October 15, 2001

Lessons for October 28

EXPLORE THE BIBLE:
Paul stresses the importance of Christian etiquette
___ 1 Thessalonians 5:12-28
___By Pete Freeman
___First Baptist Church, The Woodlands
___Recently, one of our young adult couples told me about a course their oldest daughter had completed. It was a course on social etiquette. Their daughter, age 11, learned such things as how to greet people properly, table manners and set-ups, and how to be hospitable and gracious in all situations. Wow! I wish I had learned such things that early in life. It would have saved me a lot of embarrassment.
___As the Apostle Paul comes to the close of his first letter to the Thessalonians, he decides to address the matter of personal etiquette. Apparently there were some personal relationship problems among these early believers. They, like we Baptists today, needed some instruction on how to relate to one another. What follows in these verses is probably the most compact sermon in history. It covers almost every aspect of how Christians are to relate to one another.
___He begins by addressing the matter of how to treat church leaders. There is debate over whether these were the early "office-bearers" in the church-- elders, deacons, pastors. Most contend they were. Either way, Paul is concerned about how the leaders of the church were treated. The primary word he uses is "respect." It has the idea of getting to fully know these individuals and with the purpose of appreciating their worth to the body. Paul's reference to a functioning body is further explained in Romans.
___It is worth noting that in his description of these leaders, Paul uses three participles to describe the work of one group of people. Therefore, these leaders had three functions--laboring, leading and admonishing. "Work" used here implies they served until they were weary. Positively, they were tireless as leaders. "Over you" describes their role. As we know, the Holy Spirit determines gifts and roles in the body (1 Corinthians 12:7-11).
___Leadership requires followship. The phrase, "in the Lord," indicates the relationship between those who lead and those who follow. He is not speaking of some kind of blind leadership authority but one "exercised in the warmth of Christian bonds."
___"Admonishing" refers to the dualism of tenderness and confrontation. It is the responsibility of leadership to gently prod a church forward and at the same time confront them with accountability. He concludes his thoughts on this matter by stressing that holding leadership in "high regard" requires deliberate acts of peace on the part of everyone. The imperative "be at peace" is accompanied with "each other." This implies both leaders and followers are to work at keeping peace in the body.
___After hurdling this apparent difficulty, Paul addressed the general areas where Christian etiquette applies. What follows is to be equally applied to all members of the church. It is not just the responsibility of the church staff or the deacons to admonish, encourage, help, be patient, to forgive, be kind, joyous, prayerful, be instruments of the Spirit's moving, to understand or avoid evil. It is the responsibility of all believers to act like Christians.
___I will never forget a phone call I received during my first pastorate. On the other end of the line was a distraught mother. Her son was about to leave home because of family problems. She said to me: "Preacher, I need you. My son is about to leave home, and he's never been saved. I need you to come over and save him." That shocked me enough, but then she added, "Besides, that's what we pay you for."
___Now I know some of you who know me may not believe me when I say, "I was speechless." As a 21-year-old pastor, it was my first "reality check" about pastoral expectations.
___For brevity's sake, let's chose two of those areas of shared responsibility. The meaning of the phrase, "Do not put out the Spirit's fire," has been a source of disagreement among Christians for centuries. This is the only place it is used in the New Testament in a metaphorical sense. Is Paul alluding to the "fruit of the Spirit" (Galatians 5:22-23) or to the "ecstatic gift of tongues" (1 Corinthians 14:39)?
___Leon Morris poses a third option. He suggests "loafing, immorality and other sins about which Paul has had occasion to warn his friends will quench the Spirit in a man's life and result in the loss of spiritual power and joy." The bottom line is that as believers we can "quench the Spirit" with both our actions and our words.
___No phrase in the Bible probably has been as misused as "Avoid every kind of evil." The key to understanding and applying this text is properly interpreting the word "form" (KJV). Does it refer to anything that has the external appearance of evil or evil that can be seen? If it's the former, then we all need to join a secluded community. If the latter, which I believe it is, then we all need to ask God for the gift of discernment. I suggest that if was the former, then Jesus probably would have never socialized with sinners.

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