The Thessalonian believers had experienced some severe persecution. If we look back to the first part of Acts 17, we see that some of the Jews there in Thessalonica had believed as a result of Paul and Silas’s teaching and preaching, but several others had formed a mob and even started a riot in the city, looking for Paul and Silas in order to beat them, likely even to kill them.

They didn’t find them as they had hoped at Jason’s house, so instead they took Jason and dragged him out of his house and before the city officials, accusing him of accommodating these “troublemakers”, Paul and Silas, who had simply been teaching the word of God in the synagogue for the last three Saturdays, the last three sabbaths.

So unfortunately, not only was there a severe threat of violence, there were also legal and financial troubles as a result of believing. Jason and his frinds who had believed had been taken before the officials and were even forced to post bond in order to be released.

So this is the context in which Paul had sent the Thessalonians a letter from Corinth, just a few months later. Paul had to escape from Thessalonica, and then subsequently from Berea because the Thessalonian Jews had even chased him there, moving down to Athens, and ultimately on to Corinth where he was working at the time. He wrote back to the Thesslonians to encourage them in their faith, that they shouldn’t give up, that they should keep going, because it was in the middle of the persecution, and maybe even directly as a result of the persecution that they were experiencing, that the message of their faith was amplified:

You became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you welcomed the message in the midst of severe suffering with the joy given by the Holy Spirit. And so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. The Lord’s message rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia—your faith in God has become known everywhere.

1 Thessalonians 1:6-8

Paul praises the Thessalonians because he knows what it means to be persecuted for their faith. Now, the Thessalonians were also experiencing the same, except they were living it, at home, even in their time. We might say that Paul had experienced persecution for the work that he had done, and we would be correct in saying this, but the Thessalonians, and people in many other cities like them, continued to experience the persecution that Paul experienced as well. And yet they continued to live their faith there locally. It was worth it to them. It was worth all of the hassle, the pain, the suffering, the loss, because they could have both now and eternally that which they couldn’t have before: a joy in Christ given to them by the Holy Spirit.

They had joy in Christ that was given to them by the Holy Spirit. It isn’t some type of happiness that is momentary and fleeting. No, it is a joy that is lasting, that goes on even despite the difficulties, despite the suffering in which they found themselves.

When we see this type of joy, it makes an impact on us. When you see joy in the midst of turmoil, in the midst of difficulty and suffering, in the midst of persecution, you immediately wonder why. Why would this person be joyful when they should be sad? Why do they seem to have a source of life within them that sustains them when they should instead be complaining because of their circumstances? Their life seems upside-down. It seems strange. Joy instead of sadness in the midst of problems? There is something else that is happening here that we aren’t seeing…

This joy that the Thessalonians were experiencing was an important reason that their message was ringing out from them. Yes, they were telling others. Absolutely they were speaking. They must.

Yes, they were experiencing the work, the power of the Holy Spirit. They were likely seeing miracles in their midst.

But it is extremely important that we understand the context in which these people became believers and were continuing in their faith. Despite their circumstances, despite their difficulties, despite the persecution that they were experiencing every day, they had joy, a deep and profound joy in Christ. And so when they spoke of their faith, or when they spoke of what God had done in their life, their words were not theoretical. They were experiential. You could see those words in action. You could understand that there was something that had truly changed.

And so their faith became known everywhere. The Lord’s message rang out as a result of the faith that they were living, in joy in the midst of the persecution. The Thessalonians became an example to everyone. The Macedonian churches – at the least, those in Philippi, in Thessalonica, and in Berea – and those in Achaia, the church in Corinth and possibly other believers and other churches as well. Their faith became known everywhere and the Lord’s message rang out from them as they took their example from Paul and Silas and in their joy in Christ, they became an example for all of the other churches as well.