PT-3 "What Happens to Christians who Die" (1 Thess. 4:14b)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/7/2014 9:52 AM

My Worship Time                                          Focus:  What Happens to Christians who Die PT-3

Bible Reading & Meditation                         Reference:  1 Thessalonians 4:14b

            Message of the verses:  and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.”

            We are in our third lesson on the Rapture which teaches us what will happen to believers who die and we are in our second lesson on “The Pillars of the Rapture,” and in today’s SD we will be looking at “The Resurrection of Christ,” and the importance of that event and what it has to do with what happens to believers when they die or as Paul puts it “sleep.”

            I want to state at the beginning of this SD that it was because that the Father accepted what Christ did for payment for our sins that Christ arose from the grave.  There is a word that is found in several NT passages that also has to do with the Father accepting the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and that word is propitiation: “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”  (1 John 4:10)  In one of John MacArthur’s sermons that I was listening to he stated that in the ancient Greek culture those who believed in multipliable gods said that this word meant the satisfaction of an angry god.  We know that God is angry with sin and that when Christ paid the price for sin on the cross this took care of His anger for those who would accept the forgiveness that Christ has to offer.  Sin is more serious than many people understand for it is so serious that this was the reason that God sent Christ to earth to die in our place so that we could be forgiven and have a right standing with God.  Sin cost God His only begotten Son and so the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the most important event that has ever happened on this earth.

            John MacArthur quotes I. Howard Marshall who wrote “The death of believers does not take place apart from Jesus, and hence Paul could conclude that God will raise them up and bring them into the presence of Jesus at the parousia.  God will treat those who died trusting Jesus in the same way He treated Jesus Himself, namely by resurrecting them.” 

            Here are some verses that Paul wrote to show that because God raised Christ He will also raise those who believe on Him and these verses have to do with the two words in our passage today which are ‘even so.”  “"After a little while the world will no longer see Me, but you will see Me; because I live, you will live also (John 14:19).”  “But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ’s at His coming (1 Cor. 15:23).”  “Now God has not only raised the Lord, but will also raise us up through His power (1 Cor. 6:14).”  “Knowing that He who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus (2 Cor. 6:14a).”

            Now here is the way that I understand the different resurrections that are taught in the Bible, in the New Testament.  First we saw that Jesus was the first One to be resurrected as the passage states He was the “first fruits.”  Next will be the resurrection of those in the Church Age which will happen at the rapture.  I believe that shortly after the rapture the antichrist will be revealed and will sign the seven year peace treaty with the nation of Israel which will begin the seven year tribulation period.  Many will come to know the Lord during this period and at the end of this period those millions who have died for the cause of Christ will be resurrected along with the Old Testament Saints.  At the end of the Millennial Kingdom there will be a short war as Satan is loosed from his chains in hell to lead it and as I said this will be a short war.  I believe that all believers who are alive during the tribulation period will receive their new glorious bodies at the end of this period.  The next event will be the “Great White Throne Judgment,” and this judgment is for all unbelievers as they will stand before the Lord to show Him why they should get into heaven, but not one of them will.  Now I write all of this to help us understand why the Rapture of the Church will happen before the tribulation period, for when we studied the book of Daniel and the seventy weeks of Daniel we saw that at the end of the 383^rd year that Christ was rejected as the Messiah of Israel and that there were seven years left on this 490 years of prophecy.  Now do not get confused for the 70 weeks is actually 490 years as the passage states “seventy sevens” which means seventy weeks of years and this comes up to the 490 years.  My point here is that God deals with the nation of Israel throughout this entire 490 years including these last seven years so before the tribulation period begins He will take His “Bride” the Church to heaven with Him where we will have the marriage supper of the Lamb and also the Judgment Seat of Christ.  I have been a firm believer in a pre-tribulation, and a pre-millennial Rapture of the Church and have seen nothing in Scripture to change my mind.

            In our next SD we will look at “The Revelation of Christ which covers the first part of the fifteenth verse.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I cannot take for granted the fact that Christ died for me, as it cost Him His life along with costing His Father His Son and I never want to take this for granted, but praise the Lord for His goodness to me for this act and look forward to living with Him in eternity. 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Since Christ took care of my biggest problem, the problem of sin, I can trust Him to care for the problems I face each day of my life.

Memory verses for the week:  Review of Philippians 2:5-11.

5 Have this attitude in yourself which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, although He existed in the form of God did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied Himself, taking on the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.  8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.  9 For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Ruth” (Ruth 4:13).

Today’s Bible question:  “What was Moses’ occupation before he became leader of the children of Israel?”

Answer in our next SD.

7/7/2014 11:04 AM

 

PT-2 "What Happens When a Christian Dies" (1 Thess. 4:13-18)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/6/2014 11:14 AM

My Worship Time                                            Focus:  What Happens to Christians who Die PT-2

Bible Reading & Meditation                                    Reference: 1 Thessalonians 4:13-15a

            Message of the verses:  We will be looking at our second SD on what the Bible calls The Rapture of the Church, and in particular “The Pillars of the Rapture,” which covers verses 14-15a.  I want to also write something on verse thirteen which was already said in our previous SD.

“13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope.”

As we look at this last part of verse thirteen we see the reason for Paul writing this section to the Thessalonian believers.  We looked at a quote from William Barclay in our last SD about those who have no hope and it was not a pretty sight to read what unbelievers had to say about dying, something that is on the minds of all people from time to time.  Dr. Wiersbe writes the following about how the Bible speaks about death.  “It is important to note that the revelation concerning death and the afterlife was not given all at one time.  Many cults use verses from the Psalms and Ecclesiastes to ‘prove’ their false doctrines.  These verses seem to teach that the grave is the end, or that the soul ‘sleeps’ till the resurrection.  We must keep in mind that God’s revelation was gradual and progressive, and that it climaxed in the coming of Christ ‘who abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel (2 Tim. 1:10 NASB).  We look to Christ and the New Testament for the complete revelation concerning death.”  Now as we saw when we studied the book of Job that Job knew that there would be a resurrection of the righteous and also when we looked at the book of Daniel we saw a similar teaching. 

At this time I want to include the outline that Warren Wiersbe has for this section of 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18:  “Revelation: We have God’s Truth (1 Thess. 4:13, 15a).”  “Return: Christ Is coming Again (1 Thess. 4:14-15).”  “Resurrection:  The Christian Dead will Rise (1 Thess. 4:15-16).”  “Rapture:  Living Believers Caught Up (1 Thess. 4:17).”  And “Reunion:  Christians Forever with the Lord (1 Thess. 4:17-18).”  Now I will be following the outline from John MacArthur’s commentary but will also be looking at what Dr. Wiersbe has to write from his commentary.

The Pillars of the Rapture (1 Thessalonians 4:14-15a):  “14  For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord,”

We can see that the truth about the Rapture of the Church did not come from philosophical speculation or did it come from religious mythology, or a fable that some well meaning person brought up to comfort those who lost love ones, however it came from the marvelous truth that the Lord Jesus Christ will return to gather believers to Himself and this is based upon three unshakeable pillars; “the death of Christ, the resurrection of Christ, and the revelation of Christ” as outlined in John MacArthur’s commentary.

The Death of Christ:  (1 Thess. 4:14a):  “For if we believe that Jesus died,”

Paul does not doubt the death of Jesus Christ, for this could be written “since we believe that Jesus died.”  There are some who would have people to believe that Christ never did die, but was revived in the coolness of the tomb.  My answer to that is that if the Romans were going to crucify someone they were going to make certain that that person was dead.  MacArthur writes “The apostle’s simple statement summarizes all the riches of Christ’s atoning work, which provides the necessary foundation for the gathering of the church.  His death satisfied the demands of God’s righteousness, holiness, and justice by paying in full the penalty for believers’ sins.  By virtue of Christ’s substitutionary death, when God ‘made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him,’ (2 Cor. 5:21), Christians have been made acceptable to God and thus fit to be gathered into His presence.”

Next we must understand that when Paul was speaking of the death of Christ he did not use the word “sleep” because Christ had to go through death in order to pay for our sins.  MacArthur writes “Jesus experienced the full fury of death in all its dimensions as He ‘bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness’ (1 Peter 2:24).  It was because of Christ’s death that when a believer dies he is said to be asleep.  MacArthur quotes T. E. Wilson who wrote “Death has been changed to sleep by the work of Christ.  It is an apt metaphor in which the whole concept of death is transformed.  ‘Christ made it the name for death in the dialect of the church (Acts 7:60) (Findlay)’”   MacArthur concludes “When believers die, their spirit goes immediately into conscious fellowship with the Lord, while their bodies temporarily sleep in the grave, awaiting the Rapture.”  We will continue looking at this main section in our next SD.

Spiritual meaning for my life today:  How wonderful that Christ took my place on the cross and then experienced death for me so that if the Lord tarries my body will only be asleep awaiting the trumpet call to join my soul/spirit as I return with Christ from heaven at the rapture of the church.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Live like this is true in my life because it is.

Memory verses for the week:  Review of Philippians 2:5-11.

5 Have this attitude in yourself which was also in Christ Jesus 6, who, although He existed in the form of God did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied Himself taking on the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.  8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.  9  For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Answer in yesterday’s Bible question:  “At Troas” (2 Timothy 4:13).

Today’s Bible question:  “Who was the wife of Boaz?”

Answer in our next SD.

7/6/2014 12:09 PM

PT-1 "What Happens to Christians Who Die" (1Thess. 4:13-18)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/5/2014 12:29 PM

My Worship Time                                          Focus:  What Happens to Christians Who Die PT-1

Bible Reading & Meditation                         Reference:  1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

            Message of the verses:  “13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. 14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. 15 For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we, who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore comfort one another with these words.”

            In today’s SD we will be looking at an introduction to what Bible students call “The Rapture of the Church.”  If one is trying to look for the word “rapture” in the Scriptures it will not be found, unless one looks at a Catholic Bible which was translated from Latin, for the word “rapture” comes from a Latin word that means “to snatch out.”  That is exactly what the rapture is all about as Christ will descend upon the sky around the earth and will take away all true members of the Church Age, either living or dead and they will meet the Lord in the air.  Those who have died will have their bodies resurrected which will be a new glorified body, and those who are alive will have their bodies changed on the way up to meet the Lord in the air, in the clouds above the earth.  This in a nutshell is what the rapture is all about and there are two major passages in the NT, three if you count the one in John 14, that speak of the rapture and since we are in a study of 1 Thessalonians we will stick pretty much to what Paul wrote to those believers and why he wrote to them about this event.

            I have mentioned many times in different SD’s that it was my fear of death and fear of the end times that the Lord used to draw me to Himself and during my time when I visited a friend in Florida in 1974 I listened to a series of tapes by Hal Lindsey on the end times he went over what the rapture was all about and God has used this experience to not only draw me to Himself in salvation, but to also lead others to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ as I explained to them the truth about the end times and more importantly the true gospel message.

            With that said I want to begin with an introduction to 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18.  What I see is that Paul first of all went to Thessalonica and told the gospel to people in that city beginning with the Jews as was his practice.  He then went to the gentiles and there were some of them who became believers in Jesus Christ.  After a period that we really don’t know how long Paul was run out of town because of persecution and did not know whether or now what he had taught time was in vain or not in vain.  Later on Paul while in Athens had sent Timothy to Thessalonica to find out how these believers were and when he received the report from Timothy he was rejoicing in the Lord because this small, new church had become an example to others and were growing in the Lord in many ways. Now what I have to add here is something that I believe happened, and there is no proof that this is what happened so you may not chose to believe this is what happened.  I believe that when Timothy came back to Paul that he told Paul that the believers in Thessalonica had a question about the rapture and this is the reason that Paul is expounding on this subject.  The problem that they did have was fear, fear that those that were in their church who had died were going to be some kind of second class citizens of heaven because they had missed the rapture of the church.  Now Paul will have to deal with the in the second letter that he writes to these believes and we will look at it again when we study the second letter to the Thessalonians. 

            In his commentary on 1 Thessalonians John MacArthur writes the following about the concerns that these believers had about the rapture:  “First, they seem to have been afraid that they had missed the Rapture, since the persecution they were suffering (3:3-4) caused some to hear fear they were in the Day of the Lord, which they obviously had net expected to experience (2 Thessalonians 2:1-2).  Furthering that misconception were some false teachers, about whom Paul warned in 2 Thessalonians 2:2, ‘[Do] not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord had come.’  But the persecution they were experiencing was not that associated with the Tribulation or the Day of the Lord.  It was merely the persecution that all believers can expect (2 Tim. 3:12) and Paul has warned the Thessalonians about (3:3-4).”

            Now as we continue with our study of the “Rapture” we will see that there are some who believe that the Rapture will happen before the tribulation period, and some believe it will happen at the end of the tribulation period, and some believe it will happen at the middle of the tribulation period.  I have always believed that the Bible teaches that the Rapture will happen before the Tribulation period and as we go on through our study I will give evidences of this belief.  As we see here that the Thessalonians believed that they had missed the rapture give evidence that they believed that Paul had taught them that the rapture would happen before the tribulation for they believed they were in the tribulation period, otherwise they would have not been worried that they were in the tribulation period if they were taught the rapture happened at the end of the tribulation period.

            Now as we begin to look at other things that Paul was addressing we see in verse 13 that Paul is addressing to them about those who have fallen asleep.  We can see a direct change in what Paul had been teaching or writing about with these words “But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren.”  These words show a change in what Paul was writing to them about.  Now we will get into what he means when he says “fallen asleep,” later on, but it actually means that a person who is in the Lord when he dies has his body asleep, but his soul goes directly to heaven for Paul wrote to the Corinthians “to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord (2 Cor. 5:8b).”  The Bible does not teach of soul sleep as some contend that it does for the soul never sleeps only the body does.  With this said we can understand why Paul writes that true believers do not grieve as others who have no hope grieve and with this said I will quote from William Barclay who was quoted by John MacArthur in his commentary on this subject on how unbelievers feel about death.  “In the face of death the pagan world stood in despair.  The met it with grim resignation and bleak hopelessness.  Aeschylus wrote, ‘Once a man dies there is no resurrection.’  Theocritus wrote, ‘There is hope for those who are alive, but those who had died are without hope.’  Catullus wrote, ‘When once our brief light sets, there is one perpetual night through which we must sleep.’  On their tombstones grim epitaphs were carved. ‘I was not; I became; I am not; I care not.’”  (The Letters to the Philippians, Colossians, and Thessalonians, rev, ed. [Louisville: Westminster 1975], 203).

            At the end of his beginning commentary on these verses (4:13-18) John MacArthur gives us the direction we are going to be taking as we study these verses:  “The Thessaloians’ ignorance about the Rapture caused them to grieve.  It was to give them hope and to comfort them that Paul discussed that momentous event, giving a fourfold description of it:  its pillars, participants, plan, and profit.”  We will follow this outline along with looking at some of the things that Dr. Warren Wiersbe has to say as he comments also on these verses in the days to come.  I hope and pray that this study will benefit all of those who read it.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Job” (Job 1:21).

Today’s Bible question:  “Where did Paul leave his cloak?”

Answer in our next SD.

7/5/2014 1:48 PM

Work With Your Hands (1 Thess. 4:11c-12)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/22/2014 9:05 PM

My Worship Time                                                                        Focus:  Work With Your Hands

Bible Reading & Meditation                                   Reference:  1 Thessalonians 4:11c-12

            Message of the verses:  We are finally getting to the last SD that I will do on 1 Thessalonians chapter four for this month.  We will be looking at probably the most important section of the book of 1 Thessalonians next month, and that is the rapture of the Church for verses 13-18 give the best account of the rapture found in the entire Bible.  Believe it or not I did read a book many years ago about showing the rapture of the Church from the Old Testament feasts that the people of Israel did and it was very interesting.

            Work with Your Hands:  (1 Thessalonians 4:11c-12):  and work with your hands, just as we commanded you, 12 so that you will behave properly toward outsiders and not be in any need.”

            Thessalonica was a Greek city and so we can assume that even though the Romans ruled the world at this time that this letter was written that the people that Paul was writing to were Greeks.  I have mentioned that this city is still a thriving city in Greece in today’s world.  My point in mentioning this is that the Greeks did not believe that a Greek should work with their hands, but only the slaves should do manual labor.  Being new believers this may have been a new thing for them. 

            John MacArthur writes:  “Apparently many of the working class and slave laborers from among the Thessalonians converts had taken the attitude that, since they had become free in Christ, perhaps they were no longer subject to their masters and obligations of their jobs.  The new believers’ preoccupation with Jesus’ return may have intensified that attitude.”  I think that this may have been the key element in Paul giving this exhortation to them to work with their hands in order to support their families so that they would not have to depend upon others to take care of them.  We see this also in the second letter to the Thessalonians, and eventually we will be looking at that letter too if God wills it.  Paul writes “if anyone is not willing to work, then he is not to eat, either.”  This comes from 2 Thessalonians 3:10. 

            Paul has written to this young church that they were to love, to live quietly, and to mind their own business along with working with their hands and this is an evangelistic part of this letter.  If people do these types of things then non-believers will notice them and wonder why and how they can do them and will ask questions.  MacArthur writes “for him, the key to evangelism was the integrity Christians manifest to a sinful, confused, and agitated world.”

            MacArthur ends his commentary on this chapter from his book, with the following:  “Such practical, straightforward living, is the foundation of all evangelism.  Believers, who sacrificially love other people, exhibit tranquil lives, conscientiously focus on keeping their own lives in order, and faithfully carry out their daily responsibilities in the workplace (thus avoiding any welfare dependence)—all the while proclaiming the gospel in light of the return of Christ—are the most effective witnesses to their unsaved neighbors and loved ones.”  

6/22/2014 9:30 PM

Mind Your Own Business (1 Thess. 4:11b)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/20/2014 8:33 AM

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  Mind Your Own Business

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  1 Thessalonians 4:11b

            Message of the verse:  “and attend to your own business and work with your hands, just as we commanded you,”

            In John MacArthur’s commentary on this section he writes that it is not sure if this exhortation was given to all the Thessalonian church or just a certain part of the body in Thessalonica.  In the Greek language and culture we find this statement many times, but only this time in the NT.  Perhaps he was giving this to one portion of the church for he writes the following in 2 Thessalonians 3:11-12 “11  For we hear that some among you are leading an undisciplined life, doing no work at all, but acting like busybodies. 12 Now such persons we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ to work in quiet fashion and eat their own bread.”  The reason for these verses is because there were people who were not working and just decided to freeload off other believers so that they could go out and tell others of the soon return or our Lord Jesus Christ.  I have mentioned this in an earlier SD that it is good to tell others about the certain return of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we are not to continue to bug people about this.  We have to be lead of the Lord to people who are ready to hear the truth of the Word of God.  I see nothing wrong with passing out tracts to people as the Lord my use them to begin a spark in their lives to the truth of the saving knowledge of our Lord, but not to bug people to the point of being obnoxious. 

            John MacArthur finishes his commentary on this subject with the following paragraph:  “Paul’s antidote for such unwise, undisciplined behavior was that the Thessalonians work diligently and faithfully at their jobs (cf. Proverbs 27:23-27; Gal. 6:5; Eph. 4:28; 6:5-7; Col. 3:22-24; 1 Tim. 6:1-2), stay out of other people’s business, and lead quiet, unobtrusive lives that serve fellow believers and glorify the Lord before unbelievers.”

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I really need to follow this advice.

6/20/2014 8:52 AM

Lead a Quiet Life (1 Thess. 4:11a)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/17/2014 10:35 AM

My Worship Time                                                                              Focus:  Lead a Quiet Life

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  1 Thessalonians 4:11a

            Message of the verses:  “and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life”

            As I was listening to the sermon from John MacArthur on this section that we are looking at I began to understand something that I did not understand before.  I have mentioned that I came to know Christ as my Savior and Lord due to listening to some tapes on the return of our Lord Jesus Christ to take His bride (church) back to heaven with Him.  We will study about this in great detail next month (Lord willing).  I wanted to tell anyone who would listen to me about this, and probably made a nuance of myself on sever occasions. It seems that this was what the believers in Thessalonica were also doing so Paul tells them that they ought to lead a quiet life, and by their life they would have opportunity to tell others about the Gospel.  God has used me to lead people to the Lord by allowing me to strike up a conversation with them about the end times, but it was God who brought these people into my life for His glory.

            John MacArthur writes “Paul did not command the Thessalonians to live lives of noisy, frenetic evangelistic agitation.  Instead, and as a result of their excelling still more in brotherly love, they were to make it their ambition to lead a quiet life.”

            He goes on to explain the verb usage by writing “In that phrase Paul used the two verb forms in almost a contradictory fashion.  Make it your ambition (from philotimeomai) means to be zealous and strive eagerly, even to consider it an honor (as in Rom. 15:20; 2 Cor. 5:9), whereas lead a quiet life (from hesuchozo) means to be silent (as in Luke 14:4; Acts 21:14), not speaking gout inappropriately (see 1 Tim. 2:11-12), remaining at rest and tranquil (as in Luke 23:56).  In anticipation of the Lord’s return, believers are to lead peaceful lives, free of conflict and hostility toward others, which is a witness to the transforming power of the gospel.”

            I suppose if your neighbors saw you doing all kinds of crazy things like selling everything and then spending all your money on things to pass out telling others that the Lord was about to return soon that they would not want to listen to the good news of the gospel.  If we live quiet lives and wait for the Lord to open up doors to tell others about the good news of the gospel, then we will also have an opportunity to tell others about the “rapture of the church.”

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Trust the Lord to lead people into my life in order to tell them the good news about the gospel and also about the return of our Lord from heaven.

6/17/2014 11:01 AM

Love Each Other More (1 Thess. 4:9-10)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/15/2014 9:23 AM

My Worship Time                                                                           Focus:  Love Each Other More

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  1 Thessalonians 4:9-10

            Message of the verses:  “9 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; 10 for indeed you do practice it toward all the brethren who are in all Macedonia. But we urge you, brethren, to excel still more,”

            We are looking at the first of four practical exhortations for life until Jesus comes.  We looked at the introduction to this section in our last SD from the book of 1 Thessalonians and you may want to refer to it to better understand more about this subject.

6/15/2014 9:28 AM   6/16/2014 11:56 AM

            When we look at the phrase “Now as to” we can see that the apostle is making a change in what he has been writing and as we have been looking as sexual morality and now changes to looking at the love of the brethren, which is quite a change.  I suppose it would be fair to say that before they were saved that they had a completely different idea about love for there is a Greek word that speaks of physical love, but Paul is not talking about that for that word is never used in the Bible.  He is talking about love of the brethren which is the word “Philadelphia” which was originally referred to affection for blood relatives but as John MacArthur states “but is always used in the New Testament in reference to Christian affection (Rom. 12:10; Heb. 13:1; 1 Peter 1:22; 2 Peter 1:7).  True biblical love, a recurring New Testament theme, always expresses itself in acts of service—meeting needs and doing things sacrificially to benefit others.”  This is a far cry from the other Greek word that speaks of sexual love. 

            We see again that Paul mentions that he has no need to mention the fact that these believers were showing this kind of love because they were taught by God to love the brethren.  As we look at Romans 5:5b we see “because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”  This is what happens to a person when they are truly born-again, for they have the Holy Spirit in them to show them many things, but in this case to show them how to love the brethren.  John writes about this in his letters:  “But whoever has the world’s goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? (1 John 5:17)  “20  If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21  And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also (1 John 4:20-21).”  “1 Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him (1 John 5:1).”  In these verses we see that John is telling his readers that if you are truly born from above that you will love the brethren.  You could say that this is a kind of a test to shoe that you are really born-again.

            MacArthur writes:  “Love is from the familiar verb agapao, related to the noun agape.  It expresses the purest, noblest form of love, which is volitionally driven, not motivated by superficial appearance, emotional attraction, or sentimental relationship.  Paul was convinced that they indeed (in reality, without question) were exhibiting this love toward all the brethren.  The Thessalonians demonstrated agape love not only in their congregation but alos for the other brethren (Christians) who were in all Macedonia.”  We know that this statement is true as we have already looked at 1 Thessalonians 1:8 which states “For the word of the Lord has sounded forth from you, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith toward God has gone forth, so that we have no need to say anything.”

            We know that their love was not perfect, just as ours in not perfect so Paul wants them “to excel still more.”  This phrase has also been seen before and it means that as believers we need to continue to grow in the Lord.  I have heard it said that if you are not growing in your walk with the Lord that you are going backwards, so Paul tells them that they still have room to grow in their walk with the Lord, in their love for the brethren. 

            MacArthur finishes this part of his commentary by writing “Thus, in view of the truth that Jesus is returning, Paul urged the Thessalonians to love others more, not less.  As they had in the past, they were to live in the hope of the Lord’s return, yet never lose sight of the priority of love.”  We will get into more about their priorities and what are priorities should be in light of the return of the Lord as we continue to study this wonderful letter.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Excel still more.

6/16/2014 12:26 PM