Christian Communities Require Genuine Love and Diligent Work

Introduction

Our world loves love. We hear it all the time - I love this, I love that, I love him, I love her. But, how do you know that love exists? Humans have tried to determine this for years and scientists have tried several different experiments. Nearly 100 years ago, in the 1930s there was an engineering student at the University of Toledo in Ohio who invented an electric device conveniently called a Cupidoscope that was designed to test the “love” between a boyfriend and girlfriend. The couple would sit down and grip a handle that would slowly be pressed toward the handle of the other person. They would keep moving them closer until the woman felt a spark (not emotional but electrical). The higher tolerance she had for this electrical current, the higher her “love signal” would rank on the scale. On one side of the scale it read there’s no hope for this relationship and on the other side it read, “Go and see a preacher right now!” This seems silly, but on the campus it became incredibly popular as have other such inventions as people want to know what love is and if they have it.

Isn’t it a blessing to know that God is love and that God loves us? How can we measure God’s love?

1 John 3:16 CSB

16 This is how we have come to know love: He laid down his life for us. We should also lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.

We don’t have to wonder - we don’t have to take a silly test! We can rest in confidence with the Word of God and its truth that God loved us so much that He sent His Son to save us from our sins. This love of God motivates us as Christians to love one another. Lots of people in our world claim to know Christ, but the basis for that claim, Biblically speaking, lies in our love for Christ first and for one another second. Christian Congregations must be places where Godly love is not only present but purposely practiced. This is God’s goal for His people - that we would reflect His image and His character. This is the process we call sanctification. Dying to self. Living for Christ. He increases and we decrease.

As we continue tonight walking through 1 Thessalonians 4, we find ourselves looking at several exhortations or calls to action for these believers 2000 years ago about the importance of living for Jesus and looking more like Him. These are implications that still matter today - we must be a people who genuinely love one another and diligently work for God’s glory and the good of those around us. Let’s read tonight starting in verse 9 of this chapter.

1 Thessalonians 4:9–12 CSB

9 About brotherly love: You don’t need me to write you because you yourselves are taught by God to love one another. 10 In fact, you are doing this toward all the brothers and sisters in the entire region of Macedonia. But we encourage you, brothers and sisters, to do this even more, 11 to seek to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you, 12 so that you may behave properly in the presence of outsiders and not be dependent on anyone.

Christians Must Love Genuinely (9-10)

This morning we studied how the Word of God is our authority. If the Word of God tells us to do something a certain way, we must do something that way because that’s what God says in His Word - it’s as simple as this: The Bible says it, that settles it. If we are going to claim to be people of the book, this means that we can’t just know what the Word says but we must do what the Word tells us to do. Here in our text, Paul calls on this congregation to continue loving one another because this is what God “teaches” His people to do. God teaches this in His Word and whenever we are saved and indwelt by the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit helps us to love our brothers and sisters in Christ. If a person claims to be a Christian and claims to believe that the Bible is the inspired, authoritative, and sufficient Word of God, that person MUST love their brothers and sisters in Christ - it truly is that simple. There’s a hymn that’s 50-60 years old called, “They Will Know We Are Christians By Our ______?” What is the last word? Fights? Quarrels? Divisiveness? Opinions? Traditions? Nope… Love! Sadly, many congregations are more wellknown in their communities and churches for their fights and splits and problems than they are their love for God and their love for one another.

This doesn’t mean that in church life everything is always easy and everyone always thinks the exact say way all the time. That’s not true and it won’t be true until we’re in the throne room of heaven singing as a congregation before the Lamb. Whenever we get there, we’ll have unanimity. Until then? Not so much. But, Christians still are commanded to love one another. Warren Wiersbe once shared it like this, “Fish don’t attend classes to learn how to swim. Birds by nature flap their wings in order to fly. It is nature that determines action. Because a Christian has God’s nature, he loves because God is love.” If you have been saved by grace through faith in Christ and if you understand how hopeless you were before Christ transferred you from darkness into His light, then you will be able to love those who appear unlovable and care for those who otherwise you would not care for.

Everyone in our world talks about love. We need to be more loving. We need to try harder to be more inclusive and caring and this and that and there is a kernel of truth to some of those statements. But how do Christians love? Is it by trying really really hard to do this from our own power? Absolutely not! We can try our hardest and we’ll still fall apart. The way that we’re able to love and grow in love for one another is not to try running towards one another, it’s by running towards our Savior as Hebrews 12 instructs us to do. As we run towards Jesus and as we yield ourselves to God’s Spirit and die to self, then we suddenly are able to love others better as Christ expects.

Thankfully for this church, they are practicing brotherly love. They are doing what the Word commands. But Paul’s encouragement to them is to continue growing in this regard. Think of how countercultural this church would have been. It started with primarily Jewish believers as Paul went to the synagogue in Acts 17 for 3 weeks to preach the Gospel but as the church grew, Gentiles were added to this congregation. That’s a distinction. You have men and women - that’s a distinction. You have young and old, that’s a distinction. You have rich and poor, that’s a distinction. You possibly have slaves and masters, that’s a distinction. All of these differences exist in the early church - how on earth could their be unity and love that not only exists but flourishes in these churches? The only explanation is the love of God has changed them first and the way that they could love others both in their church and in their broader community. You and I can think of some people that are easy to love! Our best friend, our spouse, our kids, our Sunday school class - we’ve known these people for years, we love them, we care for them, we have things in common with them. It’s easy to love people who think and act and have interests like me - it’s harder to love people who can’t stand Jesus. It’s harder to love people who can’t talk theology or sports or a passion that I have. In high school, Ozark and Nixa were about as big a rivalry as you had in the state of Missouri in the late 2000s through mid 2010s. The church situation in Nixa is strange as most people go to church in Springfield or Ozark, and this meant that First Baptist Ozark had a relatively large contingent of people from Nixa who were members and who served in the church. It was easier for me to love someone from Ozark than from Nixa, especially during Football or Basketball season whenever our teams were playing each other.

What was the solution in this situation? To remember that the Kingdom of God is bigger than Ozark, Missouri. Bring that mentality here: What is the solution whenever there is someone that you are tempted to not love for whatever reason? To remember that the Kingdom of God is bigger than you. It’s bigger than Salem. It’s bigger than Missouri. It’s bigger than the US of A. It’s bigger than occupation, skin color, preference, tradition, and all of those was’ims, spas’ims, and ism’s that are out there. Again, we can’t love everyone by just trying harder. Think of how hard it would be for a slave in this context to come to worship and be apart of a family with a slave owner - there would be every reason to not love that person and vice versa. Yet, when these people yield to the Holy Spirit, their brotherly love for one another is stronger than it is with someone in their own social class who is not in Christ. Christians Must Love Genuinely!

Everyone can sniff it when this love is not genuine. As the love of Christ exists in our heart and permeates our church, things change. Think of the love that existed in this church for other churches. They desired to share the Gospel and watch Jesus change not only their city and their church, but other cities and other churches as well. This was a church that didn’t only love their church but THE Church! Why are so many churches in steep decline around our world today? Because the focus has shifted internally not externally. The ministry of the church is inward, not upward. When this happens, it’s so easy to view other churches as competition - not family. If a church is preaching the Gospel, being faithful to Jesus, and serving others - we should pray that they grow and remain faithful to King Jesus along the way! Here’s a barometer for our heart - what do we do whenever the church down the road experiences revival?

Do we thank God that He is building His church and that people in our community are coming to saving faith in Jesus? Or are we bitter? This church in Thessalonica was rejoicing as they loved others and saw the Lord using other churches and other communities for God’s glory. Their love impacted their actions. They loved genuinely and God used them powerfully. This must be our call to action as well! We must love others genuinely and our prayer as we do this is that people would come to know Christ as Lord and that those who are saved would grow in their walk with the Lord.

Take our county - 15,000 people. I’ve heard that there have been hundreds of people in this sanctuary before, is there anyway possible that we can fit 15,000 in this building? Absolutely not! What must our prayer be? That the Lord would strengthen our church and other churches to be beacons of light in the darkness and be faithful to do the work Jesus would have us do. Jesus promised to build His church. To do the ministry that He wants to be done in Salem, we need other churches to partner with in making a dent in Dent County for God’s glory. One way that we make this dent is by loving one another inside this church and outside of it as well - including other churches!

This church loved by giving sacrificially

2 Corinthians 8:1–2 CSB

1 We want you to know, brothers and sisters, about the grace of God that was given to the churches of Macedonia: 2 During a severe trial brought about by affliction, their abundant joy and their extreme poverty overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part.

This church suffered greatly, gave sacrificially, because they loved genuinely. May the same be said of us, FBC Salem!

Christians Must Work Diligently (11)

As we love genuinely and not superficially as many do, we read in Scripture that we are saved in order to serve, not sit! This means that there is work to do.

Ephesians 2:10 CSB

10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time for us to do.

What are these good works that we are to do diligently? In our country we are experts at compartmentalizing things. We see this in the media and common conversation as people talk about things like a work/life balance. What does this imply? You have 2 compartments - you have a work folder and a family life folder that you open when its appropriate. As a Christian this view can impact the way we look at church. People will mistakenly say things like this, “I’ll act like a Christian on Sunday, but Jesus doesn’t care what I do on Monday.” People will do business with Jesus Sunday and then leave Him at home when they go to school or work. I remember many people that I’d worship on Wednesday night doing less than God-honoring things on Friday night after the football game. If your faith in Jesus doesn’t change you, it hasn’t saved you! If our walk with the Lord only impacts us for 2 hours of the week and the other 166 hours we’re free to do whatever we want then we’re in the wrong. God is the one who sets the agenda with the way that we view our week.

For most of us this includes work. Work is viewed by many people as a negative thing that they want to do the bare minimum at in order to meet their needs. Think about how the Christian stands out in this regard

Colossians 3:23–24 CSB

23 Whatever you do, do it from the heart, as something done for the Lord and not for people, 24 knowing that you will receive the reward of an inheritance from the Lord. You serve the Lord Christ.

Whatever we do, do it for the Lord - we serve Him! Doesn’t this change our mentality when it comes to work? Our focus is on Jesus. His glory, not ours. His will, not ours. His Kingdom, not ours. See, there were some in this early Church who were convinced beyond the shadow of a doubt that Jesus was coming back in their lifetime. As 2 Thessalonians 3 tells us, these people possibly even quit their jobs because, after all, Jesus was about to come back! 2 Thess 3:11

2 Thessalonians 3:11 CSB

11 For we hear that there are some among you who are idle. They are not busy but busybodies.

Y’all - nothing new is under the sun, this mentality is prevalent in some places. What happened to these people who stopped working? They still had to eat. They still had to drink. They still required shelter. Where do you think they got supplies and resources? From others in the church. They began to mooch off of other people instead of working with their hands. Paul offers a corrective and tells them to keep working. Keep minding their business. Keep serving Jesus.

What do you think would happen if every Christian viewed their job (context of this verse) as a mission field? You know they used to, don’t you? I can think of nurses who work with grace and mercy and let the light of Jesus shine through their care for those in need. I can think of teachers who care for students and pray for them, especially whenever they’re hurting. We work diligently for God’s glory. We don’t need a spotlight. We don’t need a megaphone. We just need our daily bread and divine opportunities to share the Gospel and God providentially gives us these things each day. We just have to be ready to capitalize on them.

Think of the parable of the talents in Matthew 25. We have work that must be done. We will be held accountable for how we use our time, talent, and treasure. I’m not sure about you, but I want that accounting to go as well as possible! As a church, we must be about God’s business. As individuals, we must be about His business. We live on mission and view our time as a gift, the Gospel as our message, and God’s glory as our goal.

We work diligently where God plants us. We share the Gospel. We work hard. We point people to our Father. The goal of hard work is not to gain more money to spend on self or to retire early, but to help others and fulfill God’s purposes in our life and in our church!

Christians Must Operate Missionally (12)

As we work diligently where God plants us, we operate missionally. Paul calls on these believers to behave properly in the presence of outsiders - this means the public sphere outside of church. There are some people who want to isolate from the world. They want to build a bunker in Bunker, live off the land, have a commune, and never interact with the outside world. There are parts of that that might sound attractive to you - but it’s not what we see in the Bible. We’re to be in the world and not of the world. We’re to let the light of Jesus shine before others so that they would glorify Jesus. We’re to go to all the world and proclaim the Gospel and make disciples! We cannot be isolated from this world because our world is in dire need of Jesus Christ! We must also not be dependent upon this world. We’ll get to this church value on February 4th, the importance of Community Passion. This church loves this community! I’ve heard that from people within this church and I’ve heard it from lots of people outside of this church. We’d better love this community because it’s where God has planted us! Our prayer must be that Jesus would move in such a way that our community sees something different in the way we live and the way that we speak and that our community comes to know Jesus! How will this happen?

Grant Osborne, “It is critical, if we want to win people to Christ that we win their respect.”

This is why Paul instructs these believers to behave properly. There’s enough divisiveness, bickering, gossip, backbiting, slander, politics, and brokenness outside of the church - we don’t need the church to add to it. What do people see whenever they look at our church? I pray that they see a church that loves Jesus. A church that loves the Word of God. A church that loves one another. A church that prays for this community. A church that works hard for God’s glory. A church that desires to see lives changed forever because of the Gospel of Jesus Christ being faithfully proclaimed week in and week out as we gather corporately and day in and day out in our homes privately.

People have asked this question often: What is the best way to get outsiders to come to church? You can have the best preaching, singing, children’s classes, and food, but if you don’t have people who genuinely love others and care about others enough to invite them to church, it won’t happen. Statistically, people are most likely to come to church if they are invited by a personal friend. We’ve seen a large number of guests join us for worship in recent years and that starts with individuals taking seriously our charge in Matthew 28 to go and make disciples. To leverage situations God gives us for His glory and the good of this community. To invite people to join us for worship and if they don’t know Jesus, to see the truth of the Gospel in solving our greatest problem.

This community, a community of people who love Jesus, who stand on His Word, who love their community, who have the respect of the community, and who desire to see their community flourish, this Christian community glorifies Jesus. This is the community that God calls us to be today in Salem. We must:

Pray for Bible-believing, Christ-Centered churches in Salem to grow and remain faithful to Jesus

Pray for the lost in Salem to hear the Gospel and respond in repentance and faith

Pray that we would remain faithful and love God and love others as Christ commands

Pray for wisdom to steward well what God has entrusted to us - spiritually and financially

Don’t be dependent and don’t be disruptive within the community - be faithful to Jesus. Steward what He has given you well. Love others. Work hard. Glorify Jesus.