[AI translation] In this next section, we can almost hear the apostle unlocking the innermost compartment of his heart. Thus the lovers confess, and the apostle has no love but the church. He tells us that he could no longer bear the desire for the Thessalonians. He wanted to go to them - however perilous the undertaking seemed - but failed. Now, in his great orphanhood in Athens, the state of the Thessalonian church, abandoned by necessity, weighs heavily on his heart: what of them, have they remained in the faith, have they not faltered in the midst of their distress? He sends Timothy to strengthen the church and bring news of them. Timothy's mission lasted at best weeks in the traffic conditions of the time. It was during this time that Paul's anxiety reached its peak. But Timothy had finally arrived! He brought good news: the church's faith and love were on fire. "We are almost alive because you are strong in the Lord," the apostle writes.This great, this true pastoral love of the apostle for the Lord's children is touching. Behold, even from a distance, forgetting his own troubles, his own distress, he can take the fate of his brothers and sisters so much to heart! How good it would be if someone were to care for us in the same way, if our state in the faith were to be taken so seriously to heart by such a pastoral personality! You say: after all, the church has a pastor to care for the souls of his parishioners. Well: you are right! I have very often felt that this would be my true ministry, which the apostle writes: "with great desire we have sought to see you face to face" (1 Thess 2,17b). I also sense that there are many among you who would benefit, who would need someone to come up to them, to speak to them and ask them, "Son of God, let me know your faith, 'if I have not been tempted in some way... by the tempter?' Forgive me if I have waited in vain, be forbearing towards us if Satan has hindered us from coming to you (cf. 1 Thess 2:18), and pray with us that "God himself, and our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, may make our way straight to you." (1Thess 3,11) May our Lord grant that this year may be a blessed development of personal pastoral care, of soul to soul encounter, of one-to-one pastoral care!
Yes: may it be such an occasion, not only between the congregation and its pastors, but also between the members of the congregation themselves! That is, that we may be stirred up to a mutual pastoral responsibility towards one another! When we meet each other, brothers and sisters, usually the first question we ask each other is: how are you? And we usually ask this question so automatically that we don't even wait for an answer, but move on to something else. It's more like an empty form of politeness between us. Sometimes, when we ask with more seriousness, we might add something more: How are you at home? How's your work? How is your health? And as empty as the question is, usually the answer is also empty, like this: Well, we are. Or: we're fine. Or simply: thank you, how are you? Well: could we not deepen this question to each other and ask the other brother or sister quite seriously: how are you with your faith, how are you with Jesus Christ, how are you with prayer? With your temptations, with your spiritual problems? So, with pastoral love and responsibility, inquire about each other's well-being! This is how the Apostle Paul asked the Thessalonians through Timothy. Such a question itself is worth a lot, because it prompts a man to give an account of things which he is not used to expressing himself. Let us not leave each other, Brothers and Sisters! Let us not leave each one to fight his own spiritual battles, to solve his own problems as he knows how. Let us help one another, let us try to strengthen one another spiritually, to remain in the Lord and to meet one another. Nothing is further from the church of Christ than the Cain spirit that feels, "Am I a keeper of my brother? The very opposite of this is the Christian law which Paul formulated: 'Bear one another's burdens!
This spiritual care for one another is very justified. Paul describes his own concern for the Thessalonians: 'Lest any man be troubled in the midst of those afflictions: for ye yourselves know that we are ordained. For when we were among you, we told you beforehand that we should be afflicted, as it came to pass. Wherefore I also, because I could endure it no longer, am sent to know your faith, if ye have not been tempted in some way by the tempter, and if our labour has not been in vain" (1 Thess 3:3-5). Thus says the apostle: tribulation and temptation. After Paul's departure, the Thessalonians were also involved in both. They were threatened and attacked from all sides, just as Paul had told them beforehand. They tried to intimidate them with threats and taunts and to turn them away from Christ. (1 Thess 3,3c) So he is not referring to sickness, suffering, material problems and deprivation, but to the special distress that comes with wanting to follow Jesus seriously. We are destined to do this: so we cannot but be involved in these afflictions in some way. Where Christ is at work in a person's life, the great adversary, Satan, is always in action! The oppressions that Satan uses to destroy our awakening Christian lives are by design. It is good for us to acknowledge that we too are destined to do this. To be a Christian, to be a Christian is not easy, but always under some kind of pressure, under some kind of distress.
The pressures may be external, for example an unbelieving, cynical partner who mocks the things of faith, a family environment that does not understand, former friends who cannot understand the change that faith in Christ brings about in you. But there can also be pressures from within: such as being haunted by an old sin that you once brought to Christ, that you have laid down with Him and for which you have been forgiven, and now He is suddenly back calling you. Or a despondency from which you were once delivered: suddenly, as if by ambush, it attacks you again and presses you. Or some doubt of faith rises up again and pursues you. But many believers have complained to me that they are tormented by terrible doubts! Many times even doubting the existence of God attacks believers. Are these not also the distresses to which Paul says we were appointed? Do you see the shadow of the cross behind these afflictions? In all the joy and thanksgiving of the new life that Christ gives to his own, the cross is always there. The whole believer's life is marked by the cross, which means that to believe and follow Christ is always in the midst of struggles and Satanic attacks! Jesus says: "A disciple is not greater than his Master! If they persecuted me, they will persecute you! You will be persecuted by your old desires, your thoughts, your temptations, your doubts!
And it is not wrong to walk the narrow path in the footsteps of Christ amidst such afflictions and temptations, but the danger is that the believer's soul stumbles amidst these afflictions. He gets tired, discouraged, he cools down, he gives up the fight. It is not a question of falling back and failing, but of staggering, as when one becomes dizzy and wobbly - and the apostle says, "Have not our labours been in vain? To belong to Christ is only so deadly serious, only so whole-hearted, only so whole-hearted a man! "Anyone who puts his hand on the horn of the plough and looks back - only looks back, even if he has not taken his hand off the plough horn, only looks back - is not fit for the kingdom of God" (Lk 9,62).
And now comes the great good news of this passage: Timothy comes with the good news: the Thessalonians have stood firm in their faith, amidst afflictions and temptations! Paul almost exults when he writes: "You are strong in the Lord!" (1 Thess 3:8) Behold, they did not falter, Christ was victorious! The power of the cross was greater than the oppression! Today it still is!!! Great as the tempter is, he is not greater than the Saviour! However invincible sin is, it is not greater than the one who has conquered it! Our Thessalonian brothers and sisters say now, from thousands of years away: Do not falter! Do not give in to the temptation, both external and internal! Oppressions can be overcome! Look to the Lord: He lives and He conquers! "You are strong in the Lord" (v.8), writes the apostle. This is the secret of victory and strength: to be in the Lord! He does not say: 'You are struggling', nor does he say: 'Be strong', but: 'You are strong in the Lord! It does not say: with the Lord, or beside the Lord, or with the Lord, but: in the Lord! The Lord Jesus Christ is therefore like a space in which man can stand, in which he can be included. He who is there - in the Lord - is surrounded by the Lord on every side, protected by the Lord with his power and might, his holiness and purity. So our strength is not in our good health, not in our good physical and mental condition, not in our many sciences, not in our fortunate circumstances, not even in our faith - but in the Lord! In Jesus: the living, present, breathing, all-embracing person! So the crucial question in the midst of our distresses and temptations - in every manifestation of our most ordinary life - is this: are we really in the Lord? Not with him, beside him, at him, but in him?! Is our life fully included in this sacred space?
And one more thing: If we are in the Lord, a new perspective is brought into our lives, one that overcomes all anxieties. Thus says Paul: "Jesus Christ is coming" (1 Thess 3,13b) To live in the Lord is also to live in hope of the return of our Lord, in his final victory. Hope that the invisible space that surrounds, protects, strengthens us, that invisible holiness and purity, glory and power: will one day become visible in all its reality! We Christians live from the triumph of the cross of Christ, hoping for His final victory! Above the history of the world and above our personal existence, we always see this goal: Our Lord is coming! Stand fast in the Lord and in His hope! In the midst of afflictions and temptations, we experience:
"Our strength alone is worthless,
We would soon fall:
But the heroic leader fights for us,
whom God has appointed for us.
Who is it, you ask? It's Jesus Christ,
Holy Son of God, Lord of heaven and earth,
He is our triumph.
(Canto 390, verse 2)
Amen
Date: 10 January 1954.
Lesson
1Thessz 2,17-3,13