1 Thessalonians 4:9-12
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English Standard Version Chapter 4
9 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, 10 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, 11 and to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, 12 so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one.
As we’ve discovered together, the New Testament letter to the Thessalonians is written by the apostle Paul in response to Timothy’s positive report about the Thessalonians.
We also discovered that Timothy’s report is like a release valve to Paul and Silas’ distress for the Thessalonians.
The first section of the letter, chapters 1 to 3, tell us what made Timothy’s report so positive.
There we discover their work of faith, their labor of love, and their steadfastness of hope in the Lord Jesus Christ remained firm, it was not floundering.
Moreover, they had become imitators of Paul and the Lord so much so that they had become examples for others to imitate.
What is more, they had been sharing the gospel with those in their city and all throughout Macedonia and Achaia.
They had turned from their idols and had been waiting with patience for the return of the Lord Jesus.
They had accepted the word of God not as the words of men but as it really is, the word of God.
What a report, right!
Naturally, we could conclude that the Thessalonians were not lacking anything in their faith.
However, Paul’s prayer for the Thessalonian in 3:11-13 gives us a clue that the Thessalonians still had room to develop in their faith. This prayer serves as the hinge and transition to the second section of Paul’s letter, chapters 4 and 5.
Here, Paul will addresses what is still lacking. There were 4 main issues: their call to holiness, to walk honorably before the outside world, to encourage one another about loved ones who had died in the Lord, and to encourage one another that God had destined them as Christians to obtain salvation.
Together we will explore why each of these are so important for our lives as Christians today.
So, see you Sunday as we dive into the second section of Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians.
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verse 9-10a
Now about brotherly love you have no need to write to you for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another; and that is what your are doing to all the brothers who are in everyplace in Macedonian.
There are a few things that should grab our attention. First, Paul says the Thessalonians did not need Paul to write to them about their love for one another. That is quite remarkable.
Jesus himself said a marked attribute of being his disciples would the quality of love shown one believer to another. But what kind and quality of love does Jesus mean? It is of the purest kind and quality. it is the love that puts the needs and interests of each other before the needs and interests of yourself, even though the each other may not deserve it. it is the love that both humbles and empties oneself to take on the form of servant for the sake of another, even though that another may have done nothing to receive it; it is the love that willingly lays down your live if that means another lives. This of course is the kind and quality of love Jesus Christ; though we do and did nothing to deserve it or earn it God love was demonstrated for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us. Christ Jesus himself, gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age. This demonstration was rooted in the will of God the Father. That is why we give our praise to him. This quality of love is what Jesus meant when he said in John 13:34
34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. his is God quality of love, not just some arbitrary catch all kind of love. will tell the world that you are disciples of Jesus.
Here we have not just some arbitrary and subjective love as though we are free to define it. NO. It is Christ Jesus’ love and therefore God’s love that we as Christians are commanded to love one another. What make Jesus command here new is that his disciples had never and would never witness such a pure and self-giving love for sinners like them. Jesus told them, “with the same quality of love that I have loved you, you are to bend out to one another. In other words, this love I have for and show you is not to terminate on you; it is to be poured out from you to one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” Therefore our love for one another, believer to believer, becomes the greatest apologetic to our faith in Christ. It is a winsome love.
In John 13 the disciples of Jesus had been taught by Jesus to love one another like this.
Now, take a look at the Thessalonians in verse 9. Now, about brother love you have no need to write to you… now catch this… for you have been taught by God to love one another. Do miss that. While Paul, Silas and Timothy imitated this love to them back in chapter 1, Paul points them to the truth: the teaching does not have Paul as its origin. It could not because Paul was a born sinner like everyone else. Through Paul, Silas and Timothy’s love for one another God himself was simultaneously teaching the Thessalonians to love one another with his kind of love.
Just how they had demonstrated their brotherly love is not stated, but Christian love always finds ways of expressing itself.
Paul says, Thessalonians that is what your are doing to all the brothers everywhere across Macedonia. Good job! Praise God! Macedonia was not a small region.
Let me attempt to paint you a picture; Suppose you surveyed a straight line west from Duluth to Fargo.... then straight north from Fargo to the Canadian border.... then east along the MN northern border.... across the northern part of the boundary waters and to Grand Portage.... then south along the shore back to Duluth. This gives you a picture of the size of Macedonia. Now... can you imagine every believer loving all other believer everywhere throughout this region. Silver Bay, Grand Rapids, Warroad, Roseau, the Range?
Sadly, that is not the case is it. Too often more fighting and bickering and gossiping and division that their is love for one to another. And thus we blatantly disobey Jesus command to us and in so doing destroy our credibility as disciples of Jesus to the rest of the region. The easiest thing for us to do is be upset with someone. You don’t have to work at that. What’s that about?
Remarkable then that the quality of love with which the Thessalonians are loving one another his is God quality of love, not just some arbitrary catch all kind of love. will tell the world that you are disciples of Jesus.
It should be of no surprise then that in the next sentence we read Paul’s words “but we urge you, brothers, to do this more and more.” That Paul urges them tell us that loving one another will be easier some days than others. Even we who are in the Lord are not easy to love every day. Your spouse is easier to love than other days. Your roommate too. Your kids too. It is in the less easy times that we learn to abound more and more in our love for one another. That is why we need to be regularly urged on to love another more and more.
Let’s keep going.... take a look with me at verse 11 and 12
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.
Three more urgings are presented with two main purposes:
Urging #1: aspire to live quietly.
Urging #2: mind our own affairs.
Urging #3: work with your hands.
Two reasons for these urgings
So that you may walk properly before outsiders.
so that you are dependent on no one.
The point is this: while the Thessalonians love for one another was a great witness to the gospel before all unbelievers everywhere in Macedonian, their everyday ordinary lives must also be a great witness.
To aspire to something is to make it your aim a ambition: live quietly. be at rest, calm thyself. sooth.
The best way to remain calm is to go about one’s daily tasks. Evidently some Thessalonians, caught up in the excitement of Christ’s imminent return, had stopped working and were now making a nuisance of themselves. This was a violation of brotherly love.
Mind your own affairs. This command is not in opposition to loving one another. It means make your are managing your own live well, everything pertaining to your own life. must be given proper attention so that your life before the unbeliever is seen as put in order and controlled. How we well we manage our own lives, from our bodies to our bills contributes to walking well before outsiders.
work with your hands. Live an industrious life
This is how you get ready for the return of Christ and influence non-christians to come to faith.
Paul’s overarching concern in giving these instructions is that the Christian faith not be brought into disrepute: “so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody” (4:12). Paul wants his readers to live a life that wins the respect of “outsiders.” “Outsiders” are non-members, people not in the church. Live in such a way that you cannot rightly be accused of wrong.