A Holy Charge (7)

 

Returning to our core passage, 1 Thessalonians 5:12ff, after having considered the nature of service in the Body of Christ; the nature of elders, deacons, pastors, teachers and the like, we have, “Live in peace with one another” (5:13b). How might we think about this?

 

Should this be a stand-alone statement? Or is it connected to what precedes it? Is it related to the relationship between “those who diligently labor among you” and the people they serve? Is Paul focused on the relationship between those who serve and the flock they serve?

 

While obviously the Thessalonians are to live in peace with one another as a people, my sense is that the context suggests that there ought to be peace between those who serve and the people they serve. There was a reason Paul wrote that the flock is to “appreciate those who diligently labor among you…esteem them very highly in love because of their work." For some reason Paul needed to write this reminder. Perhaps there was conflict, or perhaps Paul was being preemptive. We really don’t know.

 

What we do know is that conflict (or the threat of conflict) seems to be inevitable; whether between those who serve and those who are served, or among those who serve, or among those who are being served. Conflict (or its potential) with one another is an element of life, it is in the DNA of our fallen humanity; to know this is to (hopefully) guard against it. To know this is to (hopefully) see it as the poison it can be when it appears, as it surely will. While not all conflict is poison (some of it can be necessary), all conflict should be submitted to Jesus Christ. All conflict has dangerous pitfalls.

 

“Live in peace with one another,” reminds of us Jesus’s words, “Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another” (Mark 9:50b). These words are spoken in the context of Jesus’ warning that we are not to cause others to stumble, for if we cause others to stumble then we ourselves will stumble; we will not stumble into a very good place. “If your eye causes you to stumble, throw it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, than, having two eyes, to be cast into hell” (Mark 9:47).

 

Elsewhere Paul writes, “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful” (Col. 3:15). We are to be “Diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Eph. 4:3).

 

To allow the peace of God to “rule” is to submit to the peace of God, to allow God’s peace to have authority over our thoughts and attitudes and actions. Peace is not only an experience, a condition, it is also an act of obedience in that it is an act of submission to God’s rule and authority.

 

If there is conflict, a conflict of wills and of desires; do I seek resolution and reconciliation and unity, or do I seek to impose my own will on others? Do I choose to allow the peace of God to rule in my heart and allow His peace to lead me in the situation, or do I resist and reject the authority of the peace of God and willfully seek my own way in the matter?

 

I still, at this late season of life, struggle with submitting to the peace of God. O for sure in a very significant sense I delight in His peace and would be lost without it. How can one live with any degree of sanity in this world and in our society without knowing the peace of God in Christ as his refuge?

 

Yet, there are still times when I react too quickly without first submitting to the peace Christ, without my response to people and events being a response under the authority of the Prince of Peace. I often ask our dear Lord Jesus, “Can I please just get it right for one day before I die?”

 

If Paul’s admonition to “live in peace with one another” is focused on the relationship between those who serve and those who are served, then there is a warning that those who are “being served” (the flock of God) ought to be deeply aware of – and that is that Satan is the father of rebellion against authority.

 

In our previous reflections we’ve seen that “those who serve” are to be as nursing mothers and straightforward fathers, that servant leadership is sacrificial leadership in Christ, that good shepherds lay down their lives for the sheep.

 

The sheep, on the other hand, are to honor their fathers and their mothers in the faith. Is not “Honor your father and your mother” a commandment with great promise?

 

“Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with grief, for this would be unprofitable for you” (Heb. 13:17).

 

This is not the place to explore the many facets of godly sacrificial leadership, what it looks like and what it doesn’t look like. Our Lord Jesus must be our center of gravity in this, and of course we see Him in His servants in the Bible. I suppose every New Testament letter displays the heart of the Good Shepherd toward His People.

 

The nature of Christlike sacrificial leadership is the love which lays down its life for others, all else flows through the deep and immeasurable love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

 

In response, the congregation is called to love those who serve it, to “esteem them very highly in love because of their work” (1 Thess. 5:13).

 

As all of us “put on love” we experience “the perfect bond of unity” (Col. 3:14).

 

 Servant leaders find joy in the People of God, and this is a good place to close this reflection.

 

“For you are our glory and joy” (1 Thess.2:20).

 

“I have no great joy than this, to hear of my children walking in the truth” (3 John 1:4).

 

To be continued…

A Holy Charge (6)

 

 

“You are witnesses, and so is God, how devoutly and uprightly and blamelessly we behaved toward you believers; just as you know how we were exhorting and encouraging and imploring each one of you as a father would his own children, so that you would walk in a manner worthy of God who calls you into His own kingdom and glory” (1 Thess. 2:10 – 12).

 

“For who is our hope or joy or crown of exultation? Is it not even you, in the presence of our Lord Jesus at His coming? For you are our glory and joy” (1 Thess. 2:19 – 20).

 

As we conclude our look at Paul’s servant leadership in Thessalonians Chapter 2, preparing to move back into the Holy Charge of Chapter 5, let’s remind ourselves that what we see modeled by Paul and his coworkers in Chapter 2 is the form of leadership Paul expected to see in the elders, deacons, and other servants of 5:12 – 13.

 

The goal of Biblical servanthood is that others “would talk in a manner worthy of God.” That others would live in intimacy with the Trinity. That others would serve others. In Paul and his coworkers, we see the tenderness and gentleness of a nursing mother (2:7) and the straightforward exhortation of a loving father (2:11).

 

The Thessalonian Christians were Paul’s “hope, joy, and crown.” Twice in verses 19 and 20 he speaks of them as his joy. Three times if we include the word “exultation.”

 

Paul terms the Thessalonians his “glory” in verse 20, “You are our glory and joy.”

 

Can we see our dear Lord Jesus in Paul?

 

“Who for the joy set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2b).

 

We are the joy set before Jesus, the Thessalonians were the joy set before Paul, Silas, and Timothy. The flock of God in Thessalonica was to be the joy set before the elders, deacons, and other ministry servants in the church in that city.

 

Servants of the Gospel are not called to glory and rejoice over buildings and money and numbers of people and their standing in the world and the greater church, in their music ministry or preaching ministry. Servants of Christ are to glory and rejoice in Jesus Christ (“He that glories, let him glory in the Lord” 1 Cor. 1:30 – 21) and in His People.

 

Servants of the Gospel, charged with the care of Christ’s People, are not to live for themselves but for the Flock of Jesus Christ. I believe this is actually true for all legitimate leadership in all contexts, which is one of many reasons I am puzzled by the behavior and so-called values of the professing church in our nation.

 

Do Sunday school teachers and small group facilitators glory and joy in their people, that they are living in a manner worthy of God? What about pastors and elders and deacons? Are we giving our lives for others? Are others our glory and joy?

 

Are we demonstrating the tenderness of a mother, as well as the straightforwardness of a father? Are we seeking “not to be a burden to others” (2:9)?

 

When we stand in the Presence of our Lord Jesus Christ, will others be with us as our “crown of rejoicing”? Will we rejoice in others on that Day? Will others rejoice in us? Will we rejoice in one another?

 

Are we “imparting our own lives” (2:8) for others?

 

This, my friends, is what Gospel ministry is to look like, it is to look like Jesus Christ, the grain of wheat which fell into the ground and died, so that it would bear much fruit (John 12:24).

 

Ministry may not be successful in the eyes of the world, or of the professing church. There may not be great numbers of people, there may not be money in the bank, there may not be exciting music, there may not even be a building to call home; but if it displays the heart and soul of the Good Shepard of Psalm 23, of the Sacrificial Shephard of John 10, and of the Holy Lamb of Revelation, if it lives and glories and rejoices in the people it serves…then those men and women will one Day hear the blessed words of their Master, “Enter into the joy of your Lord.”

 

I have an idea that there will be a multitude of nondescript pastors, teachers, nursery care givers, and grandmothers, who will have many people around them on that Day, saying to them, “Thank you for making us your glory and joy in Jesus.”

 

There may also be others who have had hundreds and thousands in their buildings and listening and watching them via media, who will look around on that Day and see no one beside them, for they have given their lives for no one, their hearts to no one, their souls to no one…except themselves.

 

Is our delight in others and in our Lord Jesus Christ?

 

“This is My commandment; that you love one another, just as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:12  13).

 

Is this our way of ministry?

 

Is this our Way of Life?