The early church: We boast about your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and trials you are enduring

With the assistance and the spiritual help of the Holy Spirit, the apostle of the Gentiles preached the gospel in the Greek city of Thessalonica during his second missionary journey. During his stay in the city he preached first among Jews and then among Gentiles, and were the pagans of greek origin, who converted to the faith, formed the first Christian community in the city. Christianity and the early church took their first steps in a world that did not know Jesus and his kingdom: "This God, whom you worship without knowing, is the one I'm telling you about" Acts 17:23.
Paul's stay in Thessalonica was brief and eventful: "As was his custom, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures" Acts 17:2.
But the community remained firm in the faith, for which Paul dedicated two letters to that community. And in the second epistle is where he especially congratulates this community, for maintaining constancy and firmness, that is, the fear of God, in the face of difficulties and oppression: "Therefore, among God's churches we boast about your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and trials you are enduring" 2 Thessalonians 1:4.
That is why the apostle Paul insistently reminded the community that the Lord will give a retribution, to those who have lived with righteousness (Matthew 7:12) and mercy the spiritual gift of eternal life, but to those who have forgotten their neighbor, practicing the sin, the perdition and the curse: "They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might" 2 Thessalonians 1:9.
Following the path of Jesus, taught the apostle Paul, is a real challenge and whoever decides to follow it, as happened to the first converts to the faith, must accept the difficulties that a world given over to selfishness and the love of money imposes.

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