1 Thessalonians 5
Now, brothers and sisters, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, “Peace and safety,” destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. But you, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief. You are all children of the light and children of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be awake and sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet. For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him. Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.
Now we ask you, brothers and sisters, to acknowledge those who work hard among you, who care for you in the Lord and who admonish you. Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work. Live in peace with each other. And we urge you, brothers and sisters, warn those who are idle and disruptive, encourage the disheartened, help the weak, be patient with everyone. Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always strive to do what is good for each other and for everyone else.
Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. Do not quench the Spirit. Do not treat prophecies with contempt but test them all; hold on to what is good, reject every kind of evil. May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it. Brothers and sisters, pray for us. Greet all God’s people with a holy kiss. I charge you before the Lord to have this letter read to all the brothers and sisters. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
This morning we are continuing our series looking at some of the “one another” sayings from scripture. I hinted at this last week when I chose 'All Are Welcome' as our final hymn, but I think it is worth saying clearly that while these verses are directed at church communities, I don't think that means they are meant to make us insular. Many of the verses we're going to be looking at come from Paul's letters, and as much as he was an enthusiastic church planter he was also a zealous missionary. He wanted to establish communities of mutual care, but he also wanted more people to join them. And of course Jesus pushed at every boundary and welcomed every outsider, so I find it impossible to believe that he would tell his followers to love only one another. Focusing on how we treat one another is not about setting walls around ourselves, but about creating community that others want to be a part of and modelling community for the rest of society. We may be thinking most closely about how we relate to one another here, but all of these instructions must apply to how we relate to others elsewhere too.
Last week we heard the call to “accept one another” as Christ has accepted us, and as we unpacked the verses around it, we discovered that this means acting for the good of one another in loving relationship with them. This week we have heard that we should “encourage one another”, and while those three words are a great message all on their own, I wanted us to hear the whole chapter to once again set the verse in some context, and I will get us going with a little extra background.
The majority of the letters of the New Testament are attributed to Paul, but scholars are now divided on how accurate all of those attributions are. 1 Thessalonians is however undisputed as having been written by Paul, and is dated as the oldest of the letters collected in the New Testament, so it offers the earliest insight we have into a Christian community. Paul himself spent time in Thessalonica, and praises the Thessalonian Christians for their faith and witness. The letter is largely concerned with how to live in a time of expectancy and hardship - the early church seems to have believed that Christ would return soon, and the church in Thessalonica as elsewhere experienced persecution. There is a suggestion that Paul's readers ought to live quietly and keep to themselves, but there is also encouragement for them to "increase and abound in love for one another and for all", so it seems he wished for them to take care not to draw more persecution to themselves, but not at the expense of failing in their duty of love and witness. What a tightrope to walk!
If the first half of the letter is given to laying out and giving thanks for the experience of the Thessalonian church so far, the second half of the letter contains sage advice for the life of the Thessalonian church in the days to come. It is one of many similar passages throughout Paul’s letters - for example, Romans 12: "Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in love. Honour one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal...Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality. Bless those who persecute you...Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud...Do not be conceited. Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone" - and it should perhaps come as no surprise that such instructions were a theme of his writing.
He was addressing new communities which were drawing people together for the first time. Jews and Gentiles, men and women, rich and poor, slave and free - all were relating to one another as they never had before, and Paul was keen that they should do it well, even if he didn't think they would be doing it for very long. Indeed Paul's belief that the end was nigh seemed to give everything more urgency, as if he was saying "now is the time because there is no other time". Two thousand years later the church is no longer a new community and I think it's fair to say that mainstream Christianity has lost its apocalyptic haste, but we still need to relate to one another well and we still need to do it now. Paul's words are as vital for longstanding fellowships as for fledgling communities, not least because churches still bring people together from different parts of society like few other places, and that takes work and intentionality.
I want to pick up now on a couple of specific details from the chapter we heard. First, the references to night time drunkenness were probably intended to be quite pointed, rather than a general disapproval of partying. Dionysus was worshipped as the god of wine in Thessalonica, with night time celebrations which had a reputation for wildness. Paul refers earlier in the letter to the Thessalonians turning from idols to the true God, so this is perhaps a reminder to them not to go back to their previous ways, or to confuse their worship of Christ with their former worship of Dionysus.
It is also worth noting that 'Peace and Security' was essentially the motto of the Roman Empire - it was the Pax Romana or Roman Peace, which had little in common with the Pax Christi or Peace of Christ, being established by force and maintained by oppression. In saying that destruction will come while the people proclaim 'Peace and Security', Paul suggests that the peace and security promised by earthly powers will not save us and will not last, and that while people are focusing on the kingdoms of this world they will miss the kingdom of God.
Against that background, the first half of this morning's passage is clearly a call to be faithful and vigilant. With the benefit of hindsight we can say that the end times were not as imminent as the early church thought, but the end of what now is and the beginning of what shall be will come eventually, and we also know that the world goes through periods of destruction and renewal without ending. It feels like we are in one of those periods now. Between the impact of climate change, an ongoing global pandemic, a widening of the gap between rich and poor, and the failure of elected officials across the world to govern with integrity, it feels like we are at a point where we must change the world or else we will destroy it as we know it. We can't keep going as we are, and it is as important that we are alert to the warning signs as it was for the early church.
In preparing for this sermon, I came across this paraphrase of Paul’s letter, from the Pulpit Fiction podcast, which you may have realised is becoming a favourite of mine. It reads like this: “You all are suffering. It is getting difficult to remain a follower of Christ. Society makes it difficult. Our own expectations have made it difficult. We all thought that Jesus would be back by now. So now what? What should we do? Hold on strong. We’re all going to be okay. God is still with us. Even if God isn’t here like we thought, God is still here. In the meantime, build each other up. Support each other. Be the church together. Don’t worry about how long you have to do it. As long as we do it together, we’ll be fine.” I thought it was particularly striking, because change “we all thought that Jesus would be back by now” to “we all thought the pandemic would be over by now” and that could have been written for us now. We are suffering, and things haven't gone as we expected, and we are asking 'now what?' Well the answer is the same. "Hold on strong...God is still with us...Build each other up. Support each other. Be the church together...As long as we do it together, we’ll be fine."
That call to build each other up brings us at last to the instruction to "encourage one another", and so here we may ask "what does encouragement look like?" I think we get a few ideas in the verses that follow. In verse twelve, Paul calls the church to acknowledge those who work hard among them. Now I promise this isn't a really clumsy way of saying "be nice to your minister". I already receive a great deal of encouragement, but there are many who work hard among us, and while no one should serve in order to be praised, it is good for people to know that what they are doing is seen and appreciated. I'm not going to do a roll call from the front, as like every Oscar winner I fear I would miss someone, but perhaps over the next week each of us might make a particular effort to thank somebody for all they do and are in and for the church. And I want to emphasise the word are there, as it is important to remember that a person's worth is not determined by how many rotas they are on. We each bring something to this fellowship simply by being present within it, and that needs to be acknowledged and encouraged too.
In verse fourteen, Paul exhorts his readers to “encourage the disheartened”. This says something to me about recognising that we all have seasons of our lives where we need particular encouragement, and perhaps here we might speak of that in terms of comfort or support. In order to offer this kind of encouragement, we need to know one another well enough to spot when someone is struggling, to build the kind of relationships where we feel able to say honestly that we are not doing well. I know that can feel uncomfortable for those who haven’t been talking publicly about their mental health since the age of eleven, but please trust me when I say that discomfort eases, and the blessing that comes from being heard and held in your struggles is immeasurably greater.
In verses twenty and twenty one, Paul says the church must listen to and test prophecies. This may not seem to have much to do with encouragement at first, but prophecies are words from God, and I believe they will be encouraging at least as often as they are challenging. If we commit to listening to the Spirit and discerning what we hear, I think there will be much that will bring hope and consolation and excitement. It seemed particularly good to bring this point out this morning, before we listen and discern together in our church meeting, and I pray that before the day is through, we will have heard and spoken much that will encourage one another.
And finally in verses sixteen and seventeen, Paul calls the Thessalonians to “rejoice always, pray continually”. That this might be an encouragement to one another is made clearer in Ephesians 5:19, which calls its readers to "encourage each other with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs". It is good for us to share in worship together, to offer songs and prayers that remind us all of the faith that inspire us and unites us. That doesn't mean glibly quoting verses of scripture as if they will solve every problem and ease every hurt, but it doesn't mean calling one another back to the faithfulness of God. It was with that in mind that I chose our hymns today, and our final hymn is one that has brought much encouragement to me personally. But first I close this reflection with the blessing Paul leaves the Thessalonian church with. May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.
Comentários