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Message
1 Thessalonians 1:2-10
Are We Worth Imitating?
The broad perspective we are working with as we make our way through 1 Thessalonians is to keep answering the question
How can we be strong and ready to stand out in a world that is pressuring us to just fit in?
Let’s keep that question in mind as we read 1 Thessalonians 1:2-10
Paul clearly has a high regard for the ministry impact and example of the church of the Thessalonians. The thanksgiving is based on a litany of memories.
We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labour prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Thessalonians 1:3
Did you pick-up the triad?
Faith … Love … Hope.
You will often find Paul using all these words in the same verse or verses.
Here Paul uses them to describe the Christians life of the Thessalonians.
work produced by faith
Always in his letters Paul is very cautious. He never wants people to think that somehow the good work we do – even the good religious and Christian work we do – is able to make us saved, or more saved, or more worthy.
But Paul is also very clear – when you have faith it produces a work.
There are spiritual outcomes. There are actions that can be seen. There is behaviour which is present. Faith is visual and has an impact.
By their fruit you will know them (Matthew 7:16).
The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23).
Paul remembers their work produced by faith – and he is thankful.
labour prompted by love
In the New Testament there is a distinction between work and labour.
I can work, and actually not be that uncomfortable.
When my work causes me to be sore, or have suffered, or have been through a lot of pain, then I have laboured.
A work is our Christian actions in response to the grace of Jesus.
Labour is also work, but labour has the added element of discomfort or hardship.
The reason for pushing to such hardship is due to the launching point.
It is labour which has been produced by love.
Agape Love.
The Jesus-who-gave-His-life-as-a-sacrifice-for-our-sin love.
God-so-loved-the-world love.
The Thessalonians labour because of the foundation of Christ’s sacrifice.
endurance inspired by hope
Endurance is the action of moving forward no matter what the obstacles, or pressure to stop, or the persecution which results. Endurance takes stick-ability, pushing beyond, dong all that is necessary and more. Spiritual endurance results as we follow Jesus who “for the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame (Hebrews 12:2)”.
Later in the letter Paul will say “When we were with you, we kept telling you that we – “we” here being the missionaries as well as the new converts – would be persecuted”. (1 Thessalonians 3:3)
In the most difficult of spiritual circumstances – that being persecution – the Thessalonians were still inspired by the hope that Christ gave. Knowing that nothing will separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord – not even persecution that could lead to death.
Paul remembers this and is thankful.
As Paul remembers we are given a full picture of the reason the Thessalonians are strong and ready.
Lots of people do works.
Generously giving of time, resources, skills.
It is even possible to take a person from the kingdom community, and a not-yet-believer and compare the works of the two people – and actually the comparison would be the same. You all know the sort of people I am talking about. They are the ones about whom we say, “They would be great Christians”.
Lots of people do labour.
The divers who last year saved those boys out of the cave in Thailand.
I don’t know what all of their spiritual lives are like but most Thai people are Buddhist.
No one would question that the rescue was a labour with hardship and the discomfort.
Lots of people have endurance.
On April 26, 2003, Aron Ralston was canyoneering alone when a rock come down and trapped his arm so he couldn’t move. He was stuck for five days
127 hours
To get out he cut off his own arm.
Moving forward no matter what the obstacle – that is endurance.
Works. Labour. Endurance. They are commendable. Indeed they will make you stand out.
But they are not the full picture.
Standing out in this world is not merely about matching the achievements of the world.
Spiritual significant works only result when there is faith.
Spiritual significant labour only results when motivated by agape-love.
Spiritual significant endurance only results when our hope is in Jesus.
Nobody will make an eternal lasting difference unless they are standing on the right foundation.
What word does Paul use to describe this foundation?
For we know, brothers and sisters loved by God, that he has chosen you.
1 Thessalonians 1:4
The word underlined, whenever it is used in the New Testament, refers to a divine decision by God to bring people into his kingdom. This is the “election” word.
It is a word that has become so theologically loaded – and misunderstood – that all too easily we can lose sight of what the New Testament writers are doing. Let’s put the concept into a wider context.
In Genesis 12 the Lord is speaking to Abraham
I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you;
I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.
Genesis 12:2
Who initiates the covenant? Who starts the process?
I … the Lord.
In Deuteronomy 7 Moses is reminding the people how their relationship with God works.
6 For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession. 7 The Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. 8 But it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to your ancestors
Deuteronomy 7:6-8
Who chooses?
The Lord.
Back to Paul, this time in Ephesians.
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. 4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— 6 to the praise of his glorious grace.
Ephesians 1:3-6
Chosen.
An act initiated by God from before the creation of the world motivated by the love of God.
It is how God has interacting with his people from Abraham onwards.
We could even say – even before Abraham.
Adam and Eve are hiding – dismally pathetically trying to hide – from God. They know they have sinned. They don’t know where to go.
But the Lord – Yahweh the I am – the Lord God called “Where are you”
God initiates.
God comes forward.
God acts.
Because we won’t.
That is how it has always been between us and God.
When the New Testament talks about being chosen it is a reminder that God has initiated the process to give us a place in his kingdom.
Not because we deserved it.
Not because we earned it.
Not because we are somehow worthy or better … or any other reason.
It is an act that flows out of the love of God – always.
That is the foundation which Paul is thankful about in the lives of the Thessalonians.
A foundation came in connection with the Gospel being preached.
… not just in Word.
… but being preached in such a way that it brings deep conviction through the Holy Spirit who “is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance” that we are “God’s possession”.
If we are going to be a source of thankfulness it is the same place we need to be.
When we are in that place the thankfulness will continue. For in that place the church of the Thessalonians is strong and ready.
As a result of being strong and ready they are getting a reputation.
Notice how Paul describes the reason for that reputation.
5 You know how we lived among you for your sake. 6 You became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you welcomed the message in the midst of severe suffering with the joy given by the Holy Spirit.
1 Thessalonians 1:5-6
Our modern worldview makes it more difficult to accept what is happening here.
We live in a time when people “go their own way”, make “their own destiny”, find yourself, be your own person. If someone suggests that we imitate them – well they are just plain arrogant.
That is not what is happening here.
The call to imitate has a wider Scripture context. Paul in 1 Corinthians says
Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.
1 Corinthians 11:1
Look to me, but beyond me to something greater. A pool of knowledge. A resource. A reason. A legacy.
Imitation.
It is how the whole culture functioned.
Carpenters learnt by standing alongside experienced carpenters. For these experienced carpenters had learnt from the pool of knowledge which had grown over generations. They are passing on knowledge, resources, experience. Through imitation.
It is how people learnt – no matter what area of life. Even the way Jesus taught the disciples – it wasn’t just book learning – it was imitating. Even there it wasn’t just imitating Jesus. Jesus also had a vast pool of resources to call upon.
Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.” (John 5:19)
Imitation – it is how the culture of the first century worked.
We shouldn’t be dismissive of having a culture of imitation within the church.
But we should always be cautious.
I wrote to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to be first, will not welcome us. So when I come, I will call attention to what he is doing, spreading malicious nonsense about us Dear friend, do not imitate what is evil but what is good.
Demetrius is well spoken of by everyone—and even by the truth itself. We also speak well of him, and you know that our testimony is true.
3 John 9-12
The church, and individuals in the church, should have a reputation.
Part of that means being the church together and imitating the work that is being done through Christ in others.
Imitating the ones who show patience. Imitating the ones who embody peace.
Imitating the ones who we look to and say, “that is what Jesus would do”.
Imitating those who are the aroma of Christ.
Imitate those who are going to bring you to a greater Gospel life.
It calls for discernment – we will not be strong and ready if we imitate the wrong people.
It also calls for humble confession – to recognise that there may be aspects of our lives where … if imitated … we would be a cause of weakness and lack of readiness.
And that is where this passage really hits home.
When we are committed to the kingdom
– having understood the eternal hope God has given us through Christ as the purposes of God work themselves out –
when that happens we will all leave an impression.
You became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia.
1 Thessalonians 1:7
There was no internet or twitter. The fastest transport were horses and ships.
Yet people knew. Their reputation spread.
The church of the Thessalonians had the foundation, they were discerning in their imitation, and they became a “model” –
This word … this is the key to the application today.
Works. Labour. Endurance.
These are things that impress.
Work produced by Faith. Labour prompted by Love. Endurance inspired by Hope.
These are the things that make a searching world sit-up and take notice.
When Paul goes to other location they themselves … others … gave a report about the Thessalonians.
What do people saying about NEC? The sort of church we are?
What are others saying about each one of us? The sort of individuals we are?
These are good question to ponder on, and pray about, and keep bringing to the Lord as we each discern
How strong and ready we are to be able to stand out in a world that is pressuring us to just fit in.
Prayer
