Christian Conduct

The Christian Way of life is both an individual run and a team effort. The Goal of the Christian is to advance to the high Ground to spiritual maturity where his life is maximized for the Glory of God. the believer enters into a local body of believers in order to strengthen and be strengthened to achieve the common goal.

There is a responsibility for each of us as Christians to serve in the community of believers to meet that goal and to frustrate the schemes of the devil

Our opening hymn this morning is Great is thy faithfulness.

Prayer.

The body of believers were a community, a functioning body within the culture itself. People were selling all that they owned and giving it to the church and became active members within that Church culture, working to support their way as they continued in the Christian way of life, individually and collectively as a church.

Acts 2:44–46 (NASB95) — 44 And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common; 45 and they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need. 46 Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart,

yes, it appears that they were participating in what might be called communal living, where all would have responsibility to support the Church and the people within it.

Selling their possessions did not make them wards of the Church. They were expected to pull their own weight and contribute to the wellbeing of the local church as a whole.

Paul reminds the believers in his letter that when they, that is Paul Silvanus and Timothy were with them, they too shared in the labor, pulling their own weight.

2 Thessalonians 3:6–12 (NASB95)

What was the apparent practice in the early Church, gives to us today a very bad connotation. With the thought of religious communes, we immediately think of it as being some kind of cult like the Jim Jones Cult or the Branch Davidians. Both ended in disaster. But is that because the failure of the concept of Christian Communal living or was it because of the failure of man. And are these failures highlighted in our thinking to keep the church dependent upon the world rather than being self sufficient apart from the world in its own community. these are questions that will not be addressed here, but just think about.

Might this be a harsh assessment. I’m not discouraging one to give to the needy, but to be discerning in accordance with what scripture teaches on the subject of giving.

Paul is writing to the Church. The church community in Thessaloniki. In the face of its current culture, Paul was concerned having fled the area along with Timothy and Silvanus, Paul’s concern was that the Church would not survive the counterculture to it. But relieved that the church was holding fast.

The mood of this letter is every bit as relevant today as it was then. The Culture is changing. The barriers that held back Evil seem to have been lifted. And as the Culture continues its downward spiral, we might ask ourselves the question; how is it that the Born-again believer along with the Church as a whole should conduct itself?

Keep in mind that the Christian way of life is not a life coping mechanism, but it is the way of life that is to be learned and lived regardless of the environment from which the believer finds themselves in.

So how is it that we are to conduct ourselves as a church within the church community?

1 Thessalonians 5:12–13 (NASB95) — 12 But we request of you, brethren, that you appreciate those who diligently labor among you, and have charge over you in the Lord and give you instruction, 13 and that you esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Live in peace with one another.

We have already gone over

1. The consideration of Church leadership; those appointed over the Church

2. And being at peace with one another

WE continue now with verse 14

1 Thessalonians 5:14 (NASB95) — 14 We urge you, brethren, admonish the unruly, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with everyone.

3. Admonish the unruly

We urge παρακαλέω [parakaleo /par·ak·al·eh·o/] v to encourage; to implore.

νουθετέω [noutheteo /noo·thet·eh·o/] v. to admonish, warn, exhort.

ἄτακτος [ataktos /at·ak·tos/] the Adjective describes the one who is disorderly, out of one who deviates outside from the prescribed order or rule.

ἀτακτέω: the verb is to refuse to be engaged in the efforts of work—‘to do nothing, to be idle, to be lazy.’ οὐκ ἠτακτήσαμεν ἐν ὑμῖν … ἐργαζόμενοι πρὸς τὸ μὴ ἐπιβαρῆσαί τινα ὑμῶν ‘we were not lazy when we were with you … we kept working so as not to be an expense to any of you’ 2 Th 3:7–8. Traditional translations have often interpreted ἀτακτέω in an etymological sense of ‘not being ordered’ and hence with a meaning of ‘to behave in a disorderly manner,’ but this is quite contrary to the context.

The weakness of communal living when all are sharing in the labor as well as the fruit of the labor, is the human condition. There will the temptation to take advantage of being able to eat at others expense. They can come to the food pantry, eat at no cost, and expect the church to condone it. Meanwhile their idleness allows them to slough off and become busy bodies.

This is what Paul is addressing.

The early settlers the Puritans held to this teaching. Those that landed on Plymouth rock. They held a strong work ethic, which saved their lives. Later others would land and would entered into the community. The new settlers held to less convictions than those who arrived on the Mayflower.

When it came to holidays such as Christmas it brought conflict between the separatist (the puritans) and the newcomers who celebrated it. The puritans did not observe the holiday. They considered Christmas a pagan holiday. When the newcomers set aside their work that day there came conflict between the people and the leadership.[1]

Later Christmas was banned by the Puritan leadership.

As the church today, who are actively engaged with feeding the community. Giving may make one feel like one is doing something for the Lord, but in so are we doing for the Lord or are we enabling the lazy to continue to receive.

Pastors and churches are visited by people outside of the congregation who otherwise do not attend the church or contribute to it in any way expect that the church should meet their needs without question. Closer examination of what Paul is putting in his letter concerning the lazy should make us stop and give more thought on the ministry of giving, under the principle of a right thing done in a right way is right.

4. Encourage the weak

παραμυθέομαι [paramutheomai /par·am·oo·theh·om·ahee/] v

παραμυθέομαι is made up of the adv. παρά in the sense “towards” (as in παρέρχεσθαι etc.) and μυθέομαι (→ IV, 766, n. 13); derived are παραμυθία, παραμύθιον. The basic meaning is thus “to speak to someone,” or “to speak to someone, coming close to his side.”

to speak to, address one, whether by way of admonition and incentive, or to calm and console. 1a to encourage, console.[2]

The faltering ὀλιγόψυχος [oligopsuchos /ol·ig·op·soo·khos/] adj

25.290 ὀλιγόψυχος, ον: pertaining to having limited or diminished motivation for the attainment of some goal—‘fainthearted, discouraged, losing heart.’ παραμυθεῖσθε τοὺς ὀλιγοψύχους ‘encourage those who are losing heart’ 1 Th 5:14. The expression ‘those who are losing heart’ is semantically negative, but can be expressed in a more specifically negative form in some languages, for example, ‘those who do not have courage’ or ‘those whose hearts are not strong.’[3]

Every individual Christian share in a common objective.

Spiritual maturity. The place where our individual lives are maximized to the Glory of the Lord. it is a place where we are truly living for Christ and not of ourselves. At the point of Spiritual maturity one becomes an image of Christ.

Ephesians 4:11–16 (NASB95) — 11 And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. 14 As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; 15 but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.

Satan’s objective is twofold.

1. He desires no one to defect from his dominion.

But when a sinner repents, there is a great celebration in heaven as the Kingdom has received another within its ranks and Satan loses a little bit more hold of his own kingdom.

2. Satan desires no one to advance to spiritual maturity where one’s life becomes an effective witness for Christ, and whose life is being used on the ground to frustrate the schemes of the devil.

As mature immatures of Christ, the Lord ministry continues through us, to draw others out of the kingdom of Darkness and in the kingdom of light.

There is not much to notice given by Satan of the Carnal believer. The one who is content to live according to the flesh. Their impact for Christ is limited. But for the believer who recognize their role in God’s plan and they have their spiritual priorities in place and moving forward, the evil one take aim to set up road blocks.

There will be opposition set before the advancing believer.

But also understand not all the pressure is Satanically inspired. It is the Lord that will allow the pressure to come upon the believer in order to accelerate the advance. Pressures that in short, such as

People testing

Thought testing

Temptation testing

System testing

Disaster testing.

And the like

Testing is not there to prove how well you can endure the pressure, but to prove the faith which is within, which is the proper application of the word of the Lord.

Such allowances for testing may for Satan be his efforts to dissuade and to destroy the believer, but God’s desire is for the suffering to bring about glory to Himself and does when with the proper application of the word of truth propels the believer forward.

The end goal of Suffering for Blessing is the glorification of the Lord.

The pack gets heavy sometimes and it is the believer that must endure. Sometimes it does call for shared strength. Another to come along side. another believer who will encourage with word or just being there in one’s presence. Helping, comforting, helping to recall to mind learned doctrine in order to help the fainthearted up the hill.

At some point within the Christian community, there will be the discouraged and there will be the encouragers. Sometimes you will be the one filling the discourage role as others are coming to encourage. And other times you will be the encourager to come along side the faint hearted to help carry that burden.

The most important item of weaponry that the Greek Spartans carried was the shield. It was the shield that on a personal level protected the soldier body from attack.

The shields collectively would be locked together to become a wall that stood between the enemy and their beloved city.

The shield protected not only the warrior but his brother on the left and on the right. Each warrior had to effectively yield his shield in order to protect and hold the line.

The Armor of God includes the Shield of faith. and as we as Christian warriors handle our own shield it serves to strengthen those on our right and on our left. A strong brother or sister who is strong in the faith coming along side another to combine to one strength to see the other and to motivate the other to continue upward to the high ground of spiritual maturity.

[1] Paraphrased from the book Mayflower : [a story of courage, community, and war] by Philbrick, Nathaniel. [2]Strong, J. (1995). In Enhanced Strong’s Lexicon. Woodside Bible Fellowship. [3]Louw, J. P., & Nida, E. A. (1996). In Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament: based on semantic domains (electronic ed. of the 2nd edition., Vol. 1, pp. 318–319). United Bible Societies.