LET BROTHERLY LOVE GROW
Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on September 12, 2018 under PM Bible Study |
PM Bible Study Group; September 12, 2018 – from 1 Thessalonians 4:9-12
Theme: We must seek to let our brotherly love in Christ grow as a witness to the world.
(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).
As a church, it must have been greatly encouraging for the Thessalonians believers to have been so highly commended by the apostle Paul. As we recall, he spent the first three chapters of his first letter to them by celebrating the way that the gospel of Jesus had been established and had made such progress in them. They had gained a reputation as examples the remarkable power of the gospel to change lives.
But as great as their progress had been, the apostle appealed for more. He wanted the clear love for one another that had been manifested in them to grow and abound. Ever mindful of the fact that the world around them was watching, he wrote to them and said;
But concerning brotherly love you have no need that I should write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another; and indeed you do so toward all the brethren who are in all Macedonia. But we urge you, brethren, that you increase more and more; that you also aspire to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you, that you may walk properly toward those who are outside, and that you may lack nothing (1 Thessalonians 4:9-12).
Paul’s words remind us that, as believers, we must never be content with merely ‘good enough’ in our Christian lives—even when the good growth we have already experienced is, by God’s grace, truly ‘good’. This is particularly so with our mutual love in Christ. Jesus has taught us that, with respect to the watching world, “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35). And so, the need for this world to hear and believe our gospel demands that we truly grow and abound in brotherly love.
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In the original language, Paul begins this section with the conjunction that is translated “But …” And this directs our attention back to the previous verses. In verses 4:3-8, Paul had exhorted the believers in Thessalonica to personal holiness in the matter of sexuality. He had told them;
For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God; that no one should take advantage of and defraud his brother in this matter, because the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also forewarned you and testified. For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness. Therefore he who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who has also given us His Holy Spirit (vv. 3-8).
It may be that the surrounding Greek culture had influenced these believing Thessalonians in such a way as to cause them to confuse immoral sexual practices with the concept of brotherly love. Having reinforced to these believers the absolute requirement of sexual purity in the family of God, however, Paul then goes in our passage to tell them that—with regard to true ‘brotherly love’—they had made good progress together in Christ.
Note first, then …
1. THE AFFIRMATION THAT BROTHERLY LOVE IS PRESENT (vv. 9-10a).
Paul writes to them, “But concerning brotherly love you have no need that I should write to you …” (v. 9a). Perhaps Paul means by this that the Thessalonians had a true understanding of brotherly love. As he told them in his prayer/wish for them in 3:11; “And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love to one another and to all, just as we do to you …” After all, Paul and Silvanus and Timothy had proven true examples of brotherly love to them in their missionary work among them. And they had the greatest example of love set before them in the sacrifice that the Lord Jesus had made for them on the cross. But it seems also that there was no need to write to them on this matter because they had already received the greatest and most fundamental teaching about brotherly love from the greatest possible source; “for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another …” (v. 9b)
The verb that Paul used here is in the present tense; suggesting that they were being taught by God to love one another in an ongoing, habitual way. This may be because they had been taught by the missionaries the ‘new commandment’ of our Lord:
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another” (John 13:34).
This commandment is truly ever ‘new’—ever being reinforced to our hearts by the indwelling ministry of the Holy Spirit. As the apostle John put it;
Brethren, I write no new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which you heard from the beginning. Again, a new commandment I write to you, which thing is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining. He who says he is in the light, and hates his brother, is in darkness until now. He who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him. But he who hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes (1 John 2:7-11).
This ‘old/new commandment’ is ever being brought to our attention by the Holy Spirit, and is ever being made ‘new’ and ‘fresh’ to us in each encounter with one another. Truly, we are continually being taught about ‘brotherly love’ by our Heavenly Father—just as was true of the Thessalonians.
And not only were they continually being taught by God about showing brotherly love to one another, they were also actively practicing it; for Paul writes, “and indeed you do so toward all the brethren who are in all Macedonia” (v. 10a). Macedonia was the surrounding region—probably the natural physical limits to which their circle of relationships within the body of Christ could extend. And so, their brotherly love was spread as far as their opportunity sincerely allowed. What a commendation!
But the fact that this love was present and established in them was not enough. We go on to find Paul making …
2. THE APPEAL TO LET BROTHERLY LOVE GROW (vv. 10b-11).
Paul went on, “But we urge you, brethren, that you increase more and more …” (v. 10b). The Greek word for ‘increase’ or ‘abound’ that Paul used in the original language of this verse is a word that he had already used twice in this letter. In 3:12—as we have already seen—he expressed his sincere prayer/wish for them that “the Lord make you increase and abound in love to one another …” And in 4:1, he said, “Finally then, brethren, we urge and exhort in the Lord that you should abound more and more, just as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God …” Three times, then, the apostle makes the appeal in this letter to ‘abound’ in the spiritual realities of their faith. The Christian life is never a ‘good enough’ life. It’s a life in which we should seek continually—with God’s enabling help—to ‘abound more and more’ and grow in the rich spiritual treasures and qualities and resources that are ours in Christ.
Paul wanted his beloved brothers and sisters to grow in their brotherly love for one another. But it wasn’t just an emotion that they were to experience. It was to be put on to the ground and made to walk in practical ways. He set before them three practical applications of the expression of genuine brotherly love—three ‘aspirations in action’—three applications in which we truly can continually grow and abound.
First, he writes, “that you also aspire to lead a quiet life …” (v. 11a). The word that Paul uses for ‘aspire’ is one that speaks of endeavoring to make an earnest ambition to do a thing. The old King James Version has it that they were to ‘study’ to do these things; and the first of them was to aspire to lead a ‘quite’ or ‘still’ or ‘peaceable’ life.
What a contrast this is to the way many people seek to live in our day! Many think that the best way to live is to make a big ‘dent’ in this world—to be a notable ‘activist’ for change—to be noticed and known. Many today deliberately give themselves to living a ‘loud’ and ‘contentious’ life. But we are called to the opposite pursuit—to seek to live a life that is manifestly quiet and peaceable. This is not to give up being ‘change-agents’ in this world, of course. It is, rather, to change the method of bringing about that change; and conforming it to that of our Lord Himself. The life of our Lord was the most significant to ever be lived; and His impact was the greatest ever made of all those who ever walked the earth. And yet, God the Father Himself prophesied of Him;
“Behold! My Servant whom I have chosen,
My Beloved in whom My soul is well pleased!
I will put My Spirit upon Him,
And He will declare justice to the Gentiles.
He will not quarrel nor cry out,
Nor will anyone hear His voice in the streets.
A bruised reed He will not break,
And smoking flax He will not quench,
Till He sends forth justice to victory;
And in His name Gentiles will trust” (Matthew 12:18-21; see also Isaiah 42:1-4).
Our brotherly love for each other, then, is to grow and abound in an active pursuit of helping one another live a life together before this world that is characterized by quietness and peace.
Second, Paul writes that his readers are to aspire “to mind your own business …” (v. 11b). And this is not meant to be taken in the curt manner that people often mean it today. Rather, as it is in the original language, it means ‘to perform that which is one’s own’. Each of us has been given a sphere of responsibilities and duties by God—a ‘circle’ for which we are to personally care and provide. And while it may be true that this means we are not to busy ourselves with other people’s business in an intrusive way, it more likely means that we are to be faithful to attend to our own responsibilities. We are to have a reputation for faithfully providing for and tending to that which is within our own circle of legitimate responsibility and stewardship.
But this, of course, means that we also don’t meddle in other people’s responsibilities. Nothing is more unattractive in our Christian witness to this world than to neglect our own duties out of an inappropriate attention to someone else’s. As our Lord taught us in the Sermon on the Mount;
“And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye’, and look, a plank is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye” (Matthew 7:3-5).
Our growth in brotherly love together should be characterized by a careful fulfillment of our own responsibilities and duties—and not meddling in those of another. We should help each other—but not interfere with each other or with those outside the faith.
Finally, Paul says that his readers are to aspire “to work with your own hands …” (v. 11c). This is a call for each individual believer to be industrious, and to faithfully labor in such a way that they provide for their own needs and are so neglectful as to become beholden to others.
This may even speak to a possible theological distortion that showed itself later on in the history of the Thessalonians church. The very next verses speak of the promise of the Lord’s return; and it seems that, later on in 2 Thessalonians, Paul had to address the problem of Christians who were becoming idle and unproductive—perhaps out of a misguided response to the Lord’s command to watch for His return. He told them;
But we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw from every brother who walks disorderly and not according to the tradition which he received from us. For you yourselves know how you ought to follow us, for we were not disorderly among you; nor did we eat anyone’s bread free of charge, but worked with labor and toil night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, not because we do not have authority, but to make ourselves an example of how you should follow us. For even when we were with you, we commanded you this: If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat. For we hear that there are some who walk among you in a disorderly manner, not working at all, but are busybodies. Now those who are such we command and exhort through our Lord Jesus Christ that they work in quietness and eat their own bread. But as for you, brethren, do not grow weary in doing good. And if anyone does not obey our word in this epistle, note that person and do not keep company with him, that he may be ashamed. Yet do not count him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother (2 Thessalonians 3:6-15).
It may be that some had checked-out of life, sat as it were on a mountain-top, and waited for the Lord to come—no longer working productively, but relying on others to take care of them. This was something that Paul exhorted the believers not to do. Quite the opposite, they were to be known by the fact that they work with their own hands and found no form of manual labor ‘beneath them’ to do. We show brotherly love to one another by exhorting one another and encouraging one another to work with our hands and be industrious. This bears a very positive testimony to this world.
These were things that Paul and his colleagues had already taught the believers in Thessalonica. They were things that he encouraged them to do “as we commanded you”. And because they are in the context of abounding in brotherly love, they ought to be seen as expressions of that brotherly love.
This leads us, finally, to note carefully …
3. THE APOLOGETIC THAT BROTHERLY LOVE AFFORDS (v. 12).
To present an ‘apologetic’ for the faith means to present a careful, logical argument for it. And the reason Paul was so earnest in exhorting these expressions of brotherly love is because they are a key part of our testimony to the world. They are practices that ‘argue in favor of’ our faith. Paul goes on in verses 12 to say that he and the others commanded these things “ that you may walk properly toward those who are outside, and that you may lack nothing” (v. 12).
On the one hand, it is a part of ‘walking’ or conducting one’s life ‘properly’ or in an honorable way before the world. As the apostle Peter wrote;
If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. On their part, He is blasphemed, but on your part, He is glorified. But let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, or as a busybody in other people’s matters (1 Peter 4:14-15).
Too many of us think that we are bearing a witness to this world by suffering for Christ; when the reality is—from the world’s standpoint—we are suffering because we’re trouble-makers, or busybodies, or unproductive, or just plain foolish. May it be that we grow increasingly to express our brotherly love in such a way as to remove any such accusation against us from the watching world.
And on the other hand, our abundance and growth in brotherly love is a part of ‘lacking nothing’. This is not meant to say that we are not to be in anyway dependent upon others. Our brotherly love with each other assumes that we are building into one another’s lives. Rather, this is meant to say that we are to so live that we are not dependent upon others for what we should be taking care of for ourselves. As Paul puts it in Galatians 6;
Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one examine his own work, and then he will have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another. For each one shall bear his own load (Galatians 6:2-5).
As the Bible commentator Edmond Hiebert has put it, “Those who deliberately impose upon the generosity of others are not living in love”1; and therefore, they bear a bad witness of Christ to the world.
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Our brotherly love is, as our Lord told us, that by which the world will know that we are His disciples. And so, may God help us to make sure that sincere ‘brotherly love’ truly is established among us through Christ. But more; may we further seek to abound in that love more and more in everyday practice!
1D. Edmond Hiebert, The Thessalonian Epistles: A Call to Readiness (Chicago: Moody Press, 1971), p. 185.
EA
