Monday 8th May
Read 1 Thessalonians 3:12-4:2
“May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you. 13 May he strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones.
As for other matters, brothers and sisters, we instructed you how to live in order to please God, as in fact you are living. Now we ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus to do this more and more. 2 For you know what instructions we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus.” (NIVUK)
When I was a very new believer and had just begun to grasp what the resurrection of Jesus meant in terms of a new, spiritual and eternal body I wondered what motivation there was to live a better life. If when I died, my old, decaying and corrupt body would be transformed in the twinkling of an eye into a perfect and incorruptible body was there any point in making a start? I knew that I could only scratch the sides in cleaning up my act in this life and the majority of the work would be done at the end. So why bother?
The misunderstanding lies in believing that having been saved I was then ‘free’. We are free in one sense – we are free from slavery to sin and death. But we are not free completely. Faith involves a change in allegiance. The gift given us in Jesus, is the gift to follow and obey Him. It is a ‘free’ gift of slavery – with an amazing reward. “But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:22-23) (NIVUK)
So why bother? We bother because we will stand before a holy God. His spirit, dwelling in us through faith, is already at work preparing us for that day. On that day we will be asked to give an account of what we have done with our ‘free’ gift. A scary prospect indeed (cf Matthew 25:14-30). But although I might only be able to ‘scratch the sides’ of my sin in preparation for that day, I am not working out my salvation with fear and trembling on my own. I am surrounded by brothers and sisters on the same journey. So the greatest act of love we can engage in for each other (v12), knowing that we will each stand before God, is to pray (v13). Pray that our hearts will be strengthened to pursue holiness so that we will stand unashamed at the end. It is a powerful prayer and a great responsibility.
In Don Carson’s excellent book on Paul’s prayers (A Call to Spiritual Reformation) he lays down this challenge in response to this amazing prayer. He asks us to set ourselves the task of praying for a Christian for whom we do not currently pray. He challenges us to pray for them that their heart will be strengthened. In a few months’ time we can tell them we are praying for them – then keep doing so.
