Acts 22-28 gives us the closing chapters of Paul's wonderful experience. The middle of the week covers his two epistles to the Thessalonians, the earliest of his letters which have come down to us. The people to whom the Thessalonian letters are written are those who inhabited Thessalonica, now known as Salonica, still a prominent city in Southern Europe. It was anciently called Therma, after the sister of Alexander the Great. The church was founded in A.D. 51 by Paul and Silas. The evangelists were driven from the city by the violence of the Jews.
THE first epistle commends the Thessalonians for their faithfulness and devotion; the last epistle, written the next year or perhaps the same year, corrects an error which they seem to have imbibed from the first that the Lord was soon coming. He tells them that this is not the case, and that Christ will not come until the great falling away, or apostasy, takes place.
THE last two days of the week bring us to Corinthians and the church of Corinth. This church at Corinth seems to include not only the Christians who lived in that city but those who lived in the district of Achaia. It was a great commercial center at that time, and on the overland route from Rome to the East. It lay also between upper and lower Greece, possessing the only good harbor in that section. Its population was mostly foreign, including many Romans. The epistle speaks for itself and points out various sins and weaknesses which had crept into the Corinthian church, some of which the apostle severely reproves.
