I Thessalonians 2:10-12 – “Living”

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

¹⁰You and God [are] our witnesses how to the believers we became devoutly and righteously and blamelessly, ¹¹just as you know, as each one of you, as a father his own children, ¹²encouraging and comforting and charging you that you walk worthily of God who calls you into His own kingdom and glory.

This passage is so like the rest of the Bible – a few words on a page that, when slowly, patiently pondered, explode into a universe of truth to feed me for a lifetime. What simple words at first glance – the apostle Paul recounting his faithful ministry to these people. As usual (and sadly), for most commentators since the mid-19^th century, that is about all they get out of it; but that is because “the well is deep, and we have nothing to draw with.” If we would really understand the Bible, we have to pause and study, to think and pray and ask the Lord to show us the significant truth being communicated to us. Jesus asked the blind man, “What do you want Me to do for you?” and the man replied, “Rabbi, I want to see!” So, today, we need the Lord to open our eyes. He calls each of us saying, “Call unto Me and I will answer thee and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not.”

First of all, I would note that these are not casual words from the apostle: “You are witnesses, and so is God, of how holy, righteous, and blameless we were …” He really was. Paul really lived a life of integrity. Paul really did “live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.” He really did “press for the mark of the prize of the high calling of God.” David said, “I will walk in my house with a blameless heart.” In my house – at home … away from the limelight … out of the view of people who might be impressed. What Paul and David are both saying is that they genuinely strove to live lives of integrity, they genuinely sought to live out their faith, to live out the truths they claimed to believe.

I point this out because it seems to me such resolve is a very rare thing today. I believe it is true (at least in American Christianity – which is the only one I know), that we are so infatuated with results and appearances our hearts are quite satisfied to maintain a very shallow and anemic faith – as long as all our friends at church congratulate us how spiritual we are. I remember as a young man how “pleased” the church people were to see me cut my hair shorter and start wearing a suit and tie to church. That showed how much I was “growing!”

God help us. Is that really "growing?" It may have pleased people, but it had nothing to do with what the Lord wanted for my life. It now makes me sad that I thought it did.

I remember the man who years ago lost his seminary position for not “playing by the rules.” When someone asked him if that bothered him, he replied, “No, not really, for I have known God and they haven’t.” “I have known God.” My faith was real. He obviously felt he lived in a world of people who talked about faith but never really lived it.

To this day, I sadly watch the same dynamic at work. People come to know the Lord and then get applauded because they volunteer for every ministry program at church. I’m sorry but a person can be stone dead lost and still “work” at ministries. What about your heart? Do you know God? Do you really want Him to search you and know you and see if there be any wicked way in you and lead you in the way everlasting?

Paul did.

Really.

It wasn’t enough for him to say the right things, volunteer for the right ministries, etc. so that everyone “at church” applauded. It wasn’t peoples’ applause he lived for. It was God’s.

And so his faith had to be real. It had to be first of all heart-business, then, in his life, he lived out that faith. That gave him integrity. Really.

And as he lived his own faith and taught others, what did he urge them to do? “…live lives worthy of God, who calls you into His kingdom and glory.” What is he doing? He’s calling us to do what he did – to actually live our faith – and that means to live lives of integrity – really. Paul could say the work he had done he did “devoutly, righteously, and blamelessly.” As many commentators point out, “devoutly” basically speaks of being right before God, “righteously” of doing right in the eyes of other people, while “blamelessly” is, in a sense, the sum of it all. Paul’s calling was to be a minister. Why should we Christians be any different just because we’re butchers and bakers and candlestick-makers? God calls us all to be people of integrity – to live our lives all day every day worthy of Him, of being called by His name, as people called into His kingdom and His glory.

I find it wonderfully liberating to know that every minute of every day of my life matters to God. He tells us “And whatever you do, do it with your whole heart, as to the Lord and not unto men.” He wants me to be a good worker, to be conscientious, to work hard at what I do, to try to meet deadlines. While I’m doing it all, He wants me to be kind to people, to be encouraging. He wants me to work honestly, to be fair with people. And when I’m home, it is no different. “And whatever you do …,” He said. That is what it means to live lives “worthy of God, who calls you into His kingdom and glory.”

I like what B.C. Caffin, commenting on this passage, said of us believers:

“Their walk in life must show the reality of their hope. Walk implies movement, change of place and scene. As they move hither and thither in the course of their daily lives, in their business, in their amusements, they must ever think of that high calling, and live according to their hopes. Their religion was not to be confined to the Sabbath, to the synagogue, to the hours spent on their knees in private prayer; they must carry it everywhere with them; it must guide, stimulate, comfort, encourage in all the varying circumstances of daily life. Their life must be worthy of their calling. They must show its influence; they must adorn the doctrine of God their Savior in all things.”

Paul really did live his faith.

And so should we.

I Thessalonians 2:9 – “Tireless”

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

⁹For, brothers, you remember our toilsome labor and hardship, ones working night and day toward not to be burdensome [to] any of you [while] we preached to you the gospel of God.

This verse very naturally follows the previous. In v8, Paul just said, “We loved you so much, we were willing to share with you not only the gospel of God but our own lives as well; because you had become so dear to us.” Back in verse 7 Paul compared their work to a nursing mother. What he is continuing to describe is love. Love in action. Now he adds this element of being willing to work “night and day” for someone else’s welfare. What he is describing is a life of giving. A mother is of course a prime example of such giving and such love. Her work is exhausting. It is endless. It is often thankless. But on she trudges, changing diapers, reading stories, making bottles – whatever her baby needs. The baby essentially has nothing to offer her except its preciousness – but even that is an expression of her own love. She would literally die in her giving if her baby needed it.

Paul in our passage here is saying that the same kind of love motivated him and the other missionaries. In particular, Paul points out how he and the others were willing to forego any support from the Thessalonians themselves, how he was willing to provide for the most part his own support. This generates a good deal of discussion in the commentaries about pastoral remuneration. Apparently some hold that pastors should support themselves. They emphasize passages like this and the example of Nehemiah (as seen in Neh 5:15,18). Others run to passages like I Cor 9:14, “…the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should receive their living from the gospel,” insisting that ministers deserve their support. The whole question is subject to debate – and that both from the perspective of the minister and/or from that of the people and their responsibility to support him.

I’d like to suggest there is one huge element missing from this debate:

Love.

Love is all you need.

What do I mean? The first question that a heart ought to ask is, “Do I love?” Is my heart set on the kind of selfless, giving love of a nursing mother? Whether pastor or people, am I right now loving or not? If not, then nothing else I do matters. “Though I speak with the tongues of men and angels, and have not love …” God is love. If what is flowing through me right now is not love, then it is not of God. And that prerequisite still holds when a minister considers his support and when a people consider how they support him.

It also still holds while people debate about pastoral support.

I would suggest the reason why you see such a variety of practices in the Bible is because love may express itself in different ways in different situations. For Nehemiah, love meant foregoing his support. For Paul in Thessalonica, it meant for the most part providing for himself (although he did receive some support during this time from at least one other church – Phil. 4:15).  On the other hand there were times when he and all of the other apostles accepted their support from the people, and, once again, the Lord Himself has asserted that “a servant is worthy of his hire.” I would suggest, rather than trying to decide a set of “rules” for when a minister should be supported or not, and how much, etc., the first thing that should be established is love – love in the hearts of anyone involved in the discussion. I suspect, in that case, it isn’t “difficult.”

I suspect, from my own life, that what makes these kinds of questions “difficult” is first of all considering them as “hypothetical” situations (in other words not at a time when we actually need to make a decision – in which case, why should the Lord give us wisdom, if it isn’t needed right now?). Then secondly, the problem is that the question is approached legalistically, as if we just need a set of rules to follow and then all is well. Love doesn’t care about “rules.” Love sees the person, sees the needs, and will give itself tirelessly for the good of those loved, like the proverbial candle that “burns itself to give light to others.” Real love requires a great deal of wisdom, but I guess what I’m suggesting is that we’ll only get that wisdom when our heart is set on loving.

I’d like to add the thought that this subject is much larger than just pastoral support. It is certainly an important question for each of us in our own church settings, but I would like to suggest this same giving love ought to characterize our entire lives. It ought to move us to go to work. It should be in our hearts even as we work, as we interact with our co-workers and bosses and clients and students. It ought to move us while we mow the grass and do dishes and while we're walking through the grocery store.

I find all of this personally very challenging. I know it is true, “All you need is love,” but I am still learning how to live that truth.

I certainly know what it is to have to work “night and day.” I feel like I go 90 MPH all day every day and get up tomorrow to do it again. But am I loving? Am I careful enough to make sure that it really is love that drives me? I suspect too much of the time, the answer is no.

It should.

I want it to.

The Lord wants it to.

He will help me.

And you.

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.