WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO “REALLY LIVE”?
1 THESSALONIANS 3:9-13
NASB
9 For what thanks can we render to God for you in return for all the joy with which we rejoice before our God on your account, 10 as we night and day keep praying most earnestly that we may see your face, and may complete what is lacking in your faith?
11 Now may our God and Father Himself and Jesus our Lord direct our way to you; 12 and may the Lord cause you to increase and abound in love for one another, and for all people, just as we also do for you; 13 so that He may establish your hearts without blame in holiness before our God and Father at the [a]coming of our Lord Jesus with all His [b]saints.
3:13 [a]Or presence [b]Or holy ones
NLT
9 How we thank God for you! Because of you we have great joy as we enter God’s presence. 10 Night and day we pray earnestly for you, asking God to let us see you again to fill the gaps in your faith.
11 May God our Father and our Lord Jesus bring us to you very soon. 12 And may the Lord make your love for one another and for all people grow and overflow, just as our love for you overflows. 13 May he, as a result, make your hearts strong, blameless, and holy as you stand before God our Father when our Lord Jesus comes again with all his holy people. Amen.
Every day we’re bombarded with propaganda about “the good life.” Countless appeals come our way, some subtle and some bold, inviting us to buy into a philosophy of life that’s “guaranteed” to make us happy. Usually, they’re hedonistic and materialistic at the core, each one promising us things that will really satisfy. But they don’t. In fact, if you probe these pushers of “the good life,” they probably won’t even know what that means.
So, what does it mean to really live?
Some peddlers of prosperity say it takes money to really live. That’s it. Wealth can buy the good life. But our prosperous, money-hungry culture is plagued with discontent, disappointment, and depression. Others say that real living belongs to the young —not to the young at heart, but to the energetic, attractive, and fit. So people get tummy tucks, hair transplants, or other expensive physical enhancements to reverse the apparent effects of aging. But is looking or even feeling young the same as living? Still others think real living means relaxing, kicking back in peace and quiet, swinging in a hammock and sipping cocktails. But is a drowsy, lazy, and pampered existence the definition of living? Why not the educated life, the adventurous life, the disciplined life, or the wild life?
When left to ourselves, we substitute the artificial for the authentic, the phony for the real —particularly in the mental, emotional, and spiritual realms. Mentally, we substitute knowledge or even information for true wisdom. Emotionally, we substitute feelings or opinions for true facts. Spiritually, we substitute the temporal and earthly for the eternal and heavenly. Yet, when we rely on our own imaginations, it’s impossible to answer the question, “What does it mean to really live?”
I’ll admit it. If I were Paul or Silas or even young Timothy, and if I had been writing 1 Thessalonians in their situation, I probably wouldn’t have said, “Now we’re really living!” Miles from home, plagued with poor health, nursing cuts and bruises, dogged by enemies of the gospel —those early missionaries endured constant hardships. Nevertheless, Paul was able to say, “Now we really live” (3:8). How? In 3:9-13 he describes four factors in his life that have allowed him to experience God’s perspective on what it means to live. He is joyful in gratitude (3:9), earnest in prayer (3:10-11), abounding in love (3:12), and established in holiness (3:13). That’s real living.
— 3:9 —
Paul begins with the word “for,” explaining the basis for his statement in 3:8: “Now we really live, if you stand firm in the Lord.” How could that be? First Thessalonians 3:9 explains it with a sort of rhetorical question, which should be read more as an exclamation.[18] Paul says, “What thanks can we render to God for you in return for all the joy with which we rejoice before our God on your account . . . ?” The expected answer? No amount of thanks is able to express the gratitude Paul had to God for the joy they were experiencing.
I imagine Paul smiling when he wrote those words. As Paul remembered the Thessalonians’ warm friendship and as he gloried in the news that they were standing firm in their faith, he could only beam in joy and inexpressible thanksgiving. Despite the “distress and affliction” and satanic hindrances that kept him from joining them in person (2:18; 3:7), he could still rejoice.
That’s the first factor that allowed Paul to embrace God’s perspective on what it meant to really live. He was joyful in gratitude. He thankfully counted God’s blessings in his life —blessings that first of all included the Thessalonians. He could say wholeheartedly, like the psalmist:
Bless the LORD, O my soul,
And all that is within me, bless His holy name.
Bless the LORD, O my soul,
And forget none of His benefits. (Ps. 103:1-2)
No doubt, Paul’s bright smile in the midst of dark, drab circumstances was like a beacon that drew people to Christ. It would have been impossible for people to ignore his perspective and demeanor. This doesn’t mean, of course, that every moment of every day for Paul was filled with quirky grins and silly giggles. Paul wasn’t a loon. That’s not joy; that’s foolishness or insanity. Rather, Paul displayed a deep sense of joy that flowed from the joy-giving work of the Holy Spirit within him (Gal. 5:22).
— 3:10-11 —
It’s not just joyful gratitude, however, that gave Paul a divine perspective on what it meant to really live. Paul was also earnest in prayer. His feelings of genuine joyfulness flowed from his heart as earnest prayer “night and day” (3:10) —continually, fervently, passionately, purposefully.
I find it interesting that Paul uses the phrase “night and day” with reference to the frequency of his prayer. Most people usually pick one or the other —an early morning “quiet time” or a season of evening prayer before retiring to bed. But Paul indicates that his prayers were constant. There was no bad time to pray.
And these earnest prayers weren’t frivolous, rote, or nursery-rhyme prayers like “Now I lay me down to sleep.” The Greek adverb that describes the quality of Paul’s praying, translated “earnestly,” is actually an intensified word meaning “very, very exceedingly.”[19] That’s earnestness and enthusiasm for prayer!
Two specific requests were on his lips. First, he prayed that God would stop Satan from intruding on his itinerary so that he and Silas would again be able to see the Thessalonians’ faces (3:10-11). He longed for in-the-flesh face time with his dear children in the faith. Until the obstacles were removed, Paul would have to settle for sending messengers and messages. But really, he and Silas desired that God would direct their way to the Thessalonians, opening the doors to allow them to see them (3:11).
Second, Paul wanted to “complete” what was lacking in their faith (3:10). This isn’t a reference to a waning faith on the part of the Thessalonians, but rather to gaps in their instruction concerning the content of the Christian faith. Remember, the apostle’s teaching had been cut short before he had been able to teach them or demonstrate for them everything they needed. Paul knew that, like children in eighth grade being plucked from their schools and thrown into a profession, they needed more instruction in the doctrinal and practical dimensions of the Christian faith.
All this he longed to do for the Thessalonians. How remarkable! Most people today lift their own requests and petitions, needs and desires, before God in earnest prayer. Paul, however, was burdened for the needs of the Thessalonians, lifting them before the Lord. Continually and earnestly through prayer, he was handing his burdens for them into the hands of God.
In praying earnestly, Paul was learning how to really live.
— 3:12 —
From joyful gratitude through earnest prayer, Paul further gained God’s perspective on what it meant to really live by abounding in love (3:12).
Now, I know that many people outside the church might wholeheartedly agree that to really enjoy life —to really live —men and women need to abound in love. But what they mean by this is a shallow sentimentality or a lurid eroticism —“love” that’s selfish, sensual, and ultimately dissatisfying. That kind of false, worldly, fleshly love has nothing to do with Paul’s desire that the Thessalonians would “increase and abound in love for one another” (3:12). Such love comes not from the internal impulses of the heart and mind, nor from the uncontrollable compulsions of the body and its members. It comes from the Lord Himself.
Many of us (older) parents have watched with both excitement and apprehension as our children grew up and fell in love. We saw their love abound and increase for one person until it led to courtship, then to engagement, and finally to the wedding . . . and children . . . and all the fruits of marriage. But at any point that process can be stalled, stifled, and even reversed. A couple’s love can grow cold. The process can be broken off. Marriages can crumble. Many reading this have experienced firsthand or secondhand the tragedies of separation or divorce, when marital love not only fails to thrive but fails to survive.
How much more, then, does the higher unconditional agapē [26] love that believers are to exhibit toward one another require constant divine support to carry out? This is why Paul had to pray that the Lord would cause the Thessalonians to increase and abound in love for one another. This kind of love can’t be produced by human ability. We simply don’t have the resources, in and of ourselves, to exercise this agapē love —the kind of love that looks out for others above ourselves, that sacrifices not just comforts, that gives our very lives by following Christ’s lead in sacrificing Himself for the sake of others. If left to our own strength, we would run out of gas and start rolling backwards in our advancement in love. Only by God’s Spirit are we able to increase and abound in love.
But this love is not just for one another in the church. Paul raised the bar even higher when he prayed that their love would also increase “for all people” (3:12). In that first-century context, that kind of love was not only difficult —it was borderline miraculous! Those were the unbelievers who were responsible for humiliating, slandering, bullying, and even injuring them. In response, they were to love them with unconditional love. Only the Lord can inspire that kind of penetrating, far-reaching, even unreasonable affection.
But such love is not impossible. With God, all things are possible (Matt. 19:26). Paul and Silas were examples of such love among the Thessalonians, whom they loved even when they were unloving rejecters of Christ. And they continued fervently in their love for them even though separated by time and distance. By living out their Christ-inspired love among the Thessalonians, the apostle Paul and the prophet Silas (Acts 13:1) had taught them what it meant to really live by abounding in love.
— 3:13 —
The first three factors in learning what it means to really live all build toward the fourth factor. Being joyful in gratitude meant Paul was earnest in prayer. And abounding in the love that could only come from God led to being established in holiness (3:13). This holiness of heart —and deep-seated quality of character —would be the result of increasing and abounding in love (3:12), indicated by Paul’s use of the logical connector, “so that,” at the beginning of 3:13.
Paul prayed that God would establish their hearts without blame “in holiness before our God and Father” in light of the coming of Christ with all the saints (3:13). Paul wanted their feet to be firmly planted on the bedrock of God’s standards of holiness. The world may chip away at God’s standards or blast them with the dynamite of an “anything goes” code of carnality. But when Christ comes again, we won’t be standing before a human judge with a set of scales rigged in favor of the sinner. God’s idea of right and wrong will be the final standard and, unlike human judges, the divine Judge doesn’t need to hear evidence or entertain arguments to make His best guess regarding innocence or guilt. He alone knows all things, even the thoughts and intentions of the heart (Heb. 4:12).
Therefore, as Peter exhorted his readers,
Prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, “YOU SHALL BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY.” (1 Pet. 1:13-16)
Without the Lord’s holy example and Christ’s gracious empowering by the Spirit, real living would be impossible. Our battles with the enemy would result in hopeless defeats. And we would become lonely, embattled, defeated soldiers. Mentally, emotionally, and spiritually we would turn again to substitutes for the real thing.
Thankfully, though, we don’t have to settle for substitutes. The Spirit of God has revealed to us, through the inspired words of the apostle Paul, what it means to really live.
APPLICATION: 1 THESSALONIANS 3:9-13
Everything Necessary to Really Live
When we learn from Paul’s words and example as well as the Thessalonians’ experiences, we discover what it means to really live. And to really live means to grow. Not physically, but mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.
Mentally, we grow wiser. When we’re led astray by the world’s way of life, we substitute knowledge for wisdom. We’re impressed by scholarship and worldly philosophies rather than by divine understanding. The latest research holds more sway for us than the “old-fashioned” biblical truths that were long ago breathed out by the Spirit of the living God. Your response? Embrace Paul’s principles of what it means to really live. Forsake and resist the world’s overwhelming message that seeks to warp your mind (Rom. 12:1-2). You’ll quickly discover that true wisdom is a gift from God.
Emotionally, we grow stronger. Instead of letting our personal preferences and fickle feelings lead us into a dozen contradictory perspectives, we let the facts of God’s Word point the way for our attitudes and actions. Your response? Embrace the truth of God’s Word with deep faith. Commit to believe and obey what it says, regardless of how you feel about it. Only then can you grow stronger in faith, love, and holiness.
Spiritually, we grow purer. Too many today exchange eternal things for temporal things, living it up in this life and enjoying its pleasures and its treasures. Your response? Give up the inferior materialism for a superior spirituality. Emphasize holiness and the deeper spiritual realities rather than shallow sensuality. Embrace God’s prescription for what it means to really live.
Underlying all of these things —wisdom, strength, and holiness —is the need for God’s power and provision. Do you know what happens when you try to achieve these things apart from salvation in Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit in your life? It’s like fueling your car with air . . . or water . . . or sand. The reason we even try to substitute knowledge for wisdom, feeling for facts, or temporal for eternal, is because we haven’t filled our lives with the fuel necessary to really live.
Now would be a good time to turn away from your own self-reliance and self-sufficiency and turn to Christ alone for “everything pertaining to life and godliness” (2 Pet. 1:3). In prayer, turn away from yourself and your own strength and the world’s imitations, and turn to Christ. With Him will come wisdom, purpose, stability, meaning, forgiveness, hope, and security —everything necessary to really live.