5:17 And going, and going and going . . .

1 Thessalonians 5:17
pray without ceasing,
……

How does one constantly pray? Would it not interfere with other things? How can one simultaneously talk to God, yet talk to others, do his job, take a nap, listen to his teachers?

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I think that Paul stresses at least two things by this potent three-word command:

1) We should be in constant conversation with our Father, ready at every moment to take our joys, sorrows, concerns and victories to His throne.
As the day wears on, so should our conversations with our Father. When we awake from a good night’s sleep, we say, “Good morning, Lord!” When we lie down to sleep, He is the last one we speak to.

……

2) We should never give up begging the Lord for His mercies, His intervention, His guidance. Like the persistent widow in Luke 18:1-8, we should never lose heart in our prayers, but “bother” our Father whenever things out of our control enter our minds.

Oswald Sanders, in his book, Spiritual Leadership, writes on this subject, recalling the tenacity of George Mueller’s prayers:

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“George Mueller was asked if he really believed that two men would be converted, men for whom Mueller had prayed over fifty years.

Mueller replied, ‘Do you think God would have kept me praying all these years if He did not intend to save them?’

In fact, both men were converted, one shortly after Mueller’s death.”

5:16 Sometimes it helps to be reminded

Deuteronomy 5:16
Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God commanded you, that your days may be long, and that it may go well with you in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.

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The game is played not to protect the rules. Rather, the rules are made to protect the game. ….….Ravi Zacharias

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This is a familiar command, but, “familiarity breeds contempt,” as they say.

This charge is shaped by two important words, “Honor” and “that.”

We are not told to agree with our parents on every issue, nor are we told to obey them, no matter what they tell us to do (although exceptions to obedience are very rare), nor are we assured that our parents will be honorable people.

Still, we are instructed to “honor” them.

God’s Word offers no loopholes.

Because of this we have no excuses for disrespect or rebellion, regardless our age. We may disagree with our parents, and we may be legitimately upset with them at times, but our Creator gives us no license to dishonor them.

….

“That” reminds us that this was the first commandment accompanied by a promise; one that still applies (Eph. 6:2-3).

Implication: honoring parents will make life easier in a difficult world, but dishonoring them will increase our pain and sorrow.

How interesting it is that mankind entertains the notion that he can improve his lot by rebelling against God-given authority.

5:15 Walking in the F.O.G.

Nehemiah 5:15
The former governors who were before me laid heavy burdens on the people and took from them for their daily ration forty shekels of silver. Even their servants lorded it over the people. But I did not do so, because of the fear of God.

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Conviction of sin comes when we measure ourselves before God. …. …. Ravi Zacharias

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I find that I am less sensitive to sin when it is culturally acceptable, measuring my thoughts and actions by society’s standards, rather than heavenly ones.

Nehemiah could have taken advantage of the people he was leading without being questioned, for this is what they were accustomed to.

But something restrained Nehemiah and set him apart: the fear of God.

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If we find that our holiness is tainted, either by culturally acceptable sins, or subtle compromises when no one else is looking, our problem is a deficiency of God-fear.

5:14 Self-love is the problem, not the answer.

Galatians 5:14
For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

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O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

…………St. Francis of Assisi

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Three things to consider from this essential command of Christ:

1) Because loving one’s neighbor fulfills God’s Law, this would mean that if I am not loving my neighbor, I am living out of congruence with God, no matter what else I am doing.

Ouch.

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2) This command has been psychologized in recent decades and misunderstood to mean, “You must first love yourself, then you can love others.”
But that is a distortion of one simple word: “as,” which here and in the gospel statements, means, “in the same way.”

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In other words, we already love ourselves.

We selfishly love ourselves (Eph. 5:29).

We think about ourselves much more than we think about others.

Nowhere that I can think of in the Bible are we commanded to love ourselves. That’s the self-esteem movement talking, not our Bibles.

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Contrary to what modern psychology claims, our greatest problem is not that we DON’T love ourselves, but that we DO.

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Jesus calls for something much more radical than doting over oneself. He calls us to love others with the same selfish and self-centered passion that we love ourselves.

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3) As a good friend of mine often says (and needs to say) in a church environment, “God never commands us to get our needs met.”
If we’re not careful, though, that’s a trap into which many of us can fall, attending church to suck the life out of each other, rather than giving life to each other and loving one another without restraint.

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In the verse prior to today’s, Paul commands the Galatian church, “through love serve one another.”

That is the call of the Christian, both inside and outside the church; to look out for the other guy with as much fervor as we have for ourselves.

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And that, my fellow pilgrims, is a radical thought.

5:13 Don’t want no fancy funeral, just one like ol’ King Tut

Ecclesiastes 5:13-15:
There is a grievous evil that I have seen under the sun: riches were kept by their owner to his hurt, and those riches were lost in a bad venture. And he is father of a son, but he has nothing in his hand. As he came from his mother’s womb he shall go again, naked as he came, and shall take nothing for his toil that he may carry away in his hand.

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Money never stays with me. It would burn me if it did. I throw it out of my hands as soon as possible, lest it should find its way into my heart. …..…..….. John Wesley

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This passage reveals two reasons why wealth is an inadequate refuge.

1) Wealth is fragile.

Some English versions translate “bad venture,” as, “bad luck.”
It refers to the prospect that wealth can disappear in an instant because of some unforeseen circumstance like a bad business deal, a stock market plunge, or a health crisis that sucks one’s savings dry.
All that we’ve clung to can suddenly vanish, and our children will be left with nothing.

…..

2) Wealth is temporal.

We depart the same way we arrived:

empty-handed.

We take nothing with us, no matter how much we’ve earned. It all stays here. The old U-Haul cliche’ still stands.

King Tut was buried with all his treasures, so that he could enjoy them in the after-life, but he’s not enjoying them; we are. His stuff rides around in a tractor-trailer, then little kids press their greasy noses against the glass to look at everything he left.

It’s quite silly isn’t it?

But have we learned from it?

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What’s in your wallet?

5:12 Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous

Amos 5:12-13
For I know how many are your transgressions
…. and how great are your sins—
you who afflict the righteous, who take a bribe,
…. and turn aside the needy in the gate.
Therefore he who is prudent will keep silent in such a time,
…. for it is an evil time.

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A young couple at our church came very close to killing their preborn child because they needed both of their incomes to make their house payment. In the interest of having a beautiful family home, they nearly killed a family member. ….….…. ….….…. Randy Alcorn

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If there are two things the Christ follower should not crave, they are money and power, for rare is the human being who can handle an abundance of these without becoming corrupt and unjust.

Such was the case in the house of Israel, as the rich and powerful scoffed at truth and justice (v. 10) and built mansions through over-taxing the poor (v. 11).

God’s people had exchanged justice and righteousness for greed and oppression.

As a sad result, the little people were better off just keeping their mouths shut. Fighting for justice was vain in a nation where the most powerful were the most unjust.

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A recent poll stated that 93% of American teenage girls favored “shopping” as their favorite activity, while less than 5% listed “helping others.”

That is a sobering statistic, is it not?

It doesn’t matter whether or not those girls make purchases. The fact is that almost every American teenage girl believes that possessions define her.

And when one begins to ignore true values like righteousness, justice and generosity, the time will soon come when she “turns aside the needy at the gate,” while clinging to her designer purse, and zooming away in her luxury vehicle.

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May those who profess faith in the Living God value the things and people He values, lest He come and say to us what the wealthy corrupt say to the poor, “Depart from me.”

5:11 Help me; but not that way!

2 Kings 5:11
But Naaman was angry and went away, saying, “Behold, I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call upon the name of the LORD his God, and wave his hand over the place and cure the leper.”

…

Few influences in life are as dominant, and as faltering, as the power of culture. There is implicitly in all of us a tacit surrender to its demands while we supposedly boast individuality and freedom of thought. ……… Ravi Zacharias

…

Naaman did not appreciate Elisha’s prescription for the removal of his leprosy.

In his mind, he should not only be healed, but healed according to the assumption that Elisha needed only wave a magic wand over him.

But the Divine remedy would not involve a magic mantra; it would demand seven dips of humble faith in a river inferior to those in Damascus (v. 12), something the proud leper abhorred.

Naaman would soon give in, but only after a temper tantrum and some gentle persuasion from his servants.

Sure enough, the Lord’s plan prevailed. …… It always does.

The same strange Deity who would later restore a man’s sight with spit and mud, cleansed Naaman’s flesh through inferior waters.

…

Let us not measure the validity of God’s commands by their conformity our finite ways.

For God is God, and we are not.