These 5 verses conclude Paul’s defense of himself to the
Thessalonians, and in them we see clearly that one of the basic
secrets of success is to love your work. Paul’s work was reaching
people with the Gospel and seeing them mature in the Christian life.
He loved this work more than life itself. Paul was the servant of all,
and that is why he was so great. He was saved to serve, and he
served to save. Oliver St. John Gogarty, the Irish poet, was an ear and throat
specialist in his early days. When someone asked him why he left
that profession to take up poetry he said, “I got tired of looking
down people’s throats and listening to them say ah, and then looking
into their ears.” H. Luccock said in response, “What did he expect?
Did he imagine that in his service he would have an endless
succession of fresh bewildering surprises?” Service can often be
monotonous, and that is why Christian service calls for total
commitment and self-sacrifice, for without it the frustrations force
people to give up. We want to examine these verses and see what
kept Paul on the path of blameless behavior in spite of all the
problems he faced.
Verse 8: Paul’s love for these people was evident in his
behavior, for he says he was willing to give himself to them. Paul
had no cold impersonal presentation of the Gospel. He entered into
it with his life. This is an amazing statement when he says not the
Gospel of God only. What does he mean when he says the Gospel
only? You mean there is more? Yes, there is, and there must be if
the Gospel is to be effective. But what can you give more than the
Gospel? You can give yourself. The Gospel costs you nothing.
Freely you have received, and freely you are to give. But to give of
yourself, and to give up what is yours will cost you something, and
this is the plus factor of success. Being a Christian was no mere
profession for Paul, but it was a passion.
Paul had no contract with God. He had no 40 hour week and
retirement funds and health insurance. He had a message to
proclaim, and he was constrained by the love of Christ to give
himself completely to the task. Service that costs us nothing
personally will likely bear little fruit.
Verse 9: Paul made a special effort not to be a burden to people.
He was a burden bearer and not a burden bringer. He worked nights
so that he could spend the days preaching the Gospel.
Fortunately he knew how to make tents. Every Jewish boy was
taught a trade. Gamaliel said, “He that teacheth not his son a trade,
doth the same as if he taught him to be a thief.” Paul was taught a
trade and he used it rather than seek support from his Gentile
converts. He avoided all possibility of misunderstanding by offering
the Gospel “Without money and without price.”
The fact that Paul was so cautious about money and support in
dealing with his converts indicates that tithing is a commitment of
mature Christian responsibility. It is no part of the saving Gospel,
and Paul did not mention the idea to these people. This is interesting
because failure to follow Paul’s wisdom has lead to much superficial
and materialistic Christianity. In my limited experience I have met
a number of professing Christians who were fed up with the church
because of its demands for money. What has happened is that these
people were burdened with financial commitments to the church
before they were spiritually mature and committed to Christ and the
work of the church.
These people had no joy in giving because there was no sense of
involvement and no sense of delight in sharing a common goal. Paul
was more concerned about getting mature believers than in getting
givers, for he knew that in the long run the mature believers would
become the greatest givers. Failing to follow Paul’s method has lead
many churches to produce flocks of discontented sheep who feel that
the main reason for the existence of the church is to keep them
sheered.
Verse 10: What a statement! No man would dare to make it
unless it was true. Paul appeals to their memory, and to God also to
bear witness. His behavior was holy, righteous and blameless. Paul
never claimed to be perfect, and he admitted he had not yet attained,
but was always pressing on. He makes it clear, however, that for all
practical purposes the Christian can live a blameless life before the
world and fellow believers. Paul is not making himself a special
case, for he uses the plural to include Timothy and Silas also.
Trapp wrote, “Happy is the man who can be acquitted by
himself in private, in public by others, in both by God.” Here were
three men who could take such a stand. What a powerful testimony
they are to what Christ can do in us and through us if we are
completely committed. F. B. Speakman, once pastor in Pittsburgh,
said of a skeptical friend, “I often suspected that his only real
difficulty with religion is that he has known too many clergymen too
well. That can be a road block in any Pilgrim’s Progress.” Layman
can be included also, for many Christians are convinced that the
way to impress the unbeliever is to show him you can be just like
him rather than showing him you can be what he cannot.
I saw this philosophy being worked out in action. I saw a
Christian business man meet with a group of unemployed men, most
of whom were not Christians. The leader began the meeting with a
sincere prayer as the smoke from his cigarette rose with it. He then
proceeded to show that Christians are not narrow minded sheltered
people who don’t know how the world lives and talks. He proved it
by introducing a curse word here and there, and making a specific
effort at one point to use a violent expression. He justified this by
referring to Samuel Shoemaker’s testimony that he did not want to
go deep into heaven but to stay by the gate to help others in. When
he finished that story he said he too wanted to stand near the gate.
One of the skeptical men at my table said, “Don’t you think it would
be better if he stood on the inside?” All of his buddies had a good
laugh at that.
After the meeting I talked to some of these young men and it
was made clear that non-Christians are not impressed at all when
you show them you can be like them. Their whole problem in
believing is that they cannot see enough difference to convince them
there is anything to it. They had no respect for that man who could
pray to Christ one minute and then use foul language the next. Such
behavior is not holy, and certainly not blameless. Jesus never hinted
that conformity to any practice of the world would be effective in
winning the world. He was holy, undefiled and separate from their
behavior, even while he ate with sinners. He was the friend of
sinners, and Paul followed him in that, but he proved that purity of
life is the greatest power to persuade men.
Verse 11: Paul now refers to his fatherly concern for them. In
verse 7 he referred to the gentle care of the mother, and now he
refers to the father’s guidance. A father exhorts his children. He
gives guiding principles for life, and when the going gets tough he
comforts and encourages the child to go on, even when the
opposition is great. He lays before them their responsibility and
obligation before God to stand fast.
He stresses that he dealt with each of them as a father. The idea
here is of individual concern. Paul did not treat people on a package
deal basis. Personal recognition is essential. F. B. Speakman told of
his experience of seeing well-dressed parents and a little boy in a
fancy restaurant. The waitress took the order of the parents and
then said to the little boy, “What would you like?” The boy
responded fearfully, “I want a hot dog.” Both parents barked at
once, “No hot dog!” They told her to bring him potatoes and beef
with vegetable and a hard roll. The waitress was not listening to
them, and she said to the boy, “What do you want on your hot dog?”
He flashed an amazed smile and said, “Ketchup-lots of ketchup, and
bring me a glass of milk.” “Coming up,” she said as she turned and
left two parents in stunned silence. The boy turned and in excited
voice said, “You know, she thinks I’m real.” Paul treated people as
if they were real, and it is a Christian obligation to do so, for each
person is precious to God.
Verse 12: Here is the goal of all Paul’s loving, self-sacrificing
and blameless behavior. Does Paul actually expect these people to
be able to walk worthy of God? Yes he does. The Great
Commission says, “Teaching them to observe all things I have
commanded you.” We can learn to live a life that is pleasing to God.
It is not automatic, however, and it takes exhortation,
encouragement and urging from a loving Apostle. Men cannot be
saved by their efforts, but this is totally the work of God. They can
and must, however, cooperate with God to grow in grace and be
sanctified. Paul teaches that it is possible to walk like the child of a
king. It is possible to live with a dignity worthy of the calling that is
ours, and do so to the glory of God.
H. Luccock stood on the dock in England while Queen
Elizabeth was boarding a ship for a trip to Europe. He noted a large
pile of trunks with the label “Not wanted on voyage.” These were
things not needed until they arrived, and so they could be put in
storage. He said that it caused him to think of professing Christians
who feel this way about Christian ethics. They figure that they do
not have to walk worthy until they walk the streets of gold, and so
they mark many virtues “Not wanted on the voyage,” and they store
them away, and do not walk worthy.
Maclaren calls living lives worthy of God “The law of Christian
conduct in a nutshell.” Whatever is not worthy is not right. This
principle cuts across all of life, and it does not allow for a
compartmental Christianity. People get the idea that your conduct
only has to be worthy when you are being religious, but at other
times it is not necessary. They think that life is in compartments
where you have one for science, one for sports, one for news and one
for religion. You take your choice. Some people like sports and
others like religion and so religion is just one aspect of life in which
you have a strong interest. Paul repudiates such an idea.
He makes it clear that the whole of life is to be Christian, and conduct in every
aspect of it is to be pleasing to God. All of life is to be lived worthy
of a citizen of the kingdom of God.
Looking back over this defense of Paul, it is no wonder he was
used of God the way he was. His courage in severe struggle; his
master motive of pleasing God; his attitude of complete sincerity and
gentleness, and his blameless behavior all add up to one of the most
Christ-like lives ever lived. The source of his life he identifies clearly
when he says, “Be ye imitators of me as I am of Christ.”
