So, How Much Do You Love Me… I Mean Us ☺️? (1 Thessalonians 2:17-3:10)
GIST: Our love for one another should be deeply affectionate, gospel-driven, and actively dedicated.
Ok. So today we’re going to do something that will seem very uncharacteristic of me in this study. We’re going to cover like 13 verses. However, before you get too excited, we’re going to cover these 13 verses this Sunday and the week after Mother’s Day because there is a lot going on here we need to talk about and one Sunday wouldn’t do it justice. Nonetheless, to get the full picture, I do think it will be most helpful to see these verses all together in context.
That being said, there are about three verses I won’t touch on at all this week. Don’t worry, we’re not hiding from them. They’ll just be our focus next time ☺️! Without further ado→
“17 But since we were torn away from you, brothers, for a short time, in person not in heart, we endeavored the more eagerly and with great desire to see you face to face, 18 because we wanted to come to you--I, Paul, again and again--but Satan hindered us. 19 For what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at His coming? Is it not you? 20 For you are our glory and joy. 1 Therefore when we could bear it no longer, we were willing to be left behind at Athens alone, 2 and we sent Timothy, our brother and God's coworker in the gospel of Christ, to establish and exhort you in your faith, 3 that no one be moved by these afflictions. For you yourselves know that we are destined for this. 4 For when we were with you, we kept telling you beforehand that we were to suffer affliction, just as it has come to pass, and just as you know. 5 For this reason, when I could bear it no longer, I sent to learn about your faith, for fear that somehow the tempter had tempted you and our labor would be in vain. 6 But now that Timothy has come to us from you, and has brought us the good news of your faith and love and reported that you always remember us kindly and long to see us, as we long to see you-- 7 for this reason, brothers, in all our distress and affliction we have been comforted about you through your faith. 8 For now we live, if you are standing fast in the Lord. 9 For what thanksgiving can we return to God for you, for all the joy that we feel for your sake before our God, 10 as we pray most earnestly night and day that we may see you face to face and supply what is lacking in your faith?”
Beautiful passage, and I think it gives us some really practical insights into Paul’s heart—which more specifically is Paul’s heart that’s been changed by Jesus. Next week, we’re going to look at the practical insights we get about living for Jesus (or ministering) while facing persecution. Today, we’re going to talk about… love. In context, we have Paul writing to a group of people he has shared the gospel with and discipled. He’s writing a church. So, in a lot of ways—though there are implications for what our love should look like in all contexts—I think there are some really strong takeaways for how we should be loving our church family, and the Christians we live life with, the people we’re invested in…etc. While love is usually an easier topic to talk about, the gist for this morning steps on my toes: Our love for one another should be deeply affectionate, gospel-driven, and actively dedicated. Let’s break that down.
I. Deeply Affectionate
"17 But since we were torn away from you, brothers, for a short time, in person not in heart, we endeavored the more eagerly and with great desire to see you face to face, 18 because we wanted to come to you--I, Paul, again and again…” (We’ll talk about the satanic hindrance part next time!)
The “deeply affectionate” part might jump off the page most clearly. Paul keeps repeating how much he wants to be with these believers. He eagerly desires to see them. He has this consuming longing. In fact, once we get into chapter three we see him expressing that he couldn’t even stand not being with them any longer.
What led to this? Why does he want so badly to be with them? They’re family. If you’ve been keeping up with this study, you’ll know Paul has already compared his relationship with them to that of a nursing mom and a dedicated dad. Now, we see it again. The English translation here uses the word “torn away”, but the Greek word is actually aporphanizō which means to be orphaned. I think that imagery helps hammer home this connection really clearly. Being away from them felt like losing his family. That’s the level of connection he’d developed with them as he minister to them and with them… for three weeks!
Many of you have been here longer than that. I’ve been a member of this church for 17 years. Yeah… I could develop that more, but let’s save it for the takeaways ☺️.
II. Gospel-Driven
This second one is going to take a bit longer to unpack, but it’s such an important perspective to see. Paul loves them like family, and he loves them with a Christ-centered or gospel-driven love. Let me break this down into three statements to help us digest what that means practically.
First, when we see God working in the lives of people through us, that’s amazing evidence of the change He’s made. Look at verses 19-20: “For what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at His coming? Is it not you? For you are our glory and joy.” This is a really interesting verse because Paul calls these believers his joy and glory, but we know that joy is from Jesus and any glory we have is Him. So what does Paul mean? Clearly, he’s not equating these believers to Jesus, but he is saying there is a profound connection. When we stand before Jesus, we won’t boast in anything except His work in our lives. That first work is our personal salvation—Him coming to our rescue. What’s awesome though, is that when He saves us, He also starts to change us. As we become more and more like Him (which is literally what Paul has just been talking about leading into these verses) He fills us with a desire to love like He loves. As we do that, other people see Christ in our lives and hear about Him from our lips. What clearer evidence of heart transformation than seeing Jesus use you to draw others to His hope?
And that feeds into this second point, as well. If we love like Jesus, then, we’ll want others to be secure in His arms. When Paul couldn’t stand it any longer he “sent Timothy…that no one be moved by these afflictions” (1 Thessalonians 3:2-3). The word moved carries the connotation of being disturbed or shaken. What is Paul talking about? Look at 3:5. Here Paul reiterates why he sent Timothy saying it was “for fear that somehow the tempter had tempted you and our labor would be in vain” (1 Thessalonians 3:5). He was concerned about their salvation. So much so, we see in verse 10 that he prayed all the time that he might see them and supply what is lacking in their faith. He loved them like family, but his love wasn’t driven by any self-serving desires. He wasn’t looking for warm fuzzies and cuddles. He wanted to make sure they were experiencing the life-giving truth of Jesus.
In verses 6-10, we find out they were, and Paul is ecstatic. “6 But now that Timothy has come to us from you, and has brought us the good news of your faith and love and reported that you always remember us kindly and long to see us, as we long to see you-- 7 for this reason, brothers, in all our distress and affliction we have been comforted about you through your faith. 8 For now we live, if you are standing fast in the Lord. 9 For what thanksgiving can we return to God for you, for all the joy that we feel for your sake before our God, 10 as we pray most earnestly night and day that we may see you face to face and supply what is lacking in your faith?”
That’s the third point I want to draw our attention to: God working in the lives of those we love will bring inexpressible comfort and joy. Paul even says he can’t thank God enough for answering his prayers. He is overwhelmed with joy knowing that are walking with Jesus. And the fact that they reciprocate his love—which should be happening if both parties have been changed by the love of Jesus—brings him so much comfort.
Now, again, I’ll save the conviction this one brings for our takeaways ☺️.
III. Actively Dedicated
That brings us to the last aspect of our love Paul develops here: active dedication. This is really developed in Chapter 3. Look back at how that chapter starts:"1 Therefore when we could bear it no longer, we were willing to be left behind at Athens alone, 2 and we sent Timothy, our brother and God's coworker in the gospel of Christ, to establish and exhort you in your faith, 3 that no one be moved by these afflictions. … 5 For this reason, when I could bear it no longer, I sent to learn about your faith, for fear that somehow the tempter had tempted you and our labor would be in vain.”
He was burdened to know what was happening with these believers—not out of curiosity but out of a heartfelt concern for their walks with Jesus. Next time we come to these verses, we’ll look at what prevented him from returning. However, what I want to point out today is that he didn’t just sit and fret. He did something.
Namely, he sent Timothy even though that meant being left alone in Athens. Acts 17 tells us his ministry in Athens was not easy. It was a completely foreign land where there was much opposition to the gospel. He was alone. It has been speculated he might not have even been in the best of health. Timothy was a great help to him. Still, he was willing to be inconvenienced if it meant making sure these Christians experienced the stability and freedom of the Truth! Next time, we’ll break down what Timothy did there that was such a help to these Thessalonians next time, but for now, let’s just notice that Paul sending Timothy demonstrated that his love wasn't passive. He didn’t just say he wanted to be with them “but couldn’t”. He showed how much he loved them by doing something.
However, the activity of his love didn’t start when he sent Timothy. Look at verse 10. “... We pray most earnestly night and day that we may see you face to face and supply what is lacking in your faith?" He has already been actively and continuously praying. I was listening to a Q&A with Tim Keller yesterday. He was talking about his battle with cancer and how it has changed his perspective and ministry. Again and again he kept coming back to how much his prayer life has changed. He said for years he had talked about diving deeper and experiencing close communion with God in prayer, and he thought he, at least at some level, understood that. But he also realized (and I am so convicted by this as well) that his prayer time was the first thing he sacrificed when his busy schedule got to be too much. Coming face to face with his mortality changed this. I don’t want to wait until I experience something like that before I get this. And if we love, won’t we actually pray?
Okay, I’m starting to sound pretty takeawayish, so let’s dive in with some questioning→
TAKEAWAYS
Do you love fellow believers with this level of commitment?
Do you love them like family?
Are you investing in relationships?
Do you care about their spiritual well-being (not just their physical ailments)?
Does the salvation of others and the work of God in their lives bring you joy…and comfort?
Not jealousy
Does your love come with actions?
Not just words?
Do you care enough to pray…even if you don’t see answers for a long time?
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