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Ducks in the River
By Ray Trygstad This is the situation that the fledgling Christian congregation in Thessolonica found itself in. As the story unfold in the seventeenth chapter of Acts, Paul had come to Thessolonica after he was freed from prison in Philipi by an earthquake. He spent about three weeks in Thessolonica before persecution of his new converts to Christianity got so bad that he had to leave the city for his own safety. He sent Timothy back from Corinth and when Timothy returned to tell of the trials that the Thessolonians were going through, Paul felt moved to write them his first pastoral letter, part of what we now call the epistles (after the Greek word for "letter") . He intended to bolster their faith in the face of great persecution. Just like the ducks in the DuPage River, the Thessolonians had to keep paddling just to stay in place. They were new Christians; many of them were Greek converts, who did not have the benefit of a strong scriptural knowledge held by many of the Jewish converts. They were in a city filled with sin and immoral practices, and were trying to conform their lives to their status as new men and women in Jesus Christ. The temptations were very strong, but they were learning how to draw on their faith to enable them to resist. In this letter, Paul starts by telling the members of this congregation just how he feels about them, and how he views their relationship with God. In the last half of the letter, he gives them some very practical advice about how to live in a society that does not share their values. Paul starts by telling them that he was well aware of their work of faith, labor of love, and steadfastness of hope. In fact, these three things that mark the believers in Thessolonica are also the basis of the first three chapters of this letter: the work of faith, labor of love, and steadfastness of hope. Even before we get to the rest of the epistle, though, these are detailed in verses 9 and 10: we read that they "turned to God from idols" was the work of faith, turning to God from the pagan idols they had worshipped; "to serve a living and true God" was the labor of love, the act of making themselves available as instruments of God's love; "to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come." was the their steadfastness of hope, waiting patiently for Christ's return. This hope is the key to what sustained the Thessolonians. In an archaeological excavation of a first-century cemetery in Thessolonica, archeologists discovered among the pagan tombstones one that read "no hope". But there in first century Thessolonica there were those with hope, hope of eternal salvation through Jesus Christ. Paul tells these folks that they were "chosen of God", and that the gospel that they had received came not in words only but in power and in the Holy Spirit. He then praises them for being "imitators of the Lord", through their labor of love spreading the word of God in the face of "much tribulation". This is a vibrant and growing church, precisely because of this work of faith, labor of love, and steadfastness of hope. When the magistrates of Thessolonica could not locate Paul and Silas, they dragged a member of the congregation before the authorities shouting "these people who have been turning the world upside down have come here also, and Jason has entertained them as guests". They thought this was an insult: "these people who have turned the world upside down". But really, that's the point, isn't it? To "turn the world upside down" is not an insult; we as Christians are not meant to conform to the world but to make the world as uncomfortable about their values as Jesus and Paul did. Today no one is beating us up or stealing our property for being Christians. On the other hand, we still encounter a great deal of the same hedonistic, immoral society that plagued the first century Thessolonians. Sometimes it seems as though "society" is trying to steal one of our most precious things from us: not our land or our possessions, but our children. We are barraged with images and ideals that seem to always run against the grain of our belief and our children are all too often the objects of ridicule for attempts to be "imitators of Christ". And this is hardest on this kids, just like the Thessolonians, whose faith was new and who were just learning what it means to follow Jesus Christ. But what can we do? Will we be ducks too, paddling constantly just to stay in one spot? We have to be "imitators of the Lord": not slavish imitators, in hope of reward for our efforts at being good, but rather acting as men and women transformed by the saving grace of Jesus Christ. It is this grace (folks who know me know that I am "big" on grace) that allows us to act as God would have us. And through our imitation of the Lord, we can convey to our children a true Christian life, one of love and compassion and obedience to God's will. How can we do this? BECAUSE....because God has provided us the same thing he provided the Thessolonians: the Good News not in word only but in power and the Holy Spirit. It is this power, the power of the Holy Spirit, the power God grants us through prayer and praise and faith, that allows us to be transformed, to be imitators of Paul and Silas, and of our Lord. To help the Thessolonians (and us as well) with this effort, Paul offers some very plain-spoken advice in this letter. Chapters four and five, the practical section of this letter, are divided into four brief sections which take up the problems that were confronting this church. The first exhortation the apostle gives is to live cleanly in the midst of a carnal society. These words have great importance to us who have to live in the same kind of society today, and he begins by reminding them that he had taught them how to live (verse 1):
He had not taught them, as many people think Christianity teaches, that they ought to live a good, clean life. Buddhism teaches that. And most other faiths teach that you ought to live a moral life. But that alone is not what Christianity says; here, Paul teaches us how to live a good, clean life! And Paul reminds the Thessolonians that he had taught them "how to please God."
This kind of life results, then, in a purity that is practiced. If Christians are practicing impurity, that is a clear revelation that they are not practicing a life of faith. But purity practiced is the sign of the principle perceived. Paul says,
It is very clear, isn't it? We are told how to live cleanly. The second problem he takes up is the matter of living honestly, in verses 9 through 12 of chapter four. They are to show love toward one another, and the practical manifestation of that is for every man to get busy and work with his hands and not have to depend upon somebody else for support; rather,
That's practical, isn't it? After this large section on how to live a life that pleases God, he tells us:
A pretty scathing indictment of the all-to-common practice in our society of "getting even"; this is an attitude that is worldly thinking, clearly outside the grace and truth and love of Jesus Christ. Finally Paul has some parting advice for them, which serves equally well as parting advice for us here today:
And after various other admonitions, his final prayer for them is beautiful:
Well, I'm not sure my comparison with ducks is the most apt here, but I can tell you this...God, through the apostle Paul has thrown us an oar here, in the form of some specific sound and sensible advice. Unlike the ducks, we are not alone in our swim against the current, and we know that the Lord will give us the strength and the tools to keep us from being swept down river.
Copyright 1996 Raymond E. Trygstad; all rights reserved. May be copied
and distributed freely in its entirety if accompanied by this statement.
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