Matthew 3-4 tells us the story of Jesus getting baptized then Jesus being led by
the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. The main point of these
stories is to remind believers that we are at war. There is a real enemy; if there
is a real enemy, it helps to be mindful of the typical weapons of the enemy as
well as practical methods of fighting back against the evil in the world.
The church at Thessalonica is told to not do sex like the people who don’t know God. Paul had previously instructed them to control their bodies in holiness and honor. We attempt to unearth the weapons that they would have used to exercise body control.
The oldest written document of the New Testament is 1 Thessalonians. It gives us the oldest foundational principles of the church. 1 Thessalonians begins by turning the clock back to remember how the gospel saves and changes pagans.
One of the themes in the prophets is their call of exhortation to God’s people. The call can be to get back to Torah observance, or justice or it in case of Haggai to stop procrastinating. We get to learn from how God shepherds His people during periods of “we will do it later” and gain wisdom for our own tendencies.