1 Thessalonians 3:6-10 - Doing OK So Far

6 But now that Timothy has come to us from you, and has brought us the good news of your faith and love and reported that you always remember us kindly and long to see us, as we long to see you— 7 for this reason, brothers, in all our distress and affliction we have been comforted about you through your faith. 8 For now we live, if you are standing fast in the Lord. 9 For what thanksgiving can we return to God for you, for all the joy that we feel for your sake before our God, 10 as we pray most earnestly night and day that we may see you face to face and supply what is lacking in your faith?

Target Date: Sunday, 25 September 2022

Sermon Text:

This morning, we will take for our text the 6th verse of this third chapter of 1 Thessalonians.

By now, many of you will be familiar with what has happened so far in the events surrounding this letter, but I would summarize for those events for us all to make sure we are all together.

Paul and Silas, along with the young Timothy, had been forced to leave Thessalonica after the Jews of that city had incited violence against them because they were offering the gospel to the Gentiles of the city.

These apostles and Timothy were expelled from the city even as the Jews from the synagogue began to persecute the young Christians of the Thessalonian church.

At the time of the expulsion of Paul and Silas, they had not come close to completing the instruction of these new believers in the way of Jesus Christ.

So as Paul and Silas found their way to return to Thessalonica continually blocked, they made the difficult decision to send the young Timothy from Athens to Thessalonica to strengthen the church as God gave him ability.

At around the same time, Silas was dispatched to somewhere else in Macedonia, leaving Paul alone in Athens.

After some period of time, Paul began to set out to Corinth, but had no report from Timothy as to the state of the Thessalonian church.

As a result, Paul sent a letter asking for Timothy to provide an update (verse 5 is in singular).

Rather than replying in a letter, Timothy met Paul in Corinth at about the same time Silas did, reuniting the trio.

And we see in verse 6 today, that this letter was sent “just now” when Timothy had arrived.

And what Timothy reported was this:

They are doing ok so far.

We can see this in the following facts:

1. Timothy came to Corinth personally, rather than sending a return letter to Paul. He felt sure enough about their stability in Christ that he could leave them to reunite with Paul.

At the beginning of verse 5, we see Paul take an almost apologetic tone for his letter to Timothy, explaining “when I could endure it no longer, I also sent to find out about your faith”.

2. Timothy confirms their continued and growing faith.

And this ALWAYS means faith in Jesus Christ, not any other kind of faith.

3. He also confirmed their love – their agapē.

And while we do not see in this verse the object of that love, we see from the first chapter where that love was directed:

1:3 – their labor of love in Christ Jesus

1:8 – the gospel was carried to all the surrounding areas

4. And implicit in the report of Timothy was their love for one another.

They had held together, they were a unified, plural “you” – a church.

How many congregations or groups of people are sundered by the smallest of controversies?

How many churches are ripped apart by jealousies or competing teachings, forming factions that fight hot or cold skirmishes?

So the report he gave was “they are doing ok so far.”

You might ask how I can say that.

After all, the report was treated by Paul as “good news”.

In fact, he uses the exact same word evangelon here that in EVERY other use in the New Testament refers to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

But here, he uses it in its “secular” meaning – joyous tidings.

So why would I say that the report is simply they are ok, as joyful as that would be under their trying circumstances?

We see at the end of verse 10 some of that truth:

and may complete what is lacking in your faith?

Their faith was not complete. They still had much to learn in their obedience to Christ.

Indeed, this is all our state, if we are in Christ.

Now, I will say that for some of us, that may grate on our nerves a bit.

We have been raised from birth to be winners, to be exceptional.

For some of us, OK is not good enough.

We have to be better than that.

Imagine if you were in Thessalonica receiving this letter.

And Paul tells you in this letter Timothy has given him a good report about your progress in the gospel so far.

But then he follows in the same breath telling you that he and Silas hope to return soon to complete what is lacking in your faith.

The problem with many believers is that they believe themselves to be exceptional.

But that very lust drives them to compete with other believers, and drives those very wedges I mentioned earlier.

God never calls you to be the BEST believer; He calls you to be an immovably FAITHFUL believer.

And there is a wide gulf in those two.

Peter thought he was exceptional:

But Peter said to Him, “Even though all may fall away, yet I will not.” 30 And Jesus said to him, “Truly I say to you, that this very night, before a rooster crows twice, you yourself will deny Me three times.” 31 But Peter kept saying insistently, “Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You!” And they all were saying the same thing also. – Mark 14:29-31

So when they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me more than these?” He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.” He said to him, “Tend My lambs.” - John 21:15

After he had fallen and been restored, Peter stopped competing with the other disciples.

In fact, he even changes the word Jesus uses – from agape to phileo:

From “I am willing to die for you” to “I am truly fond of you.”

Not because his faith was smaller;

But because his faith in Christ had grown enough that his opinion of himself had diminished.

As his faith grew, his pride shrank.

So the fact that the Thessalonian church was “ok so far” is not a bad thing at all; I wish all the churches I knew were in as good a shape.

Because what more can you ask from a congregation of believers than to be faithful and be loving?

We should all put away the myth of the “perfect congregation” – it doesn’t exist this side of heaven.

Every congregation has difficulty and growth;

Challenges and cooperation.

A mixture of mature and immature believers.

And for the Thessalonians, there were a large percentage of immature believers.

And even in their immaturity, they deserved the encouragement Paul and Silas give them for their faithfulness and love.

Too often we are tempted to measure everyone by “God’s holy standard”, and we find that no one measures up.

We allow ourselves to be disappointed when other believers don’t act in the way we think they ought.

We judge when others don’t acknowledge our practice of the teachings of Scripture.

Paul, after dealing with matters of conscience in Romans 14, summarizes in Romans 15:1:

We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves.

Based on this, we see that those who are easily offended or have great difficulty bearing with the weaknesses of others are, in fact, immature rather than mature.

But, some might say, isn’t that being soft on sin? If I don’t call out every sin I see, am I not somehow complicit in their sin?

To which I would reply “Thank God, the sacrifice of Jesus Christ saves us from the guilt even of sins we do not know we are committing.”

Some sins, to be sure, should be called out in private and corrected in a loving manner between brothers.

But some, particularly those that are not habitual, may, most often, be borne with understanding and pre-emptive forgiveness.

That is one of the applications of that 1 John 5:16:

If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask and God will for him give life to those who commit sin not leading to death. There is a sin leading to death; I do not say that he should make request for this.

Our first responsibility to our brother in the matter of their sin is to pray for them.

And in the case of sins that are not sins of rebellion (leading to death), but sins of ignorance (not leading to death), we are to pray for God’s forgiveness for our brother.

Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. – 1 Peter 4:8

This is not being soft on sin; it is being strong in grace.

If our Lord can pray “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” from the cross He did not deserve,

And the faithful witness Stephen can pray “Lord, do not hold this sin against them!” at the point of his murder,

Then how can we fail to pray for our beloved brother when they fall into a less grievous sin?

Our prayer, of course, will be for their forgiveness and their repentance, because when you consider it, forgiveness precedes repentance in all our salvation.

We are forgiven, we are made alive, BEFORE we ever repent.

And so this prayer for our brother is not unusual – it is entirely consistent with the Scriptures.

We are all, no matter how mature we are, unfinished – incomplete – imperfect.

And what the Holy Spirit is accomplishing in us is the work of sanctification.

That is a big word that simply means “making us more like Jesus Christ”.

And just like a baby must grow and be taught, so we make errors and have falls and show our “spiritual age”.

As we learn, as we grow, as we have more practice being in Christ, we will become more sensitive to the sin in our life;

We will become quicker to repentance from those sins;

We will become more diligent in searching out those hidden sins in our heart, whether pride or arrogance or other poison roots and removing them.

And we will become more understanding with our brother,

More loving toward him,

More responsible for him in prayer and concern.

More able to bear with greater offenses with love and peace.

Let us, as a church, content ourselves to apply ourselves to faithfulness and to love.

Our walk together is all about the journey.

If we are in Christ, the destination is secure.

And we can rejoice in the progress each of our brothers and sisters make in obedience, growth, and understanding.

Sanctification is progress; progress is sanctification.

So this morning, I would like you to take a moment to consider one specific thing you can do to be more faithful or more loving.

Just one.

Don’t make it general like “I could read my Bible more”.

Make it specific: “I will wake 30 minutes before I have to and will guard that time alone with God.”

Or “I will pray immediately for Sister so-and-so whenever I am tempted to talk about her.”

In doing these things, we are not focusing on perfection, but progress – doing better than we have before.

Because if we are found faithful to Jesus Christ and loving each other and those around us, we can take great encouragement that we are doing ok so far.