Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

I’ve entitled the sermon today “Life in Balance.”

There are several things that we have to keep in balance in our life.

Some ancient moral philosophers believed that the most moral life was the life without any excess.

Aristotle taught that with everything in life you can have too much or too little causing a problem.

The right behavior was found in balance.

Think about in the realm of fear and confidence, if you have too much you can be rash, too little you can be a coward.

In balance, you have courage.

Think about self expression: If you have too much you’re boastful; too little and you understate; but you have a balance and you land in the middle or the golden mean of truthfulness.

Think about shame: if you have too much shame then you’re too shy; too little shame and you act shamelessly; however, the golden mean is modesty.

You can do this with almost any character trait.

Think about your work ethic: you work too much and you’re a workaholic (neglecting other important areas of your life).

Work too little and you’re lazy.

The golden mean in the middle is industrious (like the woman described in Proverbs 31).

Life is often a balancing act, is it not?

The balanced life takes knowledge, work, and concentration.

Let me give you an illustration to help you understand what I mean.

When I was in college I was taking a financial accounting class.

In this class we had a big project.

We had a workbook with business expenditures.

We had to put all the debits and credits in the correct places on the sheets, and at the end it was supposed to all balance out to equal debits and credits.

I remember as any good college student staying up late the night before it was due.

Most of us had all the same inputs (we were allowed to work together) but something wasn’t adding up.

We combed through the sheets time and time again, some conceded and thought they weren’t supposed to balance and went to bed.

But some of us continued to stay up pouring over the sheets.

I can’t remember who it was, but one of us finally found the wrong number that we had inputted, finally the books were balanced!

This balancing took knowledge of where to input all the numbers.

It took work, lots of work, and perhaps even frantic work since we had procrastinated.

It also took a fair amount of concentration because any small problem would through off the balance.

The same thing can be said of balancing on a high wire.

Whenever I think of balancing on a high wire, the first thing that comes to my mind is the episode of Scooby Doo Where Are You? when the circus clown hypnotizes Scooby to do the high wire act.

He’s able to do all sorts of tricks on the high wire, but as soon as the clown releases his trance he almost immediately falls.

As the Smithsonian Magazine writes: “You are on a rooftop, looking across empty air 1,350 feet above the ground.

Your foot dangles over the ledge and touches a steel cable just centimeters wide.

As you shift your body forward, hands gripped tight around a balancing pole, you find yourself suspended over a gut-wrenching void.”

I couldn’t imagine doing such a thing especially since I hate heights to some extent.

I mean we went hiking recently and climbed up the top of an old fire tower in the mountains.

That’s about the most of heights I can handle (and it looks like that tower may not last very much longer.)

And still you can see that such a balance takes knowledge, work, and concentration.

If you lose concentration on a high wire, it could very well be the last time you lose concentration.

And you may be wondering now, what in the world does this have to do with the text?

I believe Paul is balancing certain three characteristics.

If we have too much of these characteristics, we can fall into error.

If we have too little of these characteristics, we can likewise fall into error.

Let’s turn to the text at hand. 1 Thess.

4:9-12 “Now concerning brotherly love you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another, 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, and to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one.”

Brotherly Love

The term for brotherly love in the text is the same word from which we get the name of the city Philadelphia.

Although it’s translated as “brotherly” love this is actually a term that’s not exclusive to only brothers, it also includes sisters.

But I guess the translators decided “siblingly” love would sound unusual (and that’s not a word).

The NASB includes “and sisters.”

Other more dynamic translations just say love for “one another” adopting the word other NT authors use concerning out conduct toward people within the church.

What marks this love as different than other love in the Bible is its exclusivity.

You see, Christians are called upon to love all people generically.

We have a love for all people just as God loved the world.

As we read in the text this morning, “For in this way did God love the world: he sent his only begotten Son.”

In the same way, we are to love all people, by being willing to sacrifice something of worth to us for the sake of bringing them to a right relationship with God.

However, if I told you that you should love the world in the same way that you love your spouse, some red flags would hopefully appear in your mind.

The Bible teaches (and just taught us in the previous passage) that there is a special love that is shared only between a husband and a wife.

This love, although it includes intimacy, is more than just intimacy.

The love you have for your spouse is not the love you should give the stranger on the street.

In the same way, the love you have for fellow brothers and sisters is a different type of love that you show than to those “on the outside” (as Paul himself will call those not in the church).

This term, “brotherly and sisterly” love, outside the NT was used exclusively in the sibling relationship.

However, early on the believers began calling one another brother and sister seeing themselves as coheirs in the adoption that we have in Christ Jesus.

So in short, brotherly love is that love that we have for one another within the church that is distinct from the love which we show to the world.

About this love Paul says that he does not need to write them about it. . .

Why? for two reasons

“You yourselves have been taught by God to love one another.”

(v.

9)

In the original language “taught by God” is all one word.

And as best as scholars can tell, Paul coined the term himself.

The only place people find this word is in Christian literature.

But just because Paul probably made it up does not mean that Paul came up with the concept.

The end times hope Isaiah prophecies in Is. 54:13 “All your children shall be taught by the Lord, and great shall be the peace of your children.”

Paul is confident that the believers in Thessalonica are taught by God concerning the love that they have for the brothers.

He is confident that the Holy Spirit is at work among them.

We know that the Holy Spirit’s work is to convict the world concerning sin.

John 14:26 “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.”

I can take an aside right here and offer some encouragement.

If there’s one thing I’ve seen at this church from my time here, I almost feel as if I could agree with Paul, I don’t have need to preach you a sermon on brotherly love.

I think certainly you have been taught by God.

I think about the love you show to the missionaries and the gifts you give to them.

I think about the love you show to the poor and needy in the community, we have the bread boxes due today and the shoe boxes due Weds as testimony to that love.

I think back to when church members have come on difficult times and love offerings were taken up for them.

I think of when someone is ill or dealing with bereavement and someone at the church is stepping up to offer assistance.

In this manner, I believe you have been taught by God to show love to one another.

The second reason that Paul feels no need to write to them concerning brotherly love is that

2. “that indeed is what you are doing to all the brothers throughout Macedonia”

I think there’s some important things we can pick up on here.

Again notice that this love is directed toward the brothers, some translations will add “and sisters.”

This is toward the believers, the fellow Christians.

Secondly, Paul says they are “doing” this.

I think that’s an important reminder for me.

Love is not something we simply feel, but something we actively do.

I cannot just sit back and relax and feel good will to you.

You know, it was big for a while when tragedy struck that secularist would post “good thoughts coming your way.”

Of course this type of thinking is a syncretism, or a combination between atheism/agnosticism and the New Age movement.

However, all the kinds thoughts in the world that I may have towards a person does nothing unless I act on those thoughts.

Third, notice that this love was not limited to the city itself, but spread out to the whole region.