Treat Others As...

Our church is starting a series on 1 Thessalonians and so far it has been really enlightening. I just heard a sermon on chapter 2 and imbedded within it was some great instruction on how to treat others.

It comes from verses 6b – 12;

6bAs apostles of Christ we could have been a burden to you, 7but we were gentle among you, like a mother caring for her little children. 8We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us. 9Surely you remember, brothers, our toil and hardship; we worked night and day in order not to be a burden to anyone while we preached the gospel of God to you. 10You are witnesses, and so is God, of how holy, righteous and blameless we were among you who believed. 11For you know that we dealt with each of you as a father deals with his own children, 12encouraging, comforting and urging you to live lives worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory.

To me it boils down to one word; love! But, what does that really mean or better yet what does that look like? Well, guess what; Paul tells us. Paul explains we should not be a burden to others; we should be gentle loving like a mother caring for her children. We should love so much because we care. We should care enough to share the gospel but we should also care enough to share our lives. We should deal with others as a father; encouraging, comforting, urging others to live lives worthy of God.

You know the world is in desperate need for a love like this. May we all reach deep and love others. Reminds me of a bumper sticker I once saw; Love Wins!

Grace and Peace!

Do so More and More

Every once in a while a passage just sticks with me. I will keep returning to it and finally I will dive a little deeper into what has grabbed my attention. Well this is true for a couple of verses in 1 Thessalonians. In this letter to the Thessalonians Paul addresses the return of Christ, but also encourages believers to a life of Holy Living.

Drilling this down just a little more, Paul encourages brotherly love. Verses 4:9-10 are the ones that keeping coming to mind.

9Now about brotherly love we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other. 10And in fact, you do love all the brothers throughout Macedonia. Yet we urge you, brothers, to do so more and more.

Can you see the encouragement? Can you see the plea? As believers do we ( I ) love our brothers? As Christians do we ( I ) love enough? Can you see the reminder to do so more and more?

Hendriksen in his commentary on this passage says this; “Perfection had not yet been reached. This admonition is always timely, for in this life no Christian ever reaches the ideal of ethical perfection.”

Maybe that is the encouragement for me; a reminder that perfection is not reached but there should be a continual striving to become more like Christ. Not because we can earn anything, but out of loving gratitude. So when I get a little complacent, even a little pleased with myself, maybe just maybe I need a reminder of just how much Christ did for me, for each of us and as such I should do so more and more; humbly with a loving heart. All we are talking about here is sharing Christian love with a world so desperate for this love.

So there’s the challenge for us all; to go out and share some Christian love with our brothers, our neighbors, even our enemies and to do so more and more. Wow.

Oh how I love God’s Word. It is truly living, inexhaustible and life changing. May we all go do so more and more! Amen

Grace and Peace!