The Silent Treatment
Hope In Jesus • Sermon • Submitted
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· 56 viewsGod expects Christian obedience, and so should Christians.
Notes
Transcript
Has one of your friends ever given you the silent treatment? I’ve been given the silent treatment a few times in my day, sometime I deserved it and sometimes I didn’t. I remember one time in particular my senior year of high school with the limo we took to prom…
Kristina M. (don’t say her name!) being mad she didn’t get invited to our limo when her date was a senior and not a part of our group.
We’re looking at a passage tonight where Paul is telling people that sometimes a sort of silent treatment may be the best thing!
It’s for our own good.
read 2 Thes 3 and PRAY
God expects Christian obedience, and so should Christians.
God expects Christian obedience, and so should Christians.
Love and Obedience
Love and Obedience
verses 1-5
Love and obedience are tied together. Love for God and obedience to his Word go together.
What are some things that go together?
In this first section, Paul tells us that God expects us to be obedient to his commands and that love for God and obedience to him go hand-in-hand.
Go to notes in ESV Inductive
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
You will be obedient to whoever or whatever you love the most. If you love yourself the most, you’ll do whatever you need to to give yourself what you want most.
If you love your friends most…
If you love your significant other most…
If you love your family most…
But if you love God most…
There was a specific situation in Thessalonica that they needed to apply this to.
A Lazy Problem
A Lazy Problem
verses 6-12
Paul is addressing a specific situation of disobedience in the church in Thessalonica.
It seems that there were some people who were a little too expectant on the Lord’s return (remember that theme from earlier in the letter) and they we refusing to work because they figured there was no point.
You know the kid in the group project who doesn’t do any of the work but he gets credit for it anyway? They’ve got a bunch of those.
They were making it difficult for others to do what they were supposed to be doing.
Your disobedience always affects others.
Even sins you think are done in the dark will eventually affect someone.
read
Look how Paul handles this…
He tells them where they’re messing up.
He reminds what they should be doing.
He points them to an example.
He gives them instructions for moving forward.
He tells everyone else how to handle it until they get it together.
This is a pattern we can follow in the church.
Addressing sin is so important because when sin goes unchecked among God’s people…
Personal credibility is lost.
The church’s credibility is lost.
It dishonors God’s name on the earth.
You who boast in the law dishonor God by breaking the law.
So we cannot sit by and let it happen.
Love and Accountability
Love and Accountability
verses 13-15
Christians must hold Christians accountable to the commands of God.
Think about a team. If someone on a team isn’t doing their job, guarding their man, covering their zone, running the right play, someone else on the team needs to hold them accountable…
Otherwise they look bad, they make the team look bad, they make the coach look bad. So it is best for the other players on the team to hold them accountable to what they are supposed to be doing. It is for their good.
The same is true when a Christian is not doing what they are supposed to be doing.
It is a loving thing to do. Sin does not lead to good things for a person. Letting them continue in sin with no warning is letting them head to disaster with no warning.
So we should do what is called church discipline. Jesus talked about it in Matthew 18.
“If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”
The motivation is love and the goal is restoration, as Paul says here.
We are all called to obedience. Not just partial obedience, but full obedience. The bad news is that none of us can do it. The good news is that God knew and made a way for us through Jesus…
And so through Jesus’ work on the cross, we can strive for personal obedience to God driven by love for Him, and we can hold fellow Christians to the same standard driven by love for God and for them.
Paul closes his letter with a benediction…
After telling them they may need to discipline some brothers and sisters, he reminds them that God is a God of peace, not conflict. We should be about peace as well! About love for others, as we see Paul was.
read 16-18 and pray