God's vision for relationships in the church - November 5, 2023

NewLife Christian Fellowship's Podcast

This morning, I am continuing in my sermon series through 1 Thessalonians, which was a letter written by a leader in the early church named Paul to a church in Thessalonica that he had been instrumental in starting around the year 49 AD. Paul and his fellow missionaries had been driven out of Thessalonica by a mob of angry Jews who found his message about Jesus being Lord to be blasphemous. And 2-3 years later, Paul has not been able to return to Thessalonica, so he sends Timothy, one of his fellow missionaries, who brings back a report about how the Thessalonians are doing and what issues they are facing. In response to Timothy’s report, Paul sends this letter. In the first section of this letter, Paul reminds them of the gospel and of his love for them, and he defends himself against his critics’ accusations and slander. In the section we are currently in, Paul transitions to instructions about how to live as a Christian. We have already looked at God’s vision for our sexuality and our work and what we need to know about death, Jesus’ return, and the final judgment. Over the next couple of weeks, we’ll be looking at the vision Paul lays out for relationships and worship within the church.

1 Thessalonians 5:12-15 - Now we ask you, brothers and sisters, to respect those who work hard among you, who are over you in the Lord and who admonish you. 13 Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work. Live in peace with each other. 14 And we urge you, brothers and sisters, warn those who are idle, encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient with everyone. 15 Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else.

This is a short section. He begins with a couple of statements about how we should relate to leaders in the church, and follows up with a couple of statements about how we should relate to each other, and so we will look a little at both of those.

But I think that if we are going to set this passage in its proper context and understand how we are to relate to each other, it is helpful to have a proper understanding of Biblical anthropology, the doctrine of man. Let me say four things to help set the context:

We are all created in God’s image, with dignity