A Holy Charge in Thessalonia (1)

 

1 Thessalonians 5:12 – 28

 

I’ve been pondering the conclusion of 1 Thessalonians, in which Paul gives 16 admonitions (depending on how you count them) to his readers. As with the conclusions of many NT letters, our tendency can be to mentally skip over them; we see the finish line and we want to cross it. If we do this with the Gospels we miss the Cross and Resurrection. If we do this with the epistles…well, who knows what we miss?

 

This passage is not a checklist on how to live, it outlines a way we should live, an outline that is based on what precedes it (1:1 – 5:11).  Perhaps we could call the passage an image of what we ought to look like in Christ. Perhaps we could call the passage a Holy Charge from Paul to the disciples in Thessalonica.

 

If this passage were a tree, how would you describe the tree? What does it look like? What is its form? I’m not asking you to focus on the individual branches right now, just the form of the tree. What do you see? Most of us need time to see the tree, to allow it to come to us, to form in our hearts and minds, for our souls to take it in and connect with it. It is a form which is always developing, clarifying itself, drawing us.

 

Our tendency is to look at individual verses, but if we don’t see the passage as a whole we will usually not see and live in the individual verses. Let’s remember that chapter and verse numbers were not in the Bible as it was written, Paul didn’t put verse numbers in his letters anymore than we put verse numbers in our letters or emails or blog posts. Chapter numbers, chapter headings (put there by Bible publishers and some translators), and verse numbers can impair our seeing Christ in the Bible and seeing the Message of the Bible.

 

Beyond that, seeing the Bible as a whole will result in a lifelong unfolding of its individual parts and sections – from verses to paragraphs to sections of books to entire books of the Bible to patterns and themes – all of them revealing Jesus Christ. We can share our experience with the Living Word with others, and we can receive what others share with us out of their experience in the Living Word.

 

But, of course, we can only experience the Bible as we read the Bible and seek and receive Jesus Christ in the Bible.

 

As we read and reread 1 Thessalonians 5:12 – 28, what do we see? What is the main image? What does the tree look like?

 

Paul begins our passage, “We request of you, brethren, that you respect those who labor among you, and have charge over you in the Lord and give you instruction, and that you esteem them very highly in love because of their work.”

 

In light of what follows, why might Paul’s request be important?

 

We’ll come back to this question in our next reflection on the passage, the Lord willing.

Faith, Love, Hope in Thessalonica

 

 

“We give thanks to God always for all of you, making mention of you in our prayers; constantly bearing in mind your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the presence of our God and Father” (1 Thess. 1:2 – 3).

 

“Since we are of the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation” (1 Thess. 5:8).

 

I’ve been pondering the cluster of faith, hope, and love at the beginning and toward the conclusion of Paul’s first letter to the Christians in Thessalonica. The believers in this city were known for their faith, love and hope. Their way of life not only manifested hope, love, and faith, but faith, love, and hope was also their armor as “sons of light and sons of day” (5:5).

 

When we encounter faith, hope, and love in the Bible we see the core of our calling in Jesus Christ, the core of our life together, the core of our witness of Him to the world. Note that both 1:2 – 3 and 5:8 are closely related to the Father choosing us in Christ:

 

“Knowing, brethren beloved by God, His choice of you” (1:4).

 

“God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ” (5:9).

 

It is good to remind ourselves that we are not accidents looking for a place to happen – we can only be in a relationship with Jesus because God our Father has called us into that relationship.

 

“All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out” (John 6:37).

 

“No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws Him; and I will raise him up on the last day” (John 6:44).

 

We can have great assurance that Jesus is our Author and Perfector (Hebrews 12:2), that the One who began a good work within us will bring it to completion (Phil. 1:6). I may not fully understand these words of Jesus in John Chapter 6, in fact I can understand very little of them, but I am most certainly called to believe what Jesus says about the Father and me and Him. Believing what Jesus says allows me to live securely in Him, allowing faith, hope, and love to grow in me and flow through me – back unto Jesus and into the lives of others.

 

Consider what Paul writes to the Colossians:

 

“We give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus, praying always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love which you have for all the saints; because of the hope laid up for you in heaven” (Col. 1:3 – 4).

 

The Christians in Colossae also have a testimony of faith, hope, and love.

 

Is this my testimony? When others look at me do they see faith, hope, and love in Jesus Christ?

 

Is this the testimony of our congregations?

 

Is this your testimony?

 

Perhaps, as we live today, we can watch for Jesus coming to us, teaching us to live in and to share the faith, hope, and love that He is giving to us as His brothers and sisters. Perhaps we can ask Jesus to teach us today how to share faith, hope, and love with others.

 

Let’s remember that love, hope, and faith are not only to be our Way of Life in Christ, but they are also our armor, protecting our hearts and minds (which are continually assaulted by the things of this world!).