Living in the Spirit
October 23, 2014
Scripture Reading: 1 Thessalonians 2:1-8
You yourselves know, brothers and sisters, that our coming to you was not in vain, but though we had already suffered and been shamefully maltreated at Philippi, as you know, we had courage in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in spite of great opposition. For our appeal does not spring from deceit or impure motives or trickery, but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the message of the gospel, even so we speak, not to please mortals, but to please God who tests our hearts. — 1 Thessalonians 2:1-4
Scholars believe that the letters to the Thessalonians are the earliest of Paul’s letters that have been identified. It appears that even though this correspondence dates from the first century, it describes quite well the state of our world today. No one knows who to trust so we didn’t trust anyone. We use every means possible, good or bad, to sway people toward our way of thinking as do others. One only has to listen to a few of the political ads on TV right now to see this in action. Paul thought the situation so tenuous in his day that he felt the need to explain his credibility by saying he was not trying to please anyone but God. In our world so many bad apples have tied themselves to God, God now has a bad name among some.
Skilled athletes, dancers, and singers continuously practice the fundamentals of their trade until they become automatic for them and then they practice some more. We, as followers of Christ, must practice the fundamentals of our faith working together as the one Body of Christ in the world today. No I am not talking about the Fundamentalism of the 19th century. I am talking about the fundamentals set forth by Jesus Christ in the first century: loving God and loving our neighbors as we love ourselves. For most of us those words roll easily off our tongues, but practicing them until they become automatic is a very different experience. To love God first requires us to discern how we love and who and what we love in general. Where does God fit into that laundry list of our priorities? And that is just the first step.
In our world today, loving our neighbors is way out of sync. Of course, in God’s eyes when we are not loving our neighbors we are not really loving God. In all honesty if we read the whole verse from which that phrase is quoted (Matthew 22:3 records Jesus quoting Leviticus 19:18) we will see that it says You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Perhaps loving God also requires loving ourselves enough to be the people God created us to be and not to sell ourselves out to lesser Gods like greed and power and pride that are often at the core of how and why we treat our neighbors as we do.
Prayer: Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and put a new and right spirit within me.
Do not cast me away from your presence,
and do not take your holy spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and sustain in me a willing spirit. (Psalm 51:10-12)
All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights reserved.