Meditation 8
1 Thessalonians 4: 1 – 12
Good morning and welcome to this, the eighth of our lockdown meditations. Before I begin there is one announcement that I would like to make. This Saturday should have seen the opening of the General Assembly and the election of the new Moderator. As the Assembly has been cancelled the special commission that is always appointed at the end of an Assembly to make any necessary decisions between assemblies has acted to elect the Moderator Designate, Reverend Martin Fair as the new moderator. His installation will be broadcast on the church of Scotland website at 11am this Saturday.
As some of you know, one of the things I used to do a lot, but had not done much of in a while has been cycling. The big joke when I was at university was that we realised, due to the milometer on my bike was that in any given year I was riding more miles on my bike than my mother drove in her car. Well thanks to the lockdown I have been getting out on my bike a lot more. I have been enjoying the quieter roads and going on a couple of hour long rides a week. But these have not been up in the woods of Kinnoull hill or Deuchny these have been road miles. With the bicycle I have, off road biking is a definite no-no. The tyres are ultra thin, the wheels have a large diameter and the gears are higher. There is no way I can cycle on woodland tracks the bike was just not designed for that. In the same way if, when I am riding I come across someone heading to a mountain bike trail but riding on the road I soon overtake them because their bike is not designed to be that fast on tarmac. It really is a case of using things for what they are designed to do to get the best from them. In the same way we were designed by God for a specific purpose and we only perform to our best when we live according to our purpose. Recognising that idea is crucial for understanding this section from 1 Thessalonians. Let us read then what Paul wrote in chapter 4 verses 1- 12.
4 As for other matters, brothers and sisters, we instructed you how to live in order to please God, as in fact you are living. Now we ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus to do this more and more. 2 For you know what instructions we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus.
3 It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; 4 that each of you should learn to control your own body[a] in a way that is holy and honourable, 5 not in passionate lust like the pagans, who do not know God; 6 and that in this matter no one should wrong or take advantage of a brother or sister.[b] The Lord will punish all those who commit such sins, as we told you and warned you before. 7 For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. 8 Therefore, anyone who rejects this instruction does not reject a human being but God, the very God who gives you his Holy Spirit.
9 Now about your love for one another we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other. 10 And in fact, you do love all of God’s family throughout Macedonia. Yet we urge you, brothers and sisters, to do so more and more, 11 and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you, 12 so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.
If you recall, back in an earlier study I told you that Paul and his companions had been forced to leave Thessalonica before they really wanted because of opposition in the city. This opposition made spreading the Gospel, even among residents of the city, very difficult. So how do you spread the Gospel and bring in to your new movement when you are effectively banned from sharing your new faith? This is an issue that existed in Thessalonica back in the day and still affects Christians in places like Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan today. You share it by your behaviour and your demeanour, by how you act and the attitude that you have. Paul’s contention is that we were not designed and built to live lives of sin, but just as my bicycle is not designed to travel on dirt tracks so we are not designed to live immoral lives. So his contention is that if we live differently to the way the world generally lives, if we live more moral lives we will be more content, more at peace and more joyful and that joy will then prove attractive to those around us who will ask us what the source of our peace and joy might be.
Christian morality is comprehensive by nature. It is to do with the individual, the community and God. Paul here addresses individuals, but he does so in relation to others. We do not live in isolation usually. Our present condition is extreme to say the least and even now in our self-isolation we interact with others through various media. Sadly, there has been a tendency within the western church to reduce sin to the idea of psychological dysfunction and salvation as an inward feelgood factor. You cannot do this however if you keep in mind the communal aspect of sin, that what you do affects those around you. That when you sin you sin against God and other people. C.S. Lewis sums it up very well by saying this:
“Morality….sems to be concerned with three things. Firstly, with fair play and harmony between individuals. Secondly, with what might be called tidying up or harmonising the things inside each individual. Thirdly, with the general purpose of human life as a whole… what tune the conductor of the band, ie God, wants it to play. If we miss the importance of these three elements , our lives will never arise above the din of society.
The last thing I want to point out about this passage is that towards the end Paul makes sure that the Thessalonians do not revert back to any sort of parochialism. Instead he challenges them to extend their love to all, transcending short-sightedness and selfishness. When a church feels threatened there is always a danger that it goes into self-preservation mode and becomes insular. I have seen this too often sadly. The result of such insularity is always the same. It cripples both spiritual growth and church outreach. Those outside the church are left with the impression that the church seems to think itself either as being too good for the rest of society or on the other hand not worthy of their consideration. The more we reach out, the more we extend our love to the rest of the community and address their concerns, minister to their needs while at the same time displaying joy, hope and peace the more the outside world will wonder and start to desire that love, joy, peace and hope for themselves. The hotline that we set up at the start of this crisis is a case in point. It has not gone unnoticed in the community. I know for a fact that non-church people have started to watch the online service because of the impression they have developed of Kinnoull church because of the hotline. So be encouraged. Ministry does not go unnoticed. The way we are does not go unnoticed. Paul urges the people of Thessalonica to love the people of Macedonia more and more. I urge you to love the people of your area more and more that in all things God in Christ will be glorified and we live to our purpose for which God has called each one of us.