1 Thessalonians 2-4

(August 9, 2013)
Reading through these chapters, I was struck by Paul’s comment about the Jews not proselyting – in fact, they almost forbid it.  That was interesting to me, because we understand that the Mosaic Law was a precursor law to prepare for the higher Gospel Law.  I could understand not being obligated to proselyte under the Mosaic Law, as that could have been a higher portion of the law introduced under the Gospel.  But why forbid it?  Paul seems to indicate that this prohibition on proselyting was concocted by the Jews themselves rather than introduced by Moses or God.  How sad, then, that for hundreds of years the Lord’s voice was not heard by generations of those who might otherwise have accepted it because of selfishness on the part of His chosen people.  This, if nothing else, should give us pause to consider why it is that we are not sharing the portion of the Gospel that we hold.