We are reminded again of what is Paul’s idea of a good church. It is one of the reasons I have been preaching Thessalonians. Here is what Paul thinks a good church is. He does not point to a large gathering of anonymous people who are drawn to a dynamic personality and exciting worship service. That is not Paul’s idea of a good church. It is a people who have been brought together by an authentic work of God in their lives, so they have a living faith and a living love for one another, and they live together as a loving body of believers. That is Paul’s idea of a good church. That is the kind of church we want to be and to pursue in the year to come. So here is the question: What should a good church do—a church like this—when they have been commended by Paul for their faith and love? What should a good Christian—if we are going to use that language—be? Someone who really has trusted the Lord and is loving other people. What should we then do?
Well, Paul tells us in 1 Thessalonians 4:10:
We urge you, brothers, to do this more and more.That is the application. There is a good New Year’s resolution for all of us:Lord, you taught me something about love. I have been loved, perhaps maybe in mighty ways. You have given me some experience of love. I am no longer the self—I still largely am, but not as bad as I used to be. I am not as self-centered as I used to be. I am starting to love others. Now, Lord, would you help me to show that love more and more? Would you allow us as a church, Lord, more and more, to be a body of faith who shows love?That is a prayer for all of us.And I think it shows us, just in a small way, how exciting it is to be a Christian. You know, we should not say,
Richard D. PhillipsOh, more and more. I have got to do more and more.What we should be saying is,Wow, there is more and more.That is the truth of Christianity. You know, it is not true of other things—other hobbies and recreations and activities. The more you do them, after ten or twenty years, they kind of run their course. They have exhausted their appeal. But, my friends, Christianity is not that way. There is, for instance, more for us to know and more experience for us to have personally—of the goodness and grace and the majesty of our God. Paul says elsewhere that we are just beginning to know him. Now we see as in a glass, darkly. We have an entire eternity before us, and we are going to know the true and living God more and more—in his grace and glory and his power and his majesty. How wonderful that is. As we walk with Jesus day by day—maybe you have been a Christian for a year, maybe for fifty years—one thing you will learn is, as you walk with Jesus, there is a more intimate experience, a more deeply personal relationship with the Savior, and what a blessing that is. And here we find that there is more of the wonderful grace of Christian love for us to experience and to share with one another. Having been taught by God to love one another, we will do this more and more. Andrew Young points out that Christian love may grow in a number of dimensions. He says it may grow in breadth by reaching out to embrace more and more of our fellow Christians. It may grow in depth as it enters more deeply into the hurts and joys of others. It may grow in length as it forbears more patiently and forgives more heartily. A commitment to love others well will cause us, more and more, to grow in the grace of love.1
10 for that indeed is what you are doing to all the brothers throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers, to do this more and more,