Paul’s word to every believer here is that God has given us new life. This new life is so extraordinary that we now have the ability to live a life pleasing to God. And it is to this kind of life to which God calls us. And we must walk in a manner pleasing to Him. Even in walking through difficult situations and hardships it is always right to walk in a manner pleasing to Him. Though people around us to do not understand us and it may seem easier to not follow His ways I think John Bunyan, in his book, “Pilgrim’s Progress” says it best. “I would rather walk in the dark with God than go alone in the light.”
It is only by walking in the light that we have fellowship with God. John says in his first letter, “If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness we lie and do not practice the truth.”
And the key idea in this passage is that Paul gives us three ways to walk in a manner pleasing to God. Last week we looked at the first of the three ways. That is, that we should be sexually pure in every area of our lives. Today we will concentrate on the following two.
3. Pleasing God in Brotherly Love
The first way today (second in Paul’s order) in which God wants us to walk and please Him is by showing brotherly love. Paul notes two characteristics of this brotherly love in which we should walk.
A. It is taught by God
The first characteristic of this brotherly love in which we should walk is that it is taught by God. In verse 9, Paul says, “Now as to the love of the brethren, you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another.” Paul is saying that God is the One who teaches us to love one another. How does this take place? In Romans 5:5, Paul there says, “The love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” And John in his first letter says, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.”
When we become Christians, God’s Spirit comes to live within us and we can now love with the love that God Himself has given us. Have you experienced that? We have no strength in ourselves to truly love those around us. In our flesh we will merely have fighting and animosity toward one another. In Galatians 5, Paul says that these are the works of the flesh. And if you are embittered against someone here in this congregation and will not clear it up you are simply living by the power of the flesh and not walking in a manner pleasing to God. If you are holding a grudge against someone you are not being led by the Spirit of God. You are being disobedient to God’s Spirit because you are being disobedient to God’s Word.
What does this brotherly love taught by God look like? It looks like Paul’s description in Colossians 3:12-14. As he says there, “So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you.”
When we are living in the love the Lord has given to each of us through His Spirit, we will be kind and compassionate toward one another and forgiving each other in the same way we realize that God has forgiven us. God hasn’t forgiven us because we deserved it but because of Jesus Christ. In the same way we don’t forgive because someone deserves it but because we can forgive freely in the same way that we were freely forgiven. Unwillingness to forgive is a sign that you have failed to understand how deeply God has forgiven you and how much your own sin has offended a holy God.
This love that God has given us is what allows us to be united in Christ. Apart from it we will simply be a fractured body, not a united one. As Paul says, “It is the perfect bond of unity.”
B. It is practiced toward all the brethren
The second characteristic of this brotherly love in which we should walk is that it is practiced toward all the brethren. This is what Paul mentions in verse 10. “For indeed you do practice it toward all the brethren who are in all Macedonia.” When we show love toward other believers it is not to be dispensed indiscriminately but it is to be practiced toward everyone. We are not to show partiality to our brothers and sisters in Christ. There are not some that we show love to and others to whom we don’t. Paul says that when one part of the body hurts we all should hurt. We don’t hurt alone. We must not suffer in silence.
How can we show love for each other? We need to pray for each other. Our prayer for one another ought to ascend to God regularly. When I think of you throughout the week I remember what needs you have and in what ways you need to grow and I lift you up in prayer. We should be continually praying for one another. Instead of making complaint against one another there ought to be concern. Instead of grumbling, prayer. Instead of hard feelings, help. We are to show this love for the physical and spiritual well being of each other toward all the brethren.
Paul says at the end of verse 10, “But we urge you, brethren, to excel still more.” As much as we may show brotherly love toward one another Paul says we must continue to do so in greater measure. There are always ways that we can reach beyond ourselves and show even more love. Have you invited some newer brother or sister to your home to share a meal with you? Have you called someone in the congregation to find out what kind of needs they have? Have you gone out of your way to introduce yourself to some of the new believers in the church, especially those to whom you might offer spiritual encouragement? Ask God for ways in which you might show love to those around you.
4. Pleasing God in Life
The next way in which God wants us to walk and please Him is by pleasing God in life. Paul tells us that we ought to have three aspirations in living a life pleasing to God. We ought to make it our ambition in pleasing God with the whole of our life. Every part of our being ought to strive (and the word is literally “to seek honor”) after these three things if we are to please God with our lives.
A. Be quiet
The first aspiration that we ought to have to please God by our life is to be quiet. This word is used to describe one who rests or ceases from an activity. Now Paul is not saying that we should be without zeal or enthusiasm in living for Christ. As a matter of fact, we as Christians, with the greatest news in the world, should be ultimately enthusiastic about life. Because not only do we have a God who rules our life and directs it in whichever way He wishes for His glory and our good but also we look forward to a life with God in which there will be no sin, nor sickness nor pain nor death.
No, what Paul is speaking of here in being quiet is that we should be aspiring to let go of the franticness of life that encompasses so much of the unbeliever’s world. The worries and cares of the life of the believer should be placed square into our loving Father’s lap. For the frenzy of life truly comes in not being able to trust in that whatever happens to us, comes to us from God for our own good.
One Bible dictionary defines this word, “quiet” as “a spirit which calmly bears the disturbances created by others and which itself does not create disturbances.” Are you quiet in God so that when others seek to upset you, you calmly and gently bear with their unquietness of soul? This quietness, that God can give, resides in an individual at peace with God and those around him or her. It is a rest that one has in God, regardless of the situation around them. This is the quiet that we all need with God. It is the quiet that defuses a tense situation with kind words (It’s the soft answer of Proverbs that turns away wrath).
And we can only come to this when we realize that all our needs are taken care of by God. Jesus describes this peace we need to have in Matthew 6 where He says, “Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’ For the Gentiles (the unbelievers) eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you.”
Do you see that in trusting in our heavenly Father, in seeking the expansion of His kingdom and looking to grow in His righteousness is where we will find that we can be quiet in our lives as God meets the needs of our concerns?
God wants the peace of our quiet lives to show to the watching frenetic world there is a God who orders the affairs of our lives so that we can have lives of quietness and peace. Are you pleasing God in your life by allowing His peace that passes all understanding to rule in your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus?
B. Mind Your Own Business
The second aspiration that Paul says we ought to have to please God by our life is that we must mind our own business. This is what Paul says in the middle of verse 11, “attend to your own business.” Literally it is, “Do the things of your own.”
Paul is not saying that we don’t interact with others. Paul is not saying that we can’t be involved with helping others in their difficulties or problems. Paul is not saying that we should not seek to share the Gospel with others, nor give testimony about what the Lord is doing in our lives. What Paul is saying is that we are to take care of our own business and not meddle in the affairs of others.
Often this kind of meddling takes place when we are not seeking to engage ourselves with meaningful ministry and activities in our own lives. Our life then becomes focused on what the next person is doing. We need to put away the binoculars that we use to find out what our neighbors are doing. We need to stop filling the gossip train with goodies for its next destination. We need to be concerned with our lives and how to live them for God’s glory.
Many times we focus on other people’s problems because it causes us to feel better about ourselves and seems to minimize the sin that we ourselves need to get right with God. Paul gives a similar warning in 1 Timothy 5 in speaking about widows. He cautions Timothy not to put widows on the list for support only if they are over 60 and have had the reputation of having trained their children well and worked diligently in the church. For otherwise Paul says that they may, “learn to be idle, as they go around from house to house; and not merely idle, but also gossips and busybodies, talking about things not proper to mention.” In other words these women would be dishonoring the name of Christ by finding themselves simply idle gossips and busybodies.
The Scripture makes it clear that being an unwelcome busybody brings great shame upon the name of Christ. This is so true that Peter, in his first letter, categorizes being a troublesome meddler in with murder and thievery as sins that Christians should avoid in bringing shame to the name of Christ.
If we are a busybody and gossip, how are we going to be able to encourage people to trust us in helping them by ministering the gospel to them?
C. Work Hard
The third aspiration that Paul says we ought to have to please God by our life is that we must work hard. Here toward the end of verse 11, Paul says, “work with your hands, just as we commanded you.”
Paul says that we need to work hard. In his 2nd letter to the Thessalonians, he mentions that there were some acting in an unruly and undisciplined manner by refusing to work. Chapter 3:10-12 says, “For even when we were with you, we used to give you this order: If anyone is not willing to work, then he is not to eat, either. For we hear that some among you are leading an undisciplined life, doing no work at all, but acting like busybodies. Now such persons we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ to work in quiet fashion and eat their own bread.”
Perhaps there were some there at Thessalonica who thought that because the Lord was going to return they didn’t need to work. They expected to be fed by those who had enough to spare and they would wait out this time until Christ returned. After all they thought it couldn’t be too much longer since someone, having written them a false letter from the apostle, said the day of the Lord had already come.
Whatever the scenario in Thessalonica, Paul wants to combat laziness or slothfulness among believers. Whoever will not work, let him not eat. Hunger is a great motivator for people to work. Paul says work with your hands. We are not to be mooching off others and getting what we can for free. Paul will mention why in the next verse but this “something for nothing” mentality can become greatly magnified in a society where handouts have become the norm.
Some time ago a gentleman came to the door of the church and began to relate to me about the poor condition of his mother with whom he lived and wondered if I would give him some money to help support her. He told me that the church up the street had given him some money and pulled out the check to verify his story. I told him that I understood why his mother couldn’t work and said that he looked healthy enough so why couldn’t he work? He said, smiling, that he was unwilling to work. Smiling back I said, “Well the Bible says that whoever will not work let him not eat. As soon as you are willing to work come back here and I’ll see if I can’t find you a job.” Well he’s not been back.
But we often today we have that same mentality, even among Christians. We expect the government to supply our needs. Why isn’t the government paying for my insurance? Why isn’t the government paying for my college education? Why isn’t the government paying for my trash pickup? Why is it that we believe we are entitled to all these things without paying for them? We have an unbiblical perspective if we think that what we have should be handed to us without work. Perhaps we hope to be like Jeff Ferrera of Waukegan, Ill. One day he was reconciling his checkbook and called the 1st National Bank of Chicago to obtain his current balance. The electronic voice said, “Your primary checking account currently has a balance of $924,844,204.32.” He was one of 826 customers who were almost billionaires for a day because of the biggest error in the history of U.S. banking. If you are looking forward to some kind of windfall taking place in your life you will be disappointed and miss out in one of God’s gifts that He has given to us in the ability to work.
God said that because of the curse upon Adam and Eve our work may be difficult and toilsome yet it is necessary for our well-being. Even before the fall of Adam and Eve God placed Adam in the garden and gave him the responsibility to tend it. Being productive is one of the basic needs of mankind. We need to see our lives as producing something that fills this need. And to circumvent this basic need in our lives is to evade God’s design of us.
Gambling encompasses this same unbiblical perspective of avoiding work. It says, “Let me get something for nothing. Let me squeeze something out of the other guy who lost.” It is not a mentality of provide by the strength God has given, it is a mentality that seeks gain without work. Even if you buy a lottery ticket without the thought of get rich quick and you win a million dollars you have still stolen a million dollars from someone for whom you haven’t worked.
And we see the fruit of this perspective working in the lives of those who think they can something for nothing. Proverbs 15 says, “He that is greedy of gain troubles his own house.” Families are being destroyed by the thousands today because of this philosophy. The fruit of this perspective is seen in the man who used to split the cost of a power ball ticket every week for years with his mother. When they won, the young man said, “That wasn’t our ticket that won, I bought an extra ticket and that is my money.” So the mother ended up suing the son to gain a portion of the winning. Or like the little boy who was in the Cumberland Farms store in Plainville with his mother. He asks her if he might have a candy on the shelf at the checkout counter. The woman berates him, saying, “Do you think that I can afford to buy you a candy bar each time we come to the store?” and then she proceeds to buy $80 plus worth of lottery tickets. The Scripture is true in that it says people will be without natural affection for one another that a mother won’t buy her child a candy bar but will waste $80 on junk like that?
What might we call this perspective? What word might we use to describe someone who wishes to get something for nothing? How might the Scripture express it when someone expects some entitlement from the government for which they have not worked nor have any intention of working? The Apostle Paul says it is theft. Why do I say that? In Ephesians 4:28, Paul says, “He who steals must steal no longer; but rather he must labor, performing with his own hands what is good, so that he will have something to share with one who has need.” If we are not working for our gain then we are stealing. If we are not seeking an increase to our wealth through the work of our hands or the labor of our minds then we are stealing.
Why are we to work with our own hands? Why are we to seek gainful employment in our lives? Paul gives us two reasons why we should make it our ambition to have a life centered on pleasing God. Paul says that it provides two things.
i. The right testimony
First, it provides the right testimony. Tell me, what is the first thought that comes to your mind about someone who is not hurried and harried by the difficulty and stress of life around them; who minds his own business not sticking it into places it does not belong and who works hard to provide for his needs? I think we might all universally say we have a certain respect for this kind of person. In verse 12, Paul says, “so that you will behave properly toward outsiders.” He wants us to have the right testimony to those around us.
If we, as believers, are not living in a way that causes people around us to exalt God then we are not pleasing God with our lives.
If we are not quiet, minding our own business and hard working then people see God as the God of the frenzied, the God of the busybody and the God of the lazy. How can we go around speaking about our God if we have a testimony that is besmirched by these things? Paul says that we need to live in such a way that pleases God so that we might have the right testimony.
ii. For your own needs
Secondly, not only does this provide a right testimony but it also provides for your own needs. At the end of verse 12 Paul says, “so that you will not be in any need.” God has given us strength to work and be productive. And as we have opportunity and ability we must seek to provide for our own needs and the needs of our family. If God has given us the ability to work we must not look for our needs to be met in some other way.
Again, let us not think that we are entitled to anything except that for which God gives us the strength to work. Let us labor diligently in the way that God has given us to do so and let’s not be lax in working hard to supply our own needs.
Maybe you are here and you say, “I don’t have any difficulty with wanting to work or work hard.” You might even say, “I love to work, I am consumed by work.” In this case, take Jesus’ words to heart today. In John 6, those who had been fed by Jesus’ miracle of multiplying the fish and the loaves came back to Him because they wanted more. And Jesus told them this. “Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you, for on Him the Father, God, has set His seal.” Jesus speaks to you today who have little time for the spiritual because you are so focused on the material. You are wanting to get ahead, make sure that you get your fair share and don’t miss out on your piece of the pie.
Well Jesus said, that the material will never satisfy us because it cannot give us what we truly need, which is a relationship with God. Our accomplishments will never merit anything before God. It is by coming to Jesus Christ that one will have eternal life. And coming to Jesus Christ means reviling all of your own self-righteousness and self-sufficiency in every area of your life.
In that same chapter Jesus said, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst . . . all that the Father gives to me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.” This is the stumbling block for many people. Many people scoff at the fact that Jesus’ death on the cross paid completely for their sin. They look down giving up their attempts at pleasing God on their own and rely only on what Christ did for them. It is precisely at this point that people end up in hell. They want to contribute something to their salvation. They want to do something to allow them to be made righteous. And this is due to human pride. Your pride keeps you from trusting only in Christ and leaving your salvation totally in His hands. You want to turn over a new leaf. You want to feel as if you have contributed something to it. But as the songwriter has said, “Nothing in my hands I bring, but simply to your cross I cling.” As long as you want to retain even a trace of your effort to give you salvation you have the wrath of God abiding on you. Jesus finished this part of His discourse in John 6 by saying, “For this is the will of the Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.” Don’t be caught up in working for the bread that perishes if you have not found the bread that gives eternal life. Come to Jesus and trust in His death and resurrection alone to wipe away all your sin.