I wonder if you’ve ever seen a wee girl being given a necklace making kit? In the kit, there’s some string, and then a big box of different sizes and shapes and colours and types of beads. Red ones, pink ones, blue ones, green ones, and all sorts of colours and shades. And then the wee girl sits down and picks one of those, and one of those, and one of those, and threads them all onto the string. There’s no pattern, rhyme or reason. They don’t all ‘go’ together; they’ve just been chosen at random. But she loves it, thinks it’s very stylish, and insists on wearing it. Or makes you wear it!
When I sat down to consider this final section of 1 Thessalonians, that was my initial thought. Is this all just random? Does it all fit together? It seems to be all over the place. Lots of random ideas jotted down in quick succession. It’s a bit like the student sitting an exam, running out of time, so rather than writing structured, well-argued paragraphs, they just jot down some bullet points, some notes to try to show their learning for a few extra marks.
It’s like when I used to write to penpals all over Europe. The special airmail paper was precious, and seemed expensive, so if you were coming near the end of a page you thought - will I cram everything in here and finish up? Is this what Paul was doing here? He’s coming to the end of the scroll and wanted to get in all his ideas? Is this a string of random beads, each interesting, but not really connected?
If you have a look in the pew Bible (p. 1188), you’ll see what the Bible publisher makes of this section. You see, often, Bible publishers add in headings in italics. They’re not part of the original text, they’re just there to hopefully help the reader understand what’s going on. Well here, the heading before verse 12 isn’t terribly helpful - final instructions. Or even worse, another version I looked at said ‘various exhortations.’
So what do we do with these verses? What is it all about? How do we make sense of them? There’s so much here that we could approach them in a couple of ways.
First of all, there’s the approach that says: ‘Wow!’ Look at this verse, and this verse, and this verse, and we could go for a really long and indepth sermon, bringing out the meaning and application of each individual verse. Now, even five minutes on each verse would take just 85 minutes, so I hope you’re sitting comfortably... No, don’t worry, we’ll not go down that way today.
Another possible approach is for us to look along the string of beads, and just pick one that we like, or that stands out for us, and forget about all the rest. And sometimes, that approach can be really helpful - and God is speaking to us about something in particular. I don’t expect you to remember everything I ever say in every sermon - so if there’s one nugget that speaks to you, hold on to it and focus on that!
But the more I thought about the passage, the more I realised that it’s not entirely random. God’s word is given to us for a purpose, and God worked through Paul to write down what God intended us to hear. This isn’t like twitter or a facebook feed, with lots of random ideas coming from lots of different places. This is a letter, written for a specific purpose. And these verses fit into the bigger picture.
You may remember that, ever since 3:13, Paul has been showing the Thessalonian Christians what it looks like to be sanctified, to be set apart, to become holy. He went indepth on sexual purity (saying no to lust and yes to love); he fixed our minds on the hope we have in Jesus to transform our grief and help us wait for the day of the Lord. And this last section shows us how we live out our becoming more holy in everyday life. Each of these verses is driving towards the destination of the prayer and promise of verses 23&24.
Here’s the prayer: ‘May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.’
As Paul directs our thoughts towards the coming of Jesus (as he’s done at the end of every chapter in the letter); that coming of Jesus that we especially look forward to in this season of Advent; we might think that it’ll be impossible for us to stand before him... how? Blameless. Maybe your heart accuses you. The devil accuses you. Is it really possible that we will be able to be blameless, whenever we still seem to prefer sin to righteousness, as this battle continues to war within us?
But we also have the promise. ‘The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.’ We have our part to play in choosing to obey God, but look who will bring it about. The one who called you will do it, because he is faithful.
God gives us the means to become holy in our everyday life - and God will do it. That’s what verses 12-22 are all about. They’re not random beads thrown together, rather it’s a string of pearls, describing the ways God has provided for our being made holy.
In verses 12-13, we see that God has given church leaders. ‘Now we ask you, brothers, to respect those who work hard among you, who are over you in the Lord and who admonish you. Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work. Live in peace with one another.’
Paul asks the church to respect leaders, working hard, overseeing the church, who admonish. Sometimes there are hard things to say, urging earnestly, so that we continue to grow. There is always more to do than time to do it. And we don’t always get it right. I need your patience and love. God gives church leaders to help us progress in holiness.
But alongside church leaders, God also provides every member of the church family. You see, it’s not just leaders who have a ministry. It’s not just people in dog collars who do ministry. It’s all of us. So, everyone, all the brothers, are urged to ‘warn those who are idle, encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient with everyone.’ There’s wisdom in knowing who is who, and what to do with each type of person, but this is every member ministry. And there’s another type of every member ministry in verse 15 as well:
‘Make sure that no one pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else.’ We don’t pay back wrongs, but instead, we’re called to be kind - not just to each other, but also to everyone else. Are we known as kind people? Here in church, but also in our workplace and our homes?
Verses 16-18 shows us how to react to the events of life, in the way that God wants us to react. ‘Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you.’ This isn’t just telling us to think positive thoughts and everything will be ok. This is urging us to tune our thoughts towards heaven - rejoicing in God’s love and care for us, and in what he has done for us. Bringing every moment of our day to him - all our concerns, all our thoughts, and giving thanks to God, recognising that he is the good giver.
But did you see what Paul doesn’t say? he doesn’t say give thanks FOR all circumstances. Paul isn’t saying that we’re to thank God for a flat wheel, or a worrying diagnosis. He says give thanks IN all circumstances. When these things happen, are there things we can thank God for? It changes our perspective, it tunes us into what God is doing, as he works every detail for his glory and our good.
And to bring us along the way, God provides us with guides. ‘Do not put out the Spirit’s fire; do not treat prophecies with contempt. Test everything. Hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil.’
The Holy Spirit is at work in our lives - he wants to help us to grow and develop in our Christian life, and to make us more like Jesus. So we shouldn’t quench the Spirit - so don’t pour cold water on what the Spirit is doing and leading you to do. Don’t despise prophecy - God’s word to you, listen carefully, test it, to make sure it’s what God is saying, and hold on to the good. It’s like the wee boy who brought a lollipop into school for the show and tell. The teacher asks him to put it down on the table and share with the class which Bible verse he was thinking about. But he refused to set it down, as he said: ‘hold on to the good.’ He wasn’t going to let go, and neither should we. Hold on to the good, and avoid every kind of evil.
These are the dance moves, the steps to take as we become holy, more and more, as we look to the day of Christ’s coming. Sometimes our steps can falter, sometimes we might step on toes, but together we can learn the steps, we can do this together, as we prepare for the wedding party of the Lamb, and we join the dance.
For the new believers in Thessalonica, just starting out in the Christian life, they must have wondered would they be able to keep the faith, in face of opposition and persecution. Would they make it to the coming of the Lord? Would they really be blameless?
God has called us. God is faithful. He has provided for us in the death and resurrection of his Son - which we celebrate at his table today. And he has provided the way to become holy in everyday life - it’s in the church, as we encourage and strengthen and support one another. And the God who calls us is faithful. He will surely do it.
This sermon was preached in St Matthew's Church, Richhill on Sunday morning 2nd December 2018.
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