How should a Christian defend himself when his character and
motives are attacked in an effort to belittle the Gospel which he
proclaims? Paul had to face this question everywhere he went, for
the Judaisers were hot on his trail trying to destroy the fruit of his
labors. From the defensive nature of this chapter it is clear that they
had arrived at Thessalonika as well, and they were trying to
discredit the whole revival experience. You can imagine the subtle
attacks they would use to undermine these new converts and cause
them to question.
They would say something like, “O you say that Paul was the
man who got this new movement going. Isn’t he the man with the
prison record going around stirring up trouble everywhere? He is a
brave man doing what he is doing, but then a man would do almost
anything if there is enough money in it. Just get a few good speeches
together and you can make a mint feeding people fancy ideas about
religion. I wouldn’t mind starting my own religion either if I was
free, like Paul, to be able to hit and run.” Others would be far less
subtle, and they would just accuse Paul outright of being a religious
racketeer out to get all he could from anyone sucker enough to fall
for his deception.
We need to keep in mind that this was a new thing. Paul
appeared on the scene with the Gospel. They believed and then Paul
had to move on, and they had no Bible or long history to fall back
on. Attacks like this would be serious. Paul was worried about how
they would hold out under tribulation and these attacks on the one
who brought them the Gospel. In this chapter we see him defending
himself, and we want to look at the two fold approach he uses in his
defense.
I. HE REJECTS THE FALSE CHARGES.
Paul just flatly rejects any such charges that he was trying to
trick them with impure motives. Peter likewise had to defend
himself as he wrote, “We have not followed cunningly devised
fables.” Men do not go around defending themselves unless there is
an attack on them, and so these verses reveal the constant battle the
Apostles had with public relations. This has been a major area of
conflict through the ages. Christian schools and organizations need
public relations offices constantly keeping people informed that the
charges against them are false.
In Paul’s day many false prophets were already active, and as
things went on they got worse. John later says that anti-Christ is
even now already at work in our midst. In such a situation you have
counterfeits at large that men can point to as examples of falsehood
and deceit. Paul could do what many evangelists since could not do.
The whole profession of evangelism has been given a black eye by
the false and deceitful methods by which some get decisions. Paul
used no such methods, and yet he was of the greatest success. He
respected people and did not take them for fools. There were no
tricks when Paul preached. He presented the Gospel in its
simplicity. We never read of Paul trying to get hands up and then
pressuring those people to come forward. Paul believed in the
sovereignty of God when it comes to evangelism. You do your best
and let the Holy Spirit do the rest. This is why I appreciate Billy
Graham. He gives the message and offers those who want to receive
Christ the opportunity to come. There are no tricks or pressure. If
God does not move them there is no point in trying to get a decision.
It is only a Spirit induced decision that is a saving decision. Knowing
that, Paul avoided all appearances of evil. He could say in perfect
confidence that he has rejected all deceit.
Even if deceit can sometimes get more results, honest
dependence upon God is the only way to go. You might wonder
about what practical value this is to us. I can’t speak for everyone,
but my experience has been that a good many Christians feel that
the end justifies the means. They feel that when it comes to getting a
person to decide for Christ anything goes. I use to think it was very
clever of a student I knew to think up unique ways of witnessing. He
would go into a restaurant and sit down by some man. Then he
would have a friend come in and sit by him. He would begin to
witness to his friend as if he was a stranger, and do so loud enough
to make sure the other man heard.
Such a method is highly unlikely to be effective, and the whole
thing is based on deceit and the philosophy that the end justifies the
means. Since the motive is worthy, it is felt that deception is
legitimate. Scripture says this is not so. Such a method could
possibly lead someone to respond to the Gospel, but they would find
out that they were involved in a plan of deception, and they or
friends would accuse us of being fanatics and deceivers. We would
in a position of being tempted to carry on further deception, or
admit it and give the unsaved ground to stand on in their charges.
We would leave the convert in a very troubled and dangerous state.
Deception is of the devil, and it cannot play a part in the
communication of the Gospel. Paul knew it from the start, and with
a clear conscience before God he could write to his converts and
reject all such charges as false. His attitude was like that of the
noble who was asked by his King to practice deceit. His response
was, “O King! Believe me, rather much would I fall by virtue than
rise by guilt to certain victory.”
II. HE REVEALS HIS TRUE MOTIVE.
We sometimes think we are pretty sharp with all our studies in
modern psychology. We have learned that the best way to treat a
so-called bad boy, or anyone who has rebelled against the standards
imposed on him, is to take him into your fellowship and confidence
and give him responsibility. God, of course, did not need to wait for
modern psychology to discover this before He put it into practice.
He took the man who was out to crush the advance of His kingdom
and made him chief embassador for His kingdom. He entrusted
Paul with the Gospel. He went from antagonist to ambassador, from
enemy to emissary, from persecutor to preacher. God not only gives
us the gift of salvation, but He trusts us to carry the gift to others.
This is an amazing fact, for every time a person puts their trust in
Christ, Christ puts His trust in them. He trusts them to share the
good news with others.
There is a story that Jesus was asked before His ascension,
“What are your plans for the spread of the Gospel?” “I shall leave
that to my disciples.” “But what if they fail you?” “I have no other
plans.” Our part in God’s plan is tremendous. He intrusts us with
the Gospel, and if we don’t circulate it, it will be of no more value to
others than is the misers treasure. We are not to be Gospel
collectors, but Gospel communicators. We are not to be Gospel
misers, but Gospel messengers. How can others hear it if we have it
but hoard it?
The Gospel falls into Aristotle’s category of the undiminished
giver. It is of such a character that the more you give it away the
more you have. Anything material I would share with others would
leave me with less, but to share ideas and truths not only leaves my
stock undiminished, but increases their strength by repetition. For
example, I have an idea right now, and I am the only one here with
it. I will share it with you. In verse 4 Paul uses the plural we. He is
taking Silas and Timothy in with himself, and by implication
includes all of us who have received the Gospel. I have now
multiplied that idea by as many as are here, but I still have all of it,
and plus it has been more deeply impressed on me for having shared
it.
Paul says that God trusted us with the Gospel, and we are
honoring that trust when we speak it and share it. The reason we do
not use any deceitful means to get it across is that our own master
motive is to please God. Even success through deceit would not be
pleasing to God. Here is the motive that explains the conduct of
Paul, and of all who give their lives to be used for His glory.
Someone wrote,
Not for the eyes of men may this day’s work be done,
But unto thee, O God, that with the setting sun,
My heart may know the matchless prize
Of such approval in your eyes.
With this as a driving motivation, life takes on a consistency
and unity that nothing else can produce. One author said, “We
found out to our grief that in a world in which anything goes,
everything is soon gone.” When our master motive is to please God,
then only that which is pleasing to Him is allowable. In verse 1 and
2 we see that Paul received courage from God for communicating
the Gospel, and now we see that the means must correspond with
that end. Not only is it important to reach people, it is also
important how to do it, for that how must be pleasing to God.
It is a worthy end to want to support your family, but to sell
dope as a means to attain that end is so unworthy of the end that the
whole plan is evil. It is having this master motive of Paul of desiring
in all that we do to please God that keeps our means worthy of the
ends we seek. Without it we cannot tell a Christian from a non-Christian,
for many non-Christians do good deeds, but they have no
desire to please God necessarily. Their master motive is to please
self. If the Christian does not have the master motive of pleasing
God he may do much good, but the motive is selfish. T. S. Elliot
said, “The last temptation is the greatest treason, to do the right
deed for the wrong reason.”
Most of our problems as Christians are related to our motives.
The reason we often face frustration and anxiety, just as the world
does, its because we lack a definite conscious of just what we are
doing and why. If things don’t go well, we feel like giving up, but
Paul didn’t, and neither would we if we were constantly conscious
that the purpose for which we do anything is primarily to please
God. It pleases God that we study His Word, and so we should be
doing so constantly, even if it is difficult, and we do not always grasp
its meaning.
This is the secret of Paul’s constant drive, for even with all of
his trials and frustrations, he could rejoice in the Lord always
because his master motive was to please God. George A. Coe in his
book The Motives Of Men wrote, “The disillusionment that creeps
over 20th century man concerns, not the ability of the universe to
supply what he desires, but his own capacity for really desiring
anything greatly significant.” Only the person with a master motive
greater than life itself can find ultimate satisfaction and purpose to
life. That is why there is no greater goal for the Christian than to
follow Paul in developing his motive for living as our master motive.
