Brotherly Love and a Quiet Life
1 Thessalonians 4v9-12
26th November 2021
1 Thessalonians 4:9-12
Now about brotherly love we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves
have been taught by God to love each other.
And in fact, you do love all the brothers throughout Macedonia. Yet we urge
you, brothers, to do so more and more.
Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: to mind your own business and
work with your hands, just as we told you,
so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you
will not be dependent on anybody.
"Brotherly love" translates the Greek word "philadelphia". It's use in the Bible means that your fellow Christians are your brothers and sisters, just as much as your brothers and sisters in the flesh. Just as brothers and sisters after the flesh have the same earthly parents, Christians are all children of God the Father, and God wants to give us brotherly love for those brothers and sisters.
The Thessalonians didn't need further instruction about this. They understood. But they did need to be encouraged and reminded to love their brothers and sisters in Christ, even though they knew the doctrine. And we can be like that.
We all know that we should love each other. But we can forget to treat each other like brothers and sisters. And even brothers and sisters can fight and argue. We've all seen children punch their brothers and sisters, take their toys, laugh at them and so on. We don't need to be told that we shouldn't be like that but, sadly, we do need to be reminded. And Paul, Silas and Timothy urge us to do so more and more. No matter how much you love your brother and sister in Christ, you can always love him or her more.
You may not be able to like all the brothers and sisters in your church, but you're called to love all of them. I expect there are some church members you get along with very well, very easily. You think the same, you like the same things, you find the other person supportive and encouraging. But there are probably other brothers and sisters in Christ that you find bewildering, critical, selfish, tedious, frustrating, even threatening. Love them with brotherly love anyway. And go on getting better at it. And thank the Lord for them; they're your family.
We do the work of the Kingdom of God quietly, peaceably. People are born again into the kingdom of God one at a time. To quote Sir Cecil Rice:
And there's another country, I've heard of long ago,
Most dear to them that love her, most great to them that know;
We may not count her armies, we may not see her King;
Her fortress is a faithful heart, her pride is suffering;
And soul by soul and silently her shining bounds increase,
And her ways are ways of gentleness, and all her paths are peace.
Jesus didn't mount the barricades. He didn't march down Whitehall carrying placards and shouting. We never advance the kingdom of God by using the tactics of the world. Christian activism is in loving our neighbour, speaking gently and respectfully about the love of Jesus. William Hendriksen's commentary on verse 11 says, "Fanatics, busybodies, and loafers, nearly every church has them!" Please don't be one of those churches.
A quiet life, a life of prayer, gentleness and kindness, a life of faithful service to God, to our brothers and sisters in Christ, and to everybody we meet, is a life well lived. We don't need to shout. We don't need to pry into each other's business. We don't need to psychoanalyse each other. We don't need to judge each other. We should love, forgive and support each other, and those around us. But a quiet life shouldn't be a lazy life. We should serve God in the church and in the world.
We should work to support ourselves and so we can give to others. Depending on our talents and circumstances, some of us can find it difficult to obtain work, but we can try, and we can ask God to help us. We should seek to be financially independent, so we can give more than we take. We should live lives that win the respect of others. How will they find the love of Jesus if we don't?
If you struggle with any of this, pray to the Lord your God, who will make it possible for you to live His way more and more.