Walking Fittingly toward Out and In

Introduction

We have arrived at a part of the letter where Paul has reminded the Thessalonians of God’s holy standard.

Christianity is not a “religion” in the same way that people thought about religions in Paul’s time.

We are part of a way of life, not merely a way of belief or thinking.

This is also not just what we do with our Sundays.

This way of life is internal, but it is also external.

It is consistent whether it is toward those who are within or without.

Paul has dealt with his immediate concern, but now, he will turn to a second topic.

We must be very cautious about how we approach his teaching so that we understand it properly.

Brotherly Love

Paul signals a change in thought in a way that he will come to do so more commonly in 1 Corinthians.

“Now concerning” signals a slight shift in focus.

Paul has reminded them of holiness, but now he will admonish them to greater love.

The term “philadelphia” only occurs six times in the entire New Testament, and it is only used in five passages.

We know that Jesus taught love for one another as the identifying mark of his disciples.

Love for one another indicates that we love God.

Here, a term primarily applied to family life gets used by Paul to indicate the love believers have for one another.

1 Thess. 4:10 will indicate the multiple levels of this love.

Paul explains two reasons why the Thessalonians do not need him to write to them about brotherly love.

They are “taught ones of God to be loving one another.”

This indicates God himself has established the standard of this practice. (see 1 Thess 3:12)

Paul seems to mean the Thessalonians already understood that knowledge of the true God himself gives the impetus as well as the example for loving one another.

He could also include God’s word which Paul himself has born to them and modeled before them.

1 Thess. 4:10 gives reason two: they are already doing this unto all the brothers in the whole of Asia.

Two ideas are present here:

Internal love within a church, i.e. “loving one another.”

External love for all the brothers in a region. It is the same love and brotherly love.

His main goal was to admonish them to practice this more and more. Perhaps Paul feared the Thessalonians would become lax in their love either because of external pressures or because of a misunderstanding of the teaching of the Word of God (see below).

This was not a “popular idea” within the Roman world.

Represented by Caecilius in Municius Felix:

Assuredly this confederacy ought to be rooted out and execrated. They know one another by secret marks and insignia, and they love one another almost before they know one another. Everywhere also there is mingled among them a certain religion of lust, and they call one another promiscuously brothers and sisters, that even a not unusual debauchery may by the intervention of that sacred name become incestuous: it is thus that their vain and senseless superstition glories in crimes.

Minucius Felix. (1885). The Octavius of Minucius Felix. In A. Roberts, J. Donaldson, & A. C. Coxe (Eds.), R. E. Wallis (Trans.), Fathers of the Third Century: Tertullian, Part Fourth; Minucius Felix; Commodian; Origen, Parts First and Second (Vol. 4, p. 177). Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company.

A Quiet Yet Work-Filled Life

We must be careful not to hear our own society in Paul’s teaching here.

He concludes this section with a series of infinitival statements associated with the term “aspire” or “love to honor.”

Paul gives them a goal to which to aspire.

“Quiet” refers to being undisturbed or at peace.

Given what follows, Paul may mean this both internally and externally as well.

Note the usage in 1 Tim. 2:1-2.

“To be practicing your own things.”

This most likely refers to “minding your own business.”

Paul will later warn Timothy of the damage done to the reputation of the gospel by gossiping young widows.

Here, he may have in mind, per his own example, not being a burden to others.

“To be working with your own hands.”

Given what he has to teach them in his second letter, there may already be a misunderstanding of the implications of the second coming.

It is not right to let some live off the work of others.

The reputation of the gospel is at stake.

Note 1 Thess. 4:12; “within” and not needing anything.