Morning Musings with the boys at breakfast...
Once again we come upon Paul's urging his readers towards perseverance here in 2 Thessalonians 3:1-5. My favorite verse here is verse 5 which reads:
"May the Lord direct your hearts into God's love and Christ's perseverance."
You can see the loving 'father heart' of Paul as he hopes and prays his 'children' will go in the right way. There are almost always two directions, or choices, a person can make; the right way or the wrong way. Sons, this verse is my hope and prayer for you too!
Paul asks for the partnership of the Thessalonians in the line of prayer. They have reached a level of maturity in the right way and he can count on them; on having them on his team. So he asks them to pray that he (and Silas and Timothy--the 2 other senders of this epistle) will be able to spread the "message of the Lord" rapidly and that the message would be "honored" by the hearers in the same way in which the Thessalonians had honored it.
A second prayer was that the three be "delivered from wicked and evil men" as they proclaim the message. Satan and/or his minions will always be lurking to discredit the message and/or to dissuade the hearers from the truth.
Further to this is quite a list of things that Paul exhorts the Thessalonians to do; in fact, he "commands" them to them. Here's the list: "stand firm; spread the message of Jesus; strengthened in every good deed and word, and here's our word, "persevere' in holiness" and then a whole lot more; avoid every kind of evil; avoid sexual immorality; be holy as God is holy; let brotherly love continue; lead a quiet life; mind your own business; work with their own hands (as he who does not work should not eat); be alert and self-controlled; encourage and build each other up.
And that incentive again, to encourage each other with the hope of Jesus' return to bring them (and us) to glory. This we have seen a couple of days back in what is titled Morning Musings-Rapturous Hope. This sure hope of our being taken up to be with Jesus for all eternity.
This is what Christian living is characterized by and how the body of Christ can function. As we look out for one another and care for each other and together, in unity of Spirit, be in partnership with those who "go into all the world and preach the gospel" (Matthew 28:18-20). They need us for "back up" yet we also have to be thriving and doing our part on the home front living for Jesus. Overall, let us persevere in all God plans for and has commanded us to do; by God's grace we can.~ERC 2016~
No comments:
Post a Comment