The Word of God at Work

 

DEVOTION

THE 1^ST LETTER TO THE THESSALONIANS

THE WORD OF GOD AT WORK

1 Thess 2:13-16

13 And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is at work in you who believe. 14 For you, brothers, became imitators of God's churches in Judea, which are in Christ Jesus: You suffered from your own countrymen the same things those churches suffered from the Jews, 15 who killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets and also drove us out. They displease God and are hostile to all men 16 in their effort to keep us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be saved. In this way they always heap up their sins to the limit. The wrath of God has come upon them at last.  

NIV

There has to be a difference between the word of God and the word of men, yet it would seem Paul is saying that some men were still telling the story of Jesus or some form of the gospel, but they were not bringing the truth of it, but rather were speaking so as to gain followers. Sharing the gospel message is not about gaining more followers for our own purpose. In fact, even to count the number of people would be prideful. But the point Paul is making is that when he shared the word of God, they accepted as the word of God, not as his words, so they did not follow Paul, but they followed after God. We see people today who are about gathering large crowds to themselves, speaking so as to please the ears and hearts of men, rather than God. It would seem the church as it appears here does the work of God that is if, in fact, God is working in it. That would be the key to a successful church, God working in it. Then the body of Christ would be the body of Christ, with each member serving the other members in some way. It would seem those false teachers are just interesting in gather listeners and not members of the body of Christ. The real church acts as a body does, all members of the body acting in concert together for the singular purpose of life. This is what Paul is referring to when he says that the word of God is at work in us who believe. Paul also makes reference to those religious men, who were most likely the Pharisees, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, the ones who killed Jesus, who were driving hard against the new believers in Jesus. Paul may also be speaking about those Jews who did believe, but were still entangled in the law and thought Jesus only came to the Jews, and the Gentiles were not to be included unless that first became a Jew. There is a danger for whoever stands in the way of the word of God working in someone. We know from other scripture that we are to work together as the body of Christ and that we are to encourage each other, lift each other up, so that we all function as one part of the whole, doing our part, as the word of God works in us, until we all reach the unity in the faith. Paul strains toward that mark in all his letters reminding them of his always praying for them, always thanking God for them, always building them up, and correcting them when they are wrong, but always in love. This is the true church, which is filled with people who the word of God is at work in.  

Being Up to The Task

 

DEVOTION

THE 1^ST LETTER TO THE THESSALONIANS

BEING UP TO THE TASK

1 Thess 2:6-12

As apostles of Christ we could have been a burden to you, 7 but we were gentle among you, like a mother caring for her little children. 8 We 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. 9 Surely 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. 10 You are witnesses, and so is God, of how holy, righteous and blameless we were among you who believed. 11 For you know that we dealt with each of you as a father deals with his own children, 12 encouraging, comforting and urging you to live lives worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory.

NIV

Certainly, the labor deserves a wage, but here Paul says that although they labored among them in sharing the Gospel and their lives, they did not receive any wage from the people. Instead, they worked at his trade as a tentmaker to support himself and his fellow evangelists. Today, there might be a few pastors of extremely small size churches, feel the need to have an outside job to support their own ministry because the church just cannot afford to pay them. On the flip side, there are pastors who are living very well and paid handsomely. It would seem there is no general rule regarding this area of ministry, but here Paul makes sure these Thessalonians know that he never expected any such support from them. His ministry was motived out of love. This serves as an example for ministry for anyone who has the call. The task of sharing the gospel as well as pastoring a church should be driven by the love for the people. How could it be possible to be effective in any ministry if we did not have love? Paul also serves as a picture of the attitude we should live, as not being a burden on anyone, but supporting our own lives and that in our service to others we need to be an example of holiness, righteousness, and being blameless. As Paul says he not only shared the gospel with them, he shared his life with them. This serves as an example of how we need to have this transparency among the church, sharing our lives with each other. We fear we might fail all too often in this area as we have a tendency to keep to ourselves in regard to many areas of our lives. We come together to worship, but for the most part that is all we share. There are and perhaps will always be little cliques that perhaps share a little more intimately than the general population of the church. Still, Paul makes the point especially about those who share the gospel and preach the word that there is a need to live their lives as an open book, and that book needs to be about holiness, righteousness, and blamelessness. In addition, serving others as one who cares for their own family. We wonder how successful we are, or how much we have failed to live up to this example. Are we encouraging and comforting and urging others to live a life worthy of God? That requires some self-examination. We can only hope we can live up to the task.

Being Real

 

DEVOTION

THE 1^ST LETTER TO THE THESSALONIANS

BEING REAL

1 Thess 2:1-6

2:1 You know, brothers, that our visit to you was not a failure. 2 We had previously suffered and been insulted in Philippi, as you know, but with the help of our God we dared to tell you his gospel in spite of strong opposition. 3 For the appeal we make does not spring from error or impure motives, nor are we trying to trick you. 4 On the contrary, we speak as men approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel. We are not trying to please men but God, who tests our hearts. 5 You know we never used flattery, nor did we put on a mask to cover up greed — God is our witness. 6 We were not looking for praise from men, not from you or anyone else.

NIV

From a historical view, we know from the book of Acts that Paul was beaten and thrown in jail while he was bringing the gospel to the city of Philippi. On several occasions, Paul encountered opposition as he preached the gospel message, but that never stopped him. Once again, he is making a comparison between himself and some false teachers or preachers that were also making the circuit with wrong motives, as they were trying to make a living, or even more than that, gain wealth, from the gospel. From what Paul says about himself not wearing a mask to cover up greed, these false preachers must have been guilty of that very thing. These types of men were also trying to please men instead of God. That is always the way of those who preach falsehoods or twist the gospel message. With their smooth talk and big smiles, they preach some feel-good message simply to gain enough followers to support their thirst, their greed for wealth. It sure seems nothing has changed over the centuries, as we still have these mask-wearing preachers looking only for the praise from men, covering up their greed for wealth. However, today they need not travel from town to town, as those who Paul was speaking about. These charlatans, these men-pleasers have a host of media outlets available to them and they use them most proficiently or artfully for their own benefit and accumulation of wealth. Today, there are methods to track the more famous of these false preachers' net worth and it is astonishing that some have net worth’s in the multimillion of dollars. What we have learned over the years is to avoid these men as though they are a plague, a cancerous disease that would sap our very life, leaving us dead in their wake. We also have learned that we have to be true to the gospel message so that we please God rather than men. It is always a danger with our human nature, wanting to be liked, to be thought well of, which is in essence making some effort to be pleasing in the sight of our fellow believers. This can be the case in these newer methods of evangelism, making friends first with the non-believer, then after many days, months, or years, give them the message. That may well fit into the mold of pleasing men rather than God. We have to be careful as to how much we try to fit in, to gain their trust, to tell them about Jesus. This also applies to living among the community of faith. We need to make sure we are pleasing God, rather than putting on that mask, that façade, so everyone is pleased with our words. The mask only covers up the real, it is always better to just be real as we work to bring praise and honor to our Lord.

The Imitator

 

DEVOTION

THE 1^ST LETTER TO THE THESSALONIANS

THE IMITATOR

1 Thess 1:4-10

4 For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, 5 because our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction. You know how we lived among you for your sake. 6 You became imitators of us and of the Lord; in spite of severe suffering, you welcomed the message with the joy given by the Holy Spirit. 7 And so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. 8 The Lord's message rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia — your faith in God has become known everywhere. Therefore we do not need to say anything about it, 9 for they themselves report what kind of reception you gave us. They tell how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, 10 and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead — Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath.

NIV

Having considered that we are loved by God and the gospel coming to us with power and with the Holy Spirit, we now need to deal with this idea of being an imitator of the Lord, even in spite of anything we might suffer. Paul tells them because they were imitating Christ they became a model to all the believers in the area around them. We are aware that our relationship with the Lord is extremely personal, however, we do have an influence on people around us, whether we want to or not. People are watching us, both people of faith and people of the world. How we conduct ourselves among our place of worship, or among our fellow believers' matters. This does not mean we should put up a false front, a façade, so to try to make a good impression. This would also apply to how we conduct ourselves in the secular world we have to live and most likely work in. In other words, we need to be real instead of being fake. However, in being real, we still should be this model for those who we are around, and that model should be the same as Christ modeled for us. We should also be living in such a manner, such as modeling Christ, that our faith is evident to all those around us. It comes down to our reputation and of what sort that is. Surely if we have a negative reputation, others will certainly gossip about us, and it would not do well for the kingdom of God. However, if they talk about us with positive remarks, seeing our faith being lived out in how we worship, work and even play, then we are having a good influence for the kingdom of God. It still boils down to thinking to ourselves as we are faced with all the numerous situations in life, what would Jesus say, or do. How would Jesus deal with this situation? How can we be more like Christ? Of course, this means we have to always be in the word, examining how Jesus reacted and how he dealt with people. It would seem we could wrap it all up in the word, love. Jesus has told us the two greatest commands, which he demonstrated, are to love the Lord our God with all our heart, our mind, our soul, and all our strength and to love our neighbor as ourselves. If we just did that, we would be imitators of Christ. Loving the Lord does not seem to be too difficult, at least we think so, but loving our neighbor is where it becomes more difficult, especially those that are not so lovable. We think, the main issue that stems from is that we usually look at the outside of people, and not at their heart, as God does. We form opinions of people based on their appearance rather than on their hearts. Then again, many people might be putting up a front and so we base our love for them on that appearance rather than on their spirit. What we need to focus on is how we are, and that we are imitators of Christ. Then would be able to love all people no matter how they look or the condition of their heart. So let us be the imitator.

Loved by God

 

DEVOTION

THE 1^ST LETTER TO THE THESSALONIANS

LOVED BY GOD

1 Thess 1:4-10

4 For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, 5 because our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction. You know how we lived among you for your sake. 6 You became imitators of us and of the Lord; in spite of severe suffering, you welcomed the message with the joy given by the Holy Spirit. 7 And so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. 8 The Lord's message rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia — your faith in God has become known everywhere. Therefore we do not need to say anything about it, 9 for they themselves report what kind of reception you gave us. They tell how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, 10 and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead — Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath.

NIV

Although it seems best to take this whole thought together, there is so much here it might take us a while to digest it all. We will have to see how the Holy Spirit leads us through all this. The first thing we notice is that Paul calls them brothers loved by God. That alone should give us great joy also, for we are among those who are loved by God. Yes, we know God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son so that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. However, Paul is making the point, as he is inspired by the Spirit, that there is the love of God for the world, but there is a love of God for those who believe that seems to be something different. We do not know if we can explain it, but we feel his love within and we know of his love. The non-believer lives without the knowledge of God’s love and therefore lives without true joy and the power of the Holy Spirit. Paul also tells them that God chose them because the gospel came to them not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit, and with deep conviction. This is the response that we think should be normal among hearing the gospel. How can we not believe God chose us because when we heard the words when we asked God to reveal himself to us, and he did so with a mighty miracle, and then the Holy Spirit came upon us with his power, and the joy that flooded our heart and mind was almost overwhelming? To be converted from death to life was and still is the most exciting moment in our lives. To know without a doubt that God loves us, and that he is working in our lives, leading, guiding our footsteps, providing for us all that we need is again almost overwhelming.  It never ceases to amaze us of how his love is manifested in our lives. To think the Lord God Almighty, the creator of all the universe has chosen us to love and sent his Son to save us from perishing and giving us eternal life, and then send his Holy Spirit to live within us so to manifest his fruit and his gifts in our lives is above and beyond anything else in this life. How can we not live with a deep conviction, knowing all this? We cannot simply make God a part of our life, but he is our life, and everything else in our life is built upon our being loved by God.

Work, Labor, and Endurance

 

DEVOTION

THE 1^ST LETTER TO THE THESSALONIANS

WORK, LABOR, AND ENDURANCE

1 Thess 1:1-3

1:1 Paul, Silas and Timothy,

To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:

Grace and peace to you. 

2 We always thank God for all of you, mentioning you in our prayers. 3 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.

NIV

Although many think this is strictly a Pauline Epistle, we wonder why he included Silas and Timothy as persons having something to do with the content of this letter. What seems to be the main reason for their inclusion is both of them were with Paul when they visited Thessalonica and were well known by all the people there. Paul gets right into an encouragement to these believers. We do wonder just how much time Paul spent in prayer as it seems he mentions in his other letters to various churches that he is praying for them. However, from his words, it would seem his prayer is that of thanksgiving for them rather than for God to do something in their lives. Paul says that he always remembers them in his prayer before God for three aspects of their lives. He mentions their work that is produced by faith and their labor prompted by love. It is interesting the choice of words of work and labor. Many times we associate work with doing good deeds because of our faith, as James has said that works without faith is dead. However, the Greek word that is translated as work may not mean specifically good deeds, as it has the meaning of an effort of occupation, but only has an implication of an act. On the other hand, the word translated as labor has a direct meaning of a beating and can be used as a beating of the chest, as in sorrow or trouble. So then how do we take these words of Paul to the believers in Thessalonica? It is generally thought their faith produced good works in promoting the gospel and their labor of love was in the giving of themselves in showing the love of God toward others. That would make the most sense within the context of the other scripture. However, it is interesting that general thought comes from our understanding of the English words' works and labor, rather than the actual meaning of the Greek words. Certainly, because we have faith we are diligent in our employed work or occupation. We do not slack off or are lazy. In the gospel of Mark, we find Jesus telling a parable about the kingdom is like a man who goes away and leaves his servants in charge, each with his assigned task. When it comes to our labor prompted by love, this too may well be applied to our attitude in serving our Lord, but also can be seen because of being a believer we might have trouble, but it is due to the love we have for God. Then we also see that endurance is inspired by our hope. We are to be steadfast in our faith and labor because we have hope in Christ Jesus. There seems to be no other reason to do anything unless we have hope in our Lord. All the works, all the labor is worthless if it is not grounded in hope in the Lord Jesus. All work and labor if not inspired by Christ are useless, it is nothing but vain efforts for self-glorification. So then we come to the understanding that because we love the Lord, we work as onto him, as we are instructed, and we humble ourselves, as beating our chest, laboring, glorifying our Lord, and we wait, we continue to hope, never quitting, but always waiting for that day he comes for us.  

He is Able

 

DEVOTION

THE LETTER OF JUDE

HE IS ABLE

Jude 24-25

24 To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy— 25 to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.

NIV

Now, Jude’s final remarks, his doxology which may be one of the best among the letters of all the apostles. It is very interesting how Jude makes the point that it is Him, who he means Christ, is the one, and that would mean the only one, who can keep us from falling. The Greek word aptaistos does not appear anywhere else in the scriptures. It has the meaning of not stumbling or even standing firm. Although Paul uses a similar phrase when he is defining the armor of God when he says that after we have done everything then to stand firm, although in the Greek it simply means to stand. Here Jude gives us the picture of not just standing firm, but that we will not stumble or fall into sin. But there is one condition which has to be understood in that we have put our trust in him. When we are faced with some temptation, it is our “self” that is being tempted and we have two choices. One choice is to appeal to our “self” to say no, or two, appeal to our Lord. We know from experience the “self” is weak and it is a foregone conclusion our “self” will most likely not be able to keep us from falling. However, when we are tempted, if we appeal to our Lord, he is the power to keep us from falling or yielding to that temptation. It is not that we are tempted to go out and do some horrible act, but even the temptations such as to gossip, or be envious, or jealousy, or prideful, or boastful, would be areas where, if we appealed to our “self” we would most likely fall. We are told elsewhere in scripture to not think more of ourselves then we should, not to be proud, or boastful, but to humble ourselves before the Lord. He is the only one able to keep us from stumbling into sin. The problem is that we might not consider certain things sin in the way God does. Because Jude wrote this letter to believers that were subject to false teachers, who brought erroneous ideas about what constitutes sin, he is warning them and us that we cannot listen to what others think sin is, but we must listen to the voice of the Spirit and we will know for sure when we are faced with the temptation that leads to sin. The idea is that we should always be aware of the Spirit within, and when faced with a temptation, we need to appeal to Him, and then our thinking is no longer focused on what we could do with the temptation which would make the “self” feel good in some way, but that our focus would be on not wanting to offend our Lord. Christ is the only one who can present us before God’s glorious presence without fault and with great joy. If for one minute we think we could present ourselves before God without fault we are deceiving ourselves. All our trust must be in Jesus, for every aspect of our lives, not just for our salvation. We need him to keep us from falling prey, both to sin, and to false doctrines. True, we may never be completely free of all sin as long as we are in this corruptible flesh, however, we know one thing for sure.  He’s able, He’s able, He’s able, I know He is able, I know my Lord is able to carry me through, He healed the brokenhearted and set the captive free, He made the lame to walk again and caused the blind to see. He is able, he is able, I know my Lord is able to carry me through.