OPINION —
The Apostle Paul was wise. In his first letter to his friends in Thessalonica, he praises them for having followed his advice. In an earlier visit he had instructed them about how to live to please God. Having heard they were doing that, he urges them to “do this more and more” (NIV, 4:1).
I love the word “more.” When I was a boy, James Porterfield was my dad’s right-hand man on the farm. James taught me a delightful use of the word “more.” When my mother let me share a delicious dessert with James, he would take the last bite and say to me, “Walter, this tastes like “sum mo.” I knew he meant “some more.” I’ve had that response to many tasty desserts. My sister Margie’s chocolate pie comes to mind.
So while Paul praises his friends for living to please God, he tells them he wants them to do it “some more.” Here is Paul’s admonition as translated in the New Living Translation:
“Finally, dear brothers and sisters, we urge you in the name of the Lord Jesus to live in a way that pleases God, as we have taught you. You live this way already, and we encourage you to do so even more” (4:1).
But Paul had something more than affirmation in mind. He had received word that some of them had given up on “holy living” and returned to the practice of sexual immorality or “passionate lust.” So, he urgently counsels them with these strong words:
“For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God….” (4:3-5, ESV).
While The Message is more a paraphrase than a translation, the author has a delightful way of “putting the hay down where the goats can get it.” His language is not complex but straightforward; you understand exactly what he is saying. An example of Eugene Peterson’s paraphrasing skill is his interpretation of what Paul says to his friends about sexual sin:
“One final word, friends. We ask you — urge is more like it — that you keep on doing what we told you to do to please God, not in a dogged religious plod, but in a living, spirited dance. You know the guidelines we laid out for you from the Master Jesus. God wants you to live a pure life. Keep yourselves from sexual promiscuity. Learn to appreciate and give dignity to your body, not abusing it, as is so common among those who know nothing of God” (4:1-5, The Message).
Speaking plainly, Paul contends that only a pure life will please God. Those who follow Christ can no longer live like pagans live. Answering God’s call to holiness changes the way we live and treat others. This means, Paul says, that as a Christian you will “never harm or cheat a fellow believer in this matter by violating his wife, for the Lord avenges all such sins, as we have solemnly warned you before” (4:6).
The Living Bible expands our understanding of Paul’s warning:
“For God wants you to be holy and pure and to keep clear of all sexual sin so that each of you will marry in holiness and honor — not in lustful passion as the heathen do, in their ignorance of God and his ways.
And this also is God’s will: that you never cheat in this matter by taking another man’s wife because the Lord will punish you terribly for this, as we have solemnly told you before. For God has not called us to be dirty-minded and full of lust but to be holy and clean” (4:3-7).
Paul’s counsel to his friends is blunt. Anyone who is not following the instructions he gave them has turned away from God. He asserts that because God has called them to live holy lives, “anyone who refuses to live by these rules is not disobeying human teaching but is rejecting God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you” (4:7-8).
Having said this, Paul reverts to praising his friends. Those in the church who had gone back to living like pagans must have been relieved by Paul’s kind affirmation:
“But concerning the pure brotherly love that there should be among God’s people, I don’t need to say very much, I’m sure. For God himself is teaching you to love one another. Indeed, your love is already strong toward all the Christian brothers throughout your whole nation. Even so, dear friends, we beg you to love them more and more” (4:9-10, Living Bible).
Once again Paul uses the words “more and more,” urging his friends to love all their fellow Christians “even more.” As we read Paul’s counsel to his friends, the Holy Spirit speaks to us about loving one another. Most of us will be quick to assure the Lord that we love our Christian brothers and sisters. But Paul is pleading with us to love them “more.” If we take his plea seriously, we must examine what the Bible means by “love.”
James can help us. He reminds us that faith is not enough; it must be accompanied by love in action, deeds of love and mercy, for “a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone” (James 2:14-24, NIV). To say “I love you brother or sister” is not enough. Words of love must be “made flesh” in loving deeds.
John expands beautifully James’ counsel:
“We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters. If someone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in need but shows no compassion — how can God’s love be in that person?
Dear children, let’s not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions. Our actions will show that we belong to the truth, so we will be confident when we stand before God. Even if we feel guilty, God is greater than our feelings and he knows everything.
Dear friends, if we don’t feel guilty, we can come to God with bold confidence. And we will receive from him whatever we ask because we obey him and do the things that please him.
And this is his commandment: We must believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as he commanded us” (1 John 3:16-23, NLT).
What does authentic love look like? The question can be answered in a thousand ways. I will share two ways I have seen real love in action. After my wife died, my four sons took turns spending the night with me for two weeks. It was comfort in action; they were saying “Dad, you are not alone in your sorrow; we are with you.” For five years, they have continued to find many other ways to assure me of their love.
When a man in our church lost his job because of his alcoholism, his wife left him. Unable to find employment, he defaulted on the mortgage payments on his home and became suicidal. Five men prayed with him, assured him they loved him and raised $5,000 to update the mortgage on his home. They helped him find a job and persuaded him to trust Jesus and seek help through the ministry of Celebrate Recovery. In less than two years, the man had been “loved” into a new life in Christ. When there had seemed to be no way, love made a way.
If we truly love our brothers and sisters, we will find more and more ways to love them, and in so doing, we will be filled with the incredible joy of pleasing God.
(Adapted from a chapter in my book, “Living a Life Pleasing to God.”)
Loving Father, please give me the grace to love others more and more, in deeds of love and mercy, not just in words. More and more, I realize this is the way you want me to live. In Jesus’ name. Amen
(The above is a chapter in my new book, Living a Life Pleasing to God, available in paperback or kindle from Amazon.)
