9 For they themselves report about us what kind of a reception we had with you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God, 10 and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, that is Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath to come. 1 Th 1:9–10
So remarkable was the repentance of the Thessalonians, word of it spread like wildfire throughout what we now know as Greece. That Paul and Silas’ time in the city was cut short is proof that the words spoken and deeds done were energized with something other worldly. To go from known idol worshippers to enslaved to the “living and true God” (serve in the Greek is doulos meaning “slave”) made the headlines (verse 9).
Genuine conversions to Christ are always like this. The change is unmistakable and undeniable. Normally present is a voracious appetite for the Word of God. What was lacking in Thessalonica was the necessary time to download enough of it before Paul and Silas had to leave out in the dark of night (Acts 17:10). This led to Apostle’s constant concern for the church there (1 Thessalonians 3:1), and is apparent in his amazement that, aside from some anxiety regarding the fate of their loved ones who had passed (1 Thessalonians 4:13), they had employed what they had been taught to the fullest extent.
Christianity in its truest sense is to be reckoned with, since believers are locked and loaded from conversion to the ends of time, and there will be a day when time runs out and eternity begins. Only trust in Jesus saves us from the wrath to come, which in its purest sense is eternal separation from God. What is true of all believers, from the Thessalonians to us, is an anxious anticipation of the return of God’s son, and the certain rescue from the certain wrath that awaits anyone who has not “turned to God from idols.”
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