Have you ever seen something or someone that just doesn’t fit the situation? Maybe you’ve seen an 80-year-old man trying to act like a teen-ager by the way he dresses or talks. You say, “That’s not fitting for such a person. Or maybe you see a high profile executive going to work in cut off jeans and a t-shirt. You say, “That’s not fitting for such a person.” Imagine if you went to Luciano’s and they had hot dogs and peanut butter & jelly sandwiches on the menu. You’d say, “That’s not fitting for such a place.” The Christian life can be the same way. There are ways in which we can live as a believer in Jesus Christ where we ought to say, “That is not fitting for a Christian.” And Paul brings this issue home through this passage in Thessalonians.
The whole focus of the passage is found in verse 12 where Paul says that their entire message to the Thessalonians was for the purpose that they might walk worthy of the God who is calling them to His own kingdom and glory. This means for us, that is the key idea of this passage is, God, who calls us into His own kingdom and glory, wants us to live in a manner that reveals (demonstrates) His kingdom and glory. There are two questions that this passage answers for us that we will look at this morning.
1. What did Paul do to show us that we must walk in a manner worthy of the God who calls us to His own kingdom and glory?
The first question that this passage of Scripture answers for us is, “What did Paul do to show us that we must walk in a manner worthy of the God who calls us to His own kingdom and glory?” There were three different actions that Paul took to show the Thessalonians (and us) that we must walk in a manner worthy of the God who calls us to His own kingdom and glory.” And Paul clearly divides this text into three different sections by which he answers this question. You can see it for yourself. Each time he marks a new section by referring to the Thessalonians’ own experience with them. In verse 9, he says to the Thessalonians, “You recall (or remember) our labor and hardship.” In verse 10, Paul says, “You are witnesses as to how we behaved toward you believers.” And in verse 11, He says, “Just as you know how we spoke to you.”
Paul and his companions showed the Thessalonians how they were to walk in a worthy manner by their own actions. And it is in this way that Paul outlines the passage.
A. They gave up their rights
The first action that Paul explains they took to show us that we must walk in a manner worthy of God who calls us into his own kingdom and glory is that they gave up their rights. This is what verse 9 describes. There Paul says, “For you recall, brothers, our labor and hardship, how working night and day so as not to be a burden to any of you, we proclaimed to you the Gospel of God.” What is going in this verse? Paul says, though they had the right to be supported by the Thessalonians, they refused that support so they could more effectively proclaim the Gospel to them.
Now Paul is talking about giving up his own personal rights, not his citizen rights. We know this because often, throughout the book of Acts, Paul would use to his own advantage his rights as a Roman citizen to proclaim the Gospel. He used this right to be freed from the Jews who sought to take his life. He used that right to get out of receiving a beating from a Roman soldier. He used that right to appeal to Caesar and be able to share the Gospel with him. In this verse Paul is stating that he was giving up his right to monetary compensation to build closer ties with the Thessalonian people that he might present the Gospel to them.
How does this apply to our situation? If we have focused our lives on Christ’s agenda to see people come to Him and see them saved from their sins we will be willing to give up our rights to see to it that this happens. And it is in this that we will see many opportunities to share the Gospel with others.
What are your rights that you need to give up for the sake of those around you who need the Gospel? What is it that you hold to so tightly that giving it up will cause people to recognize how serious the Gospel is? I’ll give you an example from my own life this past week. I’ve been trying to get over a bout with a cold. And Wednesday I decided that I would get to bed early after church. I had it all planned out. I would get home quickly, take out the trash, tell the people who were coming over (for this had been planned since Monday) that they could visit with my wife because I was going to bed to get over my cold and be in the land of la la by 9:15PM. Certainly I had a right to do this. After all I have to protect my health. I have to look out for my well-being. I have to guard my schedule. But God had other plans. My wife went for a walk with three of our guests while two of the guests stayed behind. One of those who stayed behind was unsaved but had recently been interested in spiritual things. After asking this person if they had a question about the Scripture, an hour later I had answered a flood of serious questions. Her reply at the end of this time was, “I’ve run out of questions but I’ll have more.” At that point getting to bed at 11:30 instead of 9:15 didn’t seem so bad. I didn’t say it wasn’t difficult or that it didn’t adversely affect how I was feeling physically. But I recognized that giving up my rights to have the opportunity to share the Gospel was worth it because it worked to expand God’s kingdom.
You and I might protect all our personal rights (having our space, controlling our time, doing our thing, being comfortable) and live a healthy 100 years. But it is a sorry existence if we live for our rights and fail to reach beyond our comfort to share the Gospel. I would rather have a short existence living for the propagation of the Gospel, like David Brainerd, who died at 29, while laboring intensely among the Indians than to live to 120 and simply amass stuff, being unconcerned about anything except myself. Let us give up our rights and live in a way that allows us to proclaim the Gospel to those around us in astounding ways we never thought possible.
B. They gave a clear example as to how to live
The second action that Paul explains they took to show us that we must walk in a manner worthy of God who calls us into his own kingdom and glory is that they gave a clear example as to how to live. This is found in verse 10. Paul says, “You are witnesses and so is God, how devoutly, righteously and blamelessly we behaved toward you believers.” There are three words that Paul uses to describe their behavior among the believers in Thessalonica.
The first two words word that Paul uses are “devoutly and righteously.” The word devoutly can also be translated “holy.” Paul uses both of these words in Ephesians 4:24. There he uses it to describe our new man, that is Christ, living in us. In that passage he says, “Put on the new man, which in the likeness of God, has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.” This describes the Christ-like life that the believer can live because of Christ’s indwelling presence. And so what was Paul saying about his trip in Thessalonica? He and his companions were living Christ-like lives. They were living by the power of the Spirit of God through faith and living in a way that pleased God in all they did. Both God and the Thessalonians had witnessed such a God empowered life. This brings us to the third word. They lived blamelessly. No one could point to an area in Paul’s life and find fault with it. They conducted themselves without spot.
This should be our goal likewise. In seeking to reach out to others with the Gospel, our lives should be characterized by the faith that sustains us in Christ-likeness. Our lives should manifest a quality that says, “Christ lives here.” Our trust in God to overcome sin and live righteously should be evident to those around us. And it should encompass not only what people see but also only what God sees. For Paul says, “God is witness” to how we live. That means that we should be allowing God to transform even our hearts and thoughts into the image of Christ.
If we are to see God transforming us into His image, then we must allow Him to renew our minds through His Word daily. We must be reading it and thinking about it and then by God’s grace, asking for His strength put it into practice. Only then will we be living in a way that we are set apart for God’s service each day.
C. They gave verbal encouragement as to how to live
The third action that Paul explains they took to show us that we must walk in a manner worthy of God who calls us into his own kingdom and glory is that they gave verbal encouragement as to how to live. In verses 11&12 Paul describes how they carried out this verbal encouragement as to how to live. There he says, “Just as you know how we were exhorting and encouraging and imploring each one of you as a father would his own children, so that you would walk in a manner worthy of the God who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.
Here Paul describes how they gave verbal encouragement. They gave verbal encouragement individually. Paul says that they were imploring “each one of you.” As every person was different they made it their point to carefully instruct them according to their needs. We must remember that there is no cookie cutter for Christian living. Since each one of us comes from various backgrounds we have differing needs as to what we need to hear and how we need to hear it. The Apostle understood this well. Now what I don’t mean, and I hope that you remember from last week, is that this does not mean changing or weakening the message.
But Paul and those with him spoke differently to different people. This is why, when we speak to people about the Lord, we will see that different manners of speaking are needed from person to person. So how did Paul and the others get the message across? One commentator said that it was by “giving attention to the individual needs of those converted through the public preaching. There were three different ways that Paul addressed these believers. And I think that all of them are necessary in dealing with people spiritually.
First Paul said that they “exhorted” the Thessalonians. This was the strong appeal to the Thessalonians that they should get into action in their Christian life. Often as believers we need to be continually exhorted by others to get our Christian lives into action. This is why I often make some kind of appeal to each of you in my messages to see to it that you put some particular action into practice in your life, whether that be prayer or reading your Bible or whatever else the Scripture that we happen to be covering addresses.
Next Paul says that they were encouraging the Thessalonians. This word conveys the idea of comfort. Some believers needed to be comforted in the fact that they were experiencing persecution due to the Gospel. They were receiving somewhat severe mistreatment at the hands of their unsaved fellow citizens. Frequently in times like this we need some kind of encouragement to press on for the sake of Christ. And here they saw where encouragement needed to given. The Scripture contains many passages denoting the comfort of God toward the believer. We need to recognize it as well. At various times when I come to a difficult passage in the Scripture that has some hard teaching I look in that passage, or a related one, for some encouragement. I do this so that God can provide the strength for us to endure the difficult material. In difficult times in our lives we need encouragement from the Scripture.
Thirdly, Paul says that they were imploring the believers. This word has a serious note to it. It was a solemn proclamation of the Word to those who were slacking in their Christian life. There is also a need to speak seriously to those who are falling away from doing what is right. God says that there are serious consequences for those who will not follow the admonition of the Scripture. And there are times that serious and sober words must be delivered to the church. They did not fail to speak the serious things too.
I hope you find that I don’t skirt the serious messages. Sin is serious and its consequences are dire. Whatever a man sows that shall he also reap. We cannot go on living in disobedience to God’s Word and think that there will be no effect. God will not be mocked. And we must not shut our ears to the hard things that we need to hear.
2. What does it mean that we must walk in a manner worthy of the God who calls us to His own kingdom and glory?
Now we come to the second question that this passage answers and that is, “What does it mean that we must walk in a manner worthy of the God who calls us to His own kingdom and glory?” As we look at this I think we first must understand what walking worthily of the God who calls does not mean. It does not mean that somehow we can live in a way that gives us some kind of merit with God. We are not living to pay him back for what He has done for us. There is no way that we could ever pay God back for Jesus having died in our place for our sin. To think that we could attempt to do so would be an insult to God.
It would be similar to the situation if I would give you my Lamborghini. There would be no way that you could afford my Lamborghini. But if I gave it to you as a gift and you said, “Thanks here is $10,” that would be an insult to my graciousness. It would be an insult because you would think that somehow you contributed to my gift of a several hundred thousand dollar car. God has given us such a gift in providing Christ’s righteousness to us through His death and resurrection, that to receive it and then say, “Here let me make it up to you in some way” would be similarly insulting.
No! To live in a manner worthy of the God who has called us means that we are to live in a way that fits with what we profess. We profess that God has forgiven us of our sin then let us live like the Christians we profess to be. And I think that there are two ideas that Paul portrays in telling us what it means to live worthy. The two ideas come from his whole purpose statement in verse 12. We are to live in the way that God has called us into His own kingdom and glory.
A. Live in submission to His authority
So the first idea of living worthy as a Christian has to do with being called unto God’s own kingdom. And this means that we are to live in submission to His authority. To where has God called us? To His own kingdom. We are to live under the rulership of God.
I think that we could sum this up in three statements. First, Let God be the king of your life. Paul says that He has called us to His own kingdom. It is not our own kingdom. When we think that we are free to do whatever we want we are not submitting ourselves to God’s authority. God is sovereign. He isn’t fickle or erratic. He tells us what we need to be doing and when we don’t do it we mess up our lives. We need to continue to put off our desire for self rule and get under God’s program.
This brings us to the second statement. Don’t make excuses for not obeying God’s Word. God doesn’t give us any clearer instruction. He tells us plainly how we should live. But we run into trouble with the details in living out our lives when we aren’t willing to obey the clear commands of Scripture. Mark Twain said that it wasn’t what he didn’t understand in the Bible that gave him trouble but it was what he did understand. Most people use the “There are so many things hard to understand in the Bible” excuse to keep them from obeying what’s not hard to understand. And that isn’t a problem with the Bible. It is a problem with us. If we are called to God’s kingdom then we must be living like God’s subjects. And if we are going to live like God’s subjects we must be reading the Word of God and obeying the Word of God. If you will not read the Bible then you won’t be able to put it into practice.
And don’t give me the “I don’t have time” excuse either. We all have time to read the Bible. It’s just that we don’t make the time to read the Bible. We could spend 30 minutes to 1 hour a day in the Bible if we only cut out only 1/10 of the junk time in our schedule. How much time do you spend reading nonessential books? How much time do you spend watching TV? How much time do you spend talking on the phone? How much time do you spend playing video games or surfing online? Take a survey of your time for five days and you will be surprised at how much time you have for reading your Bible. Be creative. Use your lunchtime, your break time. If you are going to live like you’ve been called to God’s kingdom you must make the Word of God a priority in your life. If you don’t have a hunger for God’s Word then what has happened to your spiritual life? Or should I say, “Do you have a spiritual life?”
The third statement is “don’t be a hypocrite.” Jesus said, “Don’t call me, ‘Lord, Lord’ and don’t do what I say. Don’t lie and say Jesus is your Lord if you don’t want to obey Him. Don’t be a hypocrite. If you won’t humble yourself and put sin out of your life then don’t dishonor the name of Christ and talk about Him like He’s your best friend when your life’s a sham. What does it mean that we are to live as we are called to God’s own kingdom? Submit to God’s authority.
B. Live to seek His glory
The second idea of living worthy as a Christian has to do with being called to His glory. Not only are we called unto His own kingdom but also we are called unto God’s own glory. What does this mean? We must live to His glory. Now what is glory? Glory is God’s reputation. It is His greatness.
The OT word for glory comes from the Hebrew that means “heavy.” The word was often used to describe things that were heavy literally. It was also used more figuratively to describe anything sub-stantial or impressive. The Bible says that Abram was heavy, but it had nothing to do with His waistline. It meant that he was wealthy. “Abram had become very heavy in livestock and silver and gold” (Gen. 13:2).
Eventually the word came to mean anyone who was deserving of honor or recognition. We might call them, “the heavyweights.” This is what it means that we live for God’s glory. We live in a way so that people recognize how great He is. He is the biggest heavyweight of all. “No one is more substantial, has more influence. No one has a higher position or a weightier reputation. No one is more deserving of honor, recognition or praise than God.” (Ryken, Discovering God, p. 16).
If God has called us to His own glory, He wants us to live in such a way that shows the world He is great. How do we do this? We trust Him. We put our trust in His promises. We trust that what He has told us is true and that if we obey Him (even if it doesn’t make worldly sense) we will be blessed. This is what brings glory to our God. This is what makes Him look big! The questions are, “Will you obey Him? Will you believe His promises?” “Will you live righteously and justly and blamelessly in an unrighteous world?”
“Garbage Mary,” as she was dubbed by the media, was picked up by the police in a shopping mall in Delray Beach, Florida. She was a filthy mess – and so were her car and 2-bedroom apartment. Neighbors told of her scrounging through garbage cans in search of food, which she took back to her apartment. Police found the garbage everywhere: in the refrigerator, in the stove, in the sink, in the cabinets – even in the bathtub.
But they found other things as well. They found Mobil Oil stock worth more than $400,000. They found documents indicating that she owned oil fields in Kansas, stock certificates from prominent firms, and passbooks from eight large bank accounts. Police also discovered that she was the daughter of a well-to-do lawyer and bank director from Illinois, who had died several years earlier. Garbage Mary was a millionaire but she lived like a pauper. Great wealth was at her fingertips, but she spent her life sifting through garbage.
What about you? Do you realize, if you have placed your trust in Jesus Christ as your Savior that God has called you into His kingdom? Are you living worthy of the kingdom to which God has called you or are you living like a moral pauper? God has called us to live a life transformed by His power. Are you living in a way that is fitting for what you profess?
This is what our Christian life is all about. There is nothing else to the Christian life than walking in a manner worthy of the God who calls us into His own kingdom and glory. Will you let Him change you for His kingdom and glory? Don’t delay in putting off the sin in your life that God has brought to your attention. Ask God, by His grace in Christ, to work in you to mold you into the image of Christ so that you would walk worthy of Him. Ask yourself these questions: Am I compromising by allowing sin in my life?
Am I letting the world’s standards creep into my life through what I watch, or that to which I listen?
Have I continued to draw farther from the Lord because of sin?
God calls you today to repent. Turn from your sin to which you have held onto in defiance of God’s own Word. Live in a manner that worthy of the God who calls you into His own kingdom and glory.