I Thessalonians 3:1,2 – “Selfless”

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

¹Therefore, holding out no longer, we were happy to be left behind alone in Athens, ²and we sent Timothy, our brother and fellow servant of God in the gospel of Christ, to establish you and encourage [you] concerning your faith.

I’ve been working in the book of Daniel for a while, but want to take a break and go back to the book of I Thessalonians. It’s been fun working in the Aramaic of Daniel 2, but I need to give my Greek muscles a little workout for a while.

The context here goes back to chapter 2 and the love relationship between Paul and the Thessalonian Christians. He related back in 2:12-20 how intensely he had wanted to see the Thessalonians but Satan had hindered him.

In just these two little verses, we can observe the selflessness of this man named Paul. First notice how he says, “… when we could stand it no longer...” What is this? Is it not the parental love of a man who longs to know how his children are doing? It is not just business associates “keeping up” their contacts. It is a parent’s heart earnestly longing over their children’s lives. Anyone who is a parent knows how their heart’s sun rises and falls on their children’s well-being. When our children suffer, we die. When they’re okay, our hearts soar. And that is how it should be. But note these are not Paul’s children.  He had no wife or sons or daughters. This isn’t the natural love we feel for our biological children. This is the love of a man for other people.

Of course it is true he is a pastor. Of course it is true that he was their “father” spiritually speaking – it was his instrumentality God used to lead these people to Christ. Of course he had an “interest” in their welfare. But the Roman Empire was a big place and Paul had a whole world to reach for Christ. He easily could have just said “God bless you all” and moved on. But his was not just a vocational relationship. He actually cared. Deeply. And so deeply, it was painful for him not to know how they were doing. Someone might say, “Well, of course he feels this strongly. That’s just what pastors and missionaries do.” But is it? Do they all? Obviously no. And that is exactly my point, whether someone is a pastor or missionary or a candlestick maker, deep love for others is not “natural.” There is a sense in which love for one’s physical children is “natural,” but real love for others is a fruit of the Spirit. It comes from His heart. Those who truly draw near Christ cannot help but also grow in His love for others. To see them through His eyes is to love them. “And having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end” (John 13:1). May our hearts, like Paul’s, be found sitting at Jesus’ feet, drinking in His words and His heart, so much so that we actually love others with the same selfless love Paul had. “…when I could stand it no longer …”

Then we see his selflessness in his words, “…we thought it best to be left behind alone in Athens, and we sent Timothy …” Too many people’s lives echo with the words, “What about me?” Though they may be nice people in many ways, when it comes down to it, they simply will not happily defer to other peoples’ needs. Paul wasn’t like that. He was willing to give up his young helper out of his concern for the Thessalonian people. Giving up self is of course a Jesus-thing, “Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made Himself nothing …” (Phil 2:6,7). Interestingly, the way in which He was able to do that is revealed in many places like I Peter 2:23, “… He entrusted Himself to Him who judges justly,” and “Into Your hands I commend My spirit” (Lk 23:46).  One of the greatest benefits we enjoy as Christians is the opportunity to trust that the Lord will take care of us, and that then means we won’t need to be asking, “What about me?” We certainly shouldn’t be irresponsible with our time, our finances, our health, etc., but, by God’s grace, we can address all of those things as part of our service to God, while we’re free ourselves to give and love.

Next we see Paul’s selflessness in how he refers to Timothy as “our brother and fellow servant of God.” Paul was a great man doing a great work, yet he never lost sight of the people who helped him. He wasn’t the “big I” in his own world. He didn’t suffer from in-grown eyeballs. He knew he was doing an important work, but he also knew he couldn’t do it without the help of the people the Lord put around him. His letters are full of acknowledgements of other people. And in Timothy’s case, he isn’t just a fellow helper. He was the young fellow that “Paul would have go with him” (Acts 16:3). Timothy is the young fellow that Paul has been training. Yet he isn’t “my trainee.” He’s “my brother and fellow servant of God.” As you and I go about our lives, we need more and more to value all of the people the Lord places around us, and not be afraid to say so.

Exegetical sidenote: There is a textual variant around whether Timothy is a fellow “servant” of God or “worker” of God. Looking at the evidence, I would lean toward “servant,” but the variant itself is rather messy and in the end, in my opinion, it makes no real difference in the meaning of the verse, so I would have no strong opinion in any direction.  

Finally, back to Paul’s selflessness, note, in v2, what’s it all about? “…to strengthen and encourage you in your faith.” Note the “you” and “your.” I like that, in the Greek, this is all an “eis” phrase. Bottom line is it is clearly an expression of purpose. And what is that purpose? “You.” The people. Paul’s “purpose” was always the people themselves. As he said in v20, “Indeed, you are our glory and joy.” Once again, Paul wasn’t about the “big I.” His work all day every day wasn’t about his glorious career, or his “legacy,” or anything else “me.” As he said in Philippians 2:17, he lived “being poured out as a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith.” As I observed above, this is one of the glorious freedoms of being born again – the opportunity to forget self and actually spend our energies for the good of others.

Paul and Timothy and their friends in this text, of course, are all about their full-time ministry work, but the same holds true for the rest of us as we go about our secular jobs and live in our communities. As an engineer, part of the “good” I get to do is to provide for the quality of life of the people in all my communities. Those people are free to turn their taps and get crystal clear, safe water and then flush their toilets and see it disappear, only to reappear as crystal clear water flowing into some nearby stream or lake. They’ll never know the work that went into making all of that happen, and keeping it happening. But, as a Christian, I can be completely content if no one ever knows what I did for them. I did it for them. People must have clean water to drink and use and it must be clean before it goes back in the river. Someone needs to make it all happen. And I am thankful the Lord lets me be a part of it all.

Someone may say, “Yeah, but you get paid for it. That’s really why you do it.” For me as a Christian, that isn’t true. The fact is simply that, like everyone else, I have to be paid. I live in a world that thinks I owe them a lot of money every month. It has to come from somewhere. If one community isn’t willing to pay me for my work on their behalf, then I have no choice but to go somewhere else – not because I’m doing it for the pay, but because I have to be paid. Someone has to provide for my living. As a Christian, all pay does is free me to in fact spend my time working for the good of those people. It’s still all about them. And it’s fun.

As I go about trying to do my “good,” I’m amazed how many other people there are out there doing the same thing. All we hear about is the crooks and charlatans and politicians feathering their own nests at the expense of the very people they are supposed to be helping. But I know a LOT of mayors and aldermen, a lot of project managers and foremen, a lot of operators and electricians and pipe fitters and a host of others who honestly care about the people they’re serving and want to do a good job. Perhaps for some of them, that is just their work ethic. It’s the way they were raised. But for us Christians, it is a privilege we enjoy, that we can actually entrust ourselves “to Him who judges justly” and then honestly give ourselves, our energies, and our time to doing good for others.

Jesus was “a man, ordained by God, who went about doing good …” (Acts 10:38).

Paul was like Him. We should be too.

The fruit of the Spirit is love. He makes us genuinely care for other people, makes us willing to defer to others’ needs before our own, makes us sincerely appreciate the people He places around us, and gives us the freedom to live a life of love.

And it is our blessed privilege to experience the joy of living selflessly.