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Human beings tend to react in certain sensible but often unhelpful ways. We recoil when people try to lead us. We retaliate against those who do us wrong. We notice the negative and quickly forget the positive. We gravitate to that which is easy and away from that which is hard. We love those who love us and distance from those who hate us. We accept uncritically what fits our preconceptions. We scrutinize critically anything that opposes our interests.
The Christian life calls us to move out of all these natural reactions and to live a life that is entirely different. It calls us to live a life where we honor our leaders, are patient with people, and do not react to wrongs committed against us. It calls us to live a life where we see the good and embrace it. It calls us to take our concerns and lift them up in prayer. It calls us to think critically about all things and embrace all good and reject all evil. It calls us to seek what is good not only for ourselves but for all people. This is the intentional Christian life.
Now, you might say to me, how can anyone do all this? How is it even possible? Well, let’s remember that Christianity is a religion of grace. It is a religion of God’s gifts. It is a religion where God enables us to live a new life. We work hard, but even our work is a gift of God. Work out your own salvation, Paul says, with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you both to will and to do (Phil. 2:12–13).
This letter began with grace, and it ends with grace. Paul took the common greeting of the Roman world, charis, grace, and filled it with new content, the content of God’s grace. He went on to say immediately that the Thesslonians believed, but they believed because of the work of the Holy Spirit, God’s grace and God’s gift.
As the letter ends, God teaches us that it is grace that brought us safe thus far and grace will lead us home. He says, “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you” (v. 28). What this means is that he wants their whole spirit, soul, and body to be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ by Jesus Christ. He assures them, “the one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it” (1 Thessalonians 5:24).
It is important to recognize that this grace is not just ours to make us feel good or have peace. It leads us outward to serve those around us and to react differently in the world. Wherever the grace of God is operative, you will see what we have in these final instructions in this letter, an intentional Christian life of love and service rooted in God’s love and grace. I want to look briefly at how God’s grace leads us to four intentional ways of living the Christian life.
1. Intentional Submission. Our natural tendency is to love those who love us and seek the good of those closest to us. Instead, God’s grace calls us to “always strive to do what is good for each other and for everyone else” (1 Thess. 5:15). This is in line with what the Apostle Paul prays for in 1 Thess. 3:12: “May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else . . .” Instead of thinking just about ourselves or those closest to us, we should ask, what is good for everyone? We keep sending our thoughts higher and higher to align our thoughts with the Lord’s thoughts. He cares for all, the just and the unjust.
As we think bigger thoughts, we recognize that the good of everyone will require organization and leadership. This means that the general attitude of the Christian is one of respect and honor for leaders and cooperation with leaders. This includes being patient with their failings. Particularly, in the church, we should honor those in authority and those who work hard among us. He says:
Now we ask you, brothers and sisters, to acknowledge those who work hard among you, who care for you in the Lord and who admonish you. Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work. Live at peace among yourselves (1 Thess. 5:12–13).
It’s so easy to join in the general disrespect for authorities in church, home, and state that characterizes our society. We need an intentional attitude that empowers us to live differently than our culture. Submission to and cooperation with leadership should be our basic stance, even if at certain times, we have to choose to obey God rather than men.
2. Intentional Relationships. The way we relate to others is deeply programmed into us. Our tendency is generally to attack or distance when relationships feel strained. When we feel like we are on the outside, we want to make alliances with other people that make us feel better. This goes back and forth in a whole lot of interesting and often unhelpful ways. This is true for everyone, including leaders. It’s easy for the leaders to make a leadership position about making themselves comfortable rather than seeking the general welfare of the communities they serve. What this looks like is that we talk to people whom it is easy to talk to, and we avoid those who are difficult.
The Bible gives us a whole different perspective here. It teaches us that we should pursue the general good. This means there are times when we have to do the hard thing. We have to warn the unruly. We have to say, “no.” It also means that we have to meet people where they are. People have trouble moving forward for a variety of reasons. Sometimes they are recalcitrant but at other times they don’t know what to do or are timid. We need to strengthen the weak and encourage the timid. In all of this, we recognize that moving forward together involves patience. Community is a process. When we enter into relationships, we need to embrace the lengthy process that working together involves.
In addition, we don’t react with wrong to those who do wrong to us. Instead, we seek everyone’s good. If others do wrong, let that be their issue, since it hurts primarily them. We continue to respond with a disposition of gentleness and love pursuing the good.
This is all very hard. It takes intentionality, and it requires the grace of God. It is the Spirit of Christ that did not retaliate but did what was good for all, even to His own hurt, that animates us.
3. Intentional Devotion. The power to live well with others is rooted in a life lived before the face of God. That’s what God calls us to. Many people are seeking to heal relationships, but they are too focused on the other person. They make the human relationships too large in their lives, whether looking for too much fulfillment in them or seeking to blame them for the evils and difficulties they experience. To counteract this tendency, we must seek the Lord and place Him above all human relationships.
Here is a brief summary of what that looks like: “Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. Do not quench the Spirit.” We are to seek joy, and our chief joy is found in God Himself and the loving communion that we enjoy with Him.
We pray continually. This means that we are ever in an attitude of prayer, ready to go to Him, referring all things to Him. We should also continually seek His goodness to us in every situation. We generally remember the bad and quickly forget the good. We need to work to even out this tendency. Don’t ignore the bad, but see the good. When you see the bad, pray. When you see the good, give thanks.
We must not quench the Spirit. This means that we think of the work of the Holy Spirit as a fire that should always be burning brightly in our hearts. We recognize that all our devotion to God is a result of God’s work in us, but we also cooperate with the Lord in living a Christian life. We should not quench the fire but do all that we can to to keep it burning brightly. Presbyterian commentator Albert Barnes says that quenching the Spirit is “anything that will tend to damp the ardor of piety in the soul; to chill our feelings; to render us cold and lifeless in the service of God.” Instead, we should put fuel on the fire by meditating on God’s love, singing praises, praying, and giving thanks. In this way, we will not quench the Spirit.
4. Intentional Thinking. All of this involves careful thinking. The command to test all things here is similar to what Paul says to the Corinthians, “Brothers and sisters, stop thinking like children. In regard to evil be infants, but in your thinking be adults” (1 Cor. 14:20).
He begins by telling them that they should not despise prophecies. There was probably a tendency here as there was in Corinth to look for the spectacular miracles and look down on the simple preaching of God’s truth. That is wrong. The simple preaching of God’s truth is the general nourishment God uses to build us up in the intentional Christian life.
However, he didn’t want them to blindly accept what people told them. He wanted them to become mature. He wanted them to test all things. He wanted them to put it in the refiner’s fire and test it to ensure that it was consonant with reason and God’s truth. This is the job and duty of each Christian, critical thinking. We should do this with the ideas of others and with the ideas of ourselves, all those thoughts we have imbibed consciously and unconsciously through the years.
Once we see the differences between the good and the evil, we should cling to all that is good, wherever we find it, whoever teaches it. We should also reject the bad, wherever it comes from, including me, including you! We’ve got to think! It’s an absolute necessity for intentional Christian living that glorifies God, blesses others, and blesses ourselves.
Conclusion
How can we do all this? The answer is clear. The grace of God. That’s why the Apostle Paul asks God to make them pure and blameless. He asks for the grace of God in their lives.
But note one more thing here. Throughout this whole letter, we have seen that we grow, even in suffering, but we help each other. The grace of God is the source of our blessing, but we also show this grace to one another. Paul offers the very un-Covid advice to greet one another with a holy kiss. I do not think that we have to embrace this particular cultural practice in order to fulfill this command. We may not need to actually kiss, but we do need to show warmth. How we relate to each other shows God’s grace. When we walk in to this sanctuary, how we greet each other communicates something about God. When we have an open attitude towards others, we demonstrate God’s grace. We show each other grace. We show that God is willing to receive others by grace.
And that’s the message we all need. We have high ideals and much work to do to attain them. How comforting to know that we are simply joining what God is already doing. How comforting to know that He who began a good work in us will carry it on to completion, in the face of all opposition. How comforting it is to know that we have brothers and sisters here who will help us, encourage us, and show grace to us. With all this, we can join in a hearty prayer: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. And all God’s people said, Amen.