What a great statement this is of what we ought to aspire to be. We are a body of Christ. We are knit together. We are bound not by economic class here, not by socio-consumer preferences—but by Christ, and the bond of all. That is a true church—not a club, not a preference community. The gospel, the Word of God, joins us together. And we are in loving relationships. We are to feel and have affections of love. And then we are to act in love, one for another. Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 2:17–18,
Richard D. PhillipsWe endeavoured eagerly, with great desire, to see you face to face.He knew they needed to be ministered to. He wanted to do it. He went to great pains, even though he did not succeed. Satan frustrated him—we do not know how. Maybe the Thessalonians knew. But Paul wants them to know that that is what had happened. We know what he did do, though. He sent Timothy. But then Paul himself did the most important thing that he could do when he was absent from them. He committed himself daily to prayer on their behalf.
One of the most important acts of love we will do together as a church is to pray with one another and for one another—and for the work we are given to do in the Lord. Well, again, this passage is a compelling picture of the church: a community knit together by love—loving relationships, loving feelings, loving actions. And Paul is setting an example for all of us, an example that he himself followed from the Lord Jesus Christ. Over and over, we are told of Jesus ministering love to his people. The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. One of my favourite expressions of Christ’s example of love is in John 13:1, at the very beginning of John’s transition toward the Passion Week and the crucifixion:Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.And Jesus says,As I have done for you, do in my name for one another.We are likewise imitating him—to love one another to the end of our resources, until Christ comes.1
17 Pour nous, frères, après avoir été quelque temps séparés de vous, de corps mais non de cœur, nous avons eu d'autant plus ardemment le vif désir de vous voir.