Being
Bold
Let’s
look together at 1 Thessalonians 2:1-13 in the infallible Word of God...
2:1 For
you yourselves know, brethren, that our coming to you was not in vain,
2:2 but
after we had already suffered and been mistreated in Philippi, as you know, we
had the boldness in our God to speak to you the gospel of God amid much
opposition.
2:3 For our exhortation does not come from
error or impurity or by way of deceit;
2:4 but
just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we
speak, not as pleasing men but God, who examines our hearts.
2:5 For
we never came with flattering
speech, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed-- God is my witness--
2:6 nor
did we seek glory from men, either from you or from others, even though as
apostles of Christ we might have asserted our authority.
When
I first read this passage it seemed curious to me that it was chosen as a
passage to highlight the discipline of fellowshipping with believers. But in
taking it apart, something was revealed to me that is fairly profound I think-
at least to my little brain.
The
subject matter for this passage really has to do with the phrase in verse 2-
“Boldness in our God”. We have boldness- are you bold for God?
I’m not talking about boldness for boldness’s sake- there are
people like that who just have bold personalities, and they stand out wherever
they go. I’m speaking of taking a bold staunch stand for God- are you one
of God’s champions?
We
want to develop a lifetime of taking a stand for the Lord, to be known for
this. To develop a reputation not only in the congregation but in your
community. Everyone knows- whatever else they may think of that person, they
are bold in the Lord. In the face of opposition and persecution. Are there
people among us that if we were to take a poll, there would be a consensus-
they are God’s champions? Are you like that? If you are, you are an
inspiration to the rest of us. Most of us aren’t like that.
Most
of us are timid for the Lord.
That’s who I want to talk to in this exposition. You want to be a
champion for God, but you desire it. I’m not really taking to those who
don’t really desire it. Boldness for god is not something that very many aspire to all that much.
Religion is a private thing, between you and God, and you say you don’t want to force it
upon other people. I’m not speaking to you if you feel like that. Those
folks really have a very different kind of a problem, and unfortunately it is a
very much more serious problem. It is frightening to see people like that,
because the great fear is that the attitude simply masks a lack of genuine
commitment to Christ, and that what is really going on is that there is only a
facade and there is not much underneath- it is a mere profession of Christianity.
It
is difficult to imagine that anyone who has come to a genuine commitment to
Jesus Christ, who has accepted
Christ as Lord and Savior who could not at least DESIRE to be strong for God.
That’s not to say we are all successful- we are not! But at least desire
it! The desire for God is what made David a “man after God’s own
heart” in spite of his many substantial failings. To say “No, I really don’t
desire to be bold for God”
is to say a very bad thing indeed about you.
I
do not pretend to be able to cure the timidity of the soul that characterizes
so many Christians. But I would at least like to diagnose it! Timidity for the
Lord is a spiritual problem that only YOU can cure. In that respect it is a type of problem that is more like a
type of psychological problem than it is like a physical problem. If you have
appendicitis you can go to the doctor and he can cure that for you- you
don’t have to do anything hardly. But this type of problem- timidity in
our stance for the Lord- no one can cure that for you! Let’s try to
pinwhat makes one timid before the Lord. We will attempt to take
God’s word as James says and hold it up like a mirror so we can see
ourselves and understand more about ourselves. It will be up to individuals to
walk away and do something about it. Don’t be merely a hearer of the word
and not a doer.
This
passage is really a continuation of the first chapter, continuing the theme
Paul dealt with in the first chapter- you see it there in verse 1:
2:1 For
you yourselves know, brethren, that our coming to you was not in vain, (it was not void of results, in fact for only three
weeks he taught in the synagogue, and it was a resounding success)
He
is still talking about his reception he got when he came to them at Thessalonika.
he explored that at length in the first chapter. The word that we see
translated as “our coming unto you” is exactly the same word that
we see up in verse 9 : “for they themselves report about us what kind of reception we had with you.” Same word, same subject. What
is different now is that as we get into chapter 2 we begin to realize
something. Paul is up against some opponents. This was typical- wherever Paul
went, dogging his steps were those who opposed him, who came in and tried to
pull the rug out from under all he had accomplished. In this case what they did
was that they came in and attacked Paul after he had gone to these new budding
baby Christians, because they know if they can undermine his message it will
undermine the church there and perhaps wipe it out! They come in and attack the
apostle Paul and the attack is reported to Paul by Timothy which prompts him to
write in response.
Now
their attack is like this: they
say Paul is nothing more than what was very common in that day, an itinerant
preacher/teacher sort of guru type person. who would sweep into town and
through various kinds of cunning and trickery and eloquence, rhetoric would try
to suck people into becoming his followers, gather them around him- he would
get their money and praise and they would support him. there would be these
fellows who would milk people from town to town-they were shysters and
charlatans, most of them. They would come in under the guise of being a
philosopher/orator and milk those people for all they were worth. this was
common in the Roman Empire. These people saw a steady stream of these fellows
coming through and trying to build a following. Paul’s opponents say that
Paul was just one of those. That was the attack.
Paul
writes in rebuttal and says “That’s not true!” His appeal is
not to defend himself so much as just to appeal to the record. Notice starting
in verse 5 of chapter 1:
Just
as you know- drop down to chapter 2 and verse 1:” for you yourselves know”
verse
2:” in Philippi, as you know”
verse
5:”not with flattering speech- as you know”
verse
9 “ for you recall, brethren”
verse
10 “you were witnesses and so is God”
verse
11 “just as you know”
You
see what Paul is doing?- He is calling up their memory of him and his ministry.
he is appealing to the record saying “I don’t have to defend
myself” - this is the way I was- just remember the way it was. The
accusations are false!” Paul has come to minister faithfully to them.
What it is he is pointing out
is his ministry- we find him picking that up in verse
2:2 but
after we had already suffered and been mistreated in Philippi, as you know, we
had the boldness in our God to speak to you the gospel of God amid much
opposition.
Here
is the theme- the boldness in our God in the midst of much opposition.
“We came to you from Phillipi” he says. In chapter 1 we find what
had happened in Phillipi- he was beaten with rods, a typical Roman punishment.
The bundle of rods, sometime with an axe in there was the symbol of authority
to the Roman Lectors- that passed down through history for 2000 years. the term
for bundle, this bundle of rods came to be that bundle- the symbol of
Mussolini’s political party during WW2. The bundle is called a fascist.
That is where you get the name of the Fascist party. The Roman authorities in
Paul’s day would rip off the robes of the offender, beat them with the
rods, put them in jail in painful stocks, all of that before driving them out
of town. Paul says, “but after we had already suffered and been mistreated
(this word is interesting and has about it the idea of humiliation, insult,
shame and that possibly hurt the apostle, this fellow from an upper class
Jewish home moreso perhaps than the physical pain.) The bad experience did not
stop them.
They
came right into the synagogue, preached the gospel and faced immediate opposition but it did not hinder them at
all.
Being
faithful, staunch, a champion for the Lord. This is a model for us to show us
what boldness looks like. Whatever the obstacle, Paul exhibited a boldness in
his stance for the Lord. This is a model for you and me, the kind of boldness
that ought to characterize us! We will not face the rods, or be clapped into
stocks or face any of that kind of humiliation, but we have the opportunity to
be bold where God has put us, to be champions for the Lord we live.
How
do you do that?
How
do you generate that kind of boldness for the Lord? What produces that in a
person’s life?-
First,
Look what Paul says about his motives: “we were bold to you for our
exhortation did not come from error or impurity or by way of deceit,”
that is the source of Paul’s boldness- a certain confidence, a self
confidence, but not of the type we usually think of- it is a self confidence
that come from having a pure heart. Paul’s motives are pure- everything
is clear, unfettered and straightforward and honest.
Next
let’s look at what he says about his message.
2:3 For
our exhortation does not come from error or impurity or by way of deceit;
“For
our exhortation did not come from error”- he was confident that what he
was saying was true to God’s word. He had not mingled his opinions in it-
he hadn’t whipped up some sort of message he thought would sell from town
to town that would bring in the crowds. He had come with a message of Christ
and him crucified! It was in many ways an unattractive message, especially to
the Greeks and Romans and Jews of that day. Paul preached it faithfully because
it was God’s revealed word. It was from truth that Paul spoke. Paul knew
the truth and the Truth had set Paul free in holy boldness. This was not in any
way a crowd pleasing message. Paul had no ulterior motive. He was wide open.
The
word for “impurity’ there is a term that has to do with something
that is originally pure but then you degrade it by mixing something impure with
it to corrupt it. That is the concept he is dealing with here. There were no
corrupt things mingled with his message.
3.
Also his method is not by way of
deceit- no salesmanship tactics, no high powered eloquence designed to
overpower you or manipulate your emotions or sway you by the emotion of the
moment-none of that. Paul came
with a straightforward, simple proclamation, no attempt to deceive- what you
see is what you get with Paul. His hands were open before them. ‘As you
know”.
Do
you see the source of Paul’s confidence? he comes with a pure heart. He
knows his message is from the Lord, he knows his motives are pure- he is not
using tactics to get a following, so that when he got a following, the only
REASON for the following was because they were genuine! He was confident and
this gave him the ability to be bold.
We
still have not struck quite to the heart of the issue. How could he know about
his message and his motives and his methods? How could he know that they were
sound, pure and unadulterated? The key to it is in verse 4. this is the key to
that kind of confidence that releases us for boldness before the Lord.
2:4 but
just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we
speak, not as pleasing men but God, who examines our hearts.
Don’t
speak as to please men but speak as to please God. There is the key that sets you free to be bold before God
and men, that you don’t care about anything else except pleasing God.
That’s all that matters. there is nothing even in second place.
Ultimately you only have one priority, one allegiance and that is to Him. When
you are approved of Him, when He says to you, “That’s right! you
have done well!” that’s when nothing else matters, and until you
have that nothing else counts. Paul says that he operates in such a way that he
casts everything before that standard and gets rid of everything that
doesn’t measure up. Let your ministry, your speech , be in such a way
that would please GOD and Him alone. Don’t be interested in pleasing men.
that is why he is able to say in verse 5 “For we never came with
flattering speech, as you know.” He is able to say that and call up the
record to back him up. We were not out to scratch your ears, or tell you what
you wanted to hear, to flatter you, please you or gain your favor, to find
acceptance with you. as long as we are out for that, there will be no boldness.
as long as we are out to gain favor with others, we will never be bold for the
Lord. You can take it to the bank.
As long as you have a fear of rejection, we will never be bold for the
Lord. That kills boldness. If we
are sitting there worried about
whether we are going to stay in someone’s favor or not, forget boldness. It is only when I say
“it doesn’t matter to me whether I gain their favor or not, it only
matters to me whether God approves- am I doing what HE wants me to do? is this
His will for me? All we must care about is to please God, not to please men.
“I did not come to you” he says, “with flattery, trying to
gain your favor and acceptance”
2:5 For
we never came with flattering
speech, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed-- God is my witness--
He
also says “nor with a pretext for greed”- there is no personal gain
involved in his desire- he is not interested in getting anything from these
people, he is not seeking recompense or to be “fed” by them- there
is no personal self interest at stake in his ministry. For many of these traveling speakers,
this was the whole of what they wanted. They came and spoke in such a way
so as to be able to milk these people of their money, and many a preacher has
followed in their stead. - Not Paul. His integrity was above reproach.
That’s
a hard one, because undue concern for personal cost will kill boldness. Do you
want to be bold for the Lord? Worrying about the cost to you personally will undermine boldness- When we count
the cost we must never forget the sufficiency of Christ and his promises of
provision. You cannot be bold for the Lord and worry about how much it is going
to cost you personally. as you think about those conversations you have with
your boss or your fellow workers or that patient or client or customer or
neighbor. If you are sitting there thinking “ I’ve got to guard
what I say because if I am not careful this is going to hurt this sale, or I may not get this client back or this
patient may never come back to me again or it may hurt my earning power if I
take too strong of a stand for God...” That kind of mentality will
absolutely KILL boldness for the Lord.
Do
you want God’s approval? If it costs you, so it costs you. What does it
matter? I have his approval! That is what counts.
2:6 nor
did we seek glory from men, either from you or from others, even though as
apostles of Christ we might have asserted our authority.
Then
there is that third thing he says
“But I did not come with flattery, as you know, I did not come
with a pretext for greed: God is my witness, not did we seek glory from
men.” Not from you or from anybody else. Paul is not worried about
impressing them or gathering followers to himself- that is not his purpose.
When he walked into Thessalonika, he had no thoughts of walking out with a
personal following. That was no part of His motivation at all. That is why he
was free to be bold. If we are worried about personal gain, we will also be
worried about personal glory and impressing people. if we worry about our
position, forget boldness. A
desire for personal glory Kills boldness.
You
see, in each of these categories, whether we are talking about a fear of
rejection, that is the desire to be accepted by other people, or a concern
about personal gain and avoiding personal cost, or a desire for glory and being
well liked and people being impressed with us, all of that represents a
conflict of interest with what our task as God’s people is to be about.
You cannot maintain an interest in those things and be bold for God. It was
just because Paul had RELINQUISHED those things that he was RELEASED to be a champion
for the Lord. He was at the same time released to deep fellowship and ministry
with and to the beloved. So there
is a kind of paradox- it is by not being men pleasers, but God pleasers that we
realize true fellowship and ministry in the body of Christ. I think we too many
times get this backwards. If Paul had been holding out to any of those things
He could not have been a champion.
It
is somewhat like an ambassador. Think about an ambassador from the US to some
foreign soil. If that ambassador takes his commission from the US and goes into
the other country and takes with him personal ambition, that is, before he is
through in that country, he wants to come away with the people of that country
liking him, thinking he is a wonderful person. He wants to come away wealthy,
to make good contacts, to come away with some personal gain, and he
doesn’t want to do anything that will get in the way of that. he wants to
come away with glory- things have gone very well and he has done a fantastic
job- isn’t he a marvelous person? If the ambassador goes to the task at
hand with those kinds of interests at heart, how good a representative of the USA will he be? It’s
a conflict of interests. In the same way you can have self interest or
God’s interest but you cannot have both. They conflict very often with
one another.
Paul
is saying- I gave up personal self interest. Verse 4 “but just as we have
been approved by God...
So
that is the key to boldness- and what will release you to the confidence that
will yield a holy boldness. Are
you bold for God? If not, why not? Which of these things are standing in the
way? Are you worried about being rejected? Are you fearful of the pain of
rejection? are you concerned about the personal cost? “ if I speak up,
these people will find out. If I am too up front that will effect me in all
these ways.” Is that why you are timid? Maybe you are in it for personal
glory. You want to impress people. Your social position would suffer, so when
it comes to being a champion for the Lord you are timid. every one of these
things are characteristic of personal self interest. They are SIN in our lives.
We even bring them to bear in the body. They are selfish areas in our lives
where we are more interested in US than we are interested in the Lord. We are
more interested in some areas in finding the approval of men than we are in
finding the approval of God. Let me ask this- once you have gained the approval
of men, just what do you have?
Take
this opportunity to confess these things and deal with them.
Now
let’s move on to verses 7-13 from the NAS.
2:7 But
we proved to be gentle among you, as a nursing mother tenderly cares for her own children.
2:8 Having
thus a fond affection for you, we were well-pleased to impart to you not only
the gospel of God but also our own lives, because you had become very dear to
us.
2:9 For
you recall, brethren, our labor and hardship, how working night and day so as
not to be a burden to any of you, we proclaimed to you the gospel of God.
Pure motives, selfless service, impeccable behavior. These are the
qualities that Paul exhibited while serving among the Thessalonikans. They are
also the qualities we as fellow believers are to exhibit in the body of Christ.
They are the stuff true fellowship is made of.
Flattery manipulates rather than communicates. Paul was honest
with the Thessalonikans. We must learn to speak the truth with Love. All of us
must take to heart how we live and serve in the church.
Paul’s selfless service is highlighted in verses 7-9. Paul
did not see himself as looking down upon these people- “gentle
among” is a good way of putting it. He gave tender loving care as one
who is like a mother- he had a
fond affection for them. Verse 8 explains Paul ministry and what ours is to be
like- to give ourselves for each other, motivated by heartfelt affection. That
is A key to a vital ministry with people- if you want to minister to people you
have to love them and this is true not just of the vocational minister. Paul
was effective because of his sincere love for the people. This love is expressed in verse 9 as labor and
travail, the word means labor in a job. He did not receive support from the
Thessalonikans. He was supplemented by tentmaking and the Philippian offerings.
Paul worked a day job, preached the gospel and ministered to the people. So are
we to do this. Paul worked without support in Corinth, Ephesus and
Thessalonika. He chose not to be supported because the charge was being made
that he was merchandising the gospel.
The application of this passage to our life in the church is one I
will borrow from Ham Keithly, a minister I know from a church I attended in
Dallas. He says it well.
“1. New babes in Christ
require personal care, protection, and nourishing on the milk of the Word.
2. As a nursing child can become ill
through a reaction to something the mother has eaten, so older believers who
are feeding others, must be careful what they themselves eat. In other words,
our lives have a good or a bad effect on younger believers. If we are feeding
on the husks of the world rather than on the Savior’s Word, we are going
to make our children sickly (cf. 1 Tim. 4:6-16).
3. A nursing mother imparts her own
life to her child. This is the of vs. 8. Christian pediatrics requires
some sacrifices.
4. Giving out the gospel and
building people in the Lord requires building bridges and relationships through
which people can see the love of Christ and experience it first hand. This is
why small groups can be effective if they are also committed to really studying
the Word. Evangelism statistics indicate that the majority of people who stick
in a church, grow, and become reproducing Christians are those who have
developed close relationships.
5. Helping
people to grow in the Lord, as with growing children, takes time and requires
patience. Sometimes it causes pain and priorities need to be set in our
relationships. You don’t raise children overnight,. You can’t raise
them without growing pains for both parent and child alike, and we can’t
impact them for Christ without spending quality time to see them built up in
Christ.”
In verses 10-12 Paul describes their impeccable behavior.
2:10 You
are witnesses, and so is God, how devoutly and uprightly and blamelessly we
behaved toward you believers;
2:11 just
as you know how we were exhorting and encouraging and imploring each one of you
as a father would his own children,
2:12 so
that you may walk in a manner worthy of the God who calls you into His own
kingdom and glory.
2:13 And for this reason we also constantly thank God that when you
received from us the word of God's message, you accepted it not as the word of
men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which also performs its work
in you who believe.
The emphasis seems to indicate that Paul was involved not only in
public ministry but also private ministry. We will one day enter the Kingdom
and glory, but in the meantime we are to “walk worthy of our
calling” Eph 5:1
In the process of these verses, we
have been given a glimpse of Paul the edifier or builder of believers. What a
compelling and wonderful model for us today for here are two of the main
purposes of the church—reaching and teaching. In a day like ours when the
authority of God’s Word is being ignored and when the church and its
ministers so often turn to human methods and operate out of false motives, this
chapter is not only powerfully instructive, but it stands as a strong rebuke to
so much of what we see happening in ministry today in our country.
Also note another way
that we might look at verses 1-13:
Ministry in selflessness (vss. 5-6a)
Ministry with gentleness (vss. 6b-7)
Ministry with willingness (vs. 8)
Ministry without heaviness (vs. 9)
Ministry in holiness (vs. 10)
Ministry with admonition (vs. 11)
Ministry with God’s mission
(vs. 12)
Ministry
centered in Bible exposition (vss. 1-4, 13)
Now to the I referred to at
first. I do not think I have ever seen in such a clear way as is illustrated by
this passage the link between ministry and fellowship. We are to approach
both as being the natural outflow
of a bold relationship with God. Purity of heart will yield a passion for the
brethren. One anotherness comes not
only from enjoying one another and sharing with one another, but the partaking
OF one another IN CHRIST is best realized in ministering TO one another! So all in all I would say that from
this passage, fellowshipping with believers is tied inextricably with ministry
TO fellow believers. Duh! You may think that is obvious, but just think about
this the next time you examine how you look at fellowship. Pure motives, selfless service, impeccable
behavior are the way we are to relate to one another and these all are only to
be found in the application of abiding in Christ with a holy boldness.