What About Love?
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Transition to corporate/collective/public sphere of Christian living (Now)
Main/ Primary emphasis is on the brothers (fellow believers) 4x in 2 verses.
The focus of these 2 verses is around Love for the brothers (Philadelphias)
Walking how you ought to in excellence doing the will of God which is sanctification (especially in terms of sexual purity) as a result of God’s gift of the Holy Spirit is more of a seemingly private issue.
Not to get tempted by that Paul shifts the focus that your Christian life is to be lived not only in your own mind before God but also in relationship with other Christians
So he writes regarding the love the Thessalonian church possesses towards fellow believers (philadelphias)
In this passage Paul describes the Thessalonians as a
1. Loving Church- With no need for instruction
2. Divinely Equipped
3. Visibly Obedient
4. Needing to Excel- With room for more Growth
what he’s referring to is sincere goodwill family members show to one another with mutual respect/no conflicts of rank/ no hypocrisy/ Full of enduring/hospitality
22 Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a love of the brothers without hypocrisy, fervently love one another from the heart,
This is the proof that true spiritual/biblical faith has taken root in your life
35 “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
It seems here that the Thessalonians didn’t need any instruction/pointers concerning this issue
their labor of love in 1:3 was something that was on Paul’s mind constantly
Timothy has come with a report of their love in 3:6
Notice the conclusion Paul reaches regarding them not needing any instructions about philadelphia( love for one another)
It is not their intrinsic predisposition/ the cultural values in which they were raised/ not their zeal/ fervent effort to love one another.
Paul says the source is God Himself. He is the teacher/ the one who has taught them
God is the one who has imparted the knowledge & wisdom
The kind of love God has taught is Agape
This is love that has a sense “to be satisfied,” “to receive,” “to greet,” “to honor,” or, more inwardly, “to seek after with an element of sympathy, but also denotes “to prefer,” active, not self-seeking love
This word was not sought after this love was seen as inferior to eros (passionate) and Philein (brotherly/all inclusive) in society
But this is what God teaches/imparts to His church
This love Paul defines in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 “4 Love is patient, love is kind, is not jealous, does not brag, is not puffed up; 5 it does not act unbecomingly, does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered; 6 it does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; 7 it bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”
1 See how great a love the Father has given to us, that we would be called children of God; and we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.
Illustrated in John 13:12-17 “12 So when He had washed their feet, and taken His garments and reclined at the table again, He said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? 13 “You call Me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am. 14 “If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. 15 “For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you. 16 “Truly, truly, I say to you, a slave is not greater than his master, nor is one who is sent greater than the one who sent him. 17 “If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.”
Paul in Romans 5:8
8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Notice also that the Thessalonians didn’t just learn to Agapao (love one another) from God
They practiced it
Love is the first visible fruit of the spirit bears in your life
you can see it / you can practically enjoy it / it is the outward evidence of Christlikeness
Illustration in Philippians 2:1-5 “1 Therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, 2 fulfill my joy, that you think the same way, by maintaining the same love, being united in spirit, thinking on one purpose, 3 doing nothing from selfish ambition or vain glory, but with humility of mind regarding one another as more important than yourselves, 4 not merely looking out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. 5 Have this way of thinking in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus,”
Lastly Paul urges the Thessalonians to not be complecent/ that they cannot love one another enough
How much love for one another is enough? Answer is more
So He exhorts them to excel even more in Love
which has a direct link with the prayer he prays in 3:12
This increasing love is not something that you are to muster up in & of your own strength it is a direct result of God’s grace poured out through Christ by his spirit
It is easy to consider/live your christian life individually
Putting more emphasis on your own relationship with Christ (Nothing wrong with that)
However the greatest commandment is not just to love God without loving one another
20 If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.
21 And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.
We must therefore seek the face of God and His wisdom to have such love for one another