We are back in Thessalonians today.  We are going to see how important it is that you respond to the truth you are given, and to the love you are shown, by those who watch-over you in the Lord.  That includes people like pastors or elders but also a mother or father, brothers or sisters in the Lord, anyone who sows the word into your life. 

So far, in this letter, we’ve seen Paul’s love and affection for the believers at Thessalonica.  And it is really one of the outstanding features of this book.  Paul was an apostle of love.  And that is he wanted to have produced in the people he ministered to.  The emphasis has been on his love for them.

But now he hears about their love for HIM, their longing to see him.  Verse 6 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.”  

Paul had been with these people for about 6 month.  He cared for them like a nursing mother.  He treated them like a father treats his own children. His heart was deeply attached to them!  But now he is gone. And he fears they may have fallen away from their faith because of their afflictions and through the temptations of Satan.  AND He’s not sure where he stands with them, what they think of him, or if they still love him.  

So he sent Timothy to find out about these things and he came back with good news! With great news! Their faith was firm, AND their love for Paul was strong too!  They “remember him kindly”, or they remember him with joy.  They have fond memories of him, they missed him and long to see him too. 

Their hearts remain attached to Paul in affection and love.  Paul said, “For this reason WE have been comforted!!  It is two things that comfort Paul, their faith and their love.  This comfort was a special blessing to him because it came during his own intense affliction.

If you want to encourage a godly person, it doesn’t take a huge gift or anything like that. Your faith and love are what make them the most happy.  If they are godly that is what will thrill their soul!  If you want to encourage your godly mother or father, or your elders, your fellow believers, stand fast in your faith and in your love for them and for others. 

Stand fast is a favorite exhortation of Paul’s. It means to hold your ground!  It means to maintain your faith in the face of evil or trouble or in the face of the devil himself.  Paul modeled standing fast very well!.  He said we are pressed on every side by troubles but we are not crushed or defeated! We will NOT lose heart for we walk by faith and not by sight.

When Paul heard they were standing fast in the Lord he said, I am so encouraged by that.  It makes me feel alive.  It gives me such joy that I don’t even know how to thank God for it!  

Their steadfast faith encouraged Paul. And their love did too. He was deeply touched by their affection for him, and that they longed to see him too!   He ends this chapter praying that they would increase and overflow with love for all people, and for Paul, JUST as his love overflows for them. This is what he is after in the ministry!  

Why is there all this emphasis on Paul’s affection for them and on their affection for him?  Because that’s the kind of relationship Jesus brings us into!  We are to be devoted to one another in brotherly love.  Loving affections for one another is one of the clearest evidences of the new birth.  

Johnathan Edwards wrote a book called Religious Affections.  In it, he made the case that true spirituality is largely a matter of holy affections.  Affections are intense feelings, longings or desires that spring from our heart.  Edwards said that love for God and joy in God, are the affections of a genuine believer.  BUT also true spirituality is largely a matter of holy affections for one another.  

Holy affections for one another means to intensely love one another, earnestly care for each other, and intensely long to be with one another. These affections for one another come from God! John said, “Beloved, let us love one another, because love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.”  

Some really important lessons on love are modeled for us here. First: Love starts with you, not the other person. Of course love comes from God first!  It is poured out into our hearts! But in our relationships with other people we are to be the first to love! 

Paul initiated this love relationship with the Thessalonians. There is a LOT about that in the first part of this book!  At the end of this passage he prays that they would increase and abound in love for one another...just as we do you, (or just as our love abounds for you.)”  Paul wants them to now love now, just as he had already loved them!  

David Guzik said:  “Paul daringly set himself as a standard of love to be emulated. We should live such Christian lives that we could tell young Christians, “Love other people just the way that I do.”   

We start the fire.  We love first. We are not standing around waiting for somebody to love US!  Paul said, “Owe no one anything, except to love one another.”  We owe people love!  You can pay off other debts. But you can never come to a place where you can stop loving people.   

If you get into a mindset that other people owe you love, that is such a dead-end street.  There is a strong demonic doctrine going around today, that convinces people, including Christians that we are all victims, we are all triggered. We are helpless until somebody treats us right first. This is the ultimate kind of self-defeat, and unhappiness.  Now some people here have been really mistreated!  Paul was mistreated! But he was not isolating, bitter, mulling over how much he had been mistreated.  He kept on loving people!

I am so blessed when I see people here at RLC initiating love and I see it a lot.  I see people reaching out, talking to that person you don’t know.  Sensing the one who is hurting and praying for them. Doing some kind thoughtful thing.  Take home this lesson: I’m gonna be the person that loves first.

*All ministry starts with loving people.  But don’t go into any ministry (loving people, laying down your life for people) thinking you will always be loved and appreciated.  The Thessalonians loved and appreciated Paul and his teaching. But that doesn’t always happen. It wasn’t the case at Corinth.  Paul had to plead with them to respond to his apostolic love and authority.  We are not withholding our affection from you, but you are withholding yours from us. As a fair exchange—I speak as to my children—open wide your hearts (to us) also.  2 Corinthians 6:12,13  Not all ministry goes as well as it did at Thessalonica here for Paul!

You can sometimes pour out yourself for someone and get nothing back. True in any relationship but it happens in ministry of all kinds too!  You can pour your life and love into a fellow believer or a spouse or a family or a child, and they can turn on you or walk-out on you. That doesn’t make is right. But we keep on loving people just because God put His love in us and we are called to love and lay down our life for people. 

The Bible full of stories of people who did not respond well to God’s messengers.  The Lord told Hosea go love a woman who loves another man.  That woman represented Israel who was loved faithfully by God but who did not love God back. Sometimes pouring into people does feel like that.  You are going to minister to a lot of unfaithful people!  The prophets, Jesus himself, and the apostles all experienced this!

Jesus said, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those sent to her, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were unwilling.”  A lot of people who feel they are not loved are really just rejecting the love they are shown.

I got a call a few weeks ago from a young woman.  She was desperate for help. I’ve known this person a long time.  But hadn’t seen her for years.  She reminded me of when I had visited her in the hospital when she had a car accident and said it was the one of the only times she ever felt loved. And yet she’s neglected every counsel I had given her.  At the end of our phone call, “I said I would love to be your pastor and shepherd you and watch over your soul IF you are willing. And I begged her to come be a part of the church family and I said, you would be SO loved by so many people, if you are willing.  But there was no response. She didn’t want that kind of help.

But we keep on loving people, with or without response. We are to love with the love of God flowing out from us, not because somebody responds or treats us right.  1 Corinthians 13 Love endures all things, (including all kinds of offenses, neglect, mistreatment).  Love never fails.   Our love is to be tough. It’s a strong love. It isn’t like an emotion that dies the moment something goes wrong.  Because it is from God, it is not easily offended or shaken. 

*We OUGHT to respond to those who pour into us with love and affection by returning love and affection.  The Thessalonians responded to the message Paul brought, and they responded to his love for them. They had affection and longing for him.  His ministry hadn’t just been a one-way street. Responding to the love and teaching of those who watch over you in the Lord is the kind of response that fuels their life. 

And we are commanded to do this. 1 Thessalonians 5:12,13 Appreciate those who work hard among you, and are over you in the Lord and give you instruction.  “Show them great respect and wholehearted love because of their work.” NLT Paul wasn’t saying that about himself but about other people there in the church who labored to love and teach them. 

**If we love people, if we care about their souls, our big joys in life will come from seeing them do well in the Lord! Verse 6 “Timothy has come to us from you, and has brought us the good news of your faith and love.  For this reason, brothers, in all our distress and affliction we have been comforted about you through your faith.” For now we really live, if you stand firm in the Lord.” For what thanksgiving can we return to God for you, for all the joy that we feel for your sake, before God!”   

Calvin said, “Paul shows here what an extraordinary affection he had towards them, by the fact that “he was transported almost out of his senses” by the joyful awareness of their prosperous (spiritual) condition.”  We rejoice over seeing our grandchildren do well at anything, because we love them.  When we love our fellow believers we rejoice when we see them do well. 

Paul was in a time of deep distress and affliction, yet this joy over their well being was so great it made him forget about his own pain.    

Affectionate relationships in the body of Christ create a well-spring of joy that can carry you through you troubles too!  We  can think of ourselves happy and blessed when others are doing well in the Lord even though we are experiencing a lot of trouble.  Love does bring pain.  But Paul point here is that it brings a lot of joy too. Because every bit of spiritual progress in those we love brings such joy. 

*Faith and love are the absolutely essential ingredients of a Christian life.  These are the two qualities Paul sought to instill in the Thessalonians, the two qualities he commends them for, the two qualities he rejoiced in, the two qualities he prays may increase.  Gal. 5:6 All that matters is faith, expressing itself through love.”  Paul often summed up the Christian life as faith and love. 1 Timothy 1:5: “But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.   

Paul measured the churches well-being by these two qualities.  Faith shows itself by your confidence in God and our fidelity to God and his word.  Love shows itself by your loyalty to your brothers and sisters, your affection for them, and your sacrifice for them.  Your faith and love really tell the whole story!  

*Our goal should be ever-increasing faith and love. For ourselves and others. That was Paul’s goal for the Thessalonians.  That is what he prayed for!  First Paul told them (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.” Then he closes with a prayer for an ever increasing love.  11 “Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you, 12and may the Lord cause you to increase and overflow with love for one another and for everyone, just as our love for you overflows.” 

There is never a place to stop in Paul’s mind.  Increase and overflow is always the heartbeat of God, and it was the heartbeat of Paul.  CS Lewis. God is easy to please, but hard to satisfy. When your baby boy takes those first steps you are SO pleased! But you are not satisfied!  Paul felt that way with their faith and love.  They have faith and love!  But Paul wants more complete faith and more perfect love.  

It is not okay to see people come to church once in awhile.  or just show a little growth.  We want all God has for you. Paul said, “We admonish and teach everyone will all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ! To this end I labor and strive with all His energy working powerfully within me.”  Col. 1:28 

Paul had that passion for every believer in the church!  That passion can motivate us to give ourselves to the church family year after year, even through times of deep trouble and discouragement.  

Ever-increasing love, is integral to having holy and blameless hearts ready for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.  “May the Lord make you to increase in love and overflow in love for one another SO that He may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.”  This is remarkable! This connection to your love and holiness is missed by many.  Matthew Poole said, “Love itself is the great part of holiness”.

Some have an idea of holiness, that is ONLY about keeping strict rules. And somehow the main command of Jesus to love one another gets lost. And it’s replaced with a kind of stern harshness. Of course, keeping all the commands is important. But the goal of all the commands is love. Love is the essential element of a truly holy life!  

Self-love is the essence of all sin and love overflowing for one another is God’s replacement. So the very essence of holiness for a Christian is love. 

This life has a goal and that is to be ready “for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints.”   This life WILL come to an end. YOUR life will come to an end. This present world will come to an end.  Jesus WILL come again.  And what will matter most is if we have stood fast in the faith and if we have loved one another. 

We want to be found in him and loving one another the way he wants us to.  1 John 4:16 “whoever abides in love abides in God, and God in him. In this way, love has been perfected among us, so that we may have confidence on the day of judgment.  Holy love and affection for one another is the way we prepare for that final day.  

Pray Paul’s prayer!  Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.