1 & 2 THESSALONIANS FOR YOU
By Ligon Duncan
Good Book Company. 216 pages. £11.99.
ISBN 978 1 784 985 011
This is a welcome new addition to the now nearly complete Bible Book For You series published by The Good Book Company. Each volume, intentionally multipurpose, aims to offer a series of studies for personal or group study, or for use complementing a church sermon series.
They are intended to be readable either as a book, cover to cover, or for daily devotional or study use. Further, the intended audience is not the academic scholar, but the ordinary Christian believer who seeks to read and feed on God’s word. This new Thessalonians entry to the series follows the general pattern admirably.
The author, Ligon Duncan, certainly does not disappoint us in this very thoughtful volume of 14 chapters, dividing each chapter of the two Thessalonian epistles appropriately into one, two or three sections. His writing is eminently accessible, easy to read, avoiding technical language and academic vocabulary, whilst providing a thoroughly competent analysis of the text. He uses sound Biblical interpretation principles in a way that I cannot fault. Particularly impressive is Duncan’s wide-ranging application to the ordinary lives of ordinary Christians. Each chapter is helpfully divided into two parts, for one or two days’ study at will, and there are ‘Questions for Reflection’ at the end of each part. All in all, Duncan’s work provides a resoundingly good feed. He doesn’t sidestep, but carefully navigates, sometimes contentious issues such as the Lord’s return. My only quibble is the cover design, which is far too ‘busy’ and off-putting, with not a lower-case letter in sight.
Accompanying 1 & 2 Thessalonians For You is a study booklet 1 & 2 Thessalonians: in Light of His Return, also by Duncan, providing eight group studies, each covering one chapter of the Thessalonian letters, with leader’s guide included.
