I Thessalonians 4:1,2 – “More and More”

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

¹Finally, therefore, brothers, we are asking and urging you in the Lord Jesus, that, just as you received from us how you ought to be walking (just as you are walking) and pleasing God, that you should abound more and more, ²for you know what commands we gave to you through the Lord Jesus.

I’ve been pondering these two verses for a while specifically because I fear they’re the kind of words which are easily skimmed over. If we’re not careful, these two verses could be read as clichés. What do I mean? In a sense, the words are so familiar, it’s easy, without even intending to, to just assume, “I’ve got this, of course,” and read on. Try reading them again. Sure they’re familiar, but what do they mean … really? Do you know? And whatever they mean, are you doing it? These are the questions I’ve been asking myself. One man also observed this problem and said of these very verses, “…having been bred up from our cradle in the knowledge and understanding of our Christian duty, we are apt to fancy ourselves familiar with the practice of it too. We are convinced in our minds that we know it well enough; and this of itself inclines us to be too soon satisfied with our accustomed way of doing it.”

For whatever it’s worth, this is precisely why I study the Bible … and by “study” I mean slowing down, stopping, and trying to ponder over every single verse. I also try to be constantly reading the Bible from cover to cover. I manage to get all the way though it about every two and half years. I like to do that reading, hoping it gives me a constantly broad view of what the Bible teaches (and what it does not). But I find I also need this time where I stop and linger over specific passages. I need to do exactly this – to fight this tendency to find it “familiar” and, as the fellow said, “… to be too soon satisfied with our accustomed way of doing it.” This is God’s world, not mine or ours. As we would read the Bible, we must all resolve not to be so “soon satisfied” but rather be resolved to know the mind of God, to deliberately hold up our lives to the standard of His Word, and to strive to live our lives according to His heart – not our familiar and perhaps comfortable notions of what Christianity should be.

I like Bishop Westcott’s thoughts on these verses: “Are we able to pause in the solemn stillness of thought till we are alone with God, and to offer ourselves to the fire of His love; that so little by little all may be consumed in us--all passion and pride, all self-seeking and self-trust--which does not minister to His glory, which does not, that is, make clearer to men His infinite perfection?”

“Pause in the solemn stillness of thought …”

And so I linger here.

First of all, I note Paul reminds the Thessalonians of “how you received from us how you ought to walk and please God” and that what they “received” was “commands we gave to you through the Lord Jesus.” In their (the Thessalonians’) case, their instructors had been careful to only teach what was truly from the Lord Jesus. Even as I type those words, I wonder who can say that today? I fear such teaching is almost non-existent, that the church of today has turned into a colossal “bait and switch,” to a place where people are drawn in with talk of God and Jesus and Heaven, then fed traditions and standards and expectations which simply have no basis in the Bible. Paul could say with confidence, what we taught you was directly from God Himself. It was His truth. They were His commands. Again, I wonder if anyone can honestly say that today.

And, once again, this is why I study the Bible. I don’t want to feed on other people’s ideas of who God is and what He desires of me. I want to know that the “truth” I’m believing is true truth. I must say, I appreciate my pastor and anyone else who teaches the Bible, but, especially today, we’d better all be Bereans – listen well then go home and study our own Bible and “see whether these things are so.” Whether we’ve received the “commands through the Lord Jesus” or not, it is, in the end, our own responsibility to know God and walk with Him. Here in America, we all know how to read. Why shouldn’t we read the Bible for ourselves? And here in America we have all kinds of helps and tools available, so why shouldn’t we all be studiers? I say we can and we should. And so we study on. Lord help us not to be simply “familiar” with the Bible but to be constantly resolved to know it better.

Next I notice what it’s all about is their “walk.” It is their “walk” which Paul wants them to consider. He had instructed them “how they ought to walk” and he commends them that, in fact, they are so “walking,” and wants them to do this “more and more.” Stop and ponder for a minute, what is a person’s “walk?” It is, of course, how they live, what they do, the kind of person they are all day every day wherever they go. That’s their “walk.” That is the “walk” where we ought to know and follow “the commands through the Lord Jesus” and where we ought to “please God.” All day every day. Not just at the church building. Not just during services or involved with ministries. All day every day. At our jobs. Driving down the road. Brushing our teeth. Paying for our groceries. Calling AT&T about our phone problem. Dealing with the sewer backup in our basement. And on and on and on and on and on. That’s life. Our own individual “walk.” Once again, Lord help us not to be satisfied with the ways we’ve hopefully let the Word impact our daily walk. Help us see those times, those situations, those places in our life where perhaps we just haven’t made the connection between faith and the person we are.

And notice the “more and more.” In 3:12 Paul had wished for them that the Lord would “… cause you to increase and abound in love toward one another and toward everyone.” Now he again wants them to “abound more and more.” In 4:10, he’ll commend them for their brotherly love and then say, “Yet we urge you, brothers, to do so more and more.”  “More and more.” Can I just inject the thought that this is one of the wonders of grace? Truly knowing Jesus isn’t simply another religion, another set of rules – it is a living, breathing relationship of knowing this beautiful Savior who died and rose again specifically to call me to Himself and to save my soul and to actually redeem me – to gather up the mess of who I am and to patiently, kindly, work with me day by day by day to show me His love and teach me how to live it myself. This is precisely why real faith is a “more and more” thing. Every experience of His grace I enjoy only makes me want more. Every time I try to trust Him and then experience how utterly amazing He is – it only makes me want to trust Him more. And every time He actually helps me to love others and I get to watch and see the good He brings about – it only makes me want me to love more and more. I ask, is that not true of all real relationships? To know my wife and every single minute I get to spend with her only makes me want to know her more, to spend more time with her. I love the words from the old hymn, “Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes.” Yes. Lord give us more and more of You – and may more and more of You translate into more and more of a grace walk for us.

Lord, help us to be deliberate about building our lives on Your Word, and may our daily lives – all day every day – be pleasing in Your sight. May we really know You and trust You and love in a “more and more” relationship that makes us more and more like You.

I Thessalonians 3:12,13 – “Stable”

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

¹²And may the Lord cause you to increase and abound in love toward one another and toward everyone, just as we to you, ¹³into the establishment of your hearts [to be] blameless in holiness before the God and our Father in [the] coming of our Lord Jesus with all His holy ones.

These two verses are jewels, diamonds to turn every which way and see them sparkle. Pretty much every one who comments on verses 11-13 refers to them as prayers, but actually they’re more like wishes. Paul is saying, this is what I wish for you – which of course easily becomes his prayers, but still, they are wishes. In Greek the verbs are in what is called the optative mood, which was their way of expressing wishes and “hope-so’s.”

These apostolic “wishes” are highly significant for us to note because they actually express to us the heart of God Himself. Loving Him makes us ask the question, “What does He want for me? What can I do to please Him, to love Him in return for all He’s done for me?” How can we sum up the life God wishes us to live? The answer is to be found right here in these two simple verses. In my last post I looked at verse 12 which says, ^“And may the Lord cause you to increase and abound in love toward one another and toward everyone, just as we to you,…”

There you have it from the very mouth of God. What, in a nutshell, does He desire? What does He “wish” for you? “To increase and abound in love.” He is love and His presence in our hearts is one of His means of channeling His love into our world. He pours it into our undeserving hearts and we, overwhelmed by grace, overflow that love into the lives of “one another and toward everyone.” If you or I were to pause and ask, “What do I want most for my children and their spouses? What do I most desire for them in their marriages?” Would it not be this very thing – that they should “increase and abound in love” first of all “for each other” and then “for everyone?” This is not only love – it is parent love, it is Father love!

Verse 13 continues these thoughts, and, if I may say so, this verse highlights exactly why I want to study the Bible, why I am very glad to be able to scratch in the original languages. What do I mean? Verse 13 is actually a statement of purpose. In the Greek, the verse begins with an “eis” clause, a prepositional phrase which specifically expresses purpose or intent. The word “eis” literally means “into” (as I translated it above) but the idea is “in order that,” “for the purpose of,” “to the end that.” So, in verse 12, the Lord desires that we increase and abound in love, then verse 13 says, “In order that …”

For whatever it’s worth, note that some translations, like the NIV, do not reflect this purpose clause. They express verse 13 as just another “wish” and thus lose the logical flow from the love of verse 12 to the purpose clause of verse 13. As I said, this is exactly why I am very thankful I can scratch in the Greek. I want to know exactly what the Lord says – and what He does not – and be able seriously to build my life on what I am confident are the very words of God. Verse 13 is not just another wish, it is telling us what the Lord wishes for our love to accomplish.

For the sake of people who want to think deeply, this is profoundly important. The Lord doesn’t just say, “Love everyone,” and leave it at that. Even the loving is for a purpose. He’s going “somewhere” with it. It’s not like He wants us to sit up in a tree and just “love everyone.” And for those of us who love Him, we long to know more of His heart – and so when He says, “In order that …,” we’re all ears.

And what is it? What is the purpose of our increasing and abounding in love? It is “in order that your hearts may be established blameless in holiness before God and our Father …”

Note several things. It is “in order that your heart …” It is your heart that the Lord is after! “My son, give me thine heart …” (Prov 23:26). “Above all else, guard your heart, for out of it are the issues of life” (Prov4:23). The Pharisees thought they were deeply religious, but Jesus said of them, “Everything they do is done for men to see” (Matt 23:5). It was all externals. It is a very sad fact that the entire human race thinks “religion” is about externals, about rituals and rules, and saying all the right things, doing all the right things – and some of that may have its time and place – but Jesus died to save us to something far greater than a new set of rules. He is after our hearts – the inner us, the real us, the man or woman who lives behind those eyes, who sees and hears and thinks and decides.

And what is it He desires for our hearts? First of all notice, it is that they may be “established.” The word means to “set fast,” to “render solid,” to “make immovable.” Even within the English word “establish,” you can see the word “stable.” He wants to give us hearts that are stable. He wants the inner us, the person we really are, to be a stable, mature person. Even the psalmist asked, “Give me an undivided heart …” (Ps 86:11). Note in our passage, it is an “increasing and abounding love” which will result in an “established” heart. This is again where the Greek here is so important. This matter of established hearts isn’t just another “wish” for us. It is a result we will enjoy as we let the Lord give us a greater love.

This is an amazing blessing I’ve certainly enjoyed from the Lord and I see in my own life exactly what Paul is talking about. The Lord saved me nearly 40 years ago and His presence in my life immediately meant I made better decisions, and was just generally a LOT more stable person. But I’ve still felt almost my entire life a sense of confusion, of not knowing exactly where to land. It was way worse before I was saved, but even after, I feel like I’ve spent my life groping around trying to figure things out, with the result that I far too often said really stupid things, did really stupid things, made very bad decisions.

Just in the last ten years, He finally helped me to understand what Jesus meant when He said the two great commands are to love God and love others – and that, in those two things, I’ll find everything that matters. When He enabled me to shed my legalism and really embrace His love, suddenly now the world makes almost perfect sense to me. It makes sense to me that my life is His love – that every minute of every day, in every conversation, in every interaction, in every decision, in every activity I undertake, the bottom line is His love – for me myself and expressed through me into the lives of the people He places around me. And what I feel and what I see happening, is that that realization, that understanding, suddenly gives me a sense of peace, of confidence, of stability, to begin making good decisions, of saying and doing the right things. His love has in fact, for me, given me a more stable heart. Words utterly fail to express my gratitude for this one simple blessing, but I feel it is monumental in my own heart and life. I hate being confused. I love to have a compass that always points north!

But then finally, notice it is established “blameless in holiness before God …” Once again, it isn’t just “love” however we want to define it. It isn’t just “established” or “stable” in any way that we would imagine or desire. It is all about our God. “In Him we live and move and have our being.” It is all about the “holiness” that He desires for us. Only He knows what is truly best for us, how we “fit” together, what we were created to be. And we must find, in His presence, and in His heart, what is truly good and best. In a sense, that is the point of the entire Bible – to help us live wisely, or, even more precisely, to love wisely.

And it is interesting to me how Paul includes, “in the Coming of our Lord Jesus with all His holy ones.” This unblamable holiness in which our hearts have been established by an ever increasing love – it is supremely important it be true when Jesus comes. I sort of think I understand why this is true, but I don’t know why it was important to add this. In other words, it seems like it simply is important – always. So then, of course it is important when Jesus returns. So why add that? I suspect there is something here I don’t understand, but I’m going to have to let it go and, as I continue to study, simply trust the Lord to teach me whatever it is.

For now, it is enough to see here in this short little passage, the grand design of our wonderful salvation – to give us this ever increasing love for each other and toward everyone which then results in stabilized hearts that feel a confidence to live and love wisely.

I knew when He saved me, He’d do me good. I just never dreamed just how far or how deeply He’d go.

Hallelujah, what a Savior!

I Thessalonians 3:12,13 – “Increasing, Abounding Love”

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

¹²And may the Lord cause you to increase and abound in love toward one another and toward everyone, just as we to you, ¹³into the establishment of your hearts [to be] blameless in holiness before the God and our Father in [the] coming of our Lord Jesus with all His holy ones.

“Increase and abound in love.” I am amazed just how much the Lord emphasizes the importance of love. I’ve been studying the Bible my entire life, yet it seems like it’s only been in the last ten years I’ve begun to see just how central to it all is this thing called love. It’s been there all along, of course, in book after book, passage after passage. This is even the second time I’ve studied through I Thessalonians, and here it is, falling off the page in front of me, but I didn’t see it before.

Here is Paul writing to these people whom he himself dearly loves. He prays the Lord would allow him to see them again and to supply “what is lacking in their faith,” and what does he wish for them? That they might “increase and abound in love.”

How could we miss it? “God is love.” “Though I speak with the tongues of men and angels and have not love, I am nothing.” The two great commands are “to love the Lord your God and your neighbor as yourself. On these hang all the Law and the Prophets.” “The fruit of the Spirit is love.” “Owe no man anything but the continuing debt to love one another.” “All that matters is faith expressing itself through love.” “Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children, and live a life of love, just as Christ loved you.”

Frankly, I think it has been my legalism that blinded me to this centrality of love. “Faith” was too much about so many externals. Christianity was too much about all the rules and “principles” and “applications.” Then finally I really realized Christianity is about Christ. It’s about knowing Him, about a life of sitting at His feet and just letting my heart get lost in the wonder of who He is. In His face, I find myself loved beyond my wildest imagination. In His face, I find a kindness that melts my heart. I find there His grace – this love that has engulfed me in spite of the fact I utterly don’t deserve it. In His face, I even realize just how much I have totally failed Him, and yet that realization doesn’t depress me – it only sweeps me deeper into His arms as I realize His love transcends even that. And as my heart lies engulfed in His gracious love, I find it moves me to do two things – to graciously love the people He’s put around me, and to extricate from my life anything that would displease this wonderful, kind Master. “Oh to be like Thee, blessed Redeemer.”

And here it is in the passage before us. The passage tells us a lot about love. Back in v11, I failed to point out an amazing fact one can only see in the Greek. It said, “May the God and our Father Himself and our Lord Jesus direct our way to you.” What is amazing is that the subject of the sentence would grammatically be considered plural – “our Father and our Lord Jesus” – but the verb “to direct” is actually singular. It is like saying “They is …” It doesn’t “work” in English. But the fact is, “they is.” The Father and the Son are One. The same thing happens in the opening verse of the Bible. In English it says, “In the beginning, God created.” The word “God” is actually plural, yet “created” in the Hebrew is a singular verb. Once again, “they is.” There is throughout the Bible this plurality within the Godhead, what we call the Trinity. Volumes could be (and have been) written on the subject, but realize that underneath it all, the Trinity itself is the very expression of love. God’s very essence precludes the possibility of being a “loner.” His very essence is a plurality of Persons functioning as One. The love of a husband and his wife makes them a plurality of persons who learn to function as one – “and they two shall become one flesh.” “God is love” and godliness is to “increase and abound in love.”

Note in v12, it comes from God. It is Him who “makes us to increase and abound in love.” We don’t “womp” it up. It comes from God and we’ll find it only at Jesus’ feet. Note it is something that does “increase and abound.” In 4:9,10, Paul commends the Thessalonians’ love then says, “Yet we urge you, brothers, to do so more and more." Love is not some kind of destination or an endpoint to be achieved. It is a pattern to be ever enlarged and expanded. Note it is a love “for one another.” I’m reminded of the pastor who said he loved the ministry, “it’s just the people I can’t stand.” Love isn’t something we’re saving up for somebody out there somewhere. Love received from the heart of Jesus looks around and longs to show itself to everyone within arm’s reach. One man actually realized there was something seriously deficient in his faith when he spent an hour in church loudly praising God, then yelled at his wife all the way home in the car. God’s love embraces those closest to us.

Then note it is “for everyone.” Once again, this is a grace thing. As I lie in the warmth of my Savior’s engulfing unconditional love for me, how can I not wish to love everyone? “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me,” Jesus said. “For God so loved the world …” “He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.” “Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all men …” God’s grace would draw all men. And when it enters my heart, I would too. Note this increasing abounding love is “just as we to you.” It is a modeled love. Because Paul’s love was grace love, because it was a love not that he had conjured up but one that was actually the overflow of God’s love to him – because it was grace love, it was worth imitating. May the same be true of us.

Verse 13 continues to expound on this subject of an increasing, abounding love. I think this is enough for one post, so I’ll write more as soon as I can.

But, for myself and for anyone who stumbles across my feeble scratchings, may the Lord make your love to increase and abound. May His love in you flow like a river into the hearts of the people He has placed around you. May His grace conquer our sin and make in us a world of love.

I Thessalonians 3:11 – “Together”

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

¹¹And may the God and our Father Himself and our Lord Jesus direct our way to you.

Throughout this book, Paul’s longing to see the Thessalonians, to visit them again, has been a common theme. He has said before, “But, brothers, when we were torn away from you for a short time (in person, not in thought), out of our intense longing we made every effort to come to you – certainly I, Paul, did, again and again … Night and day we pray most earnestly that we may see you again …” (2:17-3:10). Now he adds this prayer, “And may the God and our Father Himself and our Lord Jesus direct our way to you.”

I’d like to stop and just ponder this whole business of “missing” people, of longing to see them, and wanting to be with them. We all know the old saying, “Absence makes the heart grow fonder.” Why is this? What I’d like to consider is that this is actually an expression of our God-likeness.

What were the first recorded words of the Lord after Adam and Eve fell? Gen 3:9 says, “The Lord God called to the man, ‘Where are you?’”

It was sin that created “separation.”

And consider Jesus’ words, “I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with Me that you also may be where I am (Jn 14:2,3). Later in I Thessalonians, Paul tells them, “After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever” (4:17).

The Lord Himself wants us to be “together,” to be “with” Him. He Himself describes Heaven as a place where, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and He will live with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God” (Rev 21:3).

No wonder we all have this longing within us to be together with the ones we love. That desire comes straight from the heart of God. Based on this observation, I would propose that the more we grow in Christ, the more we grow in love, the more we’ll find ourselves missing our loved ones and longing to see them. I’m suggesting that the more we’re like God the more we will long to be “together.”

But then this whole matter goes even further, I think. I notice looking ahead to verse 13, Paul mentions the Coming of our Lord Jesus “with all His holy ones.” We know too from Rev 19:14 that when Jesus returns to earth crowned with many crowns and riding His white horse, it says “The armies of Heaven were following Him, riding on white horses …” Stop and think about this – Jesus doesn’t need us with Him. He doesn’t need the armies of Heaven to somehow help Him conquer the earth. He has only but to speak and earth would melt. So why does He return “with all His holy ones?” It is because He loves us. He wants us to be with Him. He wants to be with us.

I think about His Return and how He will bring us all with Him, how He will actually allow us to be a part of His victorious conquering of the earth, and He does that, not because He needs us, but because He loves us, and then I think, “And how is today any different?” Is not today His day? Is He not today conquering the earth? Is He not today doing a great work in this world, “drawing all men unto Himself?” And is not life itself my opportunity to be with Him, to be a part of whatever He’s doing? He wants us with Him. It’s part of His great amazing love that I actually get to join Him in whatever He’s doing.  He doesn’t need me. Yet He calls me to join Him.

He didn’t need Moses to lead the people of Israel. He could have done it Himself. He didn’t need young David to slay Goliath. Goliath’s very breath was in God’s hand. He didn’t need Solomon to build the Temple or Nehemiah to rebuild the wall -- He Himself spoke galaxies into being! He doesn’t need husbands to love their wives. He could do it much better Himself. He doesn’t need parents to bring up their children. He doesn’t need workers to “adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things.” Yet in all these things He allows us to be a part of what He’s doing!

The question is not then whether He’s “with” us but whether we’re with Him! The very opportunity of life itself is for us to join Him, to be a part of His great work in our world. He wants us with Him. Today. Wherever we are. Whoever we’re with. Whatever we’re doing. It’s all part of His great work.

In my world the date today is May 9, 2017. But this isn’t just any day. This is His day. He is and will be doing great and mighty things today. As I sit here typing, I don’t even know what that means. I don’t know what today will bring. As far as I know, I will go to work. I’ll interact with people pretty much all day. My task will be to love God and love people, whatever I find myself doing. Somehow He will take that and weave it into His great plan. And I’ll get to do it because He loves me. He wants me to be with Him, to be a part of whatever He’s doing.

May He give us all the faith to see beyond the apparent mundane of our lives and see it is all the grand and glorious opportunity to be “together,” to be “with” our God and with each other. And may He give us the grace today to love well – like He does, to enjoy “together” because it’s all simply part of being like Him.