“On the contrary, we speak as men approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel. We are not trying to please men but God, who tests our hearts.”
– 1 Thessalonians 2:4
Hi James and Ellen,
Have you ever received a letter from someone? Have you ever written a letter to someone? Do you know how to write a letter? Your grandpaa’s ma for years sent a letter every week to each one of her five kids who did not live where she lived in Volga, South Dakota. Your grandpaa’s ma expected your grandpaa to send a letter every week to her and his dad but . . . your grandpaa would send a letter every other week to his dad and ma. Your grandpaa would handwrite the letters that he first began to send to his dad and ma. How would you like to have gotten a handwritten letter from you grandpaa? Do you think that you would have been able to read your grandpaa’s handwriting? Your grandpaa – the first years that he was a missionary on the South America Mission field missionary team in Bolivia, handwrote individually each letter that he sent to the guys and gals who were financially supporting and who were faithfully praying for your grandmaa and grandpaa. Your grandpaa still sends a letter every third month to each guy and gal who has given a money gift sometime during the three month period or who has sent to your grandmaa and grandpaa a personal letter. The letter that your grandpaa sends to these guys and gals now gets tweaked from a letter that acts as a template. Did your dad and/or ma read to you any of the letters that they received during this year’s Holiday Season? Your grandmaa and grandpaa received again this past Holiday Season a number of these letters. The content of most of these letters that your grandmaa and grandpaa received has been centered on the ‘world’ of the guy or the gal who has written the letter. Most of the content of any letter that your grandpaa has written has been about what your grandmaa and grandpaa have done or what your grandpaa and grandmaa are planning to do.
How would you like to receive a letter from a guy, gal or kid that expressively focuses on you and on your circumstances versus having a self-promoting theme running through the letter? Paul wrote letters. How do you think that the Christ-follower fellowship of guys and gals – who were living the city Thessalonica, felt when they received letters from Paul? Paul sent two letters to the Christ-follower fellowship of guys and gals who were living in the city of Thessalonica. Paul was on his second missionary journey when he sent – from the city of Corinth, the two letters to the Christ-follower fellowship of guys and gals who were living in the city of Thessalonica. In the first letter that Paul sent to the Christ-follower fellowship of guys and gals who were living in the city of Thessalonica, Paul commended the Christ-follower guys and gals for coming alongside him by accepting, approving and affirming him when he was with them. Paul mentions in 1 Thessalonians 2 how much he enjoyed his time while he was in the city of Thessalonica – that his visit there had not been useless or fruitless. Before Paul and his traveling companions arrived in the city of Thessalonica, Paul and his traveling companions had stopped in the city of Philippi where they had been outrageously insulted and disrespectfully treated. Paul reminds his Christ-follower readers who were living in the city of Thessalonica – in verse 4, his real intentions why he stopped to visit them, “On the contrary, we speak as men approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel. We are not trying to please men but God, who tests our hearts.” Paul was emphatic that he never wanted to be seen doing something for personal praise. Your grandpaa has been receiving blogs that are being written by two of the guys who were on the Adventures in Missions World Race team that your grandmaa and grandpaa were coaches for in 2008. Sammy and Alex seem to be in competition with each other – trying to outdo what the other has done to get ‘more self-earned backslaps’ from the guys and gals who are reading their blogs. Are you caught up with having to have ‘me’ always needing to be in the center of attention? How special do you think that you are? Do you think that you are more special than other kids?
Paul uses this letter to tell the guys and gals – who he calls friends, who were in the Christ-follower fellowship that was in the city of Thessalonica that while he was with them that he had remained holy, righteous and blameless. Paul also tells these Christ-follower guys and gals who were living in the city of Thessalonica that while he was with them that he had treated them like a father would treat his own kids by encouraging, comforting and urging them to always live their lives worthy of having come to know the glory of God. Paul goes on to warn the Christ-follower guys and gals who were living in the city of Thessalonica about the unquenchable wrath that would be heaped on them by God – as God the Father, if any one of them displeased Him and/or were hostile to Him. Paul then blesses the Christ-follower guys and gals who were living in the city of Thessalonica by telling them that they are bringing him hope and glory and the joy crown because of their born again faith in Jesus Christ – as God – as God the Son. What would you say in a letter to a kid friend who had moved away from your area if you were to write him or her a letter? Your grandpaa has said several times recently that he thinks that guys and gals no longer know how to write a letter. Your grandpaa does not want to say that he knows how to write the perfect letter; he just feels embarrassed for the guy or gal who mailed a letter, sent an e-mail and/or wrote blog, that has syntax mistakes, is not neatly laid out, is self-adulating and/or . . . to pull a Paul is to put all your interest in the guy or gal who you are sending a letter.
1 Thessalonians 2 (1057)