“For you yourselves know, brothers, that our coming to you was not in vain. But though we had already suffered and been shamefully treated at Philippi, as you know, we had boldness in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in the midst of much conflict. For our appeal does not spring from error or impurity or any attempt to deceive, but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts.” (1 Thessalonians 2:1-4 ESV)
Amen! Do you identify with the apostles here? Has this been your experience? Even if you are hated and rejected and mistreated for your walk of faith and for your testimony for Jesus Christ, and for his gospel, you persevere? You don’t give up? But you keep on in the strength of the Lord through good times and bad? This really should be the testimony of all of us, shouldn’t it be? We should not let persecutions and hardships and trials keep us from obeying our Lord and doing what he has called us to do.
And then this: Their appeal to the people to believe the gospel of Christ and to put their faith and hope in the Lord Jesus and in what he did for all of us on that cross did not come from error or impurity or any attempt to deceive. Amen! How many preachers today can honestly say the same thing? Not many, I would suspect. For so many of them today are being trained in how to market their “churches” to the people of the world, so some of them are being trained in teaching what is false and in how to manipulate people.
So many of them have gone the way of the world in order to win the world to their gatherings (stage productions). And so they have also altered the character of God/Christ, of his church, and of his gospel message to make them more acceptable and appealing to human flesh and to the ungodly, so that they fit in with the world. For their goal is to draw in large crowds of people from the world into their gatherings. And so they use marketing gimmicks and worldly methods to attract the world to their gatherings.
But that is not the model that we should be following. Instead we should be following the model given to us by the apostles. Were they absolutely perfect in every way and absolutely without error? No, for they were human beings. And there was a time when Paul had to correct Peter for being hypocritical and for ignoring the gentile Christians in favor of the Judaizers. But their teachings in the Scriptures were without error for they came from God. And they were godly men who were following the Lord in surrender to his will.
They were not liars and manipulators and tricksters of the cunning and craftiness of men in deceitful scheming. But they were men of integrity who followed the Lord Jesus, despite being hated and mistreated, and in order to get the truth of the gospel of salvation out to the people so that many would be crucified with Christ in death to sin, and raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in him, no longer to live as slaves to sin but as slaves to God and to his righteousness, by God’s grace and in his power and strength.
And they were not people pleasers. Now, for a little while Peter reverted to that when he acted hypocritically in relation to the Gentile Christians and in relation to the Judaizers out of fear of the Judaizers. But Paul corrected him, and as far as I know, that was the end of that. For here Paul is stating that all three of them did not speak in order to please human beings, but in order to please God, and that they did not use flattery or any pretext or greed in order to win people over to themselves. And God is their witness!
“For we never came with words of flattery, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed—God is witness. Nor did we seek glory from people, whether from you or from others, though we could have made demands as apostles of Christ. But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children. So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us.” (1 Thessalonians 2:5-8 ESV)
I hate deception! I hate flattery and all falseness that is used in order to deceive and manipulate other human beings and in order to give false impressions. I am not fond of being treated harshly or cruelly and unfairly, but I want people to speak the truth in love to me, not just to sound off or to be contrary, but because they love me. But I want them to be fair and just and to be willing to hear me out, too, and to not just shut me out because they are of a different opinion than me. Bottom line: I hate lies!!
They also did not seek glory from other people. They certainly were not looking to be put up on pedestals and worshipped as though they were gods. But certainly this means something different from that, for he followed it by saying that they could have made demands. Demands for what? Now some commentators are saying that “glory” meant “honor, importance, esteem, applause.” But they weren’t looking for applause, so why would they have then made demands for such? I am trying to grasp the meaning here.
Now one of the commentators suggested, but then refuted his own suggestion, that “glory” may have been a reference to seeking “maintenance,” which would then be a burden to them. I feel this one actually makes more sense, for Paul often spoke of how they did not demand any kind of payment for their labors of love but that they worked other jobs to earn their own living so as not to be a financial burden to their congregations, although they had the right to ask for monetary assistance.
To me, that fits with what is stated next when he said that they, instead, were gentle among them like a nursing mother taking care of her own children. And I identify with that for I had (still have) four children of my own, and I nursed all four of them. There is a closeness and an emotional bond that takes place between a mother and her children when she nurses them from her own breast. [My children are all in their 40’s now, and the oldest is nearly 50. And I now have 14 grandchildren plus 2.]
And this is how we should be with those to whom we minister. But this never involves going soft on sin or compromising truth and righteousness in order to not offend. And it doesn’t mean that we never speak strong words. Jesus certainly did, especially to the Pharisees. Jesus never sugar-coated any of his messages to make them less offensive and more attractive to the world in order to not offend anyone. He offended them regularly which is why they hung him on that cross to die. They didn’t like the truth that he spoke.
And we should be those who follow the example of Jesus and the example of the apostles. And we need to be those who are speaking the fulness of what the Scriptures teach under the New Covenant, and that we don’t teach Scriptures out of context to the point to where the truth that is being taught gets twisted and altered to say what the Scriptures do not say if taught in context. And Jesus taught that we must deny self, die daily to sin, and follow him in obedience, or we will not inherit eternal life (Luke 9:23-26).
Oh, to Be Like Thee, Blessed Redeemer
Lyrics by Thomas O. Chisholm, 1897
Music by W. J. Kirkpatrick, 1897
Oh, to be like Thee! blessèd Redeemer,
This is my constant longing and prayer;
Gladly I’ll forfeit all of earth’s treasures,
Jesus, Thy perfect likeness to wear.
Oh, to be like Thee! full of compassion,
Loving, forgiving, tender and kind,
Helping the helpless, cheering the fainting,
Seeking the wandering sinner to find.
O to be like Thee! lowly in spirit,
Holy and harmless, patient and brave;
Meekly enduring cruel reproaches,
Willing to suffer others to save.
O to be like Thee! while I am pleading,
Pour out Thy Spirit, fill with Thy love;
Make me a temple meet for Thy dwelling,
Fit me for life and Heaven above.
Oh, to be like Thee! Oh, to be like Thee,
Blessèd Redeemer, pure as Thou art;
Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy fullness;
Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrYhiK2nQBg
Caution: This link may contain ads
No comments:
Post a Comment