Good Morning Friends,
New believers have lots of questions and issues and so it was for the Thessalonians. And part of their problems revolved around their concerns for their marriage relationships, the eternal fate of their ancestors and the work they were to do as they awaited what they thought was the imminent return of Jesus. And Paul’s answers in Chapter 4 responds with the importance of purity in marriage, the necessity of daily work and clarity on what happens to all those who were in Sheol. They were freed from their captivity by the way. But to understand all this and any application for us today we need to put the responses into context of the culture then but also the role of the Ecclesia, the called our assembly of God and the assigned tasks of members in what we often today call church. There is an important message here about the resurrection of the body if we can discern it. And so, we ask, When People Die Will They Be Alive In The Body Of Christ?
Scripture: Finally, brothers and sisters, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus that, as you learned from us how you ought to live and to please God (as, in fact, you are doing), you should do so more and more. For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from fornication; that each one of you know how to control your own body in holiness and honor, not with lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God; that no one wrong or exploit a brother or sister in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, just as we have already told you beforehand and solemnly warned you. For God did not call us to impurity but in holiness. Therefore whoever rejects this rejects not human authority but God, who also gives his Holy Spirit to you. Now concerning love of the brothers and sisters, you do not need to have anyone write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another; and indeed you do love all the brothers and sisters throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, beloved, to do so more and more, to aspire to live quietly, to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we directed you, so that you may behave properly toward outsiders and be dependent on no one. But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who have died, so that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have died. For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will by no means precede those who have died. For the Lord himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call and with the sound of God’s trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air; and so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage one another with these words.
1 Thessalonians 4:1-18 (NRSV)
I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all. But each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore it is said, “When he ascended on high he made captivity itself a captive; he gave gifts to his people.” (When it says, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is the same one who ascended far above all the heavens, so that he might fill all things.) The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ. We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people’s trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming. But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love. Now this I affirm and insist on in the Lord: you must no longer live as the Gentiles live, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of their ignorance and hardness of heart. They have lost all sensitivity and have abandoned themselves to licentiousness, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. That is not the way you learned Christ! For surely you have heard about him and were taught in him, as truth is in Jesus. You were taught to put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and deluded by its lusts, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. So then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors, for we are members of one another. Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not make room for the devil. Thieves must give up stealing; rather let them labor and work honestly with their own hands, so as to have something to share with the needy. Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up, as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were marked with a seal for the day of redemption. Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.
Ephesians 4:1-32 (NRSV)
When the child was older, he went out one day to his father among the reapers. He complained to his father, “Oh, my head, my head!” The father said to his servant, “Carry him to his mother.” He carried him and brought him to his mother; the child sat on her lap until noon, and he died. She went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, closed the door on him, and left. Then she called to her husband, and said, “Send me one of the servants and one of the donkeys, so that I may quickly go to the man of God and come back again.” He said, “Why go to him today? It is neither new moon nor sabbath.” She said, “It will be all right.” Then she saddled the donkey and said to her servant, “Urge the animal on; do not hold back for me unless I tell you.” So she set out, and came to the man of God at Mount Carmel. When the man of God saw her coming, he said to Gehazi his servant, “Look, there is the Shunammite woman; run at once to meet her, and say to her, Are you all right? Is your husband all right? Is the child all right?” She answered, “It is all right.” When she came to the man of God at the mountain, she caught hold of his feet. Gehazi approached to push her away. But the man of God said, “Let her alone, for she is in bitter distress; the Lord has hidden it from me and has not told me.” Then she said, “Did I ask my lord for a son? Did I not say, Do not mislead me?” He said to Gehazi, “Gird up your loins, and take my staff in your hand, and go. If you meet anyone, give no greeting, and if anyone greets you, do not answer; and lay my staff on the face of the child.” Then the mother of the child said, “As the Lord lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave without you.” So he rose up and followed her. Gehazi went on ahead and laid the staff on the face of the child, but there was no sound or sign of life. He came back to meet him and told him, “The child has not awakened.” When Elisha came into the house, he saw the child lying dead on his bed. So he went in and closed the door on the two of them, and prayed to the Lord. Then he got up on the bed and lay upon the child, putting his mouth upon his mouth, his eyes upon his eyes, and his hands upon his hands; and while he lay bent over him, the flesh of the child became warm. He got down, walked once to and fro in the room, then got up again and bent over him; the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes. Elisha summoned Gehazi and said, “Call the Shunammite woman.” So he called her. When she came to him, he said, “Take your son.” She came and fell at his feet, bowing to the ground; then she took her son and left.
2 Kings 4: 18-37 (NRSV)
For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling— if indeed, when we have taken it off we will not be found naked. For while we are still in this tent, we groan under our burden, because we wish not to be unclothed but to be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. So we are always confident; even though we know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord— for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we do have confidence, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.
2 Corinthians 5:1-8 (NRSV)
Message: Indeed, membership has its benefits, but it may not always be what we expect as Gentiles to be part of a Jewish heritage. For example, today we see a clash of culture in the storyline for the Thessalonians, for they came from a place where chastity was an unknown virtue. The Jews theoretically held marriage in the highest esteem, but divorce for a man was tragically as easy as repeating the decree three times and the Greeks in the surrounding area of Thessalonica worshipped a fertility cult. Thankfully, they had learned to love one another in a holy way. And undoubtedly despite this agape love, the spiritual and emotional challenge of focusing on the Second Coming was formidable for this young church, for they were convinced that Jesus would be returning soon and very soon. Given that this was the first of the letters written by Paul there is a transparency in the communication as a working document in what is essentially a demand on them to deal with monumental changes all around them and to do so with skill and moreover an altered behavior. So here is the deal. If the Thessalonians were called out by God to be something of importance and had been empowered by the Holy Spirit to carry out an assignment it is important to understand what that assignment was going to be. Undoubtedly part of this was preserving the heritage of their spiritual roots even if it meant transforming it. Knowing the will of God in these times of transition is difficult. It is no different today. For we also live in a time of major social change. Somewhat understandably, confusion abounded for the early church, in the face of the assignments to be apostles, evangelists, teachers, pastors or prophets as a means of forming the Body of Christ in the church. We have the same problem today. Of course, the history of Israel is filled with examples of apostles, evangelists, teachers, and prophets, but there is only one mention of Pastors…the one assignment we are perhaps most familiar with in the modern-day faith communities. Interestingly only the life of Jesus, combines all these assignments into one person. It seems reasonable that the Ecclesia would challenge us to unite these assignments into the church as a witness to the living presence of Jesus still at work. So, the question for the church today is how our gifts and assignments and calling converge for the benefit of the whole as it relates to the resurrection. Last week we touched on it related to the resurrection of Lazarus which was a prelude to the resurrection of Christ. There are several examples of resurrection in the Bible. Today’s passage from 2 Kings is about the resurrection of a Shunammite woman’s child is just one of them but many of them, most of them are about a resurrection that save a person from a current death only to die later. Christ’s resurrection was different. So whether you believe in a spiritual or corporal resurrection may be formed by the situation in which you live now but know this, some things this side of heaven remain a bit of a mystery but may involve the Body of Christ more than we acknowledge.
And So, Paul in the 4th chapters of two separate letters helps us to interpret what we are reading and what might well be foreign to many who have been raised in but never matured in the faith. Friends, we are to maintain our own independence through our own labor but must give thought and energy to the work of being the called-out body of believers to equip the saints for the work of Christ in the world. And that means connecting to our Spiritual and Hebrew roots but also responding to the culture in which we live. And so, we need to learn how to control our individual body but also in structure and order to bring substance and some degree of consecrated control to our collective existence with holiness, honor, and wholeness as well in the called-out assembly of the Body of Christ. Friends, God wants us to build communities of people whose lives are under control and kept so by the Holy Spirit so that they might be more beautiful and loving and in time resurrected. We are to unify a people who will constitute an island of refuge and resource for the drifting multitudes now and in the life to come. We are to help the slaves of sin and addiction and the followers of lies so that they not damage and wreck their own lives and the lives of those around them. And when it comes to the resurrection, whether we envision it as an awakening from sleep in our own body or an awakening from our body in a collective experience in the Body of Christ or even if we believe like the analogy of a seed that dies and brings forth new life in the rhythm of decay, of a revival of reflorescence in the Spirit, we will have to wait and see. I do not want you to be ignorant about this but the theology regarding the resurrection of the body is still a bit of a mystery and more diverse than most acknowledge.
Pray with the Saints we keep working and grow in love. Pray we know our assignments and take up the challenge of being equipped to carry them out effectively. Pray we forgive others. Pray we live this day the best we can for the benefit of the communities we love. Pray that though we face trouble in the uncertainty of life that we embrace the very practical advice of Paul to keep working today even though we do not fully understand the circumstances we are going to face tomorrow. Pray for a love…a perfect love that castes out fear. Pray we become generative and transformative agents for God. Pray we do not take anyone or anything for granted. Pray we seek Christ in all we do. Pray we have unity in all things essential and liberty and love in those things that are not. Pray we use our strengths in balance with others and our weaknesses binding us together in a harmony of a love for life. Pray we answer the call with gentleness, humility, love, wisdom, and patience in the Spirit worthy of being called a Child of God. Pray we experience the positive power and peace of God. Pray we are ultimately recognized by others as One Body because we share a faith in The One True God. Pray we do not have a haughty spirit. Pray we walk in soberness, godliness, and humility. Pray we are not arrogant or angry. Pray we are not short tempered. Pray we never run out of patience. Pray we function as one body, believing in Christ and believing in one another and always, always seeking to be unified as we honor Christ together now and, in the life, to come.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 