09/19/18 - 1Thess 4

Sep 19, 2018

Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: to mind your own business and work with your hands. 1Thess 4:11

Legalism tells everyone else how to live, love shows everyone how to live.

Have you ever had someone in your life who was great at telling you how to live?  They seemed to know the answer to every problem.  They were glad to tell you the things you were doing wrong, and what you needed to do to change them.  They knew the answer – even in some cases could recite chapter & verse – or text and page number – always with a slight tone of arrogant ego.

The problem was … that same person has never lived in the circumstances you were experiencing.  Advice about marriage from someone who has never been married seems rather weak.  Listening to someone tell you how to parent when they have never had kids is just wrong.  Having a student tell a CEO how to operate the company won’t go very far.  All of them have one problem --- they haven’t SHOWN they know.  They are just talking the talk, but haven’t walked the walk.

Jesus had that problem with the Pharisees.  These experts in the law were great at telling the people how to live, but did little to show it.  Jesus saw through their legalism and condemned them for it.  Not that their advice was wrong – the problem was their example.  Jesus preferred they play Show & Tell.  (Show us how to live, then you have the right to tell us.)

Paul figured that out, and taught the churches that game.  He called for the early Christians to go against their historical upbringing, and instead choose to live out their faith FIRST, then share their faith with others.  Instead of being the expert advisor, Paul taught people to be the learning example.  The contrast to legalistic Jews, philosophical Greeks, or authority-hungry Romans would have been a stark difference!  Christians would be known for their humble spirits and righteous behaviors.

Too bad we all still struggle with that approach!  It’s much easier to be legalistic and tell people how to live.  It’s far simpler to come up with a set of rules and expect everyone else to follow them.  We still seem to act like the Pharisees more than we should.  But Jesus & Paul’s way of witnessing is STILL the best – lead with your example first.

That doesn’t throw out your opinion on things.  It just means we must recognize our limited knowledge.  Scriptures are still meant to be taught.  Biblical conduct is still expected to be followed.  And we’re allowed to share what the Bible has to say.  Just remember that if you don’t have kids, you’re not the expert parent.   And if you’re not married, you can’t know what marriage is like.  And if you’re not in the boss’s shoes, then you probably don’t know the full issues either.  We need to humble ourselves and recognize the limits of our knowledge, and choose to live out the advice we give first.

The next time you catch yourself TELLING people how to do things, stop speaking and start loving them enough to show it first.  As one person said:  Be the change you seek in the world.