2 Thess 1:3, The Type of Person Who Hangs on a Cross Because It Is Right.
length: 62:55 - taught on Jun, 25 2023
Class Outline:
Sunday June 25, 2023
The most important question for any person is not what they are going to do but what they are going to be. There is a kind who spontaneously does righteousness and divine love. There is another kind who has self in mind.
In 1Ki 18 Elijah challenges the priests of Baal to call their god to light the offering on their altar. They strain and cry out, and even cut themselves, but to no avail. Elijah prays to God to rain fire down on his offering and the Lord consumes the whole of it.
Many philosophers have thought deeply about the seeming conflict about who we are and what we do. The Bible does not think about it. It states a fact that every person must decide who they are going to be by who and what they worship.
The altar erected to Baal should be taken as standing for all the ways in which we order the infinite longing of our hearts to something less than God. When we do this, the fire never falls, because merely worldly things cannot, even in principle, satisfy our hungry souls. And when we persist in worshiping falsely, we find ourselves, in short order, caught in an addictive pattern, hopping obsessively, as it were, around the altar of pleasure, power, or fame, desperately seeking a satisfaction that will never come.
The self-harm inflicted by the hapless priests of Baal speaks eloquently to the self-destructive quality to which any addict can attest. Only when the fondest desire of our soul is directed to the infinite God will the fire fall and addiction be avoided. So once again, brethren, the question is simple: at which altar will you worship? Your whole life will unfold, for weal or for woe, from that decision.
The world has a huge problem with selfishness and self-centeredness.
One of the main themes of 1Co is agape love. The faults and sins of the Corinthians are a direct result of their lack of agape.
Some of you are slaves to temporal things and because of that prison, you cannot agape love. Some of you are slaves to alcohol, drugs, sex, pornography. Some of you are slaves to anger, depression, anxiety. Some of you worship yourself because you generally sacrifice only for yourself. I don’t know who you are, but I know you are out there or in here, and God wants to set you free from the slavery you chose to sit in. The whole reason God is so honest with us is because He wants to set us free. There is only one thing that does it - the truth. And there is only one way that the truth will have its proper effect - our faith in it and our obedience to it.
All things:
[Love] bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Panta takes out limits. It thus excludes the limits of agape rather than defining an all-inclusive content.
The Revised English Bible seems to be one of the only translations that appreciates this, and to bring out the force of it, properly uses the negation:
There is nothing love cannot face; there is no limit to its faith, its hope, its endurance. [REB]
Love is an outflow of God’s own life, which life you now are.
How does God support?
We must remove all things that hinder agape - fears, lusts, addictions, angers, worries, jealousies, bitternesses, sinful passions, ignorance, want, and doubt. We have something that is a part of our eternal life and we
“Bears” - stego = to protect or preserve by covering.
It means to support another without ceasing to love, despite all burdens on them and on you; despite privation, trouble, hardship, or toil to either of you.
It means covering or enclosing in such a way as to keep something undesirable from coming in as water into a ship. Essentially what we are after to another is that we keep falsehood, lies, sin, evil, etc., from entering their souls. We cannot literally do it, but that is our goal.
In this way Paul uses the word to describe his own conduct in his ministry.
we endure all things so that we will cause no hindrance to the gospel of Christ.
It helps to understand this passage in its context.
Now I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment.
I appeal to you, dear brothers and sisters, by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, to live in harmony with each other. Let there be no divisions in the church. Rather, be of one mind, united in thought and purpose. [NLT]
They were not living in harmony at all, as Paul then points out. They are quarreling with one another, divided according to who was their favorite teacher.
This is not agape at all. Where do we find agape in its truest form?
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners [also ungodly (vs. 6) and enemies (vs. 10)], Christ died for us.
Paul described the cross as a divine weakness stronger than human strength and a divine folly wiser than human wisdom. Where could we find a clearer instantiation of the principle that it is better to suffer injustice than to commit it than in Jesus crucified?
For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
The word of the cross is the power of our salvation and it is also the power of our agape love. Power is not from us. We therefore do not count ourselves wise, noble, or strong - God alone is these things.
Then Paul uses himself, his own ministry as an example. His life was Christ. His ministry was the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. But the Corinthians were not doing this. They were carnal, sinful, jealous, and full of strife and division.
Agape love is poured out in every Christian heart at salvation (ROM 5:5). Where is it?
Where was the agape that Paul taught them and which was poured out into the hearts of every one of them?
Paul appeals to them. Every believer has been made a steward of God and they must be trustworthy with what they have been entrusted - eternal life and its agape.
Let a man regard us in this manner, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. 2 In this case, moreover, it is required of stewards that one be found trustworthy. 3 But to me it is a very small thing that I may be examined by you, or by any human court; in fact, I do not even examine myself. 4 For I am conscious of nothing against myself, yet I am not by this acquitted; but the one who examines me is the Lord. [love is not provoked - Paul has no ego to protect] 5 Therefore do not go on passing judgment before the time, but wait until the Lord comes who will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men's hearts; and then each man's praise will come to him from God.
The Corinthians, in their ungodly way, had convinced themselves that they were thinking and behaving like mature Christians.
You are already filled, you have already become rich, you have become kings without us; and indeed, I wish that you had become kings so that we also might reign with you.
This shows us that we can be those who have heard the truth but have deceived ourselves. We must be sober, alert, and careful.
And in a bit of brilliant juxtaposition, Paul shows what maturity is - this is the love that bears all things.
For, I think, God has exhibited us apostles last of all, as men condemned to death; because we have become a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men. 10 We are fools for Christ's sake, but you are prudent in Christ; we are weak, but you are strong; you are distinguished, but we are without honor. 11 To this present hour we are both hungry and thirsty, and are poorly clothed, and are roughly treated, and are homeless; 12 and we toil, working with our own hands; when we are reviled, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure [anecho - we hold up, we forbear]; 13 when we are slandered, we try to conciliate [parakaleo - comfort, encourage]; we have become as the scum of the world, the dregs of all things, even until now.
Paul is telling us that no matter what may come, we must serve the Lord in love, even if it means privation and being reviled, persecuted, slandered, and looked upon as the scum of the world.
What the grand philosophers have failed to see, as does the world, is that those who live in agape will be persecuted.
What is most important? The eternal things vs. the temporal things. Love is eternal (13:8 - “love never fails.”)
All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything. 13 Food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food, but God will do away with both of them.
All believers are the temple of God.
Yet the body is not for immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body.
In chapter 7, Paul addresses the questions they had for him.
One of these questions was concerning meat that had been sacrificed to idols, and Paul uses his answer as a vehicle to complete his teaching on love bearing all things (supporting others in love no matter what the cost).
Now concerning things sacrificed to idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge makes arrogant, but love edifies.
Food is temporal. Love is eternal. The law of love trumps food by light years. If you cannot sacrifice some temporal thing for another’s support then you are mastered by it (6:12).
When we violate this law of love that supports all things, then we sin against the other and against Christ.
And so, by sinning against the brethren and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ.
Paul has all freedom in Christ and the highest position in the church, but like the Lord, he is going to serve all for their good. This is agape.
Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord?
Paul and those who are with him, serve the Corinthians in the manner that God would have them. The Corinthians should be supporting them, but they are not. Paul and Barnabas have to work for their daily needs in addition to serving the Corinthians in spiritual matters.
The Corinthians should be supporting Paul but they are not. Should Paul, who is supporting them in spiritual matters, stop doing so?
If we sowed spiritual things in you, is it too much if we reap material things from you? 12 If others share the right over you, do we not more? Nevertheless, we did not use this right, but we endure [stego] all things so that we will cause no hindrance to the gospel of Christ.
Now you can see why Paul has his love-hymn in this letter. Love endures all things. Paul is supporting them though they refuse to support him when it is their duty to do so. Human love, eros love would cut them off.
Some of us need to actually start living by stopping the selfishness of our lives. The solution is faith in who God has made you to be by the cross of Christ - the solution is the strength of the cross.
Some of you are slaves to temporal things and because of that prison, you cannot agape love. Some of you are slaves to alcohol, drugs, sex, pornography. Some of you are slaves to anger, depression, anxiety. You are mastered by them. Some of you worship yourself because you generally sacrifice only for yourself. I’m not trying to shame you, but to warn you.
I do not write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children.
What did Jesus love when He was on the cross and what did He reject? This question should not be taken lightly.
Jesus despised all of those objects of false worship to which we tend to erect altars. Many of us worship wealth, but on the cross He was utterly poor, stripped naked; many of us worship pleasure, but on the cross He was at the limit of suffering, both physical and psychological; many of us worship power, but on the cross He was nailed in place, unable even to move; and many of us worship honor, but on that terrible cross He was the object of scorn and ridicule.
In short, the crucified Lord said no as radically as possible to the idols.
But what did he love on the cross? He loved doing the will of His Father. The cross itself functioned as the altar on which the sacrifice of His life to the Father took place, and this is why the fire fell. The fire that fell at Elijah’s prayer was the fire that fell on our Lord for our sins so that we could be free to live with and worship the Father in His presence.
Think about what some of your first thoughts were this morning. Sometimes these can indicate what kind of person you are currently. Something gets you out of bed. What value is ultimately motivating your actions and decisions.
Do we ultimately seek for ourselves? Do we have idols hidden away which we worship? Are you willing to face them with the cross as your strength?
Do we see that getting what we want is yelling out to Baal for help and assurance? Do we see that being what God wants, being just as He is, doing the good by the truth, no matter how much we suffer for it in this world, is abundant life.
“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”
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