Read with Me
1 Thessalonians 2:10-12 (HCSB)
You are witnesses, and so is God, of how devoutly, righteously, and blamelessly we conducted ourselves with you believers. As you know, like a father with his own children, we encouraged, comforted, and implored each one of you to walk worthy of God, who calls you into His own kingdom and glory.
Listen with Me
Even though Paul’s time in Thessalonica had been brief, measured in weeks rather than months or years, he had not gone in with the mindset of a short-term stay. Instead, he had done all that was necessary to share the gospel, to show those interested how to enter into the kingdom of God, and then he had set about teaching the new believers the things they needed to know and do in order to grow into powerful, Spirit-filled, Christlike disciples.
Even though his time was abruptly cut short after only three weeks when the Jewish leaders grew jealous of his success in stirred up a riot that necessitated his leaving the city (Acts 17:5-10), Paul had laid a solid foundation that was now serving them well.
Paul directs the minds of the Thessalonian believers back to his time with them. He first wanted them to remember the kind of life he had lived before them, a life that was intended to serve as an example to them of how they should live as people of the kingdom. (Compare with 1 Corinthians 11:1.) Paul’s example was a devout, righteous, and blameless life. And this was not just him putting on his “Sunday face”. He had lived his life with those new believers, up close and personal, And there was nothing in his actions, his attitudes, or his demeanor that anyone could point to as being less than Christlike.
Paul was also a good shepherd to those believers. The illustration he uses is that of a father showing love and care for his own children. Paul encouraged them to be the best they could be in the power of the Holy Spirit. He comforted them when they experienced hardship or loss, helping them into the loving arms of their Father in heaven. And he urged them away from lives of spiritual laziness and compromise and encouraged them to live instead lives worthy of God and of the eternal destiny He had laid before them. These were things that Paul also intended for them to emulate as they discipled the new believers that they had brought into the kingdom since he had left them.
Pray with Me
Father, even though Paul was an apostle, and therefore always had his eye out for where you would call him to next, whenever You put him somewhere, he was there, fully present to those he was building into disciples until You called him to move on. Sometimes it was only weeks before he had to move on. Sometimes it was more than a year. But everywhere he was, he gave his best to the people. And because of that, when he had to move on, he left behind a work that would endure and grow. Help me, Lord to have that same people-centered focus, neither losing myself in the pastimes available where I am, nor growing antsy, looking for the next big thing over the horizon. While I am here THIS is the big thing! Thank you, Lord, for helping me to see that clearly today. Amen.