strongwarrior

On the first Sunday in May I preached 1 Thess. 2:9-12. I typed out some of the key thoughts. If you would like to access the sermon as an MP3, click here.

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Paul gives a clear call here based on the truth of God and his own testimony lived before the Thessalonians. There are two sets of threes, and with each Paul appeals to his own life. First, Paul uses adverbs. He is saying that no matter what your actual activity, these characteristics should modify your behavior. Devoutly, uprightly, blamelessly. We should devoutly live just as Paul exhorts that we should lift up holy hands (1 Tim. 2:8). Matthew talks about an upright man named Joseph (Matt. 1:19). Luke says Zacharias and Elizabeth were blameless (Luke 1:6). Everything we are about in life and ministry should be spiritually pure, legally right, and beyond blame. Every one of these words implies clarity: clarity in obedience and worship of God, clarity in reference to absolute standards, and clarity in reputation. These verses are arguably the heart of this letter, and Paul is saying that us Christians should do everything “clearly” based on the Gospel and his example.

In vs. 10 Paul spoke about how to be, now he talks in vs. 11 about what to do. We have another set of threes. Notice these are all communication, and primarily verbal. Paul was a man who left a testimony of using his words to build lives because of the Gospel and for the Gospel. He directly states that his behavior among the Thessalonians was comparable to a good father. He says that he has used three ways of talking: begging or encouraging, comforting or soothing, and preaching or witnessing. It is a poor father that finds himself emphasizing one of these to the neglect of the other two. It is a poor ministry that does not have this three-dimensional approach to dealing with people.

Three times we see begging in Matt. 8 (vs. 5, 31, 34). Each time it is heartfelt and impassioned. Do we care enough to beg and plead people to Jesus and obedience? In John 11, the Jews soothed the grieving sister of dead Lazarus (vs. 19, 31). What a picture of communication, the words one chooses for someone besides themselves with the grief of a dead loved one! Do we care enough to comfort and soothe hurt people with the Good News of Jesus? I’m convinced professing Christians shy away from sharing the Gospel in the world because they are afraid to witness. When someone is a courtroom witness, they swear to tell the truth but they don’t always know how their testimony will be used. This word is a legal word, and it speaks of a type of speech that is dangerous: saying something with certainty (Acts 20:26, Gal. 5:3, Eph. 4:17). Do we care enough to testify to the truth, even when we have no idea what the response will be?

Paul says we should live clearly, and he says that our way of intermixing the Gospel and the grit of every day life should be to build others with our words. Our approach should be to cajole, comfort, and preach the truth into lives. Let’s follow Paul’s example and be clearly building with our being and doing.