Morning Musings-Hold in Highest Regard

  Morning Musings with the boys at breakfast...





Authority!  It's a big struggle to think well of those in authority over us.  We want to oppose and frustrate them but in 1 Thessalonians 5:12-28 we are told to "Hold our spiritual leaders in highest regard in love".  So guess that means we have to love them.  Out of that love we then respect them and hold them in "highest regard".  And it doesn't say  to respect them only if we like them.  We just have to do it.  It's part of Christian living.

It's because they also "work hard" on our behalf and on the behalf of others.  Just think how it came about.  From Jesus to the disciples who became apostles and with the Holy Spirit's empowering they did many mighty works and were strong and courageous and stood firm in their faith enduring so much hardship and persecution.  They worked hard in the Lord.  There were also Paul, Silas, and Timothy and many, many more who were passing on the message of Jesus and God's word to their generation and the next.  

They were loved by God, chosen by God and saved through Jesus Christ.  They were sanctified by the Holy Spirit and called by God as were the Thessalonians to whom Paul was writing.  They were also all going to share in the eternal glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.  In this they were also called to stand firm, to hold on to the teachings passed on to them. 

Some people say, "Oh, a little bit of sin won't hurt.  Go ahead, never mind."  But verse 22 tells us to "avoid every kind of evil" (NIV) and another version says it like this, "abstain from all appearance of evil" (KJV).  Even the appearance of evil we need to be aware and beware of!

God's ultimate wish for us is to be "holy as He is holy" (1 Peter 1:15).  Don't dabble in that which is not holy.  Keep every part of you: spirit, soul and body, blameless til the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.  There are so many reminders for being holy.  Human being's nature is for the opposite thus the constant reminders and we don't have to strive to  live holy, alone.  We have God's Word, the Holy Spirit and the body of Christ to help us (vs 12  "those who work hard among you who are over you in the Lord and who admonish you").  Let us respect them and pray for them that they will be doing their job to please God and not to please themselves nor to be 'man pleasers'.

Another 'incentive' to be holy is this third mention of  the coming of our Lord (verse 23).  This encouragement to persevere in our holiness til that coming day.  Don't give up.  So let us be encouraged in our hearts, strengthened in every good deed and word  (see also 2 Thessalonians 2:13-16).   We can do all of this through God's grace towards us and which is with us. 

                                                             ~ERC  2016~