Tony Payne beantwortet die Frage: Wenn du einen Bibelabschnitt hättest, um das Evangelium zu erklären, welche Stelle würdest du öffnen?
Denn von euch aus ist das Wort des Herrn erklungen; nicht nur in Mazedonien und Achaja, sondern überall ist euer Glaube an Gott bekanntgeworden, so daß wir es nicht nötig haben, davon zu reden. Denn sie selbst erzählen von uns, welchen Eingang wir bei euch gefunden haben und wie ihr euch von den Götzen zu Gott bekehrt habt, um dem lebendigen und wahren Gott zu dienen, und um seinen Sohn aus dem Himmel zu erwarten, den er aus den Toten auferweckt hat, Jesus, der uns errettet vor dem zukünftigen Zorn. (1. Thessalonicher 1,8-10)
Er erklärt die Botschaft in drei Schritten:
The first thing that these people did was to turn away from their religion and culture. They used to worship idols — fake gods. But then they turned their backs on all this. Becoming a Christian requires you to turn away from your old life, from all the things that are not really god that you used to worship and live for.
The second thing follows on from the first. They stopped serving and living for false gods, and started serving the true and living God—the one, real and true God, who made everything and who is in charge of everything. To become a Christian is to put yourself at God’s service; to acknowledge that he is the one and only God, and that you are one of his servants.
But there’s a third aspect. Even if they turned back to God to serve him, why would he accept them? After all, they’d been worshipping the opposition, ignoring him, sinning against him. He would have every right to be angry with them. So why should he accept them back? Because of what it says there in verse 10: God’s Son Jesus died to deliver them from the anger that was to come (that’s what ‘wrath’ means).
