In our small group this week, we considered 1 Thessalonians 5:14-18. On first reading, this passage appears to be a laundry list of isolated commands, but as John Piper argues in When I Don’t Desire God, there is an underlying logic that ties them all together. Here is the passage, followed by an extended paraphrase that elaborates on each command and draws out the logic of Paul’s thought. Meditate on these verses – and minister as God’s agent by His power for His glory.
1 Thessalonians 5:14-18 And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
We strongly exhort you, brothers and sisters, to be involved in each other’s lives, responding as each person needs. Here are three examples:
Coty Pinckney
I boarded the plane in the Portland airport weary after a long day. “11pm. That’s 2am at home. No wonder I’m beat!” I put my pack in the overhead compartment, my computer bag under the seat in front of me, pulled out my earplugs and eyemask, and prepared for some much-needed sleep on the cross-country flight.
I glanced at the thirtyish man sharing the row of three seats with me. “Hi, my name is Coty.” He smiled. “I’m Jacob.” As he looked me in the eye, I quickly saw that God had other plans than sleep for this flight. After going through the normal pleasantries – Are you going home or leaving home? What’s the purpose of your trip? – Jacob began to share about his spiritual growth in the last few years. Through yoga and meditation, he had grown in his self-discipline, in his ability to deal with disappointment. He had simplified his life, eating well, cutting out TV and other distractions; in work, he now focused on flexible jobs that he greatly enjoyed. This enabled him to save enough money to travel to Sri Lanka recently and spend several months at a meditation center. He rises every morning and spends an hour doing yoga and meditating – and that time then flavors his entire day. He was happy, well-adjusted, and excited about his spiritual life – so excited he wanted to share that with others.
Do you want God’s refining? Or would you rather just clean yourself up?
On Sunday we considered Malachi 3, in which God says concerning the "messenger of the covenant", the coming Messiah:
But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the LORD. (Malachi 3:2-3)
Fire burns. It hurts. It may seem to be destroying. But the fire wielded by God for His purposes in His people cleanses and transforms, so that they might become what He intends them to be: those who offer themselves back to Him, those who delight in Him, those who display His glory to all of creation.
C.S. Lewis gives a marvelous picture of this refining process in the third book of the Narnian Chronicles, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.
Fourteen years ago, the genocide in Rwanda was at its height. See this link for a fascinating account - in the New York Times of all places - of the…
During Sunday’s sermon, I briefly discussed the implications of being in Christ on three different aspects of a person’s life:
- First, the inner life: How do you think? What occupies your mind? What do you value and treasure? What do you long for?
- Second, the personal life: How you work, how you allocate your time, how you spend money. These are decisions you make on your own that primarily affect you.
- Third, your Life in Community with others: Your relationships in marriage, in your family, among your neighbors, among your colleagues.
These are the verses referred to during the sermon on baptism yesterday.