Church Member’s Checklist (1 Thessalonians 5:12-15)

Posted on August 20, 2023 by salooper57
Viewing Time: 23 minutes (approx.)

In this final section of the letter, Paul writes like preachers talk when they realize that 20 minutes of their 25 minute sermon are already gone, and they’re only half-way through their notes. His writing picks up tempo and becomes positively staccato. At the beginning of the letter, Paul wrote a sentence with 81 words. Now he fires off machine gun-style phrases: “warn the idle, encourage the disheartened, help the weak, be patient with everyone.” In Greek, each of those phrases is three words long.

Though the phrases are short, the ideas are large and demand our attention. Paul is giving his friends something like a church member’s checklist with which they can evaluate themselves as they interact with the church. We’ll look at verses 12-15 today, but we’ll come back to the checklist when we finish the letter next week. Let’s read those verses: “Now we ask you, brothers and sisters, to acknowledge those who work hard among you, who care for you in the Lord and who admonish you.Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work. Live in peace with each other.And we urge you, brothers and sisters, warn those who are idle and disruptive, encourage the disheartened, help the weak, be patient with everyone.Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always strive to do what is good for each other and for everyone else.”

The 1984 edition of the NIV translated verse 12 as, “Respect those who work hard among you…” The 2011 says to “acknowledge them.” The Greek is simply, “know” them. It seems like an odd thing to say: “Know your church leaders.” Doesn’t everyone know them? The pastor stands up in front and talks for twenty-five minutes every week.

And yet I’ve met pastors over the years who are profoundly lonely. They smile, they shake hands, they know everyone’s problems … but no one knows them. They have no one in whom they can confide. They carry their hurts and disappointments alone, and they think that is the way it has to be.

There was a pastor in town some years ago who was publicly rebuked by a member of his congregation. She accused him of negligence because he had not visited her or others in the church for months. Somehow, the woman did not know that her young pastor had been diagnosed with cancer and had been going through chemotherapy. On the day he returned to the pulpit, the day she rebuked him, he had to sit on a stool because he was too weak to stand. But she did not “know” him.

We need to get to know our next pastor. Learn what his interests are, what he likes and dislikes. Don’t be nosy but ask questions. Encourage him often. Find out how you can help him carry the load that he bears. Pray for him. In Paul’s words, “know him.”

These church leaders whom we must get to know are described with three phrases. In Greek, it is clear that all three point to one set of people who are described as “those who work hard among you, who care for you in the Lord, and who admonish you.”

First, they work hard. A pastor who doesn’t work hard is a pastor who should not work here. Paul, who was a tentmaker by trade – a man who worked in leather – understood what hard work is, and the hardest work he knew was serving the church.

They “care for you in the Lord.” Nearly all other versions, including the previous edition of the NIV, have something like, “who are over you in the Lord,” or “who lead you,” or “have charge over you.” The Greek word means literally, “who stand in front of you” – probably pastors, elders, and deacons. Notice that not everyone is qualified to “stand in front of you,” just those who work hard among you.

They also “admonish you.” The Greek scholar A. T. Robertson paraphrases this way: “they [put] sense into the heads of people.”[1] When I had only been here a couple of months (maybe less than that), our youth pastor came to me and said, “We have a problem. One of our leaders is doing something that sets a poor example for people.”  

So, I went to that leader to offer some admonishment. It did not go well. But that leader, to their credit, thought about it, made changes, and proved to be one of Lockwood’s enduring treasures over the years. Admonishing people is in the pastor’s job description … but beware the pastor who enjoys it! The pastor who can admonish well is one who can receive admonishment well – that is, with humility – and benefit from it.

Paul says that we are to “hold [these leaders] in the highest regard in love.” The Greek is something like, “Esteem them abundantly.” The author of Word Studies in the New Testament says that church leaders are entitled to respect because of their office,[2] but that is not what Paul says. He says they are to be highly esteemed on account of their work. Not because of their title or the letters that pile up after their name, but because of their work.

“Because of their work” can mean one of two things or it can mean both. It can mean we esteem them highly because we see how hard they work on our behalf. But it can also mean that we esteem them highly on account of the work itself. We benefit the work (not to mention ourselves) when we esteem our leaders highly. People who are respected, who are honored and esteemed, find it much easier to get up and go to work than those who are criticized, ignored, and devalued. Highly esteemed leaders do a good job while the unesteemed dream about doing a better job … somewhere else.

A woman woke her husband up on a Sunday morning and said, “You need to get up or we’ll be late for church.” He just rolled over. She roused him again and told him to hurry or they’d be late. He said, “I don’t want to go to church.” She asked why. He said, “Because it’s boring. And people there are cold. And because nobody likes me.”

Her face hardened and she said, “But you’ve got to go to church.” He bleated, “Why?” So, she said, “Because it is not boring. Because the people there are not cold. Because people do like you. And because you are the pastor!”

A pastor who is esteemed will usually serve his church better than one who is not. The members of a church have far more to do with whether their pastor is energetic or sluggish, positive or negative, interesting or boring than they realize.

I have been grateful for the love and grace that has been shown to Karen and me over our many years here at Lockwood. I only ask that you esteem the next pastor as highly—or even more so. If you do, you will reap the benefits. Make sure that he knows that he is valued and important to the church family.

At the end of verse 13, Paul instructs the Thessalonians to “Live in peace with each other.” In Greek, unlike English, the word “peace” is a verb. We could translate, “Be at peace…” or more literally, “Peace it…” or (as people used to say) “Peace out among yourselves.”

We were talking a moment ago about the pastor’s energy and positive outlook. Nothing will rob a pastor of those faster than church family members who are in conflict with him or with each other. Notice that Paul sets no conditions on this and offers no exemptions. He simply says, “Be at peace.”

Well, that is easier said than done. There are always reasons for not being at peace. Reasons to stay angry, speak out, take offence, choose sides. The reasons for continuing a conflict are numerous and they are pressing. There is only one reason for being at peace: God commands it. But if you’re a follower of Jesus, that is reason enough.

In verse 14, Paul’s pans out to take in the entire church family and its relationships with one another. We have the wrong idea if we think that the care of the church rests only on the pastors, elders, and deacons. No matter how gifted they are or how hard they work, they cannot do it all. As Paul says elsewhere, “the whole body” – the entire church family – “grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.” (Eph. 4:16). God’s plan has always been for the church to care for each other.

That care is not always easy and it’s not always something that we want to do. Take, for example, Paul’s instruction in verse 14 to “warn those who are idle and disruptive.” The word “warn” is the very same one translated in verse 12 as admonish. Any of us might be called on to admonish a fellow Christian.

But before we do, we should humble ourselves before the Lord, be certain of our love for the person, and genuinely long for them to have the best life they can. If we can’t do that, we’re not the ones to do the admonishing.

In the case of the Thessalonian Church, there were people who were idle and disruptive. The NIV resorts to using two words to try to get across the sense of one Greek word. Etymologically, that word means “out of order” and could refer either to something that has ceased to work (is out of order) or to someone who is disorderly. The NIV 2011 doesn’t try to choose between them. If a Christian is idle, they are out of order and in need of repair. If a Christian is disruptive, they are out of order and in need of admonishment.

Repair and admonishment do not happen as often as they should, or as often as God intends, in the contemporary church. We are not close enough, do not love each other enough, do not trust each other enough to admonish. If someone does admonish, the usual result is anger, division, and departure. So, we cannot start with admonishment. We must start with love, intimacy, and trust, and that takes time to develop.

The next phrase in Paul’s litany is, “encourage the disheartened.” The Greek behind “the disheartened” is literally, “the little-souled.” These are people who have shrunk back from the fight. God’s intent for us is that we grow larger when we encounter hardship, but we’ve all had the experience of shrinking away instead. We can almost feel our souls getting smaller.

When that happens, we need someone to come along side us, get close to us, and urge us on. That is the idea behind the word translated “encourage.” We tell them, “You can do this. You can persevere. You can do it God’s way. And when you do, you will be an example to the rest of us. We’ll talk about your victory through Christ. It will be mythic. (The root of the word “encourage” here is μύθος, “myth.)

The disheartened are those who’ve had enough and cannot take any more. We say something to them like David said to Solomon: “Be strong and courageous, and do the work. Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord God, my God, is with you. He will not fail you or forsake you until all the work … is finished” (2 Chronicles 28:20). Perhaps our words are different, but the attitude is the same.

The summer after my brother died, our Little League All-Star team, Elyria West, went to Williamsport and placed third. One more win and we would have been in the World Series. But I wasn’t there. I had quit mid-season, even though the All-Star team’s coach, who was my friend’s dad, had decided that I would be on the team.

I don’t know if it had anything to do with my brother’s death or if it was just that the pitching was getting better (and I wasn’t), but I lost all confidence at the plate. I was thoroughly disheartened, and my soul shrank. I hated to go to games. I needed someone to urge me on, to tell me that I could do it. I needed someone to put me in the batter’s cage and help me work out the kinks. But that didn’t happen. So, I told myself that the team was better off without me, and I quit.

That was an adolescent boy’s experience, but many adults – many of us – could tell similar stories. Only it is not baseball; it’s a marriage, or a job, or a season of illness. We’re telling ourselves that our family or our workplace doesn’t need us, and we are ready to call it quits.

But we need someone who will urge us on, bring life and freshness to our souls. We need someone who, after listening sympathetically to our lament, will tell us to be strong and courageous. We need someone who will remind us that the Lord will not fail us. We not only need someone like that; we need to be someone like that.

Paul also tells us to “help the weak.” This is not the usual word rendered “help.” This one means to hold fast to something or someone. When people are weak, in body, mind, or character, we hold onto them. We stick with them until they’re sure that we’ll be there when they need us.

Helping the weak is the opposite of scolding them, gossiping about them, or walking away from them. We might get the idea that healthy churches don’t have weak people, but we’d be mistaken. A healthy church has plenty of weak people—and sometimes we’re among them. But it also has plenty of helpers who hold onto the weak and don’t let go.

Paul next instructs the church to “be patient with everyone.” Why is it that we let go of the weak and walk away? Because we lose patience. Why don’t we live at peace with each other? Because we lose patience. Patience is more than a character trait we develop. It is a fruit of the Holy Spirit that grows in the lives of those who earnestly follow Jesus.

I’ve heard many people say, “Don’t pray for patience unless you want God to give you problems.” I think that is silly. It is good to pray for patience, because the only way for God to answer that prayer is to give you himself.

Finally, Paul tells the church members to “Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong.” Revenge fantasies originate in our pain but then travel across the brain’s reward circuit, the nucleus accumbens. In other words, when people think about revenge they experience pleasure, and that experience is addictive.

Revenge is a road that Christians are forbidden to travel. When we see a friend who is about to get on that highway – or rather, low-way – we are to make sure that he or she doesn’t do it. We intervene. We pray with them, plead with them, and direct them back to the Lord. Otherwise, they will get lost on that road and spend their days wandering through a desert of resentment and anger.

Once again, we can’t help unless we are close enough to see what is happening and trusted enough to speak to it. The Greek says, “See to it that no one returns evil for evil,” but you can’t see that from a distance. We need to be close to each other. For the most part, the American church is not there, but Lockwood must move in that direction. I expect that will be a major part of the next leg of Lockwood’s journey.

So, let’s wrap this up by restating the church member checklist and seeing what we can tick off. First item: Know your pastor and church leaders. Can you check that one off?

Second item: Hold those leaders in the highest regard. How are you doing on that one?

Third item: Be at peace with each other.

Fourth: Admonish those who are out of order.

Fifth: Encourage the disheartened.

Sixth: Hold onto the weak.

Seventh: Be patient with everyone.

Eighth: See to it no one returns evil for evil but does what is good.

Paul’s checklist is helpful for giving us a sense of where we are as individuals and as a church, but to make progress in checking off the boxes, something else needs to happen. That something else comes in two parts: First, we intentionally draw close to God. We pray, we submit, we seek him until we find him. And second, we intentionally draw close to each other. We make it a point to know each other. We invite people to our homes. We join Sunday School classes, small groups, and D-Groups. We enlist in a ministry team.

When we are drawing close to God and each other, we will be able to check off all the items on the church members’ checklist. But more importantly, our satisfaction in Christ will soar, so will our confidence that we belong to him, and our lives will be filled with hope.

Draw close to God. Draw close to each other.

[1] A. T. Robertson, Word Pictures in the New Testament.

[2] Vincent, M. R. (1887). Word studies in the New Testament (Vol. 4, p. 47). Charles Scribner’s Sons.

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Lighter or Darker: You Are the Switch

Posted on August 19, 2023 by salooper57

Poets and novelists have always made symbolic use of light and darkness, with light representing good and darkness representing evil. It could be argued that Shakespeare reverses this in Romeo and Juliet, but clearly the Bard relied on those traditional associations to achieve the effect he desired.

Light and dark symbolism is much older than Shakespeare. Homer used it more than two millennia earlier, and he was predated by religious texts like the Vedas and parts of the Old Testament. In the New Testament Gospel of John, the Evangelist makes use of light and darkness in his first sentences and is still doing so in his last chapters.

In the Bible, light evokes joy, truth, productivity, and God himself. Darkness images falsehood, confusion, evil, and judgment. Jesus’s followers once resided in “the dominion of darkness,” but have been rescued and brought into the kingdom of God’s son, the kingdom of light. Jesus refers to his followers as “the people of light.”

Jesus uses the image of light to suggest clarity and safety. The person who walks by day does not stumble, but the person who walks by night “stumbles for he has no light.” It is in the light that good work can be done, but “Night is coming, when no one can work.” In the Psalms, light enables people to follow the path laid out for them.

With light comes clarity, guidance, and safety, but frequently in Scripture the light does not come all at once. When Jesus holds out the hope that his hearers might become sons of light, some sort of process seems to be in mind. Likewise, the Proverb compares “The path of the righteous” to “the first gleam of dawn,” which shines “ever brighter till the full light of day.”

In these images, the light increases; it grows brighter. This seems to suggest that the benefits of light, like clarity, guidance, and safety, might also grow. This fits well with the oddly phrased Psalm 97:11, in which the writer appears to mix his metaphors. He writes, “Light is sown for the righteous.” It grows like a seed.

The curious image here is of a farmer sowing light as if it were seed. Like the first gleam of dawn, the seed is barely noticeable, yet it portends big changes. It will, as Jesus says in a different context, produce “a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” Then it will be like “the full light of day.”

The idea here is that light and the things associated with it, including clarity, productivity, and joy, come gradually but grow steadily. This certainly seems to fit with what Jesus taught about knowing truth, which is elsewhere described as a “fruit of the light.” He promised that anyone who chooses to do the will of God will come to know whether or not his teaching is true. Knowledge grows as people do what they already know to be right.

But what if they don’t act on what they already know to be right? Will the light fade? Jesus seemed to think so. The classic Amplified Version paraphrases him this way: “For to him who has [spiritual knowledge] will more be given; and from him who does not have [spiritual knowledge], even what he thinks and guesses and supposes that he has will be taken away.”

Just as dawn’s rays “shine ever brighter till the full light of day,” the murkiness of dusk grows steadily darker until the way “is like deep darkness” and those who walk in it “do not know what makes them stumble.” Could this explain why people who are lost in hatred, bigotry, and greed are incapable of seeing what is making their lives so miserable?

In Psalm 105, a psalm that celebrates God’s love and help for his people. The psalmist recalls how God punished Egypt by sending darkness on the land. He considered this punishment apropos, for the Egyptians had rebelled against God’s words, which was tantamount to choosing darkness. The darkness around them was a picture of the darkness in them.

Both light and darkness grow, and people are the switch that determines which will happen.

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I Thessalonians 5:1-11- Don’t You Know?

Posted on August 13, 2023 by salooper57
Approximate Viewing Time: 20 minutes

Now, brothers and sisters, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, “Peace and safety,” destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.

But you, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief. You are all children of the light and children of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be awake and sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet. For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him. Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.

A series of contrasts underlies this entire passage. Paul uses these contrasts to emphasize the magnitude of the change that happens when people become Christians. Before they came to Christ, they were just like the people around them; now they are not. They were in one kingdom; now they are in another. Their identity changed. Their loyalty changed. They changed.

This is an important theme throughout Paul’s letters. Again and again, he says things like this: “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.” (Eph. 5:8). “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation!” (2 Cor. 5:17). “You were slaves to sin…but now…have become slaves to God.” (Romans 6: 20, 22).

The series of contrasts Paul uses in this passage include Light and Darkness, Knowledge and Ignorance, Expectancy and Surprise, and Soberness and Drunkenness. These contrasts come as Paul reminds the Thessalonians of What They Know (vv. 1-3), What They Are (now that they have Christ, vv. 4-5), and What They Should Do (vv. 6-8) – Know…Be…Do.  He ends the section by reminding them of What God Has Done and Why He Has Done It (vv. 9-11). We’ll take each of these sections in turn.

We start with Know. There is a huge emphasis in the Bible on knowledge. In the Book of Proverbs alone there are 41 uses of the noun and 16 of the verb, 32 uses of the noun for “understanding” and 12 more of the verb. 101 uses of just those word groups, and that’s just in Proverbs.

In the New Testament, the words, “you know” appear 67 times. People say what you don’t know can’t hurt you, but the biblical writers would have disagreed. What you don’t know can make a mess of things. Paul reminds the Thessalonians of what they do know.

As I began to exegete this passage, I remembered something a beloved, old deacon said to me. I had just arrived here and so I didn’t yet know how to take this man. One day he asked me if I knew what it means when a preacher takes off his watch and conspicuously sets it on the pulpit. When I said that I didn’t, he looked at me with a twinkle in his eye and said, “Absolutely nothing!”

I thought of that conversation when I read the opening line of chapter 5. Paul says, “Now, brothers and sisters, about times and dates we do not need to write to you…” but then he goes ahead and writes about it. What does it mean when an apostle says, “We don’t need to write you”? Absolutely nothing.

But that’s not fair, for Paul does not write about times and dates but about the fact that people do not and cannot know times or dates, for the Day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. The church got this metaphor from Jesus himself and it was apparently part of the teaching that new Christians received. There is no doubt that Christ will come. There is no certainty about when.

Outside the church, people do not know that Christ is coming and so will be taken by surprise. Paul says (verse 3), “While people are saying, “Peace and Safety,” destruction will come on them suddenly.”

New Testament scholars like Richard Hays believe that “Peace and Safety” (or perhaps better, “Peace and Security”) was a political slogan in the Roman empire, like Neville Chamberlain’s, “Peace in our time,” or Herbert Hoover’s, “A chicken in every pot.”

If this was a first century political slogan, it is interesting to think of people chanting it at some massive rally before the emperor, who stands on the dais beaming. But he and they are oblivious to the fact that Jesus may come at any moment. And when he does, he will have his own slogan – or rather, a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and the trumpet call of God.

And it is interesting to think that people chant similar slogans today, fed to them by political machines like Rome’s, still oblivious to Jesus’s return. Perhaps people will be chanting, “Finish the Job” or “Make America Great Again,” at the very moment the shout of command is given, and the trumpet of God sounds. But you, if you are a Christian who has been instructed in the way of Jesus, know that Jesus is coming. In terms of Paul’s contrasts, you are in the know, but they are in the dark.

They will be surprised (verse 4), but you should be expecting this day – “the Day of the Lord.” That phrase appears 30 times in the Bible and is referred to many more times as “the Day,” “that Day,” “the Day of God,” and in other ways. The Day of the Lord is the day when God rescues those who trust in him and judges those who do evil. Even nations will be held to account. This idea was not new: the prophets had spoken of it for centuries. The new information here is that the Day of the Lord will be kicked off by Jesus’s sudden return.

But the Thessalonians knew all this and should not be surprised. But that doesn’t mean they can predict the day when Christ will come. To use Paul’s illustration, which also comes from Jesus: a woman knows she is going to have a baby – there’s no doubt about that – but that doesn’t mean she knows when she is going to have the baby. Our first baby took us by surprise. He came three weeks early. When Karen roused me at two in the morning with the words, “My water broke,” I uncomprehendingly answered, “No, it didn’t,” and rolled over. I should have been expecting this. But I wasn’t ready.

In verses 5 and 6, Paul moves from knowing to being.The reason the Thessalonians know something their neighbors and friends don’t is that they are something their neighbors and friends aren’t. When a person trusts in Jesus Christ, when they surrender their life to him and confess Jesus Lord (which is what happens when a person trusts in Jesus Christ), they are changed. Remember what Paul said: “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation!”

It is impossible to overstate the magnitude of that change. Some people think that Christians are just like everyone else, only more religious. And it’s true that Christians experience temptations, limitations, and sinful inclinations just like everyone else. It is true that Christians are no smarter than other people. They are not necessarily nicer, happier, or morally superior. When they become Christians, their weight doesn’t change, their hair color remains the same, and their appetite for adventure, ice cream and alcohol usually persists.

So, has anything changed? It has. It is not a change that can be weighed or measured, and yet it means that nothing will be the same again. When a person trusts in Jesus Christ, his weightless and measureless spirit is brought to life (you could say it is enabled) by a connection to God’s Spirit. He is reborn. This is what Paul meant when he said that God “made us alive with Christ.” We become – and this is what changes everything – “alive to God in Christ Jesus,” as Paul put it in Romans 6:11. For the first time, there is a part of us that can respond to God, that can receive his guidance, encouragement, and correction—his life. That is transformative.  

That transformation begins with God, not us. It is what we call grace. The change is not the result of my determination (though that is important) but of God’s love.

Henri Nouwen tells of seeing a nativity scene in a small church that profoundly moved him. It was very simple: three small, wood-carved figures: a woman, a man, and a child. The figures were primitive: no eyes, ears, or mouths, with only the contours of a face. They were smaller than a human hand and hardly attracted any attention.

But then a beam of light shone on the figures and the inconspicuous trio grew into large, hopeful shadows on the sanctuary wall, outlines of majesty and glory. The change was remarkable, though the figures remained the same. It is the light from without that changed everything. And it is the Spirit from without, the Spirit from God, that begins the great changes that happen to us.[1]

In verses 5 and 6, Paul speaks about a change in the nature, the beingness, of the Thessalonians. They are – not should be but – “are all children of the light and children of the day. They no longer belong to – literally, they no longer are of – the night. The change in them has worked a change around them. They have become sons of the light, characterized by visibility and transparency. Because of the Spirit now in them, they thrive in light but wane in darkness.

Because of the change in who we are – our essential being – there is a change in what we do – our existential doing. That is what we see in the next verses. Since we are different now, “we should not sleep as the rest” (literal translation, verse 6), “but rather we should be awake and sober.”

It is surprising how often the apostles tell Jesus’s people to be sober. It makes you wonder if the early Christians had a problem with alcoholism. Certainly, millions of Jesus’s people have fought that battle, and literal sobriety is expected of Jesus’s people. But it is more than that. The idea here is about being clear-headed, not fuzzy, in control of one’s thoughts, not muddled.

There are many things besides alcohol, marijuana, and narcotics that can muddle a person’s thoughts. Envy will do it. So will anger, which works faster than most drugs. Greed, sexual desire, pride can all warp a person’s thinking without the person realizing it. A constant diet of social media, news media, and online shopping will dull the mind. The ability to think clearly, which is enormously important in the Christian faith, can be compromised.

The opposite of being sober is being drunk, in which thinking is distorted. The opposite of being awake is sleeping, in which thinking is disrupted. Paul wants Christians awake and sober and thinking clearly.

In verse 8 – we’re now in the do section of the know…be…do outline), Paul tells us how. A literal translation could go: “But we who are of the day should be sober, putting on a breastplate of faith and love and the helmet of salvation’s hope.” The breastplate and helmet were the two most important pieces of defensive armor.[2] This is about protection. We choose faith and love rather than distrust and hatred for our own protection.

Many people think they are protecting themselves by assuming an attitude of distrust. They wield hate like a shield. But while distrust and hate may protect us in some ways, they will hurt us in others, like an asbestos suit may protect a firefighter from the flames but give him cancer in the process.

Paul also wants us to put on the helmet of salvation’s hope. That does not mean that we hope to be saved (though we do). It means that salvation through Jesus Christ gives a person’s hope, and hope provides powerful protection against “the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.” People who are filled with hope are shielded against discouragement, despair, and all kinds of sins.

The reason for this hope is stated in verses 9 and 10. God has destined us for salvation through Jesus Christ who died for us. The nature of salvation is brought out by the words, “that…we might live together with him.” Living together with God is precisely what humanity lost when Adam rebelled and was removed from God’s presence. Living together with God was Israel’s hope in the wilderness: “I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people” (Leviticus 26:12). It was the promise of the New Covenant: “I will be their God, and they will be my people” (Jeremiah 31:3). It was the hope to which the prophet Ezekiel pointed: “My dwelling place will be with them; I will be their God, and they will be my people.” (Ezek. 37:27). It is the note of hope that rings out at the close of the Bible: “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things (the order established by Adam’s rebellion) has passed away” (Revelation 21:3-4).

We begin to experience this salvation now when we come to Jesus and receive God’s Spirit, which is why Paul calls the Spirit the down payment of our inheritance. Experiencing God’s Spirit changes us and brings a foretaste of the life to come.

If you have not come to Christ but are ready to do so, or just ready to find out more about it, please come up at the end of the service to talk with one of our prayer helpers. They can give you more information.

But I want to close by speaking to those who have used distrust and hatred to protect themselves. I know that you’ve had to protect yourself from some bad things. You didn’t choose distrust and hate; you were forced into it. But distrust and hate are killing you. There is another way. It is not to gullibly trust everyone, but to intelligently trust God. If you are locked into a cell of distrust and hate, God can let you out. Ask him right now, and he will begin to answer you.

[1] Henri J. M. Nouwen in The Genesee Diary. Christianity Today, Vol. 41, no. 14.

[2] Morris.

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Yours, Mine, or Ours: Morality in the 21st Century

Posted on August 12, 2023 by salooper57

In the conservative church circles where I have spent my adult life, it is common for people to think of themselves as morally upright. As insiders, we have been granted, in the example and teaching of Jesus Christ and through the writings of the prophets and apostles, divine revelation regarding what is right for human beings and what is wrong.

It is also common for us within the circle to think of those outside the circle as morally challenged. Because they do not know or submit to the moral teachings of Jesus and the Bible, we tend to regard them as immoral. Such an attitude, ironically, leads to a sense of moral superiority which both Jesus and the Bible condemn.

It is a mistake to assume that anyone who disagrees with our moral judgments is immoral. Immorality is not a lack of moral principles but a failure to live by the moral principles one espouses, a problem the Bible indicates is universal. Nearly everyone is guided by moral principles, however basic.

God gave humanity a moral compass. This was clear to me as I sat in jail with a man accused of rape and later with a woman accused of murder. Both understood that rape and murder are immoral. However, each wanted to believe their actions were caused or at least influenced by something outside themselves so that their culpability was limited.

That man and woman violated their own moral principles. It is a different matter when people violate mine. Even if they are acting immorally in the light of my beliefs, I cannot say they are acting immorally in the light of their own. This raises the question of whose moral compass is most accurate. Or asked another way, whose moral code best represents the good life for humanity?

In Moral Foundations Theory, first proposed by psychologists Jonathan Haidt, Craig Joseph, and Jesse Graham, there are six foundations for moral behavior. According to this theory, our sense of right and wrong originates in the following values, each of which can be stated positively or negatively: care/harm, fairness/cheating, loyalty/betrayal, authority/subversion, sanctity/degradation, and liberty/oppression.

When groups disagree on which value to rank first, their moral judgments will differ. This does not mean that one group is moral and the other immoral. They might both be acting in a morally responsible manner according to their understanding of what constitutes moral behavior.

Western cultures are undergoing a shift in moral priorities. In the past, sanctity/degradation exercised more influence on American moral codes, and care/harm exercised less. That has now reversed. The resulting moral earthquake has fractured the social landscape and left us standing on disparate tracks of moral ground.

One way to think about this is to consider an act that was once regarded as immoral by nearly everyone: having an affair. It violated key values like loyalty and sanctity. But with the ascension of the care/harm value and the decline of sanctity and loyalty, having an affair need not be considered immoral as long as “no one gets hurt.”

The legalization of marijuana in many states was made possible by the idea that no one gets hurt. The same is true of the rollback on sodomy laws. Changes in American’s views on abortion can also be traced to the ascendency of this value. A woman who must forego college or career because of an unwanted pregnancy would be hurt. Of course, if one grants that the fetus is also a person, its hurt also needs to be considered.

When we realize that people who differ from us on important moral issues are operating from a different moral code, we can finally get off our sanctimonious high horses. But then the real work begins: determining which moral theory or combination of theories functions best in real life. I would argue that Christian morality, often misstated and misunderstood, and rarely seen lived out, best serves humanity. It builds on all six of the foundations described by Moral Foundations Theory and, Christians assert, was formulated by humanity’s creator with our best interests at heart.

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How to Get Caught Up (1 Thess. 4:13-18)

Posted on August 6, 2023 by salooper57

Writers have used lots of ink and preachers have spoken millions of words to talk about “the rapture.” This is the passage behind all that teaching. Paul did not write this to satisfy people’s curiosity about what will happen in the future, but to encourage people in the present.

Viewing time: 26 minutes (approx.)

Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. According to the Lord’s own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage each other with these words.

Back in the ’90s, a computer support tech had the following phone conversation that was recorded, so I can give it to you verbatim.

Tech: “How may I help you?”

Caller: “The cup holder on my PC is broken and I am within my warranty period. How do I go about getting it fixed?”

Tech: “I’m sorry, but did you say a cup holder?”

Caller: “Yes, it’s attached to the front of my computer.”

Tech: “Please excuse me if I seem a bit stumped. Did you receive this as part of a promotional? How did you get this cup holder? Does it have any trademark on it?”

The conversation continued for a couple of more minutes before the support person realized that the caller had been using his CD-ROM drive as a cup holder.[1]

People say that ignorance is bliss, but they’re wrong. Ignorance is usually just ignorance. It leads to broken computers, broken relationships, and broken hearts.

And yet everyone is ignorant – our ignorance always greatly exceeds our knowledge. That is not because we are stupid but because we are limited. Human beings have occupied a tiny recess in our universe for a fleeting moment of eternity, so our ignorance is understandable. It is not a sin, but there are times when it is a shame. That is especially true when it regards God and his plans for us.

The Thessalonians were ignorant about God’s plans for people who die. That wasn’t their fault. Paul, Silas, and Timothy had been run out of town in the middle of the night and simply hadn’t had time to teach them everything they needed to know.

When people lack accurate information, it is natural for them to fill in the blanks with their own ideas. The Thessalonians had apparently been doing that. The missionary team had taught them that Jesus was going to come again and that it was going to be a glorious and wonderful day. His people would be vindicated. Everything would be set right. They were eagerly looking forward to it and they expected that it would happen soon.

And then one of their fellow church members, perhaps more than one, died. Some biblical scholars think they might have died in some kind of anti-Christian persecution. And the church realized that they didn’t know what happens to people who die before Christ comes back. So, they did what people do when they are ignorant about a subject: they filled in the blanks.

They had learned from Paul and Silas that the day of Christ’s return would be a great day for Christians, a day of vindication, glory, and joy. Think of Christmas, the Cubs winning the world series, and Victory over Japan Day all rolled into one – and then some. But what about those who had the misfortune of dying beforehand, or of being martyred by their enemies? Would they miss out on that day? Maybe they would still take part in the resurrection, but what about the celebration, the victory?

And perhaps some wondered if those who died before Christ’s return were just gone for good. Until they had become Christians a few months earlier, the Thessalonians almost certainly shared their society’s understanding of death: it is the ultimate tragedy, the irredeemable loss, the end of everything that is good.

Before Paul’s time, the Greek poet Homer wrote of a dreamlike meeting between the hero Achilles and the ghost of his great friend Patroclus. In the dream Achilles reaches out to embrace his friend, but he vanishes in a puff of smoke and goes gibbering off like a madman to the underworld. Achilles awakes and says, “Then, it is true that something of us does survive even in … Hades, but with no intellect at all, only the ghost and semblance of a man.” Theocritus said that “hopes are for the living; the dead are without hope.”[2] Death was disaster and there was nothing anyone could do about it except face it with courage – and even that made no difference.

When Timothy returned from his emergency trip to Thessalonica, he reported that the church members were confused about all this. The unexpected deaths of their friends had thrown them into turmoil. So, Paul writes (verse 13) to supply the information they lacked and to save them from unnecessary grief.

Christians, unlike their neighbors and friends, have a reason to hope even in the face of death, a reason (verse 14) grounded in the good news about Jesus: “We believe that Jesus died and rose again.” The rest of the world believes no such thing. They agree with Aeschylus’s Apollo: “Once a man is dead, and the dust has soaked up his blood, you will not resurrect him.”

But the Christians could point to a time and place and, more importantly, to a real person who had died and rose again: Jesus. It was not only theoretically possible; it had happened. There were witnesses, hundreds of them. Hades’ impassable gates had been blown off their hinges. In Paul’s words elsewhere, “But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead,” – and not only that, he is – “the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep” (1 Corinthians 15:20). In other words, Jesus was the first to rise, but he will not be the last. Those who belong to him will do the same.

Verse 14 again: “We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.” That is why we do not grieve like the rest of mankind. We know something they don’t know. Death is not the end. When Christ and Hades met, it was Hades who flinched. Hades cracked, cracked wide open. Jesus knows the way – is the way – out of death.

But that brings us back to what was worrying the Thessalonians. They would be relieved to know that their friends would be resurrected, but wouldn’t that happen later? They’d still be in the ground on the great day, Victory Day, the day of Jesus’s triumph.

Not at all, Paul assures them. “God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.” When Jesus arrives for that great day, our loved ones who have died will be with him. They get to be a part of it! In fact, as he will say in just a moment, they will be right in the middle of it!

But we need to go carefully here. It is not everyone who has died that God will bring with Jesus; it is only the ones who have fallen asleep in him. Or to be still more precise, those who have fallen asleep through him, as the Greek preposition is literally translated. But what could Paul mean by “fall asleep through Jesus”?

We need to think this through. First, it is important to know that when someone who was committed to Christ passed away, the early Christians would say that he or she had fallen asleep. They picked that up from Jesus himself who, when his friend Lazarus had succumbed to illness, told his disciples: “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep” (John 11:11). The rest of the world feared death as the ultimate tragedy – and death is an ugly thing – but Jesus talked about it differently: it was like falling asleep.

Next, we need to know that nowhere in the New Testament is Jesus’s death ever described as falling asleep. Jesus did not fall asleep; he died. According to the author of Hebrews, “Jesus … for a little while was made lower than the angels, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone…” (Hebrews 2:9 Mounce).

Jesus experienced the horrors of death, which is the ultimate consequence of human rebellion against God, without any mitigation. Unlike us, his faculties were undiminished by sin’s rot, his emotions unblunted by alienation from God. Jesus felt death like no man since Adam has felt it. When Scripture says that Christ died for us, this is what it means. Because he died, we need only sleep, for our deaths have been swallowed up in his. By faith we have been, Paul says elsewhere, “united with Christ in the likeness of his death” (Romans 6:5). But again, this is not true of everyone, only of those who have been joined to Christ by faith.

In verse 15, Paul deals specifically with the Thessalonians’ concern that their deceased friends would miss out on the glory and celebration of the great day of Jesus’s return. He writes, “According to the Lord’s own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep.” They are not only not going to miss out; they’re going to be there before us, according to the Lord’s own word.

We don’t know to what word Paul is referring. It may have been a special revelation to Paul or some other New Testament era prophet. Remember how in the Old Testament we frequently read that “the word of the Lord came to” this or that prophet. This might be that kind of thing. On the other hand, it might also be a word we already have in Scripture, but the closest parallel is Matthew 24:30-31, and it is not very exact. Or it might be a word the Lord spoke when he was on earth that was not written down. Surely, Jesus said many things, just as he did many deeds, that the Gospel writers did not record but that his followers remembered. For example, none of the Gospels mention that Jesus said, “It is better to give than to receive.” We only learn of that from the Apostle Paul who mentions it in a letter he wrote twenty years after Jesus’s resurrection.

According to Paul, we have Jesus’s own word that our Christian friends who have gone before us will be first in line for the party. Or perhaps for the fight, for the language of verse 16 is militaristic. The word for “loud command” is routinely used to describe military orders. The trumpet was often used in battle.

However, the trumpet was also used to gather God’s people for assemblies, for festivals, and for the Day of Atonement. The day Jesus returns will feature an assembly the likes of which no one has seen before. And this time it will be “the Lord himself” who calls the assembly and leads it.

Paul says that when the assembly is called, “the dead in Christ” will rise (that’s the verbal form of the word meaning resurrection) first. They have pride of place. The dead in Christ “rise,” while the living in Christ are “caught up.” This particular word has given rise to volumes of teaching about “the rapture.”

We get the word “rapture” from the latinized form of this verb, which means to “snatch away,” to “grasp,” or to “catch something up.” This same verb was used of Philip the Evangelist whom the Spirit of the Lord “suddenly took away.” You could say that Philip was raptured from the Gaza Road to Azotus. It’s the same word that is used in Jesus’s Parable of the Sower. The birds snatch away the seed that falls on the path. The birds rapture the seed. When Paul was rescued by soldiers and carried away from a murderous crowd, this is the word that was used. The soldiers raptured him.

For many of us, this word has come to refer exclusively to the rapid, perhaps imperceptible removal (disappearance?) of Christians at the beginning of a period of tribulation that will bring this age to an end, but as we’ve just seen, the word did not have this technical meaning in the first century. In fact, that didn’t develop until the 1830s.  

Paul says that all this will happen – the Lord will descend, the dead in Christ will rise, and the living in Christ will be caught up – at “the coming of the Lord.” The Greek word here, which has entered the vernacular of the American church, is “parousia.” It is commonly translated as “coming” but that is a secondary and derived meaning. It’s primary meaning is “presence,” as in Philippians 2:12: “[D]ear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence…” Not only in my parousia.

The word did have a technical meaning in the first century Mediterranean. It referred to the arrival of some famous person, like a king or even the Emperor. The emperor’s “parousia” was a pull-out-all-the-stops, pageant or gala that happened when the exalted ruler made a royal visit to one of the great cities in his empire.

Here’s how it worked. When the emperor’s cavalcade, which included governing officials and military troops, neared the city, the city’s luminaries would lead a parade of citizens, peasants, slaves – just about everybody – outside the city to meet the emperor. There was cheering and exuberant celebration, and then everyone would return with the emperor to the city – his city. This is certainly what the Thessalonians would have thought of when Paul mentioned Jesus’s parousia. Jesus’s cavalcade will include military troops – angels and perhaps the blessed dead, and we will go to meet them. This was what the Thessalonians worried their deceased friends would miss, but Paul assures them that they will be right in the middle of the action.

Notice (verse 17) that the living (Paul was expecting to be among them, though a few years later when he wrote the Corinthians, he thought he might be among those who had fallen asleep) will be together with the dead in Christ. This is the Great Reunion. In Greek, Paul could have used one preposition to convey that we will be together, but he used two, “together with,” to emphatically make his point.

This is reminiscent of Isaiah’s great prophecy: “But your dead” – he is speaking to God – “your dead will live, their bodies will rise.” Then he addresses the dead: “You who dwell in the dust, wake up and shout for joy! Earth will give birth to her dead” (Isaiah 26:19). When that happens, we will be together with our loved one who have died.

But even more importantly, we will be together with Christ. “And so we will be with the Lord forever.” We are not going to join the dead in the grave; we are joining them in the clouds. A literal translation could go, “caught up in clouds to the Lord’s meeting.”

As so often with Paul, the language he is using comes from the Old Testament. Clouds serve as a prophetic image of the day of God’s judgment in the Palms and in Ezekiel. In Daniel, the Son of Man come for his coronation with the clouds. To meet the Lord in the clouds is to be present when, in the words of Daniel, Christ will be “given authority, glory and sovereign power; [and] all peoples, nations and men of every language [will worship] him.” Victory Day.

We, whether we die in the Lord or live in him, will be there. And whether we die in the Lord or live in him, we will be together. No wonder Paul says (verse 18), “Therefore encourage each other with these words.”

There are a couple of things here that stand out. To “die through the Lord” guarantees that we will not miss out. But how terrible it will be to die outside the Lord. Who else knows the way out of Hades? He alone has turned the grave into an exit and not only an entrance. We need Jesus.

The Lord’s Meeting. The Great Reunion. The Day of Victory and Coronation. We are all invited. The way to accept the invitation is by entrusting yourself – that’s faith – to God by joining with Jesus. If you have not done that, or don’t know how to do that, I am going to invite you to do it today. We who have already done it can show you the way. If you have doubts but would like to explore this further, I or any of the pastors would enjoy meeting with you to answer questions and proved resources.

Finally, if you have Christian friends and family members who have died, do not grieve as those who have no hope. Our friends are fine! Better than fine. We have Jesus’s own word for it. And we will see them again. The Pauline phrases here are some of his most uplifting: “together with them … to meet the Lord …And so we will be with the Lord forever.”

Be encouraged by those words.

[1] “Strange World,” Campus Life, Vol. 56, no. 6.

[2] David J. Williams, New International Biblical Commentary: 1 & 2 Thessalonians, p. 81, citing Bruce.

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Why Have 40 Million Americans Stopped Attending Church?

Posted on August 5, 2023 by salooper57

According to Religion News Service, the median sized Christian church in America had 137 people attending in 2,000. By 2021, that number had shrunk to 65. According to Jake Meador, writing in The Atlantic, more than 40 million Americans have stopped attending church in the past 25 years.

Why is this happening? The pandemic has been a factor, but the trend began two decades earlier. The church’s failure to address abuse within the congregation has been another factor. But in a new book titled The Great Dechurching, authors Jim Davis and Michael Graham argue that there is a larger reason: contemporary American life simply does not make room for church. 

Referencing Davis and Graham, Meador concludes that “Contemporary America … is designed to maximize individual accomplishment as defined by professional and financial success.” This leaves “little time or energy for forms of community that don’t contribute to one’s own professional life or, as one ages, the professional prospects of one’s children.” The church has become superfluous.

There is yet another reason for the decline: Christian parents and grandparents have failed to pass on the faith to younger generations. Samantha Saad, writing for Christianity Today, reported on a recent Ipsos Global Advisor survey of nearly 2,000 adults that found “countries with more baby boomers who say they believe in God … are less likely to have members of Gen Z who do.” It works the other way too. Countries with fewer believing boomers are likely to have more members of Gen Z with faith.

Why would Gen Z belief be down where Boomer belief is up, and vice versa? Boomers have failed to pass on the faith and, in some cases, have become an obstacle to it. A former youth pastor once said to me: “I’ve seen kids do well” – in terms of faith – “whose parents were genuine Jesus-followers. I’ve seen kids do well with addicted, abusive parents who don’t know God. But I’ve never seen kids do well whose parents talk like they’re Christians but live like they’re not.”

In the Bible, God “commanded our forefathers to teach their children, so the next generation would know [what God had done], even the children yet to be born, and they in turn would tell their children.” It is not the church but rather parents who are primarily responsible to teach their children about God and model his ways.

But how can parents go about that? They must rid their lives of hypocrisy, as my youth pastor friend pointed out. That is a given. But what else can parents do?

Biola University’s Dave Keehn writes that parents must be intentional about passing on the faith. While faith is more “caught than taught,” it still needs to be taught. Personal experiences of God’s faithfulness must be shared. We should not expect it to happen by osmosis.

Parents should also pray for their children. This might include praying for them to grow wise, experience the reality of their connection to God, and have positive spiritual influences. One such influence might be a believing spouse.

Keehn encourages parents to look for teaching moments. Since people learn best from experience, relationship challenges offer a wealth of opportunities to point out God’s character and commands. So do TV shows, movies, and news reports.

Parents can go beyond looking for teachable moments; they can create them. This can be done by talking about church at Sunday lunch. What did you like, or think was important in the pastor’s sermon? Was there anything in it that we can apply to life? What did you talk about at youth group this week?

In the Book of Judges, we read that “Israel served the Lord throughout the lifetime of Joshua and the elders who outlived him….” Just one generation later, we read: “After that whole generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation grew up, who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done….”

We are living in a similar era. Parents should not wait for a national spiritual awakening to bring change. They should present a thought-provoking faith in the context of a joyful life. Nothing less will suffice.

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Mind Your Own Business (1 Thessalonians 4:9-12)

Posted on July 30, 2023 by salooper57
Viewing time: 25 minutes (approximate)

Today, we will be looking at and thinking about 1 Thessalonians 4:9-12. It is a short text, but it’s rich in insight and helpful instruction. Let’s read it:

 Now about your love for one another we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other. And in fact, you do love all of God’s family throughout Macedonia. Yet we urge you, brothers and sisters, to do so more and more, and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody [or “have need of anything”].

This passage continues Paul’s instructions on how to live to please God. He dealt with sexual integrity in verses 3-8, and now he broadens his scope to include relationships and work. And the first relationships he considers are those between Christ-followers.

Think about that for a moment. Paul does not turn first to biological family relationships, though he does address those in various letters. Nor does he turn first to work relationships or to relationships with non-Christians, though he speaks to those too. But the relationship that gets the most attention in the New Testament – by far – is the relationship between Christians.

Why so much emphasis on this relationship? For a couple of reasons. First, this relationship between Jesus’s followers was a new thing to these recent converts. They had navigated family and work relationships for years, with varying levels of success, but this was uncharted territory. They were trying to figure out what their relationships with other Christians should be like.

Second, the relationship between Christians is a first order relationship in God’s kingdom. It is enormously important to the church’s witness. Jesus had explained that it was through Christian’s love for one another that they would be recognized as his disciples (John 13:35). It was through their unity with each other that non-Christians would come to know that God had sent Jesus (John 17:23).

No wonder Paul applauds the Thessalonians’ love for each other. And no wonder he tells them to “do so more and more” – literally, “overflow more” in their love. There may be nothing more important to the church’s witness than its peoples’ love for each other. And there may be nothing more detrimental to the church’s witness than discord between its members. It is no wonder that our adversary’s chief tactic is to create conflict in the church.

Paul thinks it unnecessary (v. 9) to write about this since the Thessalonians themselves have been taught by God to love each other. “Taught by God” echoes Old Testament promises made in the new covenant and in Isaiah (54:13), where we read, “All your sons will be taught by the Lord.” Jesus affirms this promise in John 6:45. God himself undertakes the instruction of his people.

The phrase, “taught by God,” translates a rare Greek word (its only biblical use is here) that means, “God-taught.” If you believe in Jesus, you have been God-taught. Had not God spoken to your heart, you would not have believed in Jesus. It is God’s instruction that enables you to grow in your knowledge of Christ. Every Christian, whatever their age and however long they have believed, is a student and God is their instructor.

We will be calling a new pastor one of these days. Of course, we want him to be a capable teacher, but it is even more important that he is God-taught himself. No matter how knowledgeable or eloquent he is, his principal teaching role is to help other people be God-taught. A preacher’s best messages are not the most eloquent or inspiring; they are the ones that God himself can use to teach his people.

And one of the chief lessons God teaches his people to love each other. A church where people love each other is a light; a church where people are in discord is darkness. A loving church is a welcome sign. A cold church is a “Keep Out” notice. A united church is an apologetics masterwork. A divided church is an atheist manifesto.

The Thessalonians were loving their fellow Christians as brothers and sisters. They were committed to each other. Yet, Paul urges them to love even more. He doesn’t urge them to collect more money, or preach more evangelistic sermons, or to take their worship music to the next level. He urges them to love more and more.

And notice who they are loving: It is not just their local church members whom they know well; it is the other brothers and sisters throughout Macedonia. These were people they did not know well, perhaps did not know at all. Yet when they found a Christian, they treated him or her with love and acceptance.

That was a striking testimony to the reality and power of Christ. This passage makes it clear that it is not enough for us to love the people who belong to Lockwood. God teaches us to love Jesus’s people at First Baptist, New Life, St. Charles, First Presbyterian, and Pine Ridge Bible Church. This is our duty. It is also our privilege and joy. And it is our most convincing witness to the power of God.

Too many times, the local church sees other churches as competitors for market share when they should see them as extended family, or perhaps as fellow soldiers in God’s kingdom. In the biblical picture, earth is occupied territory. God invaded through Jesus’s incarnation and, when he returned to heaven, he left operatives here to prepare for the second wave, the return of Christ. The true church, wherever it exists, is a base of kingdom operations. Whether this church or that, Jesus’s people belong to God’s kingdom and to each other, not merely allies but brothers.

During the Second World War, a battalion of the 141st Infantry was surrounded by the German army in the Vosges Mountains in Northern France. They dug in and waited for help against insurmountable odds. People referred to them as Lost Battalion.

The 442nd Regimental Combat Team, which included 3,000 Japanese American volunteers, was ordered to rescue Lost Battalion. The fighting was intense and often hand-to-hand. Of the 600 men of Companies K, L, and I who fought their way to Lost Battalion, only 60 were still on their feet when they reached them.

When the soldiers of Lost Battalion saw the 442nd coming, do you think they complained that the 442nd had no business getting involved in their mission? Did they criticize their ancestry and refuse to acknowledge them? No, these were their people. The same is true of Christians wherever they are from.

One more thing before we move on. We misunderstand this text if we think that the holiness Paul mentioned in verse 1 is only about the sexual integrity he describes in verses 3-8. It also involves the love we read about in verses 9 and 10. Love is the core of holiness and is the principal way that we please God. If you aren’t loving, you’re not holy.

But Paul doesn’t stop there. Though the NIV ’84 (and about half of the best known Bible translations) ends the sentence with verse 10, the NIV 2011 is right to continue it into verse 11. What difference does that make? Only this: it shows that Paul is still going over the instructions the Thessalonians had been given for living in a holy, God-pleasing way. We might think that little things like leading a quiet life and going to work every day have nothing to do with sanctification. We’d be wrong. They are part of a life that pleases God.

The first phrase in verse 11 is surprising. Some scholars suggest translating it as, “Be ambitious to be unambitious.”[1] The first verb comes from a compound word that means “to love honor.” It’s about what you would want to be known for, hence the translation, “be ambitious.” When we think of ambition, we think of being known for titles, or wealth, or power. So, when Paul says, “Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life,” it sounds like the opposite of ambition. That is not the American way.

But it is God’s way. He looks for people who make it their ambition to lead a quiet life and then employs them in accomplishing his purpose. Moses had escaped the political life and was quietly living as a shepherd on the edge of the wilderness when God gave him a world-changing role. Elijah the fire-bringer quietly resided in a guest room in the strategically unimportant town of Zarephath. Gideon, who was the least of his small clan, was quietly trying to stay out of sight when God tasked him with saving his country.

Jesus gave this advice: “When someone invites you to a wedding feast … take the lowest place… For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted” (Luke 14:8, 10, 11). God loves to find the person who is not trying – or has given up trying – to be the star of his own show.

The word translated “quiet life” is used elsewhere in the Bible of silence after speech, the end of an argument, and rest after labor.[2] It has the idea of tranquility and calmness. A couple of years ago, Greg Fowler shared with us his struggle with alcoholism and how he got and stayed sober. Nowadays, Greg is always alert to those times when the tranquility and calmness he has found is being threatened. He makes it his ambition to lead a quiet life, not a stressful life of selfish ambition. He knows from experience where that leads.

The ambition to be somebody does not lead to the quiet life. The ambition to be like somebody—Jesus – does. We would all be better off if we could say like David: “My heart is not proud, O Lord, my eyes are not haughty; I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me” (Psalm 131:1). We can make ourselves too big to accomplish much. God prefers smaller tools.

I think Joel Belz, writing in the latest issue of World, is right: “…telling the truth, living chastely, paying our bills on time, living within our incomes, caring for the needy who are closest to us, worshipping faithfully. Little things, all of them. But if we really did them, instead of getting regularly sidetracked with impossible global visions, who knows what might happen? We might even take over the world!”[3] Or rather, Jesus might.

Paul tells believers to make it their ambition to lead a quiet life, but we won’t be able to do that (v. 11) until we learn to mind our own business. But we will not know what our own business is until we know who our boss is. If you are a Christian, your business is to do what your boss – the Lord Jesus – wants.

Does that mean you can never have any plans of your own? Not at all. God wants children, not robots, and he wants them to grow into capable, confident adults. For that to happen, we must use our brains, render decisions, and make plans. But we mustn’t hold those plans so tightly that we can’t change them when God makes it clear he wants us to do something else.

In the Battle of Copenhagen, the admiral in command signaled Vice-Admiral Nelson to retreat. Nelson didn’t want to retreat, so he raised his spyglass, pointed it at the signalman’s flags, but put it to his blind. That was the origin of the phrase, “turn a blind eye to.” Nelson’s problem was not that he had a blind eye, but that he didn’t acknowledge who the boss was. That can be our problem too.

When people start minding other people’s business – even the business God has given other people – they inevitably stop minding their own. God’s work doesn’t get done by busybodies.

Paul goes on in verse 11 to tell people to work with their hands. There is a background to this that we might not know. In Greek culture, slaves were expected to do manual labor. It was beneath his dignity for a free man to work with his hands. So, when Paul instructs these Greek culture believers to work with their own hands, he is telling them to act counterculturally.

This brings up something that is apparent throughout this passage and throughout the Bible. Christians do not take their cues from culture. They do not rely on cultural standards of right and wrong. We saw that clearly in verses 3-8, where Jesus’s standards for sexual integrity differed radically from the cultural standard. Most Greek people – at least most Greek men – would have thought Jesus’s instructions were far too restrictive.

It is easy to go along with what culture says. We are worried about what people will think of us. We are afraid that we’ll appear irrelevant. Over the past decade, there have been millions of people in the U.S. who have been rethinking their faith. They say they are “deconstructing” it. That may be necessary. It can be helpful. But if people who deconstruct their faith rebuild it using the blueprints that culture supplies, they have stopped deconstructing and are merely destroying.  

Paul told the Thessalonians to work with their hands. But the Thessalonians had grown up in a culture that regarded people who work with their hands as inferior. To a lesser extent, so have we. We must reject that belief as strenuously as Paul did.

Even churches can buy into the idea that manual labor is inferior. In some churches, to get on the board or join the leadership team requires a college education and a white collar job. It mustn’t be that way at Lockwood. What is required is a genuine, growing relationship with Jesus that acknowledges that he alone is Lord.

In verse 11, Paul gives two reasons for these instructions. The first is to win the respect of outsiders – that is, people who are outside the church and have not yet submitted to Jesus.

Paul clearly thought that church people should try to bring their neighbors, friends, family members, co-workers over to Jesus’s side. We should be thinking about how to talk to people about Christ, how to win them for Jesus. But that will never happen if we don’t have their respect.

A recent survey found that only 21% of non-Christians have a positive attitude about the church. We won’t win those people unless we win their respect, and we won’t win their respect by mocking them on the one hand or mimicking them on the other. We’ll win their respect by loving each other, leading quiet lives, minding our own business, and doing good work.

To win others for Christ, we think we need to be clever when we really need to be loving. We think we need to be important when we really need to be content. We think we need to fit in when we really need to be different.

The other reason behind these instructions is so that we won’t be dependent on anybody or, as it could be translated, so that we won’t need anything. Paul did not believe in a parasitic Christianity. He insisted that able-bodied Christians earn their own way. But he went further than that: he wanted Christians to be in a position to share with those in need. Christian generosity is one of the best ways to win the respect of outsiders.

Patrick Green is an atheist from San Antonio who threatened to sue the county for its nativity display at the courthouse. In an interview, he told the newspaper, “My wife and I … never had a Christian do anything nice for us.” Then he suffered a detached retina, lacked the money to pay for surgery, and had to quit his job driving taxi.

He was surprised when a local church called him to ask if there was anything they could do. He said, “If you really want to contribute something, we need groceries.” He thought they might bring a few bags or give him $50. They gave him $400. Then they gave him some more. Then they gave him some more.

He said, “I thought I was in the Twilight Zone. These people are acting like what the Bible says a Christian does.” I don’t know if Green ever became a Christian, but he stopped fighting the nativity display and even contributed a star to decorate it.

Those Christians who gave him money won his respect simply by doing what God told them to do. What is God telling you to do? Have you been God-taught this morning? Will you do what he is teaching you?

[1] See Morris.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Joel Belz, “Time to think smaller,” World, July 29, 2023.

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The Power of Selective Hearing: Timeless Advice from Jesus

Posted on July 29, 2023 by salooper57

In 2017, Wired.com ran a story titled, “Google’s New Feeds Show You the Internet You Want to See.” Google looks at what you search and “makes guesses” about what you would like to see in your feed. Based on your previous searches, Google will show you the news headlines, blog posts, recipes, and sports stories that are most likely to interest you.

If you have ever tried searching for the Beatles, or the Rolling Stones, or Buffalo Springfield, you know how this works. Stories about Ringo Starr, Keith Richards, and Neil Young begin to appear on your browser. Have you searched for fishing spots in Michigan’s upper peninsula? Ads for fishing camps and vacation rentals will show up in the sidebar.

It is convenient to have Google give me what I want before I ask, but it is also problematic. If I look at a couple of news stories with a conservative bias, my browser will offer me more. The same is true if I have a progressive bent. If I search the “stolen” election of 2022, I will find sufficient evidence to convince me of the theft. Contradictory evidence will be taken away and buried deep in the 57 million results. The internet is now an echo chamber.

Jesus’s two-thousand year-old advice seems timely in the internet age: “Consider carefully what you hear … With the measure you use, it will be measured to you—and even more.  Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them.”

Search engines algorithms will give you more of what you already have and take away the rest. Because this is true, we ought to be careful of what we hear, or rather, what we search.

But of course, Jesus was not speaking about internet search engines and algorithms. He was talking about what we hear, especially what we choose to listen to. A literal translation of Jesus’s words from the Gospel of Mark is, “Look at what you hear.” In other words, “Be aware of what you are listening to.”

What people choose to listen to determines what they will hear. For example, a few years ago I familiarized myself with the call of the Baltimore Oriole. Now that I have learned the timbre of its voice, I am aware of the orioles on our road and in our trees. I had never paid attention before, but now I hear them when they arrive in our area in early May.

Another, more serious example of how this works relates to gossip. People who listen to gossip will hear more and more of it. Those who refuse to listen will hear less and less. It is almost as if a search engine algorithm is at work. “Whoever has will be given more…”

I learned this when I served in my first pastorate. An older member of the church to which I had been called decided the new pastor should be given the low-down on everyone in the congregation. I was foolish enough to listen. That guaranteed that I would be on the receiving end of even more gossip.

The opposite happened when I came to my current church. I chose not to listen to gossip. When people would tell me something negative about someone else, I would say, “We should probably talk to him about this. Do you want to contact him or shall I?” Within a short time, I stopped hearing gossip.

But Jesus’s advice to look at what you hear was not only intended to protect people from hearing the wrong things but to help people hear the right things. The statement, “Whoever will be given more” is not just a warning; it is a promise. Selective hearing can be a good thing; it can unlock a world to us.

The person who actively listens for truth, will hear more truth. The one who listens for good news will hear it. “With the measure you use, it will be measured to you—and even more.” The person who listens for God’s voice will not only begin to hear him speak but will hear him speak more often.

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God on the Shelf (1 Thessalonians 4:1-8)

Posted on July 23, 2023 by salooper57
Viewing Time: 25 Minutes (approx.)

In 1948, C. S. Lewis wrote “that Man is on the bench” – that is, humanity has taken the judge’s seat – “and God in the Dock” – God is the one on trial. Lewis’s line inspired the title for this sermon: God on the Shelf. If in the mid-twentieth century humanity placed God on trial, in the second decade of the twenty-first century he has been put on the shelf.

Someone once wrote me after reading a column of mine and said simply, “People like you don’t matter anymore.” That’s how many people feel about God: He just doesn’t matter. We can run our own lives. Whether we believe in God or not is a moot point; he’s on the shelf.

Society at large has put God on the shelf. My concern is that we don’t do the same by setting God aside when his instructions are inconvenient or out of step with culture. We may not be able to do much about society at large, but we can and must do something about our own lives. Putting God on the shelf is blasphemous and even churchgoing people can be guilty of it.  

In verse 8, Paul writes, “Therefore whoever disregards this” (literally, sets this aside) “disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.” If you set this aside, you set God aside. But what is this? This is the instruction that Paul has just given the Thessalonians, which he says comes from God himself.

Clearly, this instruction is important, so let’s see what it is about. We will read verses 1 and 2, which introduce this section, and then we’ll read verses 3-8, which contain the instruction. I will warn you that this instruction, which is about the Christian way to live as sexual beings, goes against the cultural grain and possibly against decisions some of us have already made. I am not condemning anyone; I just want us to know there is another way.

We will start with verses 1 and 2, and I will be reading out of the Revised Standard Version. “Finally, brethren, we beseech and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as you learned from us how you ought to live and to please God, just as you are doing, you do so more and more. For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus.” 

The first thing to notice, often overlooked, is that Jesus’s people have a distinctive way of life. Paul reminds the Thessalonians that he, Titus, and Timothy had taught them how they ought to live and to please God. Living the Christian way was not natural. It needed to be learned. When Paul first came to Thessalonica, he didn’t expect that people there would know how to live the Jesus-way. They would need to be taught. The same is true of people today. The Jesus-way is not self-evident.

Paul isn’t acting like he is God, telling people what to do. He beseeches (literally, asks) and exhorts them in the Lord Jesus. Paul knew that Jesus, not Paul, is the boss, yet he speaks with authority as Jesus’s apostle. He says in verse 2, “For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus.” The word “instructions” is routinely used for the orders a commanding officer issues to his soldiers. Paul is not sharing advice; he is relaying orders that come from Jesus himself.

Now, let’s read these orders that Paul considers so important. “For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from unchastity;that each one of you know how to take a wife for himself in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like heathen who do not know God; that no man transgress, and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we solemnly forewarned you. For God has not called us for uncleanness, but in holiness. Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.”

Karen and I are finishing up our work at Lockwood after 35 years. We love Lockwood and her people. We pray earnestly and, I think, daily, for God to reveal his will to the church regarding our next pastor.

But it’s not just Lockwood’s future we are thinking about; it is also our own. We don’t know what God wants us to do next, or where we will live, or how things will go, so we are seeking to know his will about that too. For the first time in years, I am in the place of all those people who have come to me, asking, “Should I do this? Should I do that? What if I make a mistake? How can I know if this is God’s will?”

They desperate want to know God’s future will for them. I usually ask if they are doing God’s present will for them – the part they already know. I’ve had people admit to me that they are not, and I have told them that they shouldn’t expect God to reveal his will for their future until they are doing his will for their present.

But how can we know what God’s will is for the present? That’s easy; he tells us. This passage is one example. Paul writes, “For this is the will of God, your sanctification.” God’s will is your sanctification. What does that mean?

“Sanctification” describes the process by which our status as God’s holy people becomes our practice in daily life.  Sanctification is the process; holiness is the result. God’s will is that each of his people – you, me, all of us, be in the process of becoming holy. Christians who ignore this clear statement of God’s will cannot expect God to disclose the less clear parts of his will. Sanctification is God’s will and is central to his plan for us. Where Karen and I will live and what we will do is on the periphery of God’s will for us; sanctification is at its heart.

Sanctification takes in all of life, including our sexuality. So, Paul writes, “Abstain from unchastity,” or as we might translate, “Hold yourself apart from sexual immorality.” Now this gets complicated because each culture, each generation nowadays, defines sexual immorality in its own way. For many people today, sexual immorality means only one thing: taking sexual advantage of someone – usually a woman or a minor in a dependent position. As long as both parties consent, any sex is moral.

It’s strange that nearly 2,000 years have passed, and we are almost in the same place that Thessalonian culture was when Paul was writing. In those days, it was expected that men would go to prostitutes, have sex with slaves, and occasionally with other men. There was nothing in the Thessalonian’s religious instruction, unless they were Jews or Christians, that even spoke to the issue. You could sleep around, demand sex from subordinates (there was no ME TOO movement in those days), and then go to religious services without giving it a second thought.

In our day, it has become common to hear or read something like this: “The only sin the church ever talks about is sex! Like ecological injustice, child labor, economic inequality, and human trafficking are not far worse!” Perhaps a biblical case could be made in each of those areas, but that in no way lessens the sinfulness of sexual immorality, which usually causes children and women to suffer most. Part of sanctification involves learning to live within the framework of godly sexuality.

That, verse 5, will include acquiring (or living with) a spouse in holiness and honor. This verse is notoriously difficult to interpret. It might be about acquiring (or living with) a wife, as the RSV takes it, or possibly (as the NIV and some other versions take it) about controlling one’s own body. There has been debate about how to take this verse for the better part of 2,000 years. This week, I got lost in the weeds of detailed linguistic research into this, but either way we take it, the larger point is that Christians must follow Christ, not culture. Our standards of sexual morality are not defined by culture but by the Creator. That means that we will live differently from the people around us.

We can do that without judging, belittling, or looking down on others. We must do that without judging, belittling, or looking down on others. Paul was not telling the Thessalonian church to reform the culture around it but to stand out from that culture by following the way of Christ. Now, I say we can do this without judging, belittling, or looking down on others, but that does not mean we can do this without being judged, belittled, and looked down on. It was that way in the first century and it is that way today. There was a reason Jesus told people to count the cost before they set out to follow him.

Paul says that we should know how to take a wife / control our own bodies in holiness (better, sanctification) and honor. The first word implies that we take God’s concerns into account in how we live as sexual beings. We consider what he wants and what will glorify him. The second word implies that we take the other person’s concerns into account. How will I treat my wife (girlfriend or fiancé) with honor, acknowledge her value, and hold her in high esteem? We will come back to those two ideas – God’s glory and the other person’s honor – in a few minutes, because it is at the heart of this instruction.

But first, notice that the “heathen” – the word is simply “Gentiles,” meaning all the ordinary people around us – don’t live this way. They live in what Paul calls “the passion of lust.” Their desires, not God’s glory or the other person’s worth, is what drives them. The “passion” Paul speaks of is an overpowering feeling. “Lust” describes the thoughts that feeling sparks. The feeling controls us; the thoughts are our own.

Many people live under the control of the “passion of lust.” They are slaves – and some know it – and it is soul-numbing. Paul says here and elsewhere (e.g., Eph. 4:17-19) that this is what routinely happens in the lives of people who don’t know God.

Now, we need to think through this a little further. People who don’t know God are driven by the passion of lust. That means that freedom from the passion of lust (which can be a passion for money, or respect, or possessions – it is not always about sex) comes with knowing God. The better we know God, the more free we are from the slavery of compulsion.

Now we need to ask a question. Does the Bible suggest that all sexual feelings and thoughts are bad and harmful? Not at all. The Bible celebrates sexual desire as part of God’s good plan for human beings. If you find that hard to believe, read The Song of Solomon and you’ll be convinced. No, the problem, as John Piper points out, are those particular feelings and thoughts that disregard God and dishonor the person on whom they are focused.[1]

How might sexual desire, which our culture intentionally and even scientifically cultivates, dishonor a person? Here’s an example: A man says to a woman, “Let’s live together. We won’t be lonely, we can save money on rent, and satisfy our sexual desire.” What he doesn’t say is, “But I don’t value you enough as a person to enter a marriage covenant with you.” That is dishonoring. The woman (though in many cases the exploitation is mutual) is being used.

More importantly, God is being disregarded. “Whatever God says, everyone else says it’s okay. So, I’ll just set God aside … for a while. I won’t leave him on the shelf … but right now, he’s kind of in the way.”

When God has been set aside, which is happening on a societal scale, people find his instructions unworkable. That’s because his instruction don’t work without him. If we hold ourselves apart from God, we will embrace sexual immorality in one or other of its many forms. But if we embrace God, we can hold ourselves apart from it. Did you get that? Embrace sexual immorality and you will hold yourself apart from God. Embrace God and you will hold yourself apart from sexual immorality.

Many people go about this the wrong way. They try to hold themselves apart from sexual immorality so that they can embrace God, but it doesn’t work. Of course, it doesn’t work! We live in a highly sexualized culture, our children attend sexualized schools, and come home to sexualized websites and TV shows. Even elementary children are exposed to sexualized storytelling, sexualized advertisements, and sexualized educational programs.

As parents, we may think the first order of business is to put a stop to all this. We would be mistaken. That may be the second order of business, I don’t know. The first order of business is to draw close to God, embrace him in adoration, and serve him in love. The way forward is not to God or for God, but with God.

Parents and grandparents: do you want to protect your children from the confusion and misery of distorted sexuality? Show them how to trust God, how to seek him with all their heart, and glorify him with their life. There is no other protection. The opposite of the passionate lust of verse 5, which dominates the lives of so many people, is knowing God. Passionate lust is a bully; when we don’t know God, we will always be at its mercy.

The Nobel prize winning novelist Francois Mauriac had heard all the arguments against lust – you will feel guilty, your marriage will have trouble, God will punish you – but none of the arguments changed his behavior. In his book What I Believe, he wrote: “… none of the scary, negative arguments against lust had succeeded in keeping me from it . . . But here [in the promise of Jesus that the pure in heart will see God] was a description of what I was missing by continuing to harbor lust: I was limiting my own intimacy with God. The love he offers is so transcendent and possessing that it requires our faculties to be purified and cleansed before we can possibly contain it. Could he, in fact, substitute another thirst and another hunger for the one I had never filled? Would Living Water somehow quench lust?”[2]

Mauriac discovered that it does. It is the only thing that can. The passion of lust will either quench your desire to know God or your desire for God will quench the passion of lust.

Now, let’s think through what we’ve seen and apply it to ourselves. First, we have seen that Christians can be captured by their culture and this can happen without them even knowing it. Some years ago, I met with a couple who wanted to be married. They both came from churched families. The bride-to-be told me that her church-attending mom had urged her to move in with her fiancé before getting married to see if they were compatible. That mom had been captured by the culture.

She didn’t know that 80% of people who live together do not stay together throughout life. A high percentage never get married. Yet culture says this is wise, even though it goes against the way of Jesus.

In some parts of the church, arguments are being made against the biblical prohibitions on same-sex sexual relationships. They are popular enough that a story about them popped up on my internet browser a couple of days ago. These arguments are not so much about biblical scholarship as they are about cultural accommodation by people who already have been captured.

Don’t make it your goal to stand against culture. Make it your goal to stand with Christ and his apostles. It may be hard to stand with Christ on issues of sexuality, but there is no other solid ground to stand on.

Then there is this, especially for those of us who are seeking God’s will and guidance. Our sanctification is his will. Our guidance, at least a great deal of it, is in the Bible. That is the place to start. If you are doing what God has already revealed, you can be confident that he will guide you in everything else. If you’re not, then that is the place to start.

[1] See, Battling the Unbelief of Lust, (Battling the Unbelief of Lust | Desiring God).

[2] Francois Mauriac, What I Believe, Quoted by DJ Pace on Our arguments against sin are too negative. : r/NoFapChristians (reddit.com).

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Teen Mental Health: A National Emergency that Requires Local Action

Posted on July 22, 2023 by salooper57

The New York Times published an article on teen mental health titled, “It’s Life or Death: The Mental Health Crisis Among U.S. Teens.” Does that seem a little melodramatic? Not according to the Surgeon General of the United States, who issued an advisory warning on mental health among teens. The American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and the Children’s Hospital Association issued a joint statement declaring teen mental health “a national emergency.”

In a recent study, more than four out of ten high school students reported feelings of hopelessness and sadness. That number soared to almost sixty percent among female students and seventy percent among LGBTQ+ students. In 2021, about 1 out of 8 female students and 1 out of 5 LGBTQ+ students reportedly attempted suicide.

According to Matt Richtel, a reporter for the New York Times, major depressive episodes have risen 60 percent since 2007. The suicide rate, which had been stable for most of the previous decade, jumped by 60 percent from 2007 to 2018. The number of teens admitted to hospitals for mental health issues rose by 8.4 percent in just eleven months, beginning in March of 2021.

The CDC believes other factors besides the pandemic contribute to the teen mental health crisis. For example, they suggest that unstable housing conditions contribute to hopelessness. Sexual orientation and gender identity also play a role.

Another factor, according to Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, is the use of social media. The Health and Human Services advisory on teen mental health states, “We cannot conclude that social media is sufficiently safe for children and adolescents.” A 2019 study concluded that it is not, finding that teens who spend more than three hours a day on social media “faced double the risk of experiencing poor mental health outcomes, including symptoms of depression and anxiety.”

That is cause for concern since a recent survey found that the average student in grades eight and 10 spends more than three hours a day on social media platforms. According to Health Matters, high levels of social media use over four years are associated with increased depression rates. The average age at which an American child opens a social media account is twelve-a-half-years.

What can be done? The Surgeon General advises teens to build strong relationships with peers and supportive adults, practice emotion management techniques, and limit social media and technology use. Adults are encouraged to create safe and affirming educational environments, improve access to mental health services, and provide positive role models.

While the Surgeon General’s work in this area should be applauded, does anyone think his suggestions will be followed? How many students will think, “I should follow the Surgeon General’s advice and find a supportive adult with whom I can build a relationship”? How likely is Congress to adequately budget for mental health care or limit access to social media by minors?

If real change is going to happen, this national emergency will require local action. Individuals and individual families must change their praxis. Parents must decide while their children are still young, or before they are born, to delay access to smartphones and social media. That will be hard for parents and children in this social climate, but it must be done.

The rest of us must do our part too. When I was a awkward high school senior – as opposed to the awkward adult I became – an older man, he must have been at least 35, spoke a few words to me that encouraged and sustained me. I remember it still with gratitude.

We were at a social gathering. During an awkward silence – everyone was waiting for someone to say something – I spoke up, and the tension eased. Afterward, he stood beside me and said quietly, “You did well.” He added that in the future, God would use me for good. Those simple words bolstered me.

“Death and life are in the power of the tongue.” So much social media exercises the power of death. We have at least a little of the power of life. We must put it to use.

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