MONDAY 6th
1 Thessalonians 2:1-8
NIV (v4) – ‘On the contrary, we speak as those approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel. We are not trying to please people but God, who tests our hearts.’
ESV (v4) – ‘. . . but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts.’
It was difficult to decide which verse to highlight today within these verses, for as much as they were applicable to Paul all that many years ago, they are so applicable for the day in which we are living in. We live in an age of celebrity, and it has crept rather quickly into the Church where individuals have built up a following for themselves by pandering either to the culture of the age we are living in, or by softening the message they proclaim, or as we read in Scripture because we have reached a definite point in the history of the Church where the time has come ‘when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions.’ (2 Timothy 4:3) Thank God for those who still do stand-up as did Paul and those working alongside him for the purity of the gospel message and the sound preaching of the undiluted Word of God.
There are four words found in the ESV in verses 4-8 and I will put them in this order, greed, glory, gospel and gentle
In verse 5 Paul says ‘We never came with words of flattery, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed—God is witness’, they preached the gospel for the gospel’s sake, out of compassion for the lost souls, they preached it without flattery and without a pretext for greed, in other words the gospel to Paul was not like it has become for so many today a money-making machine! We all know about these ministries, where if you sow a seed into a particular ministry, you are promised to get so much more back, or maybe they will pray for you, depending on how much time they have, people give and give out of their little, while all the time they themselves (the ministries) are getting richer and richer. We need to avoid these ministries like the plague, we need to be wise in our decision making regarding the ministries we choose to support, and first and foremost the local Church should be the starting point, the place where the tithe is given or sent.
In verse 6 he says, ‘Nor did we seek glory from the people, whether from you or others . . .’ Paul was not a glory seeker, he was not interested in becoming a Christian celebrity, his desire was for the gospel to be shared, souls to be saved. In fact, if we go to 1 Corinthians 3 and verses 1-9 Paul refutes celebrity status and he calls it childish behaviour, and he calls it the way of the flesh, what the Church should be doing and most certainly what the preacher should be doing is point to God the Father and to his Son the Lord Jesus Christ and give them all the glory. (‘So neither he who plants nor he who reaps is anything, but only God gives the growth’ 1 Corinthians 3 v7)
The third word is gospel, Paul states that they had been approved by God and entrusted with the gospel, (4) therefore they were determined not to please man, but to please God – this is such an important point for todays culture within the Church, we who have been entrusted with the gospel, must not soften it or leave out those things that are considered politically or culturally incorrect today, or unpalatable, we must not water it down, we must not try to redefine it, we must present it using the fourth word in a gentle(v7) and yet persuasive way, being gentle doesn’t mean leaving the difficult bits out, it means delivering it with honesty and integrity, knowing we are presenting truth and the only hope for mankind with a sincere love for the lost, and with a determined desire to allow the Holy Spirit to work in the hearts of the hearers and to bring them under the conviction of sin.
May we follow the example of Paul, be faithful to what God has entrusted to us and seek that it is He gets all the glory.