Ease and Constancy Nurturing Faith
From 1 Thessalonians 3 – 1 Therefore, when we could no longer endure it, we thought it good to be left in Athens alone, 2 and sent Timothy, our brother and minister of God, and our fellow laborer in the Gospel of Christ, to establish you and encourage you concerning your faith, 3 that no one should be shaken by these afflictions; for you yourselves know that we are appointed to this.
BM Palmer in his sermon "The Family in Its Civil and Churchly Aspects" counsels that this is God's gracious design of the family as a civilizing instrument: "Power is less severe by the ease and constancy with which it is exercised."
That we would practice this continuity in grace with our spiritual family as well, the Holy Spirit directs Paul to open what comes to us as 1 Thessalonians 3 with this sort of heart in action. Spiritual that he is, these wee ones in the faith, he will say, are constantly in his thoughts. This concern is aptly demonstrated in the right timing and the right way.
Paul doesn't wait for calamity to leave his disciples in what Hebrews will describe as a shipwreck of faith. He is preemptive, and yet not overbearing. In fact, this stern apostle who in 1 Timothy 1 will occasionally buck up the younger Timothy to confront in starker terms this time deploys the younger man's gentleness as exactly what the Thessalonians require. Paul's parental concern is conveyed personally through Timothy's gracious countenance and timely concern. Our love for those from whom we hope for great things can be similarly conveyed.
Paul also doesn't dismiss the afflictions the Thessalonians are going through with self-centered comparisons. Through history's lens, we might recount the great apostle's personal suffering and wonder what individual Christians in Thessalonica might be going through in diffuse, general persecution, but Paul doesn't give in to this. For those he is writing to at their point in the maturation of their faith, what persecution they are experiencing is quite enough.
He abides with them as his stylus and his affection expressed through Timothy allow them to do so. Thus, as we, like Paul, have the mind, and countenance, and words of Christ, we can abide with those we would influence in their suffering and their growing pains, without diminishing either with snide comparisons. Ease and constancy can help to grow the faith of our spiritual family, as well as our own.
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BM Palmer in his sermon "The Family in Its Civil and Churchly Aspects" counsels that this is God's gracious design of the family as a civilizing instrument: "Power is less severe by the ease and constancy with which it is exercised."
That we would practice this continuity in grace with our spiritual family as well, the Holy Spirit directs Paul to open what comes to us as 1 Thessalonians 3 with this sort of heart in action. Spiritual that he is, these wee ones in the faith, he will say, are constantly in his thoughts. This concern is aptly demonstrated in the right timing and the right way.
Paul doesn't wait for calamity to leave his disciples in what Hebrews will describe as a shipwreck of faith. He is preemptive, and yet not overbearing. In fact, this stern apostle who in 1 Timothy 1 will occasionally buck up the younger Timothy to confront in starker terms this time deploys the younger man's gentleness as exactly what the Thessalonians require. Paul's parental concern is conveyed personally through Timothy's gracious countenance and timely concern. Our love for those from whom we hope for great things can be similarly conveyed.
Paul also doesn't dismiss the afflictions the Thessalonians are going through with self-centered comparisons. Through history's lens, we might recount the great apostle's personal suffering and wonder what individual Christians in Thessalonica might be going through in diffuse, general persecution, but Paul doesn't give in to this. For those he is writing to at their point in the maturation of their faith, what persecution they are experiencing is quite enough.
He abides with them as his stylus and his affection expressed through Timothy allow them to do so. Thus, as we, like Paul, have the mind, and countenance, and words of Christ, we can abide with those we would influence in their suffering and their growing pains, without diminishing either with snide comparisons. Ease and constancy can help to grow the faith of our spiritual family, as well as our own.
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