Hello, my “Walking with Jesus” friends on this Tuesday,
Have you ever heard a speech or message which, while brief, almost left you breathless? Today let’s together look at one of those written by the apostle Paul in about 50ad. It’s actually the closing paragraph or two of his first letter to his Christian friends in the Greek city of Thessalonica. It’s powerful and let’s take it one memorable line at a time. If we’ll let it impact our lives, I’m confident it will challenge and change us, even though written 2000 years ago!
Paul begins with this admonition: “We ask you to acknowledge those who work hard among you, who care for you in the Lord and who admonish you. Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work” (1 Thess. 5:12,13) No matter where you live in the world, or your age, who are those people, men and women, who are anointed by and led by God as they SPIRITUALLY care for you, admonish you, correct you or teach you?
They may or may not have a title. How is your life being changed by their influence? Do you pray for them? Do you value and nourish the spiritual impact they are having in your life? Are you cherishing what you are learning from them and are you passing it along to others? Do you thank God for bringing those people into your life? How do you express your thanks to them?
Paul continues: “Live in peace with each other. We urge you, warn those who are idle and disruptive, encourage the disheartened, help the weak, and be patient with everyone.” (1 Thess. 5:14) Oh my there’s a lot in those two lines, isn’t there? What does it require for you and me to live at peace with other Christians? This is important to Jesus who draws us together as God’s people by His death and resurrection! Here’s another way Paul said it: “Live in harmony with one another.” (Romans 12:16) I like that phrase even better. Why?
Because if you understand music, it requires great effort to harmonize with another person or several other people. Key in it all is listening and adjusting your voice and volume to blend, not conflict, with theirs. Does a beautiful acapella harmony reflect how your life blends with other Christians for God’s glory? Have you noticed harmony among God’s people requires us all to be in harmony with Jesus? Oh my, think about that, my friends.
And what about Paul’s WARNING to those who are idle while others work or those who are disruptive to the harmony of God’s people? Can you identify when you might be in that category? In your desire to honor Jesus at all times with your life have you invited some other friends or your spouse to alert you to when you are being disruptive to God’s people or God’s purpose? And when they do, how do you respond? Have you noticed the wounding power of both idleness and disruptiveness? Do you understand the most painful wounds, which take the longest to heal, are family wounds and church wounds? Are you very careful about NEVER being a WOUNDER of other people?
Instead, are Paul’s powerful words your reputation: ‘encourage the disheartened, help the weak, and be patient with everyone.’ (1 Thess. 5:14) Pause and look closely at those challenging words. Are they true of you and me, consistently? Do we actually LOOK for opportunities to do those three things? Do we go out of our way to shower other people with the love of Jesus through these actions? Do other people depend upon us for these helpful things?
Do you see Paul ends this powerful paragraph of admonition with this warning: “Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong but always strive to do what is good for each other and for everyone else.” (1 Thess. 5:15) But wait a minute, you might be thinking. How is that even possible? How can any human being, in our overly dysfunctional world, live at that level of Godliness?
May I give you TWO essential elements in living this kind of life?
The first is to recognize this life is possible only with the UNRESTRAINED work of the Holy Spirit of God in our lives!
I use the word unrestrained because you and I both know WE can restrain or resist or even refuse the work of the Holy Spirit of God in our lives, right? Ephesians 4:27 says: “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God.”
We grieve the Spirit of God when we REFUSE to allow the Spirit to do ALL that God wants to accomplish in our continual refinement as a man or woman of God. We grieve the Spirit of God when we reject His conviction and yield to temptation of sin. We grieve the Spirit of God when we get prideful and we wrestle control of our lives away from the Spirit and we pursue our personal agenda rather than submitting ourselves fully to God’s agenda for us. Now pause… how else do you see in your life that you sometimes GRIEVE the Holy Spirit of God? What does Jesus want you to do about that?
A second way we can live in the manner Paul is admonishing us is if we live with our lives immersed in God’s Word so that God’s TRUTH, applied to our soul by the Holy Spirit, guides our thinking, protects our emotions, disciplines our decisions and convicts us when we stray.
Have you discovered the gold mine of truth about this in Psalm 119? Every verse in that, the longest Psalm, challenges us to immerse ourselves in the penetrating, life changing, power of God’s Word.
Oh my, we have a lot to think about don’t we so let’s pause here and I urge you to dig into the “Lessons Learned” deeper study notes at the link below and then let’s join Charity Gayle in praising Jesus with another of her wonderful worship songs, and tomorrow I’ll meet you right here and we’ll finish Paul’s very powerful 1st letter to the Thessalonians.
Today’s Scripture: 1 Thess. 5:12-15.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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