テサロニケの信徒への手紙二2:13-14
神はあなたがたを、救われるべき者の初穂としてお選びになったからです。 （二テサロニケ2:13）
日本語で「初穂」と翻訳されている言葉は、英語の聖書でファースト・フルーツとなっておりますように、元々は穀物に限った言葉ではありません。旧約聖書の申命記26章では、エジプトの奴隷状態から救われたイスラエルの人々が約束の地に入って住むことができるようになったならば、「あなたの神、主が与えられる土地から取れるあらゆる地の実りの初物を取って籠に入れ」(26: 2)、主に献げなさいということが教えられています。「初物」は主なる神様に献げる物ですから、「初物」という言葉には単に最初に取れたものというだけでなく、神様に献げるために取り分けられた良いものという意味が込められています。この「初物」は、旧約聖書のヘブライ語でレーシートと言い、その言葉をギリシア語に翻訳すると、本日の箇所で「初穂」と翻訳されているギリシア語と同じ言葉になります。ですから、本日の聖書の箇所の「初穂」も、同じように、神様に献げるために取り分けられた良いものという意味をもった言葉であるのです。
さて、パウロは、どのような意味でテサロニケ教会の信徒たちを「初穂」と呼んだのでしょうか？パウロは、その地方で最初にクリスチャンとなった人を「初穂」と呼ぶことがありました（ローマ16:5、一コリント16:15）。ところが、この意味をテサロニケ教会の信徒たちに当てはめようとしますと、解釈の上で問題が生じます。パウロがローマ帝国のマケドニア州で最初にキリストを宣べ伝えたのは、テサロニケではなくフィリピという都市でした。ですから、その地方で最初にクリスチャンになった人を「初穂」と呼ぶとすれば、テサロニケ教会ではなくフィリピ教会の信徒たちがマケドニア州の「初穂」であるということになります。
ですから、ここではパウロは「初穂」という言葉をもう少し広い意味で使っているのではないかと考えられます。テサロニケの信徒への手紙は、第一の手紙も第二の手紙も終わりの日に備える信仰を教えています。ですから、この「初穂」という言葉も、終わりの日に神様に献げる実りという意味を込めて記されたのではないでしょうか。終わりの日について象徴的な言葉で教えている新約聖書のヨハネの黙示録は、その14章4節でキリストを信じる信徒たちのことを「神と小羊に献げられる初穂として、人々の中から贖われた者たち」であると記しています。「子羊」とはキリストのことです。つまり、ヨハネの黙示録によれば、クリスチャンは終わりの日に神様に献げられる実りとして、全人類の中から選ばれて取り分けられたものであります。本日の箇所の「救われるべきものの初穂として」という言葉も、終わりの日に神様に献げられる実りとして、全人類の中から選ばれて取り分けられたものという意味なのでありましょう。 （1月7日の説教より）
The kind of faith life a Christian leads is deeply connected to the kind of person he or she understands himself or herself to be. At the beginning of their faith journey in Christ, many people will have vaguely sought salvation and peace. Then, after baptism and training in faith and life in the church, their self-understanding of what it means to be a Christian is confirmed. However, there are cases where faith stays at the level that it is enough if he/she feels at peace. If faith remains merely a means to a feeling of peace, then it will not be able to find that peace when the storms of history and life hit. On the contrary, if we have a secure self-understanding of what it means to be a Christian, we will be able to accept with a sense of peace even great hardships that we could not endure before. This is because the establishment of a Christian self-understanding means that one’s relationship with God is secure.
Christian self-understanding may sound somewhat difficult. In other words, it is a question of who you are as a Christian. If you are a Christian, but you are just like everyone else in the world who does not believe in Christ, then you do not have a Christian self-understanding. On the other hand, if you realise that you are like the people of the world, with various shortcomings and weaknesses, but that you are clearly different from the people of the world in that you believe in Christ and follow him, then you have a Christian self-understanding. The Bible contains various teachings about what it means to be a Christian. If we were to pick one representative Bible passage other than today’s passage, we would have to look at 1 Peter 2:9. It states as follows.
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
According to this passage, Christians are members of God’s people, chosen to proclaim God’s mighty works of salvation. And today’s passage also basically teaches that Christians are God’s chosen people. And in addition to that, it teaches, in a very interesting way, what it means to be a Christian: “the firstfruits to be saved.”
The apostle Paul has stated in chapter 2 of this letter, in verse 1 and below, that “the man of lawlessness” will arise before the Last Day. He then explains in verses 9-11 that “the man of lawlessness” will deceive and mislead those who do not love the truth. Then, in verse 12, we note the conclusion that “all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” Then, starting with today’s verse 13, we have a new paragraph: in verses 1-12, Paul had written a stern warning not to be deceived by those who wrongly believe and teach that the Last Day have already come, but to bear in mind well that before the Last Day “the man of lawlessness” will arise! In verses 13-17, however, he wrote words of thanksgiving and encouragement, acknowledging that many members of the Thessalonian church are living a solid life of faith.
First, v. 13 states as follows.
But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth.
In verse 13, an important aspect of Christian teaching is condensed: in contrast to the stern tone of verse 12, Paul says in the first half of verse 13: “But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord.” Reading here, one gets the curious impression that why this change of tone? Perhaps it is because Paul recognised that many in the Thessalonian church were people who believed the truth and would be saved by God, in contrast to those who had pleasure in unrighteousness, who would be judged by God in verse 12. Such recognition was already indicated in the beginning of this letter. That is, 1:3 of this letter says: “We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing.” In 1:3, Paul thanks God that the faith and love of the believers has grown. In today’s passage, the writing is more God-centred, as he thanks God for his choice of “you,” i.e., the believers of the Thessalonian church. It may be that Paul’s thoughts were becoming more profound as he progressed in the writing of the letter.
The main reason for his thanksgiving is given at the second half of verse 13: “because God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth.” The idea that God has chosen those who are to be saved is an idea found throughout the Old and New Testaments. The expression “a chosen race” in 1 Peter 2:9, quoted earlier, is also telling that idea. Also in 1 Thessalonians 1:4, it says: “For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you.” So the idea that the believers of the Thessalonian church are chosen to be saved is not in itself particularly unusual in the Bible. Rather, it is the word “firstfruits” in “as the firstfruits to be saved” that draws our attention.
When commenting on this passage, it must be mentioned that there is a difficult problem in studying the Bible. That is, in determining the original Greek text of the New Testament, the words in this passage differ from one biblical manuscript to another. The New Testament was transmitted in manuscripts, which were transcribed by hand. There are various minor differences in wording between the different manuscripts. In some manuscripts, such as the Vatican Codex, the word aparkane (ἀπαρχὴν) is used in this passage. This can be translated as “as the firstfruits,” as in the Japanese Bible that we now use. It is also translated “as the firstfruits” in the newer translation of the Bible, the Japan Bible Society Interconfessional Version. However, in some manuscripts, such as the Sinai Codex, the word is aparkase (απ αρχης), which can be translated as “from the beginning,” as the earlier Colloquial Japanese Version which we used previously. In other words, if you read this passage in the earlier Colloquial Japanese Version, it reads “God chose you from the beginning.” In the Colloquial Japanese Version, the striking word “firstfruits” is gone, and in its place is the phrase “from the beginning” is written. This is a very specialised area of research into the question, “What was written in the original Bible before the manuscripts?” So I will not go into this any further in depth. Some modern English Bibles translate this passage as “from the beginning of time” (REB), but rather, it is more often translated as “as the firstfruits” (ESV; NIV 2011 “as firstfruits, while the NRSV separates the two words “as the first fruits”). We would therefore like to read this passage as “as the firstfruits” according to the translation which we currently use.
The original Greek word translated as “hatsuho” (i.e., first ears) in Japanese is not originally limited to grain, as the English word is “firstfruits.” In Deuteronomy 26 of the Old Testament, the Israelites who were saved from slavery in Egypt are told that once they have entered the promised land and are able to live there, they are to “take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you harvest from your land that the LORD your God is giving you, and you shall put it in a basket (26:2), and offer them to the Lord. “The first of all the fruit of the ground” includes not only grain such as wheat, but also olives, grapes and other fruits. Moreover, “the first of all the fruit of the ground” does not just refer to the first harvest, but also to the good things that have been separated for offering to the Lord God. This “first” is the Old Testament Hebrew word rēšīt (רֵאשִׁית), which when translated into Greek is the same Greek word that is translated as “firstfruits” in today’s passage. So, in the same way, “the firstfruits” in today’s Scripture passage is a word that means good things that have been separated out to be offered to God.
Now, in what sense did Paul call the believers of the Thessalonian church “firstfruits”? Paul sometimes referred to the first Christians in a region as “firstfruits.” For example, in Romans 16:5, he says: “Greet my beloved Epaenetus, who was the first convert (in Greek “firstfruit”) to Christ in Asia.” He may mean that Epaenetus was the first Christian in the Roman province of Asia. In 1 Corinthians 16:15, it is stated that “the household of Stephanas were the first converts (in Greek “firstfruits”) in Achaia. This may also mean that the family of Stephanas were the first Christians in the Roman province of Achaia.
However, if we try to apply this meaning to the believers of the Thessalonian church, a problem arises in interpretation. Paul first preached Christ in the Roman province of Macedonia in the city of Philippi, not Thessalonica. So if the first Christians in that region are called “firstfruits,” then the belivers of the Philippian church, not the Thessalonian church, would be the “firstfruits” in Macedonia. So it is likely that Paul is using the term “firstfruits” in a slightly broader sense here. Both the first and second letters to the Thessalonians teach faith in preparation for the Last Day. Therefore, the word “firstfruits” may also have been written with the meaning of the fruit that will be offered to God in the Last Day. The New Testament book of Revelation, which teaches about the Last Day in symbolic terms, describes believers in Christ in 14:4 as those who “have been redeemed from mankind as firstfruits for God and the Lamb.” “The Lamb” is Christ. In other words, according to Revelation, Christians have been chosen and set apart from all mankind as “firstfruits” to be offered to God in the Last Day. The words “as the firstfruits to be saved” in today’s passage must also mean that they have been chosen and separated from among all mankind as “firstfruits” to be offered to God in the Last Day.
It is the work of God himself who has chosen and separated Christians from all mankind. In the middle of verse 13 of today’s passage, Paul explains that God chose the members of the Thessalonian church “through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth.” Verse 14 also states that “to this he (i.e., God) called you through our gospel, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.” This means that God’s invitation is through the proclamation of the gospel. When the preacher is filled with the power of the Holy Spirit and proclaims the gospel of Christ, the Holy Spirit also works in the hearts of those who hear, and they come to believe in the gospel of Christ. It is the work of God’s Holy Spirit that causes the gospel to be spoken and the gospel to be believed.
In fact, Paul’s preaching of the gospel in Thessalonica was the work of the Holy Spirit. In 1 Thessalonians 1:5 it says: “Our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction.” 1:6 also says: “And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit.” The preaching of the gospel is through the work of the Holy Spirit, and the joy of faith is also caused by the Holy Spirit. And it is through the work of the Holy Spirit, who causes them to speak and believe, that Christians will be sanctified towards the Last Day. In some of Paul’s letters, he refers to Christians as “we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit” as in Romans 8:23. We can say that the work of the Holy Spirit produces good fruits in our souls, and that we ourselves are the “firstfruits” offered up to God as a result.
Today, we have spoken mainly about the word “firstfruits,” drawing on various passages in the Bible. Some of you may have thought it complicated and difficult, but the conclusion of today’s sermon is simple. That is, we are God’s “firstfruits,” so let us walk in a manner worthy of that “firstfruits.” If we are the “firstfruits” of God’s work, how should we keep ourselves and live? Can we let the firstfruits rot? No, we should not. We need to keep ourselves in good condition until the Last Day, as offerings pleasing to God. And if we always offer and yield ourselves to God, he will keep us in good condition as “firstfruits” by the work of the Holy Spirit and bring us to further maturity. If the world is God’s field, then Christians are the “firstfruits” that are pleasing to God. We bear fruits and mature in trials and tribulations, and on the harvest day at the end of the world, i.e., the Last Day, we will be transformed into glorious bodies that will never decay and will be offered to God. In this new year, let us walk under the guidance of God’s Holy Spirit, as befits the “firstfruits” offered to God.