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.

I Thessalonians 2:3-6 – “Honestly”

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

³For our appeal [was] not out of error neither out of uncleanness nor in deceit, ⁴but just as we have been tested by God to be entrusted with the gospel, thus we speak but not as ones pleasing men but God, the One testing our hearts. ⁵For, as you know, we were not once in a word of flattery neither in a pretext of greed – God [is our] witness – ⁶nor seeking glory out of men, [though] being able to be in weight as apostles of Christ.

Paul is here, unfortunately, having to defend himself. In I Thessalonians, he doesn’t mention his detractors as he does in Galatians or I & II Corinthians (for example), but they were of course always there, accusing him of all of the things he here insists were never true. It is saddening to see how truly good a person can be and yet still be maligned and accused. Paul did nothing but sincerely love people at great sacrifice on his own part, and yet there were still those who were quite sure he was just a greedy peddler disseminating his deceitful fairy tales. Of course, that is how they treated Jesus too. He never did anything but love people and they crucified Him for it.

Obviously, Paul is dealing with all of this in the realm of the ministry (since that was his calling), but I want to point out that what he’s talking about is true no matter what your vocation or what you try to accomplish. We won’t change this sad reality of our fallen world. What we can change though is whether or not we are like Paul (and like Jesus) in what we allow to be our motives and the methods we employ as we go about our business and our lives. In Titus we are instructed to be workers who can be “fully trusted” so that “in every way” we “will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive” (2:10). On the other hand, in I Timothy Christians should be good workers “so that God’s name may not be slandered” (6:1).

So, based on these and many, many other passages, this is true whether we’re talking about ministers or school teachers or plumbers or car mechanics or lawyers or engineers or stay-at-home moms, and whether those same people are involved in a church ministry of some kind or whether they are living their daily lives and doing their jobs. The kind of sincerity that Paul is describing is simply the kind of people we all should be, no matter what we’re doing. As Albert Barnes said, “It is much when a man can say that he has never endeavored to accomplish anything by mere trick, craft, or cunning … Guile, craft, cunning imply deception, and can never be reconciled with that entire honesty which a minister of the gospel, and all other Christians, ought to possess.” John Trapp said, “True grace is of a most masculine, disengaged, noble nature, and remits nothing of its diligence either for fear of a frown or hope of a reward.” I guess my point is that what Paul is describing is not just the work of a pastor or missionary but that of everyone who calls themselves a Christ-follower.

As we do our jobs or interact with family and friends and grocery store clerks, it should be true of all of us that “we speak … not as ones pleasing men but God, the One testing our hearts; for, as you know, we were not once in a word of flattery neither in a pretext of greed – God [is our] witness…” We don’t need to resort to deceit or trickery, we don’t need to flatter, greed deserves no place in our hearts, and we live our lives with “God as our witness.” Christians are free to simply do right and love people because they know that the Lord sees and cares and will reward their faithfulness in His way and in His time.

The Lord frees us to just live simply and honestly.

I have often told people I am convinced in work that if you take care of people, in the long run they’ll take care of you. It is true that sometimes, in the short run, people can certainly take advantage of you; but I still believe, in the long run, if you make it your goal to take care of them, they will take care of you. In other words, if I sincerely make it my goal to do good for the people I work for, in the long run I will have work to do, and I will be paid a reasonable wage. I don’t have to play games, neither do I have to resort to any schemes to “get their money.” I can just “do good” and trust the Lord to make it all work out.

Studying this passage just reinforces that determination in my own life – to simply live and work honestly.

God help me.

I Thessalonians 2:1,2 – “Christian Boldness”

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

¹For you yourselves know, brothers, that our entrance which [was] toward you was not empty ²but having been previously mistreated and insulted in Philippi, just as you know, we were emboldened in our God to speak the gospel of God in much agony.

“Emboldened in our God.” This, I would suggest, is one of the great benefits of knowing the Lord – boldness. Faith, hope, and love all give us a divinely endowed boldness to be who we should be and do the things we ought to do. And that is important since we live in a world of “much agony” – a world where we may in fact be mistreated and insulted or where, at least, it seems sometimes every day is filled with obstacles and hardships.

“Boldness” without the Lord can be simply arrogance or obnoxiousness. A person who “wants” something may be very “bold” to get it but come off as only pushy or rude. The boldness God gives is something totally different. Boldness from the Lord does not start with what I “want.” It starts with my responsibilities, my duties, the things the Lord and others rightly expect from me. As I face my life every day, there are many such things and yet, everywhere I look I see obstacles and uncertainties and fears. But then I remember this is not my world. This is God’s world. It’s not my life, it’s the life God has given me. It’s not about what I’m doing but about what He’s doing. I don’t need Him to help me live my life, I need His help to live the life He wants me to live. The “results” are really not mine to worry about. Rather I need to be about the things He’d have me do and then just have faith that He’ll make it all work out.

In this passage, Paul is about the vocation God has given him, being an apostle and a pastor and preacher. He was “emboldened in our God” to speak the gospel in spite of many obstacles. But Christian boldness is for every person in every occupation and in every responsibility that is ours before the Lord. I go to work every day as an engineer and I have a lot of people who are depending on me. Communities have all kinds of issues and they need my help to figure out solutions and then get what needs to be done done. But there are many obstacles. I am so thankful I can face those responsibilities and just walk right straight into the issues believing that somehow the Lord will help me. And here I am nearly 40 years into my career and I can list off time and time and time again He has done just that. In a million different ways, at just the right time, He makes things “work.” I love knowing I can do just that – charge right into the face of the obstacles with faith in my great God, with the hope that He will somehow make a way, and with the love of sincerely wanting to help those who are depending on me. And that is Christian boldness.

And I love that it isn’t necessarily limited to $12 million treatment plants. It can be as simple as installing a new garbage disposal for my wife.  There are many obstacles. I don’t have one to install. If I did have one, I’ve never installed one before. I don’t know if I’ll figure it out. And if I do install one, it probably won’t work. So what do I do? Just pray and press ahead. The Lord did provide one and suddenly I’m reading the manual how to install it. Of course manuals today stink, so I have to do a lot of “figuring out.” I finally gather all the pieces and dive in. All along the way there are obstacles, yet I can press on. And suddenly it’s finished, it works great, and I’m so thankful I could do that for her. How did it happen? Christian boldness. I started out wishing I could do it for her but faced with what seemed to be too many obstacles. But I believed I should, that the Lord would want me to, and the next thing I know it’s done.

I guess somehow I just want to record, as I’m looking at this verse in particular, that it is a wonderful benefit of knowing the Lord to be able to enjoy this thing of boldness, this power to tackle life with faith, hope, and love, and minute by minute get to see Him doing great things in my world. I wish everyone could have this wonderful personal dynamo spinning inside their heart. It sure makes life fun!

I Thessalonians 1:9,10 – “Real”

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

⁹For they are reporting concerning us what manner of entrance we had toward you and how you turned toward the God from the idols to serve a living and true God, ¹⁰and to await His Son out of the heavens, whom He raised out of the dead ones, Jesus, the One rescuing us out of the coming wrath.

There are two things I find particularly noteworthy from these two verses. The first is Paul’s observation of the Thessalonians that they “turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God.” In the context, Paul is recounting all the reasons he (and the world) know that his labors were successful among the Thessalonians. Paul preached the Gospel to these people and how did they respond? They “turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God.”

This is so important. The words are not just Christian clichés. These people really did “turn to God from idols.” They really did do it “to serve the living and true God.” I fear that so much of what goes on even in supposedly Biblical Christianity, even as a result of real Gospel preaching, is ultimately for other ends than these. What do I mean? I have known so many people down through the years who tell how they responded to a Gospel message and so they went home and threw away all their tobacco products, poured all their alcohol down the sink, and started going to church. And to that we all shout, “Hallelujah!” Right? Hmmmm. Based on I Thess 1:9, shouldn’t the answer to that be, “Well … maybe?” If all those things are a genuine expression of someone “turning to God from idols” then that’s great, but there can be a lot of other underlying motives for those actions. I fear in a LOT of the people who’ve told that story, they were just turning over some kind of moral leaf. They’d been raised with some sense of Christian morals, had strayed from those morals, and now they’re just “going back” to being the moral people they were taught to be. In other words, the Lord isn’t in the middle of it at all! And the proof of that was that, though such “Christians” appear to be moral, there is nothing at all “Christ” about them.

I think too many people respond to the Gospel and “turn to church from idols to ‘serve’ day and night at their church.” Once again, Christian culture just loves someone who “gets saved” and then suddenly volunteers for every “ministry” available. But, again, my question is, “But is God really in the middle of it all?” I don’t doubt people do the same in Jewish cultures and Hindu and Moslem and Buddhist and all the rest. They turn over some new leaf and get head over heels involved in their local “whatever.” And is that any different than the person who gets tired of being “out of shape” and joins the local gym? Gospel preaching is (and should be) powerfully persuasive. It is a message of repentance, a call to major change. But, and I guess this is my point, the question still remains what “change” is really going on?

May I remind us all of Jesus’ warning in Matt 12:43-45, “When an impure spirit comes out of a person, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that person is worse than the first. That is how it will be with this wicked generation.” “Change” though dramatic may not be real.

And what is real “change?” It is to genuinely “turn to God from idols to serve the living and true God.” It is all about God. Not anything else. It’s not about pouring your booze down the sink or “going to church” or anything else. It’s about God. It’s about spending our lives living for a million other things and suddenly realizing it’s all about Him … and then turning to a life that’s all about Him. And it’s not just about turning to some sterile “belief” in “God,” but actually to enter into a relationship with “the living and true God.” Living. It is about a real relationship with the living God. It’s about Mary, not Martha.

God didn’t sit in Heaven and wish the best for us. He came to earth and “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” He came to live here because He is a living God. He didn’t just leave us the written Word. Jesus came here to be to us the living Word. Our God is the true God and the true God is a living God, a Person who invites us into a living relationship. To genuinely respond to the Gospel is in fact to enter into a real, personal relationship with that living and true God.

I remember when I was first saved -- there was no question, from the instant “the lights came on” that I was suddenly in a real relationship with the living God. I wanted to know Him. Not long after I was saved, I ran across JI Packer’s book “Knowing God” and literally inhaled it. I observed Jesus’ words in John 17:3, “…for this is eternal life, that they might know Thee…” and I could see how true it all was. But then I remember being “at church” at some kind of meeting and realizing in my heart “what’s going on here and what’s going on in the Bible are two different things.” I could see that somehow the “church” was really about some kind of religious “busy-ness” and not really about knowing God at all. Unfortunately, I disregarded that red flag in my heart and just went ahead and joined the “busy-ness.” Fortunately for me, I continued studying the Bible on my own and having a personal relationship with God, so that, over the years I got more and more uncomfortable with just being caught up in that religious busy-ness, finally saw it for the complete sham that it is, and extricated myself from it. I deeply fear that, at least in America, church is not about encouraging people to really know God. It’s about getting them to volunteer more time to whatever programs we want to be “successful.” It’s about raising up a lot of Martha’s, not encouraging them to be Mary’s.

What does it really mean to be saved? What does it really mean to repent? What is genuine Christianity really all about? It’s about “turning to God from idols to serve the living and true God.” It’s all about Him. If He isn’t in the center of it, then it simply isn’t real.

The second thing I think worth noting is that verse 10 is almost a complete summary of real Christian faith: “and to await His Son out of the heavens, whom He raised out of the dead ones, Jesus, the One rescuing us out of the coming wrath.” Note we’re not just talking about “getting religious.” We’re not talking about some Deistic, bald acknowledgment that “there is a God.” We’re talking about the true and living God, the One who sent His Son, the One who is “coming again,” the One who raised His Son from the dead, Jesus, the One rescuing us, the One rescuing us from a coming wrath which is real.

As I look at each phrase of verse 10, I’m tempted to write a volume. But then again, that is, in a sense, what the entire rest of the Bible is about! – this Son out of the Heavens, this One raised from the dead, this One rescuing us, about a coming wrath.

Once again, it’s all real. It’s not about clichés. It’s not about whatever we want it to be about. It’s not about whatever everyone else seems to think it’s about. It’s not about what seems like it will make other people “happy” with me.

It’s all about a real relationship with a real God.

Paul knew his work in Thessalonica was successful because the change that happened was real.

God do real work in our world today. There’s been too much of everything else. God do a real work in me.

I Thessalonians 1:7,8 – “The Power of Living”

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

 ⁷so that you [pl.] became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia, ⁸for the Word of the Lord has been sounded out from you not only in Macedonia and in Achaia but also in every place [where] your faith which [is] toward God has gone out, so that we have no need to say anything.

Verse 8 particularly suggests something I think worth noting. I have long contended that we do not emphasize enough how important are the lives Christians live. I fear in American Christianity we emphasize evangelism and “church ministry” to the extent we leave people thinking their daily lives are unimportant. I fear this robs the church of one of its greatest powers of influence. We read how “the Word of the Lord has been sounded out from you ...” but I believe Paul is speaking more of how the Thessalonians lived than what they said.

Several of the older commentators noted the same thought, so I am recording their thoughts:

“[The Word of the Lord] must be sounded by living men. A written gospel is not enough. Soul must stir soul ... It must be sounded in the conduct of Christians. It would seem that St. Paul was thinking rather of the influence of the heroic endurance of the Thessalonians and of their spiritual prosperity than of the missionary labors of evangelists sent out by them, for he writes of how they became an ensample to all that believe in Macedonia and in Achaia, and how in every place their faith to God-ward was gone forth. The loudest, clearest, most eloquent, most unanswerable proclamation of the gospel is the unconscious testimony of Christian living” (W.F. Adeney).

“No man or woman of the humblest sort can be strong, gentle, pure, and good, without the world being the better for it, without somebody being helped and comforted by the very existence of that goodness” (Phillips Brooks).

“We can do more good by being good than in any other way” (Rowland Hill).

“Then, still further, take another thought that may be suggested from this metaphor, the silence of the loudest note. If you look at the context, you will see that all the ways in which the Word of the Lord is represented as sounding out from the Thessalonian Church were deeds, not words. The context supplies a number of them. Such as the following are specified in it: their work; their toil, which is more than work; their patience; their assurance; their reception of the Word, in much affliction with joy in the Holy Ghost; their faith to Godward; their turning to God from idols, to serve and to wait. That is all. So far as the context goes there might not have been a man amongst them that ever opened His mouth for Jesus Christ. We know not, of course, how far they were a congregation of silent witnesses, but this we know, that what Paul meant when he said, ‘The whole world is ringing with the voice of the Word of God sounding from you,’ was not their going up and down the world shouting about their Christianity, but their quiet living like Jesus Christ. That is a louder voice than any other. I do not mean to say that Christian men and women are at liberty to lock their lips from verbal proclamation of the Saviour they have found, but I do mean to say that if there was less talk and more living the witness of God’s Church would be louder and not lower; ‘and men would take knowledge of us, that we had been with Jesus’; and of Jesus, that He had made us like Himself” (Alexander  Maclaren).

I think all of these quotes are worth serious consideration. They may seem to run contrary to the typical emphases in American churches, but the goal of our Bible study is not to find support for our traditions. The goal is to determine what God says and what He does not. In that light, again, I think the quoted authors are right, that this passage would teach us it is the lives of living Christians which sound out powerfully to the world, perhaps more than the words they may say. I believe if this could ever be taught, God’s people are a living testimony that could once again conquer kingdoms and we could see faith advance in our world as it has done in ages past.

May the lives of God’s people once again “adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things.”

I Thessalonians 1:7,8 – “Models”

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

 ⁷so that you [pl.] became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia, ⁸for the Word of the Lord has been sounded out from you not only in Macedonia and in Achaia but also in every place [where] your faith which [is] toward God has gone out, so that we have no need to say anything.

Right away in verse 7 we see more of the fractal of life, the repeating patterns which permeate the created universe and certainly living things. The Thessalonians in v6 became imitators of the apostles and of the Lord, and having done so, they became an example to all of Greece. The pattern of Christlikeness was seen in the apostles, imitated in the Thessalonians, and then became a living model for every believer. Even from this one simple verse, I think it worthy of note that godliness is a pattern.

Why do I say that? I say that because we all naturally see it as some kind of destination. We see Christlikeness as something like education where we may start in preschool or kindergarten and then progress year by year until at last we “graduate” from High School or College or whatever, and finally “we have arrived.” The same is true of an apprentice. As he begins, he is not a journeyman. He must learn, step by step, until one day he is recognized for having completed his training and can say, “I am a journeyman.” But what are we dealing with here in the Bible? The Thessalonians are a very young church. It’s been a very short time since they were worshiping idols. How can they already be “an example” to “all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia?” They can’t possibly have had enough time to have become “mature” believers, can they?

Does anyone see that our question reflects our natural inclination to see godliness just like education – a destination to be attained. If we ponder this simple verse carefully, it exposes this error of our thinking and leads us instead to the realization we’re dealing with something very different. How can literal novices have already become models? It is because we’re dealing with the repetition of a pattern. Christlikeness is not a goal to be attained but a pattern to be imitated – and it is a perfect pattern. The pattern we imitate is absolutely flawless, perfect in its most minute detail. And what this means is that, to whatever extent that pattern is expressed in us, it is a perfect pattern. We don’t reflect it perfectly (that is the business of maturity we work toward) but to whatever extent we do reflect it, it is a perfect pattern.

This is precisely why the second someone becomes a true believer, you see Christ in them. And it is a beautiful thing, is it not? They may have a long way to grow, they may in reality have still many areas of their life they’ll have to examine and change. But already the pattern is there, and it is a perfect pattern. This is precisely why the newly converted Thessalonians could already be a model for other believers. It is precisely why a new believer can already be a great encouragement even to the most elderly saint. To whatever extent you see Christ in someone else, you are seeing a perfect pattern.

Why do I think this is a big deal? Because I don’t think we understand Christian growth. And to whatever extent we don’t understand something, we find ourselves stumbling along, bumping into walls, skinning our knees and just generally floundering, when we ought to be hurled like a stone from a sling. If we don’t know the way to Indianapolis, we’ll be much hindered in our journey to get there. We need to understand that this is what we’re dealing with – a perfect pattern and our problem is only that we express it imperfectly. It is not an end to be attained, it is a reality we can enjoy in the present. I see it in others; I need to see it in myself. To whatever extent I am reflecting Christ today, I am reflecting a beautiful and perfect pattern. While I want to discover all the areas of my life where I am not reflecting it well, yet in the meantime I have no need to despair. Christ in me is a perfect pattern!

That is how we should see ourselves. That is how God sees us. That is, in part, how He can stand us – because He sees Christ in us! All our trials and troubles and everything He brings us through, everything He teaches us is to what end? “That we should be conformed to the image of Christ.” He is every day helping us discover those areas of our life where we are not reflecting Christ and helps us change, helps us, in effect, to find those places where the pattern is marred and needs repair. But all the while He is working on someone in whom He sees the likeness of His Son.

As we would grow in Christ day by day, let us not despair of all the flaws and faults we see in who we are. Let us take joy and be thankful that what is “right” about us is in fact a perfect pattern – the face of Jesus! I don’t reflect it perfectly but it is a perfect reflection!

I would suggest all of this is a very deep subject, worthy of considerable pondering, but today I have to let it suffice to have observed it, to note it in my mind, and then to proceed with life ready for the Lord to “show me more.”