https://esv.literalword.com/?q=1+Thessalonians+3
Observations from today’s readings and today’s S-WOD, Saturday, 3 August 2024:
1 Thessalonians 3:1-5 — Therefore when we could bear it no longer, we were willing to be left behind at Athens alone, we sent Timothy, our brother and God’s coworker in the gospel of Christ, to establish and exhort you in your faith, that no one be moved by these afflictions. For you yourselves know that we are destined for this. For when we were with you, we kept telling you beforehand that we were to suffer affliction, just as it has come to pass, and just as you know. For this reason, when I could bear it no longer, I sent to learn about your faith, for fear that somehow the tempter had tempted you and our labor would be in vain.
Paul had planted the church in Thessalonica but was forced to leave rapidly to escape persecution. Here Paul explains that he was overwhelmed with concern that the church in Thessalonica might be shaken under this persecution. So, he sent Timothy to do two things 1) establish their faith, and 2) exhort them in their faith. The Greek word for exhort here is parakaleō, which can be translated as encourage, invoke, or comfort. Timothy was sent to encourage the church in their faith but he first had to establish them in their faith. He couldn’t encourage them to endure such persecution if their faith were weak and unstable. They needed to truly know the One in whom they were to place their trust before they could be confident, bold, persistent, patient, steadfast, immovable, joyful, and even grateful during trials and tribulations. We too can seek to comfort others, but first we need to establish them in genuine faith in Jesus Christ. A house with a weak foundation will not stand in the storms.
Paul and Timothy reminded the Thessalonians that persecution was predestined and inevitable and that Satan would tempt them in persecution to lose their faith. He didn’t want them to lose a godly perspective on their persecution – What Satan intends for evil, God intends for good, to conform you to Christlike character for His glory and your edification and that of others. (Genesis 50:19-20; Romans 8:28-29; Luke 6:48-49; 1 Corinthians 3:11)
1 Thessalonians 3:10 – …as we pray most earnestly night and day that we may see you face to face and supply what is lacking in your faith?
Prayer should be earnest and continuous.
1 Thessalonians 3:12-13 – …may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.
Who makes you increase and abound in love? Who establishes your heart blameless in holiness before the Father? God does it all. If you desire to grow in love and holiness, get closer to Jesus, abide in Him. What is the evidence of your true relationship with God? What is the natural fruit of the Spirit in your life? The love you have for others, not the sort of love which the world gives, but a supernatural love which comes from God and compels your heart to unconditionally, selflessly, and sacrificially love even your enemies wholeheartedly and earnestly:
- John 13:35 – “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
- 1 John 4:11-13 — Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.
- Matthew 26:6-13 — Now when Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, a woman came up to him with an alabaster flask of very expensive ointment, and she poured it on his head as he reclined at table. And when the disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, “Why this waste? For this could have been sold for a large sum and given to the poor.” But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a beautiful thing to me. For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me. In pouring this ointment on my body, she has done it to prepare me for burial. Truly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.”
Love and worship (which is an act of love to God) are costly, inefficient, and often unreasonable to others who will question why you are wasting your valuable time, effort, and resources on people who don’t deserve it or on God who is unseen and perhaps unknown to them. The woman ‘wasted’ expensive ointment in a shocking way to love and worship. Perhaps, one of the best ways we can love others is to ‘waste’ our time being with them and caring for them, particularly when it causes us to sacrifice our own priorities in costly ways.
“Cross” Fit S-WOD (Spiritual Workout of the Day) – 3 August 2024: Today, focus on abiding in Jesus, and allow the Spirit to flow from Him through you as His conduit of love to others and as His messenger of reconciliation through Christ. Pour out your expensive ointment of love upon God and others today in ways that shock others.
Defenders Bible Reading Plan 