Introduction
Paul, Silas and Timothy … now, it
seems at Corinth … have been writing to the new church back in Thessalonica
that they’d had to leave both in a hurry, and way before they felt that church was ready
to be left.
Paul is therefore in a situation where he is unable to teach them God’s ways and establish them in the Scriptures as he would have liked to.
He has to make do and mend for them as best he can so in this letter he’s been reflecting on what the covert mission of Timothy to see how they were had reported back to him by way of encouragement.
He has done this in such away as to secure his relationship building goals with them, and he has been teaching them by referring back to the example the Apostles had been able to set
before they had to leave Thessalonica so prematurely.
But the letter is moving on now to three areas of strengthening in living God’s way that the Thessalonians needed reinforced for them:
- sexual morality
- love and
- hope.
Paul’s introductory prayer summary for His mission to them arises
in 1 Thessalonians 3:11-13
“Now may our God and Father himself
and our Lord Jesus clear the way for us to come to you. 12 May
the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone
else, just as ours does for you. 13 May he strengthen your
hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and
Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones.”
The apostolic team is therefore praying three
things:
·
Paul prays that both God and
Jesus open up a way for them to come to the Thessalonians.
·
Paul prays for their love
(which he’s already praised) to ‘abound more and more’
·
Paul prays that their love would abound SO THAT (εἰς τὸ) they be holy in the presence of God when Christ comes
God is love and God is holy so
Christian character (increasingly) reflects those characteristics of God.
So in 1 Thessalonians 3:11-13 the apostolic team pray for a return
to Thessalonica, and for their agenda to see increasing love and holiness built
in the congregation on the good foundation that has already been laid … which
is important in the light of Christ’s imminent return (which is the third issue and which gets addressed at the end of this chapter).
Developing those three things in increasing measure … holiness,
love and hope in Christ’s return … will dominate chapter four, as Paul & co
spell out what those three things actually look like, as you live for the Lord in a place like Thessalonica.
1)
Paul’s objectives for His mission to them, vv. 1-2
Paul & co see the Christian life here not
as arrival but as journey.
The first thing he’s looking for in
them is PROGRESS.
a)
Progress
“Finally then, brothers and sisters,[a]
we ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that
as you received instruction from us about how you must
live and
please God
(as you are in fact living)
that you do so more and more.”
This verse uses the word δει to
indicate compulsion and applies that compulsion to two verbs:
i)
‘walk/ conduct oneself’ (a verb found
EVERYWHERE in Paul’s letters) which corresponds to the Hebrew hālak.
The Hebrew
word hallakah was the name given by the rabbis to ethical instruction - the practical living out of God's Word.
The second
verb they must ‘do’ is to please God
ii)
‘please God’
To ‘live’ and
‘please God’ are not two separate things here … it’s what’s known as hendiadys:
the expression of a single idea with two similar words joined by a conjunction (here, the word 'and').
It’s all
about the way of life involved in following Jesus.
Please
notice, this too: there is a powerful ‘urging’ that goes on here, and a strong emphasis
here PROGRESSING in living the faith.
Perfection
awaits them in Glory. The Thessalonians are called on here to ensure progress not
perfection in these matters, and that is very important.
Paul's goal is to end this chapter by bringing the Thessalonians powerfully to hope, not to despair!
Paul writes
to the young minister Timothy:
“Do
not neglect your gift, which was given you through prophecy when the body of
elders laid their hands on you.
Be
diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may
see your progress.”
1
Timothy 4:14-15
It is PROGRESS not ATTAINMENT that
is in Paul’s view the point to be emphasised.
But ‘progress’ is not the same as
what’s often called ‘progressive’!
b)
Progress in
what they’d received
2 For you know
what commands we gave you through the Lord Jesus.
They are to progress, but they are to progress in what they have RECEIVED.
This is a
reminder, not a new direction.
They are NOT
being invited to go ‘free style’!
The original
instruction given to the new believers seems to have been not simply aimed at
giving an insight into the essential doctrines of the Christian faith, but also
specific teaching on ‘how to live in order to please God’.
There are Greek words in use here that reflect the oral tradition of the rabbis ... their oral tradition about how to live ... being handed down from one generation to another that was intended to keep them walking in a straight line along the way.
So it wasn’t a
new teaching that was required, but aligning progressively closely their daily
lives with what they’d been taught and already knew.
So (for example) the Shema (Deuteronomy 6) which lies at the heart of the Old Covenant enshrines this principle of the holy saturating everyday life:
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord is one!
5 You must love the Lord your God with your
whole mind, your whole being, and all your strength.
6 These words I am commanding you today
must be kept in mind, 7 and
you
must teach them to your children and
speak
of them as you sit in your house,
as
you walk along the road,
as
you lie down, and
as
you get up.
8 You should tie them as a reminder on your
forearm
and
fasten them as symbols on your forehead.
9 Inscribe them on the doorframes of your
houses and gates.”
It’s notable
too that Paul doesn’t seem to have distinguished between what we call
‘doctrine’ and ‘ethics’.
Nijay Gupta: “For Paul, the free gift of new life in Messiah Jesus
automatically entails a new set of personal and social standards under the
Lordship of Jesus.”
And the
motivation is also clearly stated.
It’s simple.
Why we do
these things is stated in v. 3
"3 For this is God’s will:"
An awful lot
gets said in contemporary Christianity about what are simply OUR wants.
Paul is
calling for costly kinds of ethical behaviour, and the sufficient reason for it
is that this is what God wants.
It’s is all
about what GOD wants
So then, Paul has
established the principle of what he’s calling for and is now going to move on
to some clear specifics as to what progressing in living the life God wants
looks like.
2)
The specific behaviour that this objective entails, vv. 3-6
Paul starts out
in verses 3-5 by addressing the Thessalonians personal conduct goals.
If you’ve been a
church-goer for a reasonable time, you might be tempted to think he’s not
asking a lot, but in Thessalonica at the time and actually, if you get out and about in Llandeilo/ Llandovery
today … believe me this is very, very real!
a) Personal – how you conduct yourself,
vv. 3-5
“For this is
God’s will: that you become holy, that you keep away from sexual
immorality, 4 that each of you know how to possess his own
body in holiness and honor, 5 not in lustful passion
like the Gentiles who do not know God.”
If you don’t
see it then you’ll have to take my word for it, but believe me THIS is the
ground where our spiritual battles are fought for the souls of newly converted people
here today.
Paul is putting the ball in the ball-park where the real battle of the day is being fought … he’s doing it first positively then putting it negatively, because unless you do that the point may be missed ... and there's a lesson THERE to be learned by us too.
i)
Positively
·
that you become holy
The Greek says: Τοῦτο γάρ ἐστιν θέλημα τοῦ θεοῦ, ὁ ἁγιασμὸς ὑμῶν ‘for this is God’s will: your sanctification’
God wants His people ‘consecrated’ to Him.
To be ‘consecrated’ is to be dedicated to holiness …
dedicated to growing purity and personal dedication to God.
Paul will spell out next that it has strong negative
components … there’s stuff that in increasing measure you don’t do … but the
language of holiness in its’ Jewish background has an important positive
value.
Gupta: “Holiness involves being close to God and being
available and dedicated to serving God wholeheartedly.”
And (bear this in mind) that DOES mean staying away from specific things.
Now, first century gentile culture put men in a position where
they had quite a lot of freedom to indulge their physical passions … and
because of the pre-occupation of their culture with sex, the early Christians
had to give new believers direct and repeated teaching about self-control and
purity.
So here comes a specific of God's will, say the apostles:
·
that you keep away from sexual
immorality
ἀπέχεσθαι ὑμᾶς ἀπὸ τῆς πορνείας
Not so much 'abstain', but DISTANCE yourselves from
‘porneia’.
Our permissive age has seen a number of attempts to revise what is meant by this word here ‘porneia’.
Shogren's commentary reviews the literature that describes the meaning of this word very helpfully and in some detail and then concludes that:
It was in Jewish and Christian use that the word came to mean ‘any sexual activity outside heterosexual marriage’ (Gary Shogren).
Noticeably, this passage in 1 Thessalonians 4 closely reflects the language of
the letter from the Council at Jerusalem which was carried by Paul and Barnabas
to the Gentile churches with basic halakkah teaching that would maintain
the unity of the multi-ethnic Church of Christ:
“it seemed best to the Holy Spirit and to us not to place any greater burden on you than these necessary rules: 29 that you abstain from meat that has been sacrificed to idols and from blood and from what has been strangle and from sexual immorality ...
(The word used there is 'porneia').
If you keep yourselves from
doing these things you will do well. Farewell.”
Acts 15:28-29
So the message was: 'eep kosher when it comes to dinner so we can
all meet around the Lord’s Supper, and keep the temple of the Holy Spirit in
you from being tainted with immorality.'
Now please notice that when it comes to sexual immorality, Paul
isn’t simply saying: ‘don’t do it’
He is explicitly saying get yourself as far away from it as
possible.
F.F. Bruce points out that there
was no great weight of public opinion in Graeco-Roman culture to discourage πορνεία, although someone who sated himself with too much of it
might be satirized to the same extent as a bit of a glutton or a drunkard.
And that really seems to be the way things are going in our society too, doesn't it?
The general attitude is summed up in Demosthenes’s
oration ‘Against Neaera’:
“We keep mistresses for pleasure,
Concubines for our day-to-day bodily needs,
But we have wives to produce legitimate children
And serve as trustworthy guardians of our homes.”
Do you see their attitude?
Their society was rife with these attitudes and practices
with ‘everyone’ calling what is wrong ‘right’.
The apostolic team are saying: ‘make like Joseph with
Potiphar’s wife!
It’s far too easy as a believer to think you can line up as
close as possible to the boundary of sin, but just about keeping on the ‘holy’
side of the line.
That isn’t what the Bible says at all, and it certainly isn’t
the intent of this passage.
So, this is God's will, your sanctification, but then what that means in their context is specified further:
· "that each of you know how to possess his own body in
holiness and
honor"
The issue here is, actually, self-discipline - or we might
say ‘self-control’.
The word translated ‘body’ there is actually σκεῦος which means ‘vessel’.
Others have suggested this could mean
the man’s wife, his genitalia or his own body.
Most likely the Thessalonians knew EXACTLY what Paul meant,
because this chapter makes it clear they had heard about this from Paul in the past.
However, although we never had that privilege, we know Paul
teaches the church at Corinth (which is where Paul is writing from) that a
Christian’s body is the Temple container of the Holy Spirit, and he applies
that doctrine there to the requirement not to defile God’s Temple by using it
for immorality.
So the best understanding seems to be that “all Christians, men and women, should know how to maintain control of their bodies in a way that pleases God in sexual holiness.” (Gary Shogren)
Having stated it positively the apostles move on to express that same truth negatively, for the sake of clarity.
ii. Negatively
·
5 "not in lustful passion
o
like the Gentiles
o
who do not know God. "
b)
Interpersonal – how you relate to other people, v. 6
"In this matter no one should
violate the rights of his brother or
take advantage of him,
because the Lord is the avenger in all these cases,
as we also told you earlier and
warned you solemnly."
However much you like to hide things away, there is no secret sin with God.
He sees, and He will deal with the matter.
This is a development of the injunction
to flee from porneia, with a specific application relevant to a society like
Thessalonica.
For Gentiles sex with slaves was the
norm … hardly consensual behaviour.
The rabbis looked down on the
institution of slavery because it led to the sexual abuse of slaves.
So R. Hillel taught
‘Lots of slave girls, lots of lust’.
Rich Romans
could please themselves. It was a VERY unequal society, and any person of lower
status in society – regardless of orientation – was seen as fair game for the powerful
people in the land.
Powerful big church pastors and Christian leaders as well as politicians have come to grief like this because they thought the same was true of them.
Christians are to stand well apart
from all of that, and Paul taught this by word of mouth, face to face and on
the written page … because this was the will and pleasure of God.
c) Summary: this conduct they are to grow in all stems from God, vv.
7-8
“7 For God did
not call us to impurity but in holiness.
8 Consequently the one who
rejects this is not rejecting human authority
but God,
who gives his Holy Spirit to you.”
God has come
in this time of fulfilment of prophecy ahead of the great Day of the Lord.
He is now pouring out His HOLY
Spirit into human containers, and He calls those not to impurity but to be growing
in His likeness … in holiness.
And it is God Who calls them to be doing this progressing in holiness very much against the grain, against the flow of the tide flowing fast through Thessalonica’s moral sewers ... and flowing equally fast, you may think, through ours.
And He calls us along with them to living this the self-same way.
There really ISN’T a lot more to
say.
Conclusion
So, the apostolic crew have been trying to
reinforce the fledgling church at Thessalonica for life in their secular
society.
They have been reinforcing them to grow in Christian
love because the love of God shed abroad in their hearts by the Holy Spirit (which shows up as love both for God and for mankind) will lead them into increasing
holiness of life.
And in fact THAT is the loving thing to do.
But the Christian way is not to go around
crooning ‘peace and love, man’ in the vague hope that these things will result automatically.
Neither is it to say that if you just
persuade new believers to go to (the right) church and only mix with the right
people we won’t need to address these issues out loud … it just doesn’t work
like that and the newspapers get copy on a regular basis to prove it, as one
ecclesiastical scandal breaks after another.
The apostolic team is therefore dealing
directly in the Biblical manner, addressing particularly the issues of indiscriminate
love not indiscriminate sex, sanctification not libertarianism and hope in the place
of despair.
Today we’ve been seeing what they have to
say about sexual purity and they’ve been saying that the Christian love
shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit will lead us to flee from porneia …
sexual immorality, defined as any sexual activity that takes place outside heterosexual marriage.
In particular they pick up on three faces
of porneia which we also need to address given the challenges we are going to face as God’s people in our culture, as legislating not only the toleration but also
the requirement to make positive affirmation of the practice of what Scripture calls porneia is now
on the manifesto of most of the leading political parties.
That is a step further than anything that
ever existed in the Graeco-Roman world, and something to be praying and
preparing for.
This porneia passage in 1 Thessalonians
addresses the issues of
·
sex outside heterosexual marriage
(which is what porneia actually is), then it addresses
·
homosexual practice which was common
and that nobody batted an eyelid about and it addresses explicitly the issue of
·
sexual abuse.
All three were current and common in Thessalonica’s society and culture … no-one ever thought to object.
It was just accepted and was part of the Thessalonian and Graeco-Roman mindset.
But before
we adopt an attitude of cultural superiority let’s just be clear that these features are
clearly current in our society too and part of the air that WE have to breathe.
In fact plans are being pursued in OUR
culture now to enforce approval of one of those manifestations of porneia by
law in Scotland (with their so-called 'hate speech' legislation), in Wales (where the leader of one of the larger parties lives
openly with his male partner and the child they have adopted and where even national
rugby heroes promote their gay lifestyles on TV) and more quietly but no less
actually in England too.
Nothing of THAT sort on that scale seems to existed in
Thessalonica.
Standing out there in the way this passage
teaches Christians to was just considered odd in Thessalonica and led to a measure of social and cultural ostracism. But here there's a rush to
outlaw what’s called ‘hate speech’ seeking to render illegal the Christian way which
our passage says is born of Christian love.
Now before you all sign up to Christian
campaigning and start writing letters, let’s be totally clear about this: this
passage is not about fighting legislation.
It is about the basic first century
teaching that Christians should increasingly in their lives as they live on
Christ’s Way be fleeing from all of these things.
Please notice that NONE of what the
team write here is about social agitation or campaigning to change the society
in which the THESSALONIANS live, because THEY are followers of Christ.
The Church is not a political campaigning
organisation, but must be absolutely focused on holding out God's way of salvation through preaching the Gospel to unsaved people ... as the apostolic team had been at Thessalonica.
And what’s being done here is to reinforce the
teaching given at the point of commitment to Christ that the Christian Way is
not this world’s way and that the love of God shed abroad in a Christian’s
heart leads and strengthens His people to live very differently in this world …
not out of prejudice (because we are all by nature sinners) but out of love for our God Who has loved us so much, and love for the people He has under His care.
Porneia is not a friend or lasting comfort
to ANY body, and is NEVER ;'the loving thing to do'.
And what the Apostolic team is therefore urging
strongly these new believers to do is to stand out from their city and their
culture in this way: to do a Joseph in the presence of Potiphar’s wife and to FLEE
from sexual immorality in all its’ forms, whether heterosexual sex outside
marriage, homosexual sexual practice or abusing someone else for your pleasure
against their will … simply because you want to and you can.
It’s all about the distinctiveness of authentic
life on the Christian Way, and it’s about increasing in the authenticity with
which – in an existence where we are not yet perfect – we live out life
following Christ along His Way.
It’s about dealing with the things within
US that also permeate our culture and society which form no part of the authentic life
of the Christian as they live their life under the Cross.
Let’s also be clear finally about one more
thing.
Paul is writing this letter, we believe,
from the city of Corinth.
In writing to the Corinthian church later
Paul says this:
“Do not be deceived: neither
·
the sexually immoral (that’s the word porneia) nor
·
idolaters nor
·
adulterers nor
·
men who have sex with men nor
·
thieves nor
·
the greedy nor
·
drunkards nor
·
slanderers nor
·
swindlers
will inherit the kingdom of God.”
But the important bit is the bit that comes next.
“11 And that is
what some of you were.
But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified
in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”
1 Corinthians
6:9-11
The Christian way is a way that is not one that is permissive of sin, but one that holds
out fresh daily hope to the sinner, and that’s what the early church and the church across
the ages has always and everywhere been comprised of … sinners learning to
live more like Jesus by His daily grace – the daily grace that we ALL stand in
need of.
No. None of this is about mere ‘gay
conversion therapy’ (which some might want to think they see in this sermon and which many are also
actively seeking to outlaw right now).
It is about deep soul cleansing by the sacrifice
of Christ, justification in the eyes of the Holy God in the Name of Jesus
Christ and by the work of the indwelling Holy Spirit.
THAT is the liberating work of God in the
Gospel, and it urges and motivates us onwards … not pinning us down with
despair at our failures, but lifting our heads to travel on in the Spirit
towards the hope He is leading us to in Glory.
No comments:
Post a Comment