2 Thessolonians 1 : Hope in the midst of persecution
Followed 1 Thessalonians by only a few months. Persecutions had begun. Pliny, the Elder: “It was in Thessalonica that the first Gentiles were killed in the Roman Empire. The local Roman governor in that part of the country said that every Christian had to bow before a statue of Augustus Caesar. He had been deified and statues of Caesar were erected everywhere. Christians who didn’t obey the edict were perse- cuted.” It was in Thessalonica that they dreamed up the procedure of offering a cask of wine on the altar to Venus or Caesar, and then publicly taking it out to the marketplace, sprinkling all the vegetables, meat, and other goods, announcing that it had all been dedicated to the god. Anyone who bought or ate any of it thereby worshipped a false god. Christians who stopped buying in the marketplace as a witness immediately became marked. The first crucifixions, the first…