded to all the churches in Macedonia, not just their own church. We need to have a vision and a concern beyond our immediate neighbourhood. So Paul simply urges them to continue to grow in love.
They should also seek to live a quiet life. Now we need to read this carefully. As a church we are to have an impact on our locality and our nation. But we are not to be busybodies, constantly interfering in everything, having an opinion on all and sundry. It seems that some of them may have been concerned with everyone else's affairs without taking proper care of themselves. We are to provide for ourselves and to live lives worthy of respect.
The world has a wrong and distorted view of death. In Christ death has lost its sting. It was important that the Thessalonians had a right view of death and were not misled by the culture around them. The world is without hope. So either death is just viewed as the end of everything, or there is wishful thinking about an afterlife of some sort. We know that Jesus died and rose again, death could not hold Him. So those who die in faith will be raised with Christ on the last day. There is no loss in dying before Christ's return, which seems to have been a concern of some of the Thessalonians.
And when Christ returns it will be obvious to all. It will be with a loud shout, the voice of angels and the trumpet call of God. There will be no secret about it. The dead will be raised and if we are here then we will be caught up together with Christ. Either way, we will be with Christ forever.
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