Adult Sunday School
Paul wrote two letters to the church at Thessalonica, a major port city of Macedonia in the 1st century AD. These letters were probably sent by Paul in AD 50 or AD 51, while he was staying in the city of Corinth during his second missionary journey (Acts 16-18). This was during the reign of the Roman emperor Claudius. In these two letters Paul is generally upbeat. In the first he notes the good report about the church that he had received from Timothy, and he also speaks of the coming of the Day of the Lord, a theme to which he returns in the second letter. The theme chosen for this study, “Excel Still More,” comes from 1 Thess 4:1, and seems to encapsulate Paul’s overall message to the Thessalonian church.
As noted above, both letters of Paul that were sent to the church at Thessalonica can be dated to about the year AD 51. Paul spent about 18 months at Corinth during his second missionary journey (Acts 18:11), which overlapped the rule of the proconsul Gallio (Acts 18:12). Archaeological evidence shows that Gallio was proconsul in AD 51-52, which allows fairly precise dating of Paul’s stay in Corinth. Paul had recently visited Thessalonica (Acts 17:1-9), and apparently sent Silas and Timothy north from Corinth with his letter (Acts 18:5; cf. 1 Thess 1:1; 2 Thess 1:1).
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