In today’s world, it is not very typical for children—or sons particularly—to follow in the occupations of their fathers. It happens now and again, but normally it does not. Now, in the days of the Apostle Paul, when he was writing this letter, it was almost universally the case that if your father was a farmer, you were going to be a farmer. That was the job occupation open to you. If your father was a merchant—welcome to the merchant class. So on it went. Fathers went into the work, and sons went into the work of their fathers. Now, that meant that a father had the task, along with other things, to train his sons for their vocation. In fact, the rabbis had a saying that if a father did not give his son a craft—a trade—he was making him into a thief.
Well, with this in mind, the Apostle Paul writes to the Thessalonians that he ministered to them, in 1 Thessalonians 2:11, like a father with his children. A father obligates himself to prepare his sons for life in this world. And likewise, Paul sought to raise these converts into godliness and faith and maturity. Now, if you take this statement in 1 Thessalonians 2:11—where Paul says he has a fatherly role with them—and you add to it his prior statement in 1 Thessalonians 2:7, when Paul compared himself to a nursing mother taking care of her own children, you get a balanced parental picture of spiritual leadership. John MacArthur writes, “It’s not enough for leaders just to be compassionate, tender, and caring as spiritual mothers—although they are to be that—but they also need to live lives that, in their motives and actions, set a standard for others to follow. Furthermore, as fathers, they need to teach the truth faithfully and call their spiritual children to obedience.”1
Richard D. Phillips
9 Vous vous rappelez, frères, notre travail et notre peine: nuit et jour à l'œuvre, pour n'être à la charge d'aucun de vous, nous vous avons prêché l'Evangile de Dieu.