I Thessalonians 2:7,8 – “Love”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

⁷But we became gentle ones among you as even a nursing woman cherishes her own children, ⁸just as, having strong affection for you, we are pleased to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own souls because you became beloved ones to us.

Paul here describes the kind of relationship he had with the Thessalonians. To pause and really listen to his words, it is almost amazing to think that any man ever really loved his people this much. That leads me to two thoughts. First is that what he is describing is actually Jesus. Does Jesus really love people this much? Of course He does. “He laid down His life for the sheep,” and “having loved His own, He loved them to the end.” What then is Paul describing but simply the truth of a man who loved people like Jesus. Which leads me to my second thought – that this is precisely the kind of love we should all live, whether we happen to be ministers or candle-stick makers.

Am I wrong? If what Paul is describing is simply the love Jesus had for people, then why should I accept anything less even if I own a factory or supervise an office or hire a plumber? I’m not the only one (though there have been few) who has observed this. William Nicoll wrote:

“A man of business, who looks at the laborers whom he employs as only so many instruments for rearing the fabric of his prosperity, is not a Christian. Everybody in the world knows that; and such men, if they profess Christianity, give a handle to slander, and bring disgrace on the religion which they wear merely as a blind. True Christianity is love, and the nature of love is not to take but to give. There is no limit to the Christian’s beneficence; he counts nothing his own; he gives his very soul with every separate gift. He is as tender as the mother to her infant; as wise, as manly, as earnest as the father with his growing boy.”

W.F.Adeney adds:

“The spirit of the gospel being love, if we truly receive the gospel it will inspire love. The greatest change which it produces in men is to cast out selfishness, and to give a heart of love to God and man.”

It is certainly commendable in a minister to love his people like this. Unfortunately I have to add “and exceptionally rare.” I sadly have to suggest that American Christianity is so miserably Arminian and legalistic, it is nearly impossible for any man to see God’s face clearly enough to bear this kind of love. For the ministers themselves, it will only change when they give up their fascination with results and begin again to look God squarely in the face.

But I would like to leave the ministers to ponder their own hearts and turn our attention again to us the people. That same anemic pseudo-faith that keeps them grossly immature and un-Christlike produces exactly the same effect in us. It keeps God’s people gathering straws while Jesus offers them gold. It keeps us satisfied to call ourselves Christians, enjoy everyone else’s approbation at church, then go out and live our lives often no better (and even more often worse) than many who claim no faith at all. Would we ourselves repent of our Martha-busy-ness and instead like Mary prefer above all else to sit at His feet, to hear His voice, to gaze into His eyes, then “beholding His image, we would be changed into that image.” We’d actually become like Christ.

And if we were like Christ, what characteristic would immediately be most evident in our lives? Love. And where would that happen? Everywhere we encounter people.

Now I want to inject at this point that we should not simply presume we’re talking about some kind of weak-willed, indulgent, sappy kind of love. We’re talking about Jesus’ kind of love, that could say to a woman, “Does no one condemn you? Then neither do I …,” then turn around and rail on the religious hypocrites, “You brood of vipers!” My point is that Jesus’ love bears many, many different faces, always driven by what’s best for the people and what honors the Father. It is gentle and kind when it needs to be but just as likely to be brave and firm when those are rather the more needful qualities. Even so in our lives. It takes a great deal of wisdom to love well. And once again, we will only learn that love if we sit at the Master’s feet and learn of Him.

Would that every true Christian would pause over a passage like this and pray, “God help me to love my people like this – whether it be my family or at work or the team I coach or wherever. Let my heart not be content to play at faith but may I genuinely live the love of Jesus all day every day with whoever the Lord makes 'my people' today."

Like a nursing mother cuddling her tiny baby. Pleased to do for people the work that is mine to do but, in so doing, to give them my very soul as well. To be affectionately desirous of people. To think of them as “beloved ones.”

So then let us not say in our hearts, “‘Who will ascend into Heaven?’ (that is, to bring Christ down) or ‘Who will descend into the deep’ (that is to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? ‘The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart.’” None of this is beyond us. It is as near as Christ to our hearts.

Would that the face of Jesus were ours.