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).
“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…
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