STUDY QUESTIONS FOR GROUPS
By Micah Odor
1. Have you ever had anything stolen? What was it? How did it happen? What was the result?
2. At what important time in your life did someone encourage you? Why did you need it? What changed because of it?
Ask two people to read aloud 1 Thessalonians 4:16—5:18 one after the other, preferably from different Bible versions.
Without rereading the passage, what key ideas or phrases stood out to you?
3. Verses 4:18 and 5:11 explicitly tell us to encourage each other. Several other verses imply it. And this passage, taken as a whole, acts as an encouragement to the church in Thessalonica. With the last two weeks’ studies in mind, why did this church so badly need encouragement?
4. Why did Paul talk about the Lord’s return in this passage?
5. A lot of conjecture surrounds how Jesus will return. Taking only information from this passage, what can you definitively say?
6. What does it mean to “belong to the night” versus “belong to the day” (verses 5, 8)? Is that the same thing or different from “awake” or “asleep” (verses 6, 10)?
7. What can we learn about God from this week’s passage?
8. What can we learn about ourselves?
9. Where do you need encouragement this week?
10. Whom do you need to encourage this week?
11. Based on our study and discussion, complete this sentence: “This week, I will . . .”
For Next Week: Read and reflect on 2 Thessalonians 1:1-12. You can also read next week’s supplemental texts as well as the Study and Application sections as part of your personal study.
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