Loving Those We Serve – 1 Thessalonians 2

A text – 1 Thessalonians 2:1-8

2:1 You yourselves know, brothers and sisters, that our coming to you was not in vain,
2:2 but though we had already suffered and been shamefully mistreated at Philippi, as you know, we had courage in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in spite of great opposition.
2:3 For our appeal does not spring from deceit or impure motives or trickery,
2:4 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.
2:5 As you know and as God is our witness, we never came with words of flattery or with a pretext for greed;
2:6 nor did we seek praise from mortals, whether from you or from others,
2:7 though we might have made demands as apostles of Christ. But we were gentle among you, like a nurse tenderly caring for her own children.
2:8 So deeply do we care for you that we are determined to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you have become very dear to us.


A reflection:

This passage of Paul’s letter talks about Paul and his associates’ identity and their motives for bringing the Gospel of Jesus Christ to Thessaloniki. They came despite the bad treatment they had received in Philippi, being jailed for making trouble. They were not seeking glory or wealth; they were not interested in deceiving anyone. They came purely in response to God’s call to them to bring Jesus’s story to the world. They did it humbly, to serve God. And as they obeyed God’s call, the people who received them became very dear to them, and they wanted even more to serve these people, the way a nurse might care for her very own children.

Once, early in my days of the establishment of Church Innovations Institute, I was accused by a group we were helping of being in the work to profit from it for my own gain. And the truth was, I did learn a lot from what those good people taught us, and we greatly improved our means of research and teaching, so I did gain from my association with them. And I was never jailed for being a troublemaker. But when you work with a church to understand what makes them tick and how they have made decisions in the past, you soon discover there is plenty of trouble close at hand almost everywhere. You will always run into it, even if you don’t make trouble yourself.

One main point of these verses is that Paul confesses that he and his fellow missionaries could have made trouble on purpose or demanded tribute for the Good News they brought, but instead they adopted a servant posture, being willing to humble themselves in order that God and Jesus would be glorified. They became vulnerable so that the Lord could be known and believed in by more and more people. And the Holy Spirit blessed their work, and they went on and on to more and more cities, not because they themselves were smug and important but because they put God and the communities they were sent to above their own needs and simply loved them. Their true humility carried them on.

God has always loved the humble believer. God has a soft spot for the weak and the lonely. God always wants to raise the lowly and pull down the arrogant. God’s very kingdom is built upon saving the sorry and raising those who have known the very bottom of life. Praise to this God we love who first loved us.

A prayer:

Lord God, Thank you for loving us. Thank you for your love of the lowly, for your work extended through Paul and his friends to the ends of the earth. Help us to remember that you are the only king, and that we are your servants, blessed to our fullest greatness when we are doing what you call us to do.  Amen.