2Th 3:1-5; Why You Need to Pray for the Ministries of Others.Wednesday October 11, 2023
Theme: God has given us the privilege and opportunity to give input into His decree for history (people and circumstances) and this is a part of prayer for others and ourselves.
There is a lot of sin in this world. The effect of all that sin, the pain and destruction that it causes, is called evil. How can we not let it infect our souls and bodies?
Sometimes things work out the way we might expect and at other times not at all.
In a world where there is no guarantee of outcome, God asks for our input that we may participate in whatever result He wills.
Ecc 3:1-2 There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven —
2 A time to give birth and a time to die; A time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted.
There are times for each thing and also a time for its opposite, but only God knows when the one or the other will occur. Who knows which one is coming? We work and toil under the sun and when we expected birth (life), for instance, we got death; or, when we expected death, we got life.
In light of that, look at another popular verse from this chapter.
Ecc 3:11 He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart, yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end.
What if “eternity” means something more like time, and the events of time that we’re trying to figure out – past, present, and future. The past I saw A, in the present I see B, and in the future what? More A, B, or something else – C, D, E…
The Hebrew word translated here “eternity” (olam) also means perpetuity. It is the understanding of past, present, and future.
“Thus, in Eccl 3:11 we read that God had bound man to time and given him the capacity to live "above time" (i. e., to remember yesterday, plan for tomorrow, and consider abstract principles); yet He has not given him divine knowledge.” [Vine's Expository Dictionary]
Ecc 3:16-17 Furthermore, I have seen under the sun that in the place of justice there is wickedness and in the place of righteousness there is wickedness. 17 I said to myself, "God will judge both the righteous man and the wicked man," for a time for every matter and for every deed is there.
The word associated with Ecclesiastes is hevel. But the word means that life, creation, existence is fleeting, and many things are like vapor (quickly changing, not what they seem, misleading, or powerless).
Ecc 1:2 "Vanity of vanities," says the Preacher, "Vanity of vanities! All is vanity."
All on earth is like this – “Fleeting of fleeting, all is fleeting.” Vapor of vapor, all is vapor. Quickly changing, of quickly changing, all is quickly changing.
Ecc 8:14-15 There is futility (hevel) which is done on the earth, that is, there are righteous men to whom it happens according to the deeds of the wicked. On the other hand, there are evil men to whom it happens according to the deeds of the righteous. I say that this too is futility (fleeting or unsound). 15 So I commended pleasure, for there is nothing good for a man under the sun except to eat and to drink and to be merry, and this will stand by him in his toils throughout the days of his life which God has given him under the sun.
Back to prayer: So many different outcomes can occur on earth in the lives of men. God is the only one who knows them and has decreed them to His glory. He is smart enough to include our petitions right into them without altering His will, but He will change inputs and outcomes based on our prayers, our participation.
Now, don’t you want to pray!
2Th 3:1-3 Finally, brethren, pray for us that the word of the Lord will spread rapidly and be glorified, just as it did also with you; 2 and that we will be rescued from perverse and evil men; for not all have faith. 3 But the Lord is faithful, and He will strengthen and protect you from the evil one.
We are to pray for the ministries of one another.
He encourages, that despite evil men who lack faith, God is faithful, and He will strengthen and protect you (future tenses) from the evil one.
Mat 6:13 “And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” “evil” or “evil one?” We cannot tell.
What is evil by definition?
Evil is that which is destructive and injurious to the human mind and body. It causes painful, malignant, sorrowful labor. Used of people, spirit, and things.
Evil ruins lives.
All things that are not good by God’s standards are not good for mankind.
We see another parallel to this passage in 2Th 3:2.
“delivered” in Mat 6:13 is the same verb as “rescued” in 2Th 3:2.
It is clear that the evil one who fosters evil is someone and something that we need to be delivered from and protected from, and only God can do that.
Only God deliver us from temptation to evil.
2Pe 2:9 the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation
And this evil is all around us every day. Added to the struggle that brings (through temptation) is that our flesh desires it.
Mat 6:34 “So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care (same verb – be anxious or worry) for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
“trouble” (Mat 6:34) – kakia = evil. “Sufficient to the day (is) its evil.”
Mat 6:13 “And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”
In our Lord’s Prayer, there are six petitions, the first three center on worship of God and the last three on petitions for sustenance, forgiveness, and the avoidance of sin.
The last three (give us today our daily bread, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors, and lead us not …) are general headings under which we provide the details of our own personal petitions.
Mat 6:13, the last, and sixth, petition, concerns our need to be dept from sin and its power to overcome our inner and outer selves.
Don’t look at sin and evil as two different things. Sin is the act. Evil is the pain and destruction sin causes.
All three petitions show our complete dependence on God.
We go to Him daily as children to a Father. It affirms our complete dependence on Him and keeps us in touch with Him, as well as all who we are praying for.
Do not lead us, expresses our desire to be led in the proper direction.
God wants us dependent on Him daily in prayer and in prayer helping others daily. Your desire is expressed in this last petition in the Lord’s Prayer that we never want our walk with God broken.
1Th 5:15-22 See that no one repays another with evil for evil, but always seek after that which is good for one another and for all people. 16 Rejoice always; 17 pray without ceasing; 18 in everything give thanks; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. 19 Do not quench the Spirit; 20 do not despise prophetic utterances. 21 But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good; 22 abstain from every form of evil.
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