I Thessalonians 2:19,20 – “People”

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

¹⁹For, what [is] our hope or joy or crown of rejoicing – is it not even you – before our Lord Jesus in His coming? ²⁰For you are our glory and joy.

This passage is a delightful expression of exactly what the Lord’s presence ought to do in every life – make us love people above all else in this world. Jesus’ words were clear that only two things ultimately matter – to love God and love people, and obviously Paul is a living expression of that truth.

As I read the words, their first expression is, of course, the love of a minister for his people. His people are and certainly ought to be his greatest reward simply and in and of themselves. Further, the words would express the joy any of us have if we think we were instrumental in any way in someone else’s salvation. But then, being a parent, they express what I think are the very deepest expressions of my own thoughts toward my children and grandchildren. Compared to them, nothing else even matters in this world. My children are, in fact, my “hope and joy and crown of rejoicing,” my “glory and joy.” Being a man, I can’t imagine how much more deeply these words express the love of a mother. I hope it true of myself but it is definitely true of mothers that they would happily die rather than see their children deprived of the slightest necessity. One hears occasionally of the mother who miraculously lifted a car off her child – the same woman who one minute later couldn’t even budge the thing. From the time a woman conceives, she begins dying for her child. To be a mother costs her everything – her health, her time, her own personal dreams (whatever they may have been dissipate in the face of her baby), her money, even her vanity – she happily sheds it all that her child may prosper. So it is in our passage here.

People. Others. Our children. They are the good and proper and right receptor of our deepest affections in this world.

All that said, I’d like to take this passage in perhaps a very different direction than pretty much anyone else I’ve ever heard or read. Almost unanimously, commentators limit this passage to the ministers themselves, or at least to the business of soul-winning. What they write I believe betrays an attitude that in the end is actually destructive to the success of the Gospel in our world. What they essentially imply is that the work of a minister or soul-winner is the only work that really matters to God. The real truth, they think, is that everyone else is a second-class Christian. Those of us who work for a living have settled for something “second-best.” If we were all truly spiritual, we’d quit our jobs and engage in some full-time ministry.

One author wrote: “The merchant rejoices over his gains, the warrior over his victories, the artist over the achievements of genius; but there is no joy so sweet, so exquisite, so abiding, as the successful winner of souls.” Of course, if all the merchant sees is his “gains,” if all the warrior sees is his “victories,” theirs will be a hollow end. However, for those of us who do love God and want to be used of Him, what does this man’s thinking imply? It directly implies that what the merchant does all day every day is worthless. The efforts of the warrior really don’t count for anything, or the artist’s either. I actually heard a minister say from the pulpit, “Your job is just how you make money” – once again implying that what we all do all day every day doesn’t really count for anything. His clearly stated implication was that only the time spent in “ministry” mattered.

Is this bifurcation really Biblical? Is it true that ministry work is all that matters in this world and that we all face only two choices – to be in full-time ministry or to waste our lives on something less? I would like to assert that I Thessalonians 2:19,20 does not teach this bifurcation. Paul’s words were not intended to imply any comment on the fact that most believers always have and always will be people who spend most of their time simply living. That wasn’t his point at all. In fact, I would suggest, a proper understanding of what he is saying would energize God’s people. I would suggest it is an enormous tragedy that this very subtle error actually robs the church of what should be one of its greatest powers to advance the Gospel.

As you and I go about those “useless,” “second-class” lives – while we go to work, and buy groceries, and go to the dentist, and attend our kids’ track meets – where are we and who are we with? We are exactly where Jesus wants His church – in the world. In the world – rubbing elbows and intricately intersecting the lives of the very people who need Jesus. I believe it is actually the genius of the church that God gave us the Gospel and then called just a few men to actually teach and preach it full-time, then designed that the vast majority of believers would, by the very reality of their lives, spread out to literally fill the world all day every day with born-again people. Think about it – a minister may prepare and preach a powerful sermon on Sunday morning. But how far do his words carry? They don’t even reach 99.9% of the people who need to hear them. But then what happens? That little motley crew he calls his congregation goes out to spend all day every day in that very world that needs that very message. Jesus’ message then becomes a message written not on tablets of stone but on the hearts and lives of people.

I would suggest the problem is not that people spend all day every day simply living. The problem is when they don’t see how important that very “living” is to God. The problem is precisely when all the “merchant sees is his gains, and the warrior his victories …” What did Jesus say is all that matters in life? To love God and to love others. If that is true, then what should the merchant and the warrior and the artist see? People. The problem is when we fail to see that those lives are ultimately about people.

Here’s another assertion I’d like to make: In the end, no matter what you do for a living, in one way or another, your job is to do good for other people. Your job is to love and give. It is not just “how you make money” – it is your calling to do good to the people of your world. The Bible says “…and so David served his generation, and then he died.” It says of Jesus Himself, He was “a man ordained of God, who went about doing good...” As God’s people go about their lives, being born-again doesn’t mean suddenly they’re wasting their lives on something “second best.” It means suddenly they are free to realize that every moment of every day becomes precious in the sight of God, that as they go out to live their lives they are about something so much greater than just their paychecks. They are “serving their generation.” They are “going about doing good.” Everywhere they go they carry in their very bodies the Holy Spirit of God and the Presence of God. They literally are Jesus to the people they interact with. While you and I go about our daily lives, what matters is the people we touch.

And just so I’m not misunderstood, I am emphatically not saying that as we go about our lives, all that matters is that we are passing out tracts and starting Bible-studies over lunch. Those things may be fine in their time, but the first and most important thing you and I do is simply be faithful. Titus 2 says us workers ought to be found faithful to our employers and that, when we are, we “adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things.” The first most loving thing I do at my job is simply to do my job. Everyone else is counting on me. If I don’t do my job, it makes someone else’s day miserable. Part of the “people” and part of the “love” is simply being faithful. Beyond that, there is the kindness with which we treat people, being considerate of their lives, their time, their jobs. There is the caring about those young people who are just starting their lives and their careers. They need someone to be patient with their youthful arrogance, to be willing to spend that extra minute explaining things they need to know, the effort to remember to ask how that baby is doing, to be genuinely excited for them when they’re buying their first house, etc. What matters all day every day is the people and that we genuinely love them, whoever they are, in whatever ways are truly love at that time and in that situation.

As you and I go about that loving, as we sincerely try to live Jesus everywhere we go, God will touch people. People will see your “good works and glorify your Father in Heaven.” There will be people who will come and “ask a reason of the hope that is in you.” And at the end of your life, what will matter is not how much money you made, but how many people’s lives you touched.

I would suggest that, no matter what you do, when it’s well done, it will leave you saying, ^“For, what [is] our hope or joy or crown of rejoicing – is it not even you – before our Lord Jesus in His coming? For you are our glory and joy.”

It’s about the people. No matter what you do. Whether you’re in full-time ministry or changing diapers. It’s all about the people.

God help every one of us believers to see our world through Jesus’ eyes all day every day no matter what He’s called us to do at those moments. May the Lord through us “spread everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of Him.” May we be “an aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.”

May it be our greatest joy to say to the Lord, “Behold, here am I and the children you have given me.”