You do not make it to sixty without some real pain

 

2Thessalonians 1:4

I do not know of anybody my age who has not suffered loss of some kind, it may have been a job, a home, your favorite pet, or something of great value, like a child or grandchild, a mother or dad, brother or sister, husband or wife, you do not make it to sixty without some real pain.  And most of us can testify that when those painful times came it was often a friend that had little to say but was just there, crying with us or doing things that needed to be done.  As we look back on that moment, we understand the need to be there for a friend, neighbor, or family member.

In some ways that is what the apostle Paul is doing in this letter to the Thessalonians.  His goal is to encourage and to bring some comfort to this church in persecution, he is telling them that he has been boasting about their faith and how steadfast in that faith they are, even in the afflictions and persecutions they are enduring.  It is important for the American Church to understand that we live in a culture that more and more resembles the culture of Thessalonica.  Often when we think of persecutions our minds go to China or some Muslim country, but our culture is not the culture of the 1950’s in fact it is very much like what was happening in Thessalonica.

The following was taken from a paper titled, “The Birth and Growth of a Church” by J. Hampton Keathley, III, and is a good similarity to our nation. “It is really not so surprising that, due to the glorious nature of the message of the gospel, people came to Christ and churches were founded across the country. The amazing thing, considering the pagan atmosphere in which the new converts were immersed, is that they grew, reached out, and endured. With the exception of the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles who attended the synagogue, the greater body of converts came to Christ from outright paganism. They were surrounded with a culture of heathenism and gross immorality. This led to enormous temptation to return to their old ways and significant persecution if they refused to recant their faith in Christ.

The Christian missionaries were carrying the war into the enemies’ country. After every new conquest, annoying guerrilla warfare was set up behind them. Heathenism and immorality, in a thousand forms, were always pressing in upon the territory that had been won. The early converts were often made of very feeble clay. They had only begun to understand the principles of the Christian life. When Paul had left them, when they were thrown upon their own resources, would they not simply drift back to their old ways?”

It should not come as any surprise that we dropped the ball somewhere, we lost our own families to the pagan customs of our culture, and the church has lost it influence because the church often looks like the culture.  You and I need to be diligent in the encouragement of new believers who have been saved out of our culture of heathenism and gross immorality.  And there in may lay the problem; you may not consider our culture in the way listed above. Were we not called to be light, were we not called to encourage the weak and to stand for truth.  If the only time we do that is in a building we call the church, we are history, it’s over, go on vacation and have fun, because you are of little value to the Kingdom of God.  We must return to taking the message of Christ to our workplace, and that may cost you; your friends, and your standing in the neighborhood, but you are the Church, not some building you go to on Sunday.  How is your church doing on Monday through Saturday, is it showing any light at work, in your home, in the market place, with your neighbors?  Does it just want to look good and be religious, if so your life has no power and no light, and no hope?  I want to be like Paul was to my circle of influence.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice