Modelling the Christian Life Series.

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The Thessalonian Church is a model for others to follow.

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A MODEL FOR CHURCH - 1 Thessalonians - Thank God for this Letter - 1:1-3.

“Paul, Silas and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace and peace to you. We always thank God for all of you, mentioning you in our prayers. We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.”
“It is “impossible to separate works from faith—yea, just as impossible as to separate burning and shining from fire.” - Martin Luther
We sometime s look on enviously at people who have fine houses or beautiful gardens or to change the analogy, honed muscular figures and bags of energy and vitality and wished that we had something similar but alas we know that these things don’t just happen by accident, they are the products of years of hard work and discipline
Take for example the garden analogy. We may know that Paul used this analogy when he referred to the fact that when the gospel was preached, he “planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.”
Now though it is true, that only God can give the increase because without the miracle of life which resides in the seed, nothing can happen. Without the grace of God’s rain and sun, the seed shrivels.
However as any farmer and any gardener knows, we have a part to play as well. No one expects a crop to grow without the hard work of ploughing and planting and tending the crop and likewise, no gardener expects flowers to magically appear by themselves; the grass to cut itself or the hedges trim themselves, etc,.
Preparation, planting, watering, weeding and care are all involved in the cultivation of a beautiful garden
And so it is with our spirits. God works in the hearts of those who work with him.
The work He begins in us is carried on to completion through the sanctifying work of the Spirit but that it done with us and through us as we cooperate working out what he is working in us and keeping in step with the Spirit (see Gal 5:25).
Philippians 1:6 “he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 2:12,13 “continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.”
In the Song of Songs, the Shunamite woman complains: “Do not look upon me, because I am dark, Because the sun has tanned me. My mother’s sons were angry with me; They made me the keeper of the vineyards, But my own vineyard I have not kept.” (Song of Songs 1:6).
This is sometimes used as a metaphor of how we as Christians neglect our own spiritual life and development because of pressured circumstances without or spiritual indolence within.
We grow in grace and in the knowledge of God and His word as we work hard - “work produced by faith, your labour prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Thess. 1:3)
The Thessalonians clearly modeled the principle of cooperation with God in living the Christian life
Paul explains that they received the message of grace as a call to action and loving service to others.
He applauded them for their faithfulness and reminded them how it all happened.
We can study Paul’s insights for help in working on our own hearts, to ensure that we do not neglect our own spiritual gardens, the growth of the fruit of the Spirit in our lives.
Thank God for His Grace and Peace:
This church, any church could not exist without the grace and peace of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ
This is Paul’s standard greeting, loaded with reminders that our spiritual wellbeing is intimately connected with our personal, relationship with God.
“Grace” is a gift bestowed from the throne room of heaven. The unmerited favour of God upon which we are so dependent. Leon Morris points out that “grace is one of the great Christian words. Cognate with chara (‘joy’), it means basically ‘that which causes joy’. In a Christian context nothing brings joy like the act of God in Christ whereby sin is put away and salvation is made available as a free gift. The word comes then to mean any free gift of God, and in greetings it is used in this general sense, though with a glance at God’s great gift to mankind."
Peace is a judicial statement related to our daily fellowship with God as well as our eternal standing. The conflict created through sin has been resolved through Jesus Christ, restoring the broken relationship between humankind and God, thereby granting reconciliation between us. Shalom is the Hebrew counterpart of “peace,” meaning wholeness. A condition of completeness, a work totally finished through Christ, yet progressively realized.
2. Thank God for the Thessalonians
It is clear throughout the letter that Paul loved the believers at Thessalonica in both a maternal and paternal way.
They were his spiritual children and he was determined to look after them in every way he could.
The letter opens with its attribution equally to Paul, Silas, and Timothy.
The reason, most likely, is that all three men were well known to the Thessalonian Christians—Paul and Silas having started the church (Acts 17:1–9), and Timothy later being sent back to instruct and encourage the new believers (it was his report which inspired the letter).
Paul was the recognized leader, but the respect and enormous help given by Silas and Timothy prompted the co-authorship; the three men spoke with a single voice.
Their letter was addressed to a gathering of people in a particular city—Thessalonica.
Paul, Silas, and Timothy undoubtedly recalled names and faces as they wrote the letter. But, by adding the descriptive phrase “in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,” the authors made more precise identity of this group and emphasized its spiritual nature.
Paul was writing to the ‘church’ of the Thessalonians, fully recognizing them as a body of believers, made up of Jews and Gentiles, who had been called out of darkness into God’s wonderful light.
These believers were ‘in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ’.
They were firmly rooted in both the first and second persons of the Holy Trinity.
Paul wanted the believers to realize that the local church has a spiritual location just as real and even more important than Thessalonica.
This is also true today. God sees the church as specific gatherings of believers, varied in cultural expression and diverse in need and ministry.
He also sees the church as the redeemed of all ages. Both realities are important.
Do not miss the example of love and appreciation expressed for the believers in Thessalonica: We always thank God for all of you.
Paul was known for his keen awareness of the goodness and graciousness of God.
Thankfulness was his constant response. And, as he explained in v3, his great joy was the changed lives of people who trusted and followed Jesus Christ. These believers kindled his continual praise of thanksgiving.
Paul not only thanked God for these brothers and sisters in the faith, he also was not afraid to tell them personally how much he appreciated them. It is a good reminder to all of us to express our “thanks” out loud.
He also thanked them because they modelled lifestyle Christianity. Paul often made parallel statements, re-emphasizing particular feelings or thoughts. So when he wrote that We continually remember, he was underscoring the fact that Paul, Silas, and Timothy constantly prayed for the Thessalonians. They were a source of delight.
Don’t miss the importance of “mentioning you in our prayers.”
Matthew Henry, the great Bible commentator, was once attacked by thieves and robbed of his purse. That evening he wrote in his diary, ‘Let me be thankful first, because I was never robbed before; second, because, although they took my purse, they did not take my life; third, because, although they took everything, it was not much; and fourth, because it was I who was robbed, and not I who robbed.’
What a perspective and reminder that prayer saves us from so much of which we are not even aware. Thank God that someone mentioned you in their prayers!
In this section the authors listed what they found so admirable in these believers.
(i). Their work produced by faith:
Faith always leads to works. According to the apostle James, “faith without deeds is dead” (Jas. 2:26). Elsewhere he speaks of ‘faith working through love’ (Gal. 5:6, RSV), and here of faith leading to work.
There is a story told of a Scotsman who rowed people across a river. On one oar he had carved the word ‘faith’ and on the other oar he had carved the word ‘works’. One day as he was rowing, one of the passengers noticed the carvings and asked him about them. The Scotsman did not reply but pulled in the oar marked ‘works’ and started to row with only one oar. The boat went round in circles. He then pulled in the oar marked ‘faith’ and started to row only with the ‘works’ oar. The boat again went round in circles, but this time in the opposite direction. He then rowed with both oars and reached the other bank safely. Before his passenger got off the boat he said, ‘A Christian must row his life using both oars, faith and works. Only then will he reach heaven’s shore.’
True faith influences the heart and life so that we obey God and serve others. The Thessalonians were acting out their faith in works of compassion and mercy. Here Paul is probably referring to their fearless preaching of the gospel in the midst of persecution.
As believers we should work for Christ—we should first be sure of our own hearts and our motives that we might work for His glory and not our own!
(ii). Their “labour” prompted by love:
Labour involves cost, fatigue, and exhaustion. Love here is the Greek word agape, meaning unselfish, sacrificial living for others.
Love - ‘Perhaps as good a way as any of grasping the new idea of love the Christians had is to contrast it with the idea conveyed by erōs … erōs has two principal characteristics: it is a love of the worthy and it is a love that desires to possess. Agapē is in contrast at both points: it is not a love of the worthy, and it is not a love that desires to possess. On the contrary, it is a love given quite irrespective of merit, and it is a love that seeks to give’.2 God loves, not because people are worthy of that love, but because he is that kind of God; it is his nature to love, he is love (1 John 4:8, 16).
When this love comes to us we are faced with a challenge we cannot ignore.
Once we see that God is like that, that God loves as part of his very nature, that God loves in a way that means Calvary, we must make a decision.
Either we yield to the divine agapē to be transformed by it, to be remade in the divine image, to see people in a measure as God sees them, or we do not. And if we do not, in that lies our condemnation. We have shut ourselves up to lovelessness.
But those who yield themselves to God are transformed by the power of the divine agapē, so that they rejoice to give themselves in the service of others. Paul thanks God that this is what the Thessalonians have done.
In Galatians Paul said, ‘The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love’ (Gal. 5:6). A Christian’s heart must be filled with a self-denying and sacrificial love for God and others (agape).
The Thessalonians were demonstrating their love for God and for their neighbours by practical acts of service.
The apostle John said, ‘Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth’ (1 John 3:18).
Believers would do well to check their lives and schedules and notice what they do for others out of pure love.
The church is not a club we join, a hobby we find interesting or a game we enter to win a trophy.
It is a family of love where we serve one another. This is possible only because of our relationship with God.
(iii). Their “endurance” inspired by hope:
This is not passive endurance, but heroic constancy, no matter what the obstacles.
Hope has been compared first to a soldier’s helmet, because it protects the mind, and then to the sailor’s anchor, because it steadies the heart on the stormy seas of life.
Our hope of the final victory, that is assured at Christ’s second coming, enables us to persevere through the good times and the bad.
The Thessalonians had a well-grounded hope of eternal life and the glory that accompanies it; therefore they could be patient in bearing hardships.
Hope always looks forward, beyond now, to a future.
For the Thessalonians, as for all believers, hope rests in God’s promised eternity.
And this assured future makes faith, work, suffering, and love possible.
Hope looks to something that is sure, but just not here yet. It is coming. Our greatest joys and hopes are future.
This is a marathon race, not a quick sprint. If we serve because we feel that God has promised good things only in this life, we will be disappointed and may even give up.
All of this is clearly connected with our Lord Jesus Christ.
Faith, love, and hope are eternal qualities which find their source in God.
As Paul later expressed so beautifully in 1 Corinthians 13, they are the way of excellence which can withstand the fires of judgment.
In summary, people who receive God’s call of grace are changed and strengthened by him to discipline their lives and become effective examples of the grace of Christ.
Such Christians form God’s idea of a healthy, productive church.
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