I Thessalonians 5: Live and Love Like Him

This chapter is FULL of wisdom and instruction for us. Join Crystal as she shares how the LORD spoke to her about loving others--along with some caution concerning how we should treat our spiritual leaders and respond when they fall.

We'll continue I Thessalonians 5 next week. Join in on the study! We'll finish up I Thessalonians and continue into II Thessalonians over the next several weeks. Here's the link to the study guide if you'd like one to accompany your study. 

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Transcript

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Hi there, welcome to Wisdom for Wednesday, your midweek pause for truth, encouragement, and practical faith. I'm your host, Crystal Ratcliffe, author, speaker, and fellow traveler on this journey of growing in God's Word. Each week we'll dive into Scripture together and have the opportunity to be encouraged in the truth that never changes. If you're able, grab your Bible, a cup of coffee, and let's seek God's wisdom together. Hi there and welcome back to Wisdom for Wednesday. We are back to our study in 1 Thessalonians. I am by myself today. Mr. Ratcliffe said he will never do an episode again. I don't know that that's true. It is a lot more difficult than you realize. And when you go back through to edit and have to listen to yourself over and over again, it can be a little bit painful. So I understand why he says that, but we'll see. Um, if you did not catch that episode, that would have been two episodes ago now, because I did have that ministry mindset with Brie, um, that interview last week. So make sure you go listen to that if you haven't already, and then just following along with us with our study of First Thessalonians. So I dove into chapter five and I fully expected to cover it all in one episode, but that is just not going to happen. There has been so much here in just this first, let's see, 15 verses that I just felt like we needed to split it up. So that's what I'm gonna do because there's just too much here that I want to talk about, and that the Lord was really convicting my heart about. So I want to share that with you today. And we're going to kind of look, you might remember at the end of chapter four, we did talk about the rapture. Um, that was the kind of where we were at. And so this first section is can continuing that same thought. So I'm gonna start reading in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, verse 1. But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you, for yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them as a travail upon a woman with a child, and they shall not escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light and the children of the day. We are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore, let us not sleep as do others, but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep sleep in the night, and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and for an helmet the hope of salvation. I think I'm gonna stop right there for now. So the times and the seasons there. Uh Warren Risby said this: God has ordained times and seasons for the nations on earth, particularly Israel. And all of this will culminate in a terrible time called the Day of the Lord. And I've said before, the day of the Lord is talking about the great tribulation that will come. So the rapture of the church, those that have accepted Christ as their savior will be raptured out, and then that will begin the great tribulation. So understand this, God's plan for Israel is not complete. There's a lot of confusion about this right now in the world. Understand that the Jewish people are God's chosen people and he made an everlasting covenant with them. That doesn't mean that we have to blindly support everything that the government of Israel does, but we should have a love for the Jewish people and a desire for them to come to know Jesus as their Messiah. We as the church did not replace the Jews. Those that hold that view are ignoring biblical prophecy that has not yet been fulfilled concerning the Jewish people. Now, thankfully, when we accepted Christ, we were grafted into God's family and we became chosen in Christ. And just as Mark pointed out from our chapter four episode, the Lord Himself is coming for us, and we will meet him in the air. We will be caught away, it says, and that's where that word rapture comes from. The rapture could happen at any moment, which will usher in the tribulation, the day of the Lord, like we talked about. The world is unaware, and they are saying and thinking, peace and safety, but sudden destruction and judgment is coming. Understand this, it is not God's desire that anyone have to endure the wrath that he will pour out on this earth during the tribulation. We know that. So we see in verse four of our text it says, but ye, so believers, those that are in Christ, we are children of the light, children of the day, and we are to watch and be sober. So while we watch and wait, it tells us, put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. So this is taking us back to those three things that this church was known for from chapter one, chapter one, verse three says, Remembering without ceasing your work of faith and labor of love and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the sight of God and our Father, our Father. So it says, put on the breastplate of faith and love and a helmet of the hope of salvation. We need to put on the armor of God. We need to armor up because we are in a spiritual battle while we wait for Christ's coming. And if you have done the book Arise Go, you know we talked a lot about that. We're all in a spiritual battle, whether we realize it or not. If you haven't done that Bible study, let me just recommend it again. I actually heard a message on this same idea of the Arise Go Bible study. And it's talking about how we are spiritually, we are geographic, geographically in one of three places. We are still in Egypt, which would mean we are lost. We are in the wandering in the wilderness, or we are in the promised land. The promised land is not a picture of heaven, it is what the Lord wants to give us here on earth. And that wilderness journey was meant to be temporary, a place of learning and growing in faith. And so many Christians are still wandering in the wilderness. So if you have not done the study arise, go, let me just put that out there because I don't want anyone to be still wandering in the wilderness. I want everyone to be living the abundant life that Christ has for them. And while we're waiting for Him to return, we must be armored up. We must recognize that we're in a spiritual battle. So then in verse 9 it says, For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. Wherefore, comfort yourselves together. There's that word comfort again that has been all throughout this book, and edify one another, even as also ye do. We are saved, we're not appointed to wrath. Wrath is just punishment of an offense. God's wrath is his holy and just indignation against sin. We will not go through the tribulation, which is God's judgment, poured out on this world and those who rejected salvation through Jesus Christ. So salvation is through Jesus Christ alone. He died for us so that we would live together with him. Whether we are dead or alive at the time of the rapture, remember we covered that in that last episode as well. Either way, whether we're dead or alive, Jesus is coming for us. So we don't need to set dates to predict his coming. Jesus will come when God the Father tells him it's time. So many have looked foolish for trying to determine the date and time that the rapture will take place. The important thing is that we believe he is coming and we are ready when he comes. Don't be a scoffer because he hasn't come yet. 2 Peter chapter 3, verse 3 and 4 warns this. It says, Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. Well, then we see in verse 8 it says, But beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise. We read this verse already, verse nine. Don't become a scoffer while you're waiting. Instead, believe he's coming and be ready. Then we see that word comfort, like I said, come alongside, encourage one another, remind one another of God's promises, and then that word edify. Edify is to build, to instruct, and improve the mind in knowledge, in faith and holiness. So to build one another up in the faith and in holiness. While we wait, we're to grow in holiness. We talked about that in the last episode, becoming more Christ-like. It's that process of sanctification. As I read through this section, my notes I have invest in others, make visits, make calls, and be willing to be inconvenienced to comfort and edify others. Now, if that hadn't already convicted me enough, because let's face it, we can all be too busy, too busy to take the time to invest in others, or too comfortable just with our own schedule and our own things that we do. And I know sometimes I need to get a little uncomfortable, but I was very convicted by that. And then I got stuck in this next set of verses as well. So verse 12 says this, and we beseech you, brethren, to know them which labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake, and be at peace among yourselves. Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them that are unruly, comfort the feeble-minded, support the weak, be patient toward all men, see that none render evil for evil unto any man, but ever follow that which is good, both among yourselves and to all men. We see here this seems to be uh the first correction, maybe of this church, but perhaps just a warning, and that's concerning their spiritual leaders there in that first part. It says, Know them which labor among you and are over you. So know is to have regard for, to cherish, to pay attention to. And I love that it says among and over, because spiritual leaders are serving alongside us in our churches. And then it says to esteem them very highly in love. So to esteem is to regard with reverence and to value them. Uh, and then it says to be at peace among yourselves. So our spiritual leaders in our lives, we should accept them, we should appreciate them, we should love them, we should obey them. And understand, I'm talking about spiritual leaders who are following God's word and living a life pleasing to Him. I won't pretend that all who hold a position of spiritual leadership are godly men and women. It's unfortunate, but it's true. So I'm not saying that we blindly follow here, but for the most part, the vast majority of pastors and pastors' wives are striving to please the Lord and how they lead their churches. They're attempting to follow God's word. Problems arise in churches when we become overly critical of the leadership and are unwilling to submit to their God-given authority. It's reasonable and right that we have high expectations of them. But speaking as someone who is now considered a staff wife at our church, I would say please don't hold me to a higher standard than you do for yourself. Please don't think I'm never going to make a mistake or say something I shouldn't, because I am just a sinner like you. And on that note, we need to pray for our spiritual leaders, pray for those in positions of leadership because Satan wants to destroy those spiritual leaders because he knows the consequences will be far reaching. We've all heard about it, or unfortunately, perhaps experienced it in our own churches when a spiritual leader, whether it's a staff member, deacon, Sunday school teacher, or even the pastor, falls. And when I say falls, I will say this. Oftentimes it is related to sexual sin, fornication. We talked about this in our last chapter, 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. And I have to say that it is evidence of how twisted our minds become when we get involved in sexual sin, because none of it makes any sense. You look at it and you're like, how in the world is this even possible? How does someone who says they love the Lord and is able to get up in front of people and teach or preach or lead the singing, whatever the position of leadership is, how are they able to do that and yet have this obvious blatant sin going on in their lives? And the only answer is that their mind has been corrupt. It's reprobate. Their conscience has been seared. That's what the Bible tells us. And so it's hard for us to understand. And I think sometimes we are we we want to understand it, but we just can't because our minds are not that way. If we are truly trying to live for the Lord and we've protected ourselves from those types of sin, we can't understand that. But what we have to remember is that in those situations, instead of pointing fingers and accusing people that they should have stopped it, they should have seen it when truly, when people are in those situations, they have become master manipulators. And so the truth is they have misled and deceived a lot of people, and all of those people are hurting in that moment. All of them are hurting. And they may be looking back and saying, I I see this now as weird, or this was weird. Why? Because hindsight's 2020. But in the moment, our job is to pray. We need to pray for the people in the churches, pray for the families that have been destroyed, and we need to just remember that we ourselves must be careful because it started somewhere. Sin started somewhere, and I guarantee you it started small. Nobody sets out to do some big destructive sin that destroys their families and their church. It's something that started small and it turned into something bigger, and that's where I would say we need to all be careful. And then let me add this: when someone falls, it doesn't negate everything they ever did for you, helped you with, or taught you. I can tell you that I've been in church long enough to have seen those in leadership make mistakes or fall in such a way that disqualifies them from full-time ministry in the future. But I can tell you that some of those same people had a huge impact in my life and I'm thankful for that. Do I wish they had stayed faithful and finished strong? Of course I do. And years later, I want nothing more than to see them walking with the Lord again. When someone falls, instead of being critical, let me remind you to take heed lest ye fall. It should be a reminder to you that anyone can fall and you need to be armored up and prepared for battle. I feel like I'm saying that a lot, but the Lord just had that heavy on my heart this week. All that being said, when the church family is following the spiritual leaders, there will be peace, there will be unity, everyone working together for the common goal of spreading forth the gospel. Warren Wearsby said this whenever you find, whenever you find division and dissension in a local church, it is usually because of selfishness and sin on the part of the leaders or the members or both. Now, how convicting is that? We need to make sure that we are not the ones that are being selfish and sinful and causing division in our churches. And then we come to this next part where I got stuck for a while because I feel like in this few verses right here, we have the way that we should be treating and dealing with every kind of church member we encounter. So I I want to read it to you again. It says, Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them that are unruly, comfort the feeble-minded, support the weak, be patient toward all men, see that none render evil for evil unto any man, but ever follow that which is good, both among yourselves and to all men. So warn the unruly, those that are out of order and causing trouble. So think back, we were just talking about spiritual leaders. There are going to be those that don't want to fall in line. And so it says to warn them. Then it says, Comfort the feeble-minded. Well, the feeble-minded are the faint-hearted. They are the quitters, those that are inclined to quit. And so, what does it tell us to do? It says comfort, strengthen, support, encourage. And then the very next one, support the weak, those that don't have confidence, those that are weak in faith. We're to support them. It says support being adhere to or hold fast to them. I really got stuck here because I know I am not as patient and loving and kind as I need to be. Sometimes I am just like, hey, figure this out. You know, we've we've tried to help you, we've tried to encourage you. You need to just choose to do right, you need to just do the right thing. And I'm not saying that there's not personal accountability there, but I know I know my tendency would be to give up on them and to say, okay, I've tried. But according to this, that's not the right attitude to have. We are to comfort the feeble-minded, strengthen them, support them, encourage them, support the weak. Try to hold them up, to encourage them in the faith. And it doesn't say when we're supposed to stop, does it? It just says to do it. And so I know there's personal accountability there. I know that people have to get to the point where they choose for themselves to be faithful and don't have to have someone prodding them along all the time. But this challenged me. This challenged me that I needed to be more patient and loving toward the spiritually weak. And then it says to be patient toward all. So to be long-suffering and slow to anger, do good to all. We're not doing evil for evil here. Instead, we're going to be the ones who treat others the way we want to be treated. Or you could say, even better than we want to be treated. We could find that in Philippians chapter 2, where it says, to esteem others better than yourselves. I'm going to read Philippians chapter 2, verse 1 through 8. Uh, just some great verses on how we should be treating one another. And our greatest example, of course, is Jesus Christ. It says, if there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bows and mercies, fulfill ye my joy, that ye be like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of Of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men, and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. When we think about what Jesus did for us and the love he has for us, it should make us more than willing to love others and to be patient and kind to others and try to encourage them in the faith and encourage them and comfort them and edify them as we wait for his return. Colossians 3, 12 through 17 is another section of verses that I love in regards to how we should treat one another. It says, put on, therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bows of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering, forbearing one another, and forgiving one another. If any man have a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above all these things, put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness, and let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body, and be ye thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him. So this is how we are to treat one another while we wait. This is what a healthy church family looks like: humility, patience, long-suffering, encouraging one another, comforting one another, forgiving one another, edifying one another. So while we wait, while we wait, what are we supposed to be doing? We're supposed to be living for him and we're supposed to be loving like him. And that's really what I got from this section of scripture. And maybe I'm the only one who needed this reminder, but I just felt that I needed to break this up. So we will go to the second half of 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 next week. Thank you so much for listening. I do pray that the Lord would use the podcast to be an encouragement, to be a blessing and a help to you. I did want to let you know that the support the show link will now take you to my website. So you can check out there in the shop. Um, some of you were letting me know that you didn't have Venmo, which is the way I had it set up before. So now you can go right to the website, read more about the donation, and I do appreciate that. I also appreciate, of course, when you share the podcast and you leave a rating or review. And so we will see you back here next time.