1 Thessalonians 2:1-12 THE SERVANT'S WORK When we are involved in divine service, even though there will be obstacles and opposition, that should not stop us from fulfilling the commission we have received from our sovereign Lord. He does not ask us to do a work we are not able to do. Our Lord knows His servants, and when He wants us to do something, He is able to give us the strength and courage to do it. Our fears should not stop us from pressing forward with the Gospel. We may need to start right where we are with the small things before becoming bolder in the larger things.
The three brothers in Christ who were involved in the writing of this epistle and in bringing the Gospel to Thessalonica were one in their objective. There was harmony among them even though each one was very different from the others. Fear of imprisonment didn't stop them, although two of them had just been in prison in Philippi. There were not reckless, nor did they act impulsively. There is a cost to every work, and reaching out with the Gospel may be very different in one place than it is in another.
These servants had suffered and were scorned, but they were consistent even after they were insulted and hurt. The only way to counteract opposition when we are where we know God wants us is to be bold and have courage. When false accusations are laid against a servant, do not be deceitful nor act with pretense, but follow your sincere motive of making the message of Christ known. The truth of God must never be compromised. The wrong motives others have against faithful servants may bring some kind of suffering, but just like those in the past, we must be personally persuaded that what we preach is true. We have to have personally experienced the power of the Gospel message we preach and teach.
Moral cleanness is expected of those who represent the holy God. The people of Corinth, Thessalonica, and other places in those old days are similar to where we live today. People try to justify immorality by saying, "Everyone does it," or "It is legal." "What I do is up to me," they say, "and it is no one else's business." When a stand for biblical righteousness is made, we have to expect opposition will come in a variety of ways. Sin exposed does reach a person's conscience even though they often deny its consequences are serious. Broken marriages, broken homes, and broken hearts accompany immoral behavior. Those three men realized God had entrusted them with something of great value.
The message of the Gospel never changes, even though the method of presenting it may change. Faithful servants of the Lord must never compromise the heralding of the truth of the Gospel. What a privilege it is to be approved by God and allowed to speak His word publicly. At the same time, it is disgusting when one is a phony and uses flattering words to please people and entice them to respond to what he says. It is demeaning to the message when one dishonestly smoothes over sin and its serious consequences in order to make guilty people comfortable. To cover up a dishonest person's intention is not beneficial to either the hearer or speaker. Those involved in Gospel work as servants of the Lord have a special responsibility to be honest and straightforward with the people. It is the true servant's motivation to bless the people with God's truth. It is very wrong to tell people what they want to hear so they will like us and get their own way.
The true servant is not after the money of those who hear. Such a person is openly seen, not crafty. They are not looking for human praise; they are looking for God to save souls from hell and for heaven. No one who heard Paul, Silas, and Timothy could detect flattery in them or any insincerity designed to mislead or color their thinking. No one could charge them with being hucksters who wanted money or anything from those who heard their preaching. God knows what no one else knows. He was their witness as to their work and the message they were proclaiming. No one could charge them with being lazy or wanting an honorary position from the people in Thessalonica or any other place. There is a certain right they had as apostles that they should "live of the Gospel," but they did not ask for support.
However, those men had the right attitude toward people, and the same practices hold true for us. The message we proclaim is Christ's message; it is God's Gospel, and lives are changed because of its truth. We know that our message of the Gospel is right. God gives the increase to the seed men plant and water. The attitude of gentleness, consideration, and meeting needs; goes along with the assertiveness and power when the servant presents the Gospel in fellowship with the Lord. We have to give time for understanding to those who hear. We need to let people know we care for them. An affectionate desire for people's eternal well-being indicates that our words and actions expressed in the Gospel are for their blessing. We want them to know what we know, have what we have, and be assured that our interest in them is because we are the Lord's servants.
When we live holily before the Lord, there is a positive impression that can be seen by those who live righteously before men. In those ways, we can be living unblameably before all as we seek to exemplify the Gospel message in daily life. People often make decisions based on what they see as well as on what they hear. So, the exhortation we give people to act on what they hear and the encouragement to act now, and our personal testimony to them, is the objective of the Lord's servant who seeks to lead people to our Lord Jesus Christ.