To Encourage You

1 Thessalonians 3:8 “For now we live, if you are standing fast in the Lord. “

Have you ever heard or used the phrase “Life is good!”?   Perhaps you’ve heard it put this way “This is the life!”  What is usually meant when we hear this phrase is that we are enjoying life at that moment.  Whatever our situation, it is comfortable or pleasant to us.  Maybe it’s when we are on vacation at the beach somewhere, or enjoying a wonderful dinner at a good restaurant.  Perhaps it’s enjoying our favorite hobby, such as fishing on our favorite stream.  How very different was Paul’s focus when he used a similar phrase in the verse above.  There he says this: “For now we live!” And what was the context?  It was his knowledge of the enduring faith of the believers at Thessalonica.  It was his concern for the faith of these believers, and the faith of other believers in the churches that he had planted that were among the greatest concerns of his life. 

It is highly unlikely that Paul would ever have said “this is living!” in the way we so often hear the term used today. That’s because Paul’s life as a Christian was one of constant hardship.  Listen as he recounts his life as a follower of Jesus: “with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death. Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches” (2 Corinthians 11:23-28).  You see, for Paul, the life he sought to lead was a life that glorified Christ, no matter what.  Elsewhere he said “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21).  With these words, the Holy Spirit would have us to know that when we stand before our Lord and Savior, it won’t be how many nice restaurants we’ve had the pleasure to eat in, how many wonderful vacations we’ve experienced, what great times we’ve experienced in pursuit of our hobbies, or what nice things we have owned that will matter.  All that will matter at that time will be what we’ve done to glorify Christ. 

Jesus, Whom all believers purport to follow, came to this earth, leaving behind all the pleasures of heaven, “to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10). As His ambassadors, that is exactly what He wants of us.  If “for us to live is Christ,” then our lives should first and foremost be all about glorifying Him, and a life that glorifies Him will be focused on loving Him and loving our neighbors as our self.  For us who know Him, life should be about obeying Him in how we live personally, and life should be about pouring ourselves into the lives of others so that they might know and obey Christ, as well.  That’s the example Paul set for us.  More than that, that’s the example Christ set.  But is that how we are living?  When we think of the phrase “This is the life!” are these the things that first come to mind, or is it the pleasures of this world that are our focus in life? 

May God help us to live a life that glorifies Him, rather than a life that is no different from those who live in this world but don’t know the great God we serve.  May we live a life of telling the world about Him, and loving and praying the lost into the kingdom of the Son of God, for this is the life, the eternal life, that will matter more than anything else, in the end.