Abounding in Love and Blameless in Christ

Introduction

1 Thessalonians 3:11-13 “Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you, and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, 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.”

Prayer has a way to reveal our hearts, doesn’t it? Here’s some prayers by some children that I found online that you may find enlightening, revealing what’s on their hearts.

“Dear God, my Mom tells me that you have a reason for everything on Earth, I guess broccoli is one of your mysteries.

Please forgive me for hiding my sister’s favorite doll. . .and please don’t tell her where it is.

Dear God, when will my sister stop being annoying, I’m down to my last patience

The Cummings family would always pray together before eating supper. Everytime they sat around the table to pray, the father would ask God forgiveness for their shortcomings. Little Jimmy always thought that he was the short Cummings his father was praying about.

One time we were sitting around the table with some guests over. We asked Judson to pray, who must have still been three at the time. We’ve gone over with him many times before how to pray. He prayed, “Dear God, please be with all the dead people. Amen”

Of course to recover from such a social faux pa we had to explain that we had been praying for comfort for families who lost loved ones in a recent natural disaster.

Prayer has a certain way of revealing what’s on our hearts, and the same is true for Paul’s prayer.

Address

To whom did Paul address his prayer? Look at 1 Thess 3:11 “Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you,”

I want you to drink in the significance of this for a moment. The loyal Jew would never address his prayer to anyone other than God. The faithful Jew regularly recited the Shemah, “Hear O Israel the Lord is God, the Lord is one.” However, Paul, in the lifetime of Jesus’s followers, not long after Christ’s death is already addressing prayers to Jesus.

You see a similar formulation in 2 Thess. 2:16-17 “Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word.”

For Paul, in this instance, praying to God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ is interchangeable. This is not something to be taken lightly. Paul recognized and revered the fact that Jesus is fully God. Paul directs his requests to Jesus recognizing his divinity and his ability to effect the world.

In the Protestant tradition or stream of thought, we do not address prayers to non-divine beings. We do not pray to Mary, the saints, the angels, nor Satan. There is only one being to whom we address our prayers: God, who subsists in three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

There had not been enough time elapsed for some sort of deification legend to arise around Jesus. In other words, some say, yes a real Jesus did exist, however, he was not worshipped as God until hundreds of years after his life. This claim is completely false. The New Testament authors, Jesus’s very own followers recognized Jesus for who he was: truly God and truly man.

Notice that Paul addresses God as “our Father.” This shows the familial relationship that we have to God. God represents our relationship to him as a parent-child relationship. Now, certainly not everyone here had a perfect parent-child relationship (as a child or a parent). However, the point of comparison here is one of ideals. What is the ideal parent-child relationship? It must be defined by the Scripture. We can summarize it as the parent providing nurture and instruction, the child showing submission and respect all held together in a bond of mutual love.

This is the way that God desires to relate to us! Not as a capricious tyrant that we have to guess at and bow to every whim. Not as a successful business leader we have to suck up to. Not as a selfish husband always looking to get his way. But as a loving Father, and we are his sons and daughters indeed if we continue in the faith.

Second, Paul calls Jesus “our Lord.” Of course the relationship depicted here is one of master and slave. And because of the terrible practices of American chattel slavery in the 18th to 19th century, our idea of the “master and slave” relationship is tainted. But notice how the early Christians saw themselves. Oftentimes when introducing themselves in their letters, they called themselves a slave of Christ. James, Jesus’s actual brother (as in they had the same mom) even refers to himself thusly: James 1:1 “James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes in the Dispersion: Greetings.” James calls himself a slave to Jesus, his brother.

Think about the lines we just sang together, “Oh, to grace how great a debtor Daily I'm constrained to be Let Thy goodness like a fetter Bind my wandering heart to Thee”

You know what a fetter is, right? It’s those chains you see tied usually around prisoner's feet. We are asking God to chain us to him. Chain me! Jesus our great master and we are his slave. If you want to be great among many, you must be everyone’s slave. The kingdom of God is not built by an iron fist but by nail scatted hands. Jesus did not come into this world to be served but to serve, and may we follow in his example.

Request 1: Direct our path

Paul makes three requests in this prayer. His first request to God and the Lord Jesus is to direct their path, or make straight their way to the Thessalonians. 1 Thess 3:11 “Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you,”

This again reiterates Paul’s heart for the Thessalonians. He does not view them as something he just started up and moved on from. He does not see them as a means to get something he wants. Paul’s motives are pure and on display before the one who sees all. He wants their faithfulness.

This situation itself seems impossible. You could almost imagine Paul’s image posted everywhere in Thessolonica as “undesirable No. 1” Journeying back to Thessolnica, humanly speaking, is impossible. However, Paul recognizes the one who ultimately holds the power is God, not the human authority. Paul asks God for something that seems impossible because he rests in God’s power.

And we could almost leave it there in terms of our application, right? Ask God for the impossible. Sounds like a new Christian t-shirt. But the problem is it’s vagueness. Paul isn’t asking for a new mansion or some other selfish desire. Paul’s petition to God is motivated by his mission: producing faithfulness.

Ask God for the impossible in order to build his kingdom.

You all know the famous story about George Meuller who started an orphanage many many years ago?

On one famous occasion, the housemother of the orphanage came to George with the problem with which we started. The was no food for breakfast.

George asked her to take the 300 children into the dining room and have them sit at the tables. He thanked God for the food and waited. Soon after a baker knocked on the door. "Mr. Mueller, last night I could not sleep. Somehow I knew that you would need bread this morning. I got up and baked three batches for you."

Soon, there was another knock at the door. The milkman stood there, His cart had broken down in front of the orphanage. He asked George if he could use some free milk. George smiled as the milkman brought in ten large cans of milk. It was just enough for the 300 thirsty children.

Ask God for the impossible to build his kingdom.

Request 2: Abound in Love

1 Thess 3:12 “and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you,”

When Paul addresses the Lord here, he is referencing the Lord Jesus Christ. He asks that Jesus would make the Thessalonians increase and abound in love. The words “increase” and “abound” are both qualified by “in love.” And you may think, well obviously; however, there are false teachers out there who would want to take words like “increase” and make it mean that God’s will for your life is to increase your bank account. And convenient for these false teachers, the best way for you to increase your bank account is to give up your money to them. . .

So anyways, Paul asks Jesus to increase the Thessalonian’s love, that they would abound in love for one another. One another refers to everyone in the church. Gal. 6:10 “So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.” Paul sees the priority of our affections directed to those immediately around us, in our local church.

Jesus prioritizes this affection for the fellow believers over that of the extended family. Matt. 12:46-50 “While he was still speaking to the people, behold, his mother and his brothers stood outside, asking to speak to him. But he replied to the man who told him, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”

Do we prioritize our relationships in our church or do we see them as second or third-rate? There’s a special bond we have with one another here at our church. And Satan certainly has devised several things to distract you from that priority. Here are some things Satan would rather you believe:

1. The number one goal is success. More money, more fame, more influence is your number one goal. Sometimes achieving that goal means to make some sacrifices, like church attendance. Parents would rather make sure their kids are in sports or getting good grades rather than in church because they’ve bought the lie that the greatest thing their child needs is to be successful.

2. Individualism. You’ve got this on your own, you don’t need any help. If people found out about your struggles, they wouldn’t really understand.

3. It’s all about appearances. Some people come to church just to keep up appearances. They don’t want people to think negatively about them or their family. Covid freed a lot of people from this obligation and churches are still felling some emptiness from that. If we see coming together with the people of God as a “job” that we just need a break from every once and a while, we will have a difficult time abounding an love.

4. We can love everyone equally. Some of us buy into the lie that we can love all of our thousands of friends on social media as equally as we love our family and fellow church members. What this really results in is us painting a smile on our face and pretending to like a whole lot of people when we really have no idea what’s going on in their lives. If you don’t really know basic facts about someone, can you really say that you love them?

Love demands sacrifice. And there’s only so much each of us can sacrifice. We can’t love everyone and love everyone well. We will have to make decisions and priorities. The Bible tells us to prioritize our relationship with God first, then our spouse, then the children in our home, then the church.

Consider for a moment how Christ prioritized his relationship to the church. He wasn’t up in heaven like, “Well, I’d like to make a way for them, but you know, I’ve just got this other thing going on.” Jesus didn’t make excuses like, “Well, my schedule is so busy right now.” Rather Christ left the eternal glory above, came in the form of man, lived a perfect life, and died a scornful death in our place. All for HIS church! If the eternal Lord of all glory can prioritize his relationship to us, how much can we for one another? How trivial and transient is it to let something like sports or a boat trip to get in the way?

How can we prioritize relationships in the church?

Attend regularly. Your presence in the service is not only an encouragement to yourself, but also an encouragement to the other brothers and sisters in here.

Get to know people. This is difficult for me. My personality is naturally introverted. I have to a lot of times, work against myself to get to know people.

Open our homes. Invite people from our church over to your house. Experience the fellowship of God’s people outside of service times. This goes along with the command to be hospitable.

Look for opportunities to edify. Encourage a brother or sister.

I want to take a moment now and look at the concept of love. Paul prays that they would increase and abound in love. We’ve defined love in the recent past as a whole being act (involving will, beliefs, and desires) marked by self-sacrifice for the sake of the beloved. This, of course, is exemplified by Jesus’s act of self-sacrifice for the sake of his beloved bride, the church.

Love also involves not seeing people as a means to an end. Means, being how we want accomplish something, and end being the goal we want to achieve. For example, what’s the goal for a business? The bottom line, right? Money. A business will say/do anything to get you to come in and spend money. A business wants to use you to help it’s bottom line. Commerce laws are put in place to keep these things fair and at a fair rate and minimalize exploitation.

Politicians, what’s their goal? To get voted in, right? they will make any believable promise they can in order to secure your vote. In some ways, you’re just a means to an end.

Can churches fall into the same trap? We would be naive to say otherwise, right? What do you think about “church” when I ask the question? Let me reiterate that we collectively are the church. We should be careful not to see one another and the people on the outside as simply a means to an end.

What was Paul’s goal? Paul’s goal was the Thessalonians’ faithfulness. He addressed that in 1 Thess 3:8 “For now we live, if you are standing fast in the Lord.” He did not see them as a means to get something he selfishly wanted.

This should be the same service we pay to one another. We should abound in love for one another and let that love overflow to those on the outside.

Friday, I was studying at a local coffee shop. And sometimes I think God just allows these things to happen to me so I have something to say, I don’t know. I guess it’s also for my sanctification. Anyways, I was leaving when an old man sitting on a bench outside the nearby hotel beckoned me. I went over there and asked if he needed anything. He told me he needed a ride to a hotel in Perry and also told me he was an American and a Christian.

Quickly thoughts passed through my mind like, “what if he’s a crook, my wife would probably not approve of such.” and “I’ve got so much to do right now, I have to take this test by midnight, I don’t have time for all this. .” But Scriptures also went through my mind about my obligation to do good, and I may entertain angels unawares, etc. So I went ahead and gave him a ride.

He had a sharp mind and was a great conversationalist. If he was a crook he could probably steal my identity now as much as he learned about me on that short journey. He made the remark at some point that you just never know who you’re going to meet any more. “I could have been a criminal or an American” is how he put it. I said, “Either way I would still help you out.” In my mind I was thinking that for all I know he could be a criminal.

Anyways, after I dropped him off at the location he wanted and was driving off, I was quite pleased with myself. It does the soul good to do a good deed for someone else, I thought. Then what flashed in my mind was that picture of someone handing people in poverty groceries while taking a selfie. Have you seen it?

Then I though about this verse I had been meditating on 1 Thess 3:12 “and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you,” If I did this service to make myself feel good then I don’t really love that man, I just used him to make me feel better about myself. I allowed my good works to take the place of righteousness that only Christ can provide for me.

If the Lord truly is to make me abound in love, it cannot be an idol to take the place of what Christ provided for me. It cannot be to use people for whatever goal I need to attain. But it must be what Paul said, “as we do for you.” Paul’s love for the Thessalonians is for their well-being, for their faithfulness, not his selfish desires.

Request 3: Blameless at Christ’s Coming

1 Thess. 3:13 “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.”

For what purpose does Jesus cause them to increase and abound in love?

And I want you to hold on to this, because our culture has radically redefined love. I spend so much time trying to define this term because it has been perverted by our culture. When our government tells us to do something in order to “love they neighbor.” People used this injunction by Jesus all the time to get people to do all sorts of things.

Love thy neighbor, wear a mask

Love thy neighbor, homosexuality is not a sin

Love they neighbor, vote for science

Listen, when “Love thy neighbor” means everything it means nothing.

For what purpose does Jesus cause them to increase and abound in love? So that HE (that is JESUS) may establish their hearts blameless in holiness before God.

God is the judge of all the earth that shall do right. He judges our hearts, which is the seat of our very soul, what we want, what we believe, and what we do. The love we abound in is done in such a way that we uphold God’s law in the way that we interact with one another. Love in only love in that it flows from and conforms to God’s character, his holiness. You can’t have love without holiness. Taking physical pleasure with another person whose not your spouse is NOT love not matter what the culture says, it’s lust. Telling someone that sin is okay is not love it’s a lie. Lying, by default is not loving.

Combining Jesus’s injunction to love thy neighbor with something that’s a personal choice or especially something that goes against God’s law is an oxymoron. The two cannot go together.

However, brothers and sisters, whenever we allow God to define love in his Word and he causes us to abound in it, what joy beyond measure. When we abound in love, we can stop looking for opportunities to justify ourselves.

Let me speak for a moment to those who are apart from Christ, still lost in their sin. You may be in this room, or listening online. You hear this phrase, “blameless before God,” and it’s something you want. You see the bitter sickness of sin that grips your soul. You know how disgusting and filthy you are. You know you want to do what is right. You know you want to stand before God blameless. So you go on striving, doing good things, showing up in church, working, constantly working for your salvation. All your working is like putting perfume on a rotting corpse.

Notice what this text says, “He may establish your hearts blameless in holiness.” This is the work of the Lord Jesus. God is the one who justifies. Place your trust in him, call upon the name of the Lord Jesus and you will be saved! Look and live! The commands of the Bible are so simple! Your striving will never be enough until you rest at the foot of the cross.

And to my brothers and sisters, for those in Christ, I would encourage you to stop working for your salvation and working from it. If your in Christ and working for your salvation, your confidence will come how well you perform. You will either have to deceive yourself to believe that your not as bad as you think, or shrink back at Christ’s coming.

The way that Paul discusses the coming of Jesus here is judgment language. Notice how he puts “before our God and Father,” as if standing before him and judgment. And he says, “the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.” “His saints” here is literally “holy ones” and is either talking about his angels (the beings often put in charge of executing God’s judgment) or it could refer to those of us who are on Jesus’s side so to speak. (Or perhaps refer to both angels and the followers of Jesus).

Apocalyptic language like this is used to evoke emotions. The question is for us, what do we feel when we hear of standing in God’s judgment? Do our hearts condemn us? If so, it’s time to search for idols in our life. Or are our hearts established, standing firm, not because of our own works of righteousness, but because we place our trust in Christ’s righteousness in our place. We abound in love because of the love Christ has for us.

I don’t stand up here preaching because I have a great theological intellect or because I feel especially holy. I don’t preach because I believe I’m some greater Christian than anyone else. I preach for two major reasons: because Christ called me to do it and because of what he’s done for me.

The fact that Christ establishes my heart gives me confidence to do all the more for him in building his kingdom. We don’t work for our salvation, we work from our salvation.