1 Thessalonians 3:11-13 - Establishing Blameless Hearts

11 Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you, 12 and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, 13 so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.

Target Date: Sunday, 30 October 2022

Word Study/ Translation Notes:

Establish – stērízō (στηρίζω) – To set (as in concrete), to fix (firmly).

The strengthening is by God, the Lord, the truth, or others. It may be accomplished, besought, or commanded. It presupposes an assault that threatens faith or zeal. Its aim is impregnability of faith in spite of afflictions.

So that (v.13) – to the end that.

The increase of our love for one another and for others is the MEANS toward the end of establishing our own hearts blameless before God.

Thoughts on the Passage:

The more we grow and abound in grace, and particularly in the grace of love, the more we are established and confirmed in it. Note also, Holiness is required of all those who would go to heaven, and therein we must be unblamable; that is, we must act in every thing so that we may not in the least contradict the profession we make of holiness. Our desire should be to have our hearts established in holiness before God, and be preserved safe, to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ; and that we may be unblamable before God, even the Father, now, and be presented blameless before the throne of his glory, when the Lord Jesus shall come with all his saints.

The context of this passage does not call us to spiritual navel-gazing, but to an outward-looking love that, by our exercise of that grace, will sanctify us.

Sanctification, as exemplified here, is an exercise of love, defined and measured by that quality.

Sermon Text:

As we come this morning to verse 13 in this passage, let’s remind ourselves what has been said in the first two verses of this paragraph.

This entire paragraph is a prayer in two parts:

1. That God would reunite the apostles with this beloved congregation.

And 2. Seems to be, in verse 12, that even if the Lord did not do so quickly, that He would increase to an abundance the love the church had for one another and others.

So when we get to verse 13, we naturally think that there is a third point to the prayer.

In fact, we expect it so much that many a casual reader of this passage might be forgiven for seeing item 3. That God would establish their hearts blameless.

It sounds perfectly like Paul, doesn’t it?

Nothing wrong with having those three points.

Except that is not what the passage says.

And the difference is in the conjunction.

Because at the beginning of verse 13, we don’t find a simple “and” there at all.

Just like we saw last week that the “and” at the beginning of verse 12 is not simple, so the conjunction at the beginning of verse 13 is not simple.

We see it in our passage today as “so that.”

“To the end that…”

“For the purpose that…”

All of those would be good translations of the conjunction there.

And there is a fundamental difference between reading this as a simple prayer list and understanding the depth of what Paul is praying for the churches who read this epistle.

He is praying that the Lord increase the church’s LOVE for one another and for all people

SO THAT He may establish your hearts blameless in holiness.

That the Lord will make an abundance of LOVE in the church,

As a MEANS to the END to establish your hearts blameless in holiness.

To the purpose of establishing your hearts blameless in holiness.

Christian, do you see the power in that?

Let’s look together at what that means.

The first thing it does is change what we understand the two parts of the prayer to be.

The first part is unchanged: That God would reunite the apostles with this beloved congregation.

But the second part changes the prayer that the church would love one another from an END to a MEANS.

Meaning that the second petition of the prayer, if the apostles cannot personally visit the congregation, becomes this:

That the Lord would establish our hearts blameless in holiness before God BY making us increase and abound in love for one another.

Personal holiness is not, is NEVER, disconnected from love for others.

In fact, we find here that personal holiness is a RESULT, an OUTGROWTH, of love for one another.

Now please don’t tune me out, thinking “He’s only talking about love today”.

For some, it may be like going to see a movie you think is an action movie, but finding out it is a romantic comedy.

It is easy to become addicted to the ACTION of striving for obedience.

To walk into church looking for some new technique or insight to help us put temptation to flight.

But while some would gladly put into practice a new fasting regimen,

Or adopt a new format for our prayers,

Or seek some new theology that offers us greater control over our actions,

It can be almost disappointing to hear just about LOVE.

We cry out inside ourselves “We KNOW about LOVE; give us something NEW”.

We crave ACTION, techniques, methods, conviction even,

But Love – that is so Sunday School.

In our hearts, often, we are like Naaman, the leprous captain of Aram, who came to the doorway of Elisha to be healed.

When he arrived, he said:

I thought, ‘He will surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, and wave his hand over the place and cure the leper. – 2 Kings 5:11

But what he got from the man of God was a messenger with a simple message:

Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh will be restored to you and you will be clean.” – 2 Kings 5:10

He wanted ACTION, even pageantry, a performance.

What God gave him was a quiet answer to his great need.

But, my friends, I offer you the same advice today that Naaman’s faithful servants gave him:

had the prophet told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more then, when he says to you, ‘Wash, and be clean’? – 2 Kings 5:13

Never turn your nose up at love:

The greatest of these is love.

They will know you are My disciples by your love.

And here, in the flow of this passage: Love is the means to the holiness you seek.

I feel sure that most here could quote Jesus’s reply when He was asked what the greatest commandment is:

“The foremost is, ‘Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is one Lord; 30 and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” – Mark 12:29-31

And I invite you to consider what sinful behavior is possible that is NOT a failure of love for either God or others.

Certainly, the first four commandments apply directly to our love of God.

And for the rest:

Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. 9 For this, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. – Romans 13:8-10

Do we willfully dishonor parents who we actively love?

Do we murder those whom we love?

Do we commit adultery when we have love for BOTH the spouses in a marriage?

Or even when we are valuing the other person above our own weak desires?

Do we steal from those who we love so much that we would gladly give to them our own possessions, even at our loss?

Do we lie about the actions of someone we love, wrecking their reputation by our selfish words?

Do we covet those things gained by our brother or sister, particularly one we would celebrate with in their joy?

Every sin against another person begins as a failure of love.

Do you want to be holy, blameless in your conduct?

If you are a believer, you must want that.

If you want to be holy and blameless in your conduct, look at where you have failed in the past and find where your LOVE failed.

Where your selfishness, greed, covetousness, anger, or defensiveness kicked in.

Likewise, when you are beset by temptation, find where your LOVE has crumbled or has been breached, and shore it up there.

The enemy doesn’t want you to do that; he doesn’t want you to shore up your love for one another.

If he can keep you striving to be a “better Christian” by following the Law more closely, he is satisfied.

He will happily help you “tithe the mint and dill” (Matthew 23:23),

So long as you [neglect] the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness;

Nothing wrong with being exact with our tithing and vows before God, therefore Jesus says:

but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others.

Certainly, search the Scriptures for guidance on God’s will of right and wrong, good and evil, and don’t lean simply on your opinions and understanding,

But realize that at the heart of any sin you find in your heart will be a failure of your love toward someone else.

Striving after the mechanics of obedience without working on the root cause of our disobedience, which is the failure of our love for others, will bring us inevitably to legalism.

knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. – 1 Corinthians 8:1

Certainly, seek holiness, but do not neglect to rebuild the very thing that can keep you firm – your love for those you would sin against.

Returning to our passage today, we see that this love, given by our Lord, will ESTABLISH our hearts blameless in holiness.

The love He provides will FIX US FIRMLY,

SECURE US,

SET US LIKE in concrete to holiness.

Love for others solidifies your sanctification, making it firm, able to withstand temptation and trials.

Like the walls of Jerusalem Nehemiah rebuilt, as each breach in the wall was closed, the city became stronger, more secure.

In our hearts, the more breaches in our love we fill with true love for others, the stronger and more fixed will be our faith.

put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. – Colossians 3:14