To Encourage You

1 Thessalonians 4:1 “Finally, then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more.”

One of the ways the life that pleases God can be characterized is as a life that walks according to what God has told us in His Word “more and more.”  This is just the opposite of the ways of the world, which can be characterized by a tendency to follow the instructions of God’s Word “less and less.” It doesn’t matter where an unbeliever – or an unbelieving society – begins.  You see, a person – or a society- may not begin in a place of utter wickedness in terms of outward behavior, but it will almost certainly end up there without a relationship with the Living God. It’s the history of mankind from the time of Adam.  Although Adam walked with God in the Garden of Eden communing with Him day after day, after the fall, disobedience, which began as one sinful act, snowballed over time until the time of Noah when “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5).  

Throughout the Old Testament the nation of Israel went through cycle after cycle where righteousness prevailed for short periods of time, but as the people enjoyed the blessings that went along with this, they eventually turned their eyes toward the blessings and off the Lord.  They inevitably followed God less and less until they slid into horrible wickedness. We see it in the time of the Judges which began right after the death of the righteous leader Joshua, but ended with these words: “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25).

It’s just the same with individuals. While someone might have a twinge of guilt when he or she first commits a sin against God (because He’s written His law on the hearts of each and every one of us (Romans 2:15)), over time, if one gives no heed to that soul wound, the conscience can become seared (1 Timothy 4:2), and it begins a slide of becoming less and less effective although one may continue to sin more frequently and in ever deeper ways. 

The Christian is to be the opposite of this. He or she is to strive to honor God “more and more,” as the words from 1 Thessalonians 4, above, tell us. Sadly, so often, even in the church, we see the opposite occurring as denominations adhere to God’s Word less and less not more and more. We are seeing it in the United Methodist church today, where many of the leaders of the American churches view the biblical view of sexuality as anathema, rather than view the sin, itself, as anathema. But that’s not the way of the Lord. The believer who is growing in his or her love for Christ recognizes that no matter where they are in their spiritual maturity, they can grow “more and more” in that maturity. They will learn to judge themselves by such things as Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.  Rather than pride themselves on how good they are in comparison to it, they will recognize how very far they have to go.  Nevertheless, they will desire to love and obey Christ “more and more.” They won’t follow the trends of a society that seem always to drift away from God’s Word and demonstrate adherence to it “less and less” over time, no matter where it begins. They should see their own lives resembling the ways of the world around them “less and less” as they grow “more and more” like Christ.

So, if you claim the name of Jesus, do you find that your desire to become like Him is becoming “more and more” or “less and less?”  Rarely does anyone stand still, spiritually speaking. We will either trend to become more passionate for the One Who died for us or we will tend towards lukewarmness or even coldness in that relationship. May the Lord help us to follow the pattern set out for us of being “more and more” as He would have us to be, rather than “less and less,” as is typical of all those who are happy to drift along and go with the flow.