For a society which talks an awful lot about love (however ill defined) we are increasingly cold and distant. And I’m not talking about the weather. I have noticed in more recent months how pervasively people get sucked into their phone screens in all sorts of places, and cut themselves off from social connection. It has spurred in me a conscious desire to try and reduce my own usage, to better engage with people to whom I can show love.
Because showing love for one another is a vitally important part of being a Christian. For each other, as fellow adopted brothers and sisters of God, and for outsiders too, in the way we live. Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians encouraged them to deepen and broaden the ways in which they loved each other, and in reflecting God’s love for them revealed that love to the world.
After calling the church at Thessalonica to holiness, purity, and honour in their sexual lives, Paul turned to the expression of love for each other. Paul described this as “brotherly love” (v.9, Philadelphia) which originally described the sense of love felt for brothers or sisters, used as an analogy for the love which fellow-Christians should have for each other.
In raising this topic, Paul was emphasising Jesus’ teaching recorded in John 13:34-5. “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
It was a love that the Thessalonians already displayed, for Paul could state “you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another, for that indeed is what you are doing to all the brothers throughout Macedonia” (vv.9-10). God’s work in their lives had prompted them to love their fellow believers like their own flesh and blood, because of the overflow of love poured into their own lives.
That was not to say that the Thessalonians had “love” clocked, like a computer game. For Paul urged them “to do this more and more” (v.10). They could grow in love further. They could love Christians outside their own congregation or even region. They could love each other more deeply in their care and support for each other. And they could love each other ever longer as they looked past hurts and sought to forgive as they had been forgiven.
Their love could also be shown for each other by “liv[ing] quietly, and … mind[ing] your own affairs” (v.11). This could take two forms. Firstly, and more obviously, by not meddling in and disturbing each others’ lives. There are lots of practical things (like hobbies, alcohol, job choices) which can be enjoyed within moral boundaries even though not to certain Christians’ tastes.
But the second way is in refraining from seeking earthly glory and attention seeking. This has a nasty habit of blowing up not just on the individual but those associated, especially when it involves a Christian. In a suspicious culture like Thessalonica, this could invite persecution. Hardly loving to seek fame so your fellow-believers get beaten and imprisoned.
Another way they were to show love was “to work with your hands, as we instructed you, so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one” (vv.11–12). While Greeks traditionally looked down on manual labour (that’s what slaves were for), Paul reminded the Thessalonians that there was no indignity in quiet lives of busy work in whatever vocation God gifted you with.
Their hard work would have two effects. Firstly, they would not be relying on rich brothers or sisters in Christ to subsidise their lifestyle, ensuring funds were devoted to those who truly needed help. Secondly, their hard work would speak positively as a Christian witness to unbelievers.
These verses should cause us all to stop and think about the priority of love in our lives. Are we more concerned with ourselves and our own financial, social, or personal advancement, or are we concerned for others? Just as our sexual purity has an other-centeredness to it, love truly expressed is concerned with others, especially our fellow Christians.
Do our prayers, our funds, our time, and our abilities go to supporting and upholding each other, or to building up ourselves? Are we willing to be content with the jobs we have if it means we can show greater Christian love for each other? Are we willing to forego fame and fortune if it means greater gain, or lesser harm, for our fellow Christians?
Likewise, the way we work reflects on each other and on Christ. It is also loving toward each other to support ourselves rather than exploit the goodwill of others.
If we truly love God, then we will love and prioritise each other over ourselves. As Jesus and Paul remind us, that is how the world will see we are his disciples.
