Only One Voice

 

DEVOTION

THE 2^ND LETTER TO THE THESSALONIANS

ONLY ONE VOICE

2 Thess 2:1-4

2:1 Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you, brothers, 2 not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by some prophecy, report or letter supposed to have come from us, saying that the day of the Lord has already come. 3 Don't let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. 4 He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God's temple, proclaiming himself to be God.

NIV

It is certain there were false teachers going around after Paul, and in this case, they came to the Thessalonians with something other than the truth regarding the coming of the Lord and that it was at hand, or would be very soon, so get ready. Paul referred to his 1^st letter about us being caught up in the air, in an effort to undo this panic, this sense of confusion that must have had about the Day of Judgment, or the Day of the Lord. We are not sure how they could be so riled up by these false teachers, however, we do have to consider they did not have the Bible as a reference point, but only one letter from Paul, which did explain much, but still was not the complete story of God and his relationship with his people, his creation. Again, we can take that warning from Paul, as the Thessalonians should have, regarding false teachers and prophets. Although we also have the hindsight, seeing the history of God’s story with his people because we have the whole truth in written form, as well as we, like the Thessalonians, most likely had, have the Spirit to guide us into the truth, the whole truth. However, they were still being deceived and unsettled and alarmed by lies, falsehoods. What is even worse, these who said they were prophets lied about being sent by Paul to share this news. What we learn is that we need to be mindful of who we listen to regarding the truth of God. What we know is that God has called some to be Apostle, some to be prophets, some to be evangelist, and some to be pastors and teachers.  Whether all these offices are still current today is not for us to determine, except we are certain about pastors and teachers. Now whether that gift to the church is manifested in one person or two different gifts, one a pastor and one as a teacher, we cannot be completely sure. Certainly, many who are called to be a pastor, a shepherd of a local church also teach, through their preaching and in living out life with members of the church. However, there are also others who do not serve as the shepherd but serve as teachers of the word. Nevertheless, we need to be on guard against these false prophets and teachers. Our culture is full of them, using the airwaves to gather people onto themselves for personal gain, rather than being purveyors of the truth, they twist the scriptures for their own benefit, spreading their misinformation into the body of Christ, causing confusion and alarm. Then we have all this division in the body created by denominationalism, which pours more fuel on the fire of confusion. How can so many different views all be right, all be the whole truth? This is why we need to rely on the Spirit to lead us into all truth, the whole truth. What we can be certain of is there are many voices of men, but there is only one voice of God. Paul is warning the people to hear that one voice, and reject all those voices of men. We too have the same responsibility as to listen to the one voice of God.