Living in Love (1 Thessalonians 4:9-12)
What do you want to be known for?
Is it your accomplishments in your career? Your beauty? Your wit or insight? What you have? Your reputation?
This Sunday at Grace we'll be looking at 1 Thessalonians 4:9-12. Paul commends the Thessalonians for excelling at brotherly love, and encourages them to continue to grow in this by being thoughtful in their ambition, energy, and work.
I'm fascinated by this passage because it is so timely for us today. In many ways, our culture yells at us to live life in opposition to what Paul describes. We are encouraged to create isolated, anxious, and selfish lives, all out of fear that we will miss out if we don't grab everything we can. Self-expression, self-awareness, and self-fulfillment are idols of the age; and they all foster isolated selfishness.
We need to hear (I need to hear) these words of Scripture and how good it is to live a quiet life, free from comparison or grumbling, in Christian community with my brothers and sisters in the faith.
Let's listen to God's Word together this Sunday at Grace and reflect on the goodness of God together.
In Christ,
Pastor Bob
PS. If you're saying, "Wait, didn't we skip a part of 1 Thessalonians? What happened to 4:1-8?" Yep, you're right. We'll come back to that next Sunday (2/20) but due to widespread COVID exposure in our Grace Kids program last Sunday, we are going to have Grace Kids online and/or joining us in all-ages worship this week. And, if you read 4:1-8, you might understand why it's best to hold off on covering that passage with young kids present.
Now concerning brotherly love you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another, for that indeed is what you are doing to all the brothers throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers, to do this more and more, and to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one.
- 1 Thessalonians 4:9-12