Sermon Tone Analysis
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Cheesesteaks, the Liberty Bell, Rocky Balboa, the Eagles, the Phillies, the 76ers, Cream Cheese.
Can you guess what we’re going to be studying this morning?
You’ve guessed it.
We’re going to talk about philadelphia.
Philadelphia, but not the city in Pennsylvania.
However, the city of Philadelphia can help us out a little.
Philadelphia is known as “the city of…brotherly love.”
That’s helpful because the Greek word philadelphia/φιλαδελφία means “brotherly love.”
The word philadelphia/φιλαδελφία is found here in 1 Thessalonians 4:9
The ESV gives some clarity; let’s put that up here
Brotherly love, love for one another, love of the brethren, love of the brothers and sisters.
This is philadelphia.
Love as You Have Been Taught by God
This philadelphia came to the Thessalonians by God, by way of the gospel Paul shared with them.
Such love has been “taught by God” (a term—θεοδίδακτοι—found only here in the New Testament).
Taught by God
The love shared between the Thessalonians has been “taught by God,” specifically in the gospel itself, which is, above all, the demonstration of the true nature of God’s self-giving love.
God’s love toward us teaches us to love others.
We’ve been reconciled to God through Jesus’ death on the cross, and as such we have been drawn into a relationship with our brothers and sisters in Christ.
By the gospel, we have been taught what love is in the truest sense.
And the gospel motivates us to love one another.
The gospel is the power and the motivation to love.
Christians must show love to one another; love is, according to the Bible, an indispensable consequence of having received the gospel.
Paul reminds his readers of this central imperative—Christians being people who love—in every single one of the letters he wrote.
To the Romans (Rom.
13:9-10), both letters to the Corinthians (1 Cor 13; 2 Cor 2:8), to the Galatians (Gal 5:22), to the Ephesians (Eph.
5:2), to the Philippians (Phil 2:2), to the Colossians (Col 3:14), both letters to the Thessalonians (1 Thess 4, 2 Thess 3:5), both letters to Timothy (1 Tim 1:5, 2 Tim 2:22), to Titus (Tit 2:2), and Philemon (Phlm 9).
In fact, after loving God, the second most important commandment is to love one another and our neighbors.
This is foundational to the people of God.
This one another in verse 9 signals the kind of love Christians are to have.
It’s philadelphia, that is, brotherly love, love for our brothers and sisters in Christ.
It’s a family love.
In the same way you love your own family, you are to love your family in Christ.
In fact, from what the Bible tells us, our relationships with and love for one another is deeper and stronger than even our own family.
Relationally, I’m closer to you than I am to some people with the last name Case or Lorimor or Thompson or Miller.
My family names don’t compete with the name of Jesus.
Our love for our fellow Christians is second only to our love for God.
Paul says to the Thessalonians, “We don’t need to write to you,” about the topic of love.
They were doing a good job of loving one another.
In fact, they are renown for their love.
They love all of God’s family throughout Macedonia.
[MAP]
Their love went beyond their city.
It extended out from them.
It moved beyond the walls of their fellowship to their brothers and sisters who were gathered elsewhere.
The new church in Philippi, the new church in Berea, and whatever other Christians there were along the way were recipients of the Thessalonians’ love.
They will know we are Christians by our love, by our love, they will know we are Christians by our love.
We are called to love Christ’s Church, not just our local gathering.
We love our brothers and sisters locally and our brothers and sisters around the world.
We have family—brothers and sisters in Christ—in Haiti, Mexico, several African countries (Ghana, Togo, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia), Thailand, Jordan, Japan.
Our church has family in those places, brothers and sisters to whom we have sent missionaries and money, supplies and resources.
We pray for them.
We serve them.
We support them with resources and money, and Lord willing, perhaps we can visit them in person to encourage them and minister to them.
Word of our love and support and prayers for them has reached them.
They love us and we love them.
This is how God designed the church to function.
We’re not an island; we are one small part of the whole.
This brotherly love is a continuous action.
The beginning of verse 10 highlights this:
The verb do is a present, active, indicative.
You DO love all of God’s family.
It’s ongoing.
It’s continuous.
It’s happening and it will continue to happen.
That’s the point.
The love that Christians have for one another is a shadow of the love that God has for us.
His love never fails, it never gives up.
It’s the covenant love that “Never-Stopping, Never Giving Up, Unbreaking, Always and Forever Love.”
Our love toward one another is a picture of that.
We have been God-taught to love in the same way He loves us.
>With the call to love set for us as the foundation, Paul starts one long, run-on sentence.
The second half of verse 10 through verse 12 is one sentence in Greek.
What he says in verses 10-12 spring from the foundational truth of loving one another.
Paul and Silas and Timothy are URGING the Thessalonians (and us) to behave in four certain ways.
They’re urging four ethical responses from the church motivated by love.
This is immensely practical and applicable in our lives today.
Let’s look at each response in turn.
Christians are Urged to Love More and More
The new Christians in Thessalonica were already doing a great job at loving one another and even loving those in the surrounding areas.
What’s needed, however, is more.
More love.
Grounded in the love of God, Christians’ love must continue to grow without limits.
“Growing in love, abounding in love, loving more and more, includes practicing love more consistently, more widely, at greater cost, and through the specific behaviors described in verses 11-12.”
- Jon A. Weatherly
In other words, “keep it up; get better and better at it.”
“Evangelism is a calling, but not the first calling.
Building congregations is a calling, but not the first calling.
A Christian’s first call is to return to the first commandment to love God, to the love of the family of God, and then to love one’s neighbors as oneself.”
- Francis Schaeffer
Our love for our fellow Christians may grow in a number of directions.
It grows in breadth as it reaches out to embrace more and more of our fellow Christians.
Expand your circle.
Invite someone to lunch you’ve never shared a meal with.
Have a new family over to your home.
Find that church member on the fringe and strike up a friendship with them.
Love should reach out.
Love grows in depth as it enters more deeply into the hurts and the joys of others.
If you see someone hurting or depressed, sit with them.
Cry with them.
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