The objective of this lesson: to stress that we care about people when circumstances are difficult because God cares for us when circumstances are difficult.
It is okay to get discouraged spiritually. Life in this world is demanding! It has a way of hitting us with the unexpected at the "wrong moment" or overwhelming us with the physical realities confronting us. Just let God help you regain your perspective as you reestablish your direction for your life. God is more patient than you are!
To refuse to acknowledge that we all get discouraged [just as the twelve ran from Jesus the night of his betrayal] is to deny a reality all Christians confront and endure. Denying discouragement commonly means (1) we will pretend in times of distress, acting as if everything is just fine--thus denying ourselves encouragement or (2) we will hide the discouragement inside ourselves and intensify our feelings of guilt. One of the goals of Satan in regard to every Christian is to discourage him or her. Read Luke 22:31-34 and especially note verses 31 and 32. The issue is not will we be discouraged, but it is how we will overcome discouragement.
The fact that life is tough did not begin with our generation! It has been tough for those who dared follow God in every generation. Matters were far from easy or simple in the first century. Is your concept of Christianity this: "It was simple, obvious, and easy when it began, but got more difficult with each generation. Today, it is very difficult!" If that is your concept, you need to totally change it. Christianity has been difficult from its beginning because Christianity involves a commitment to change.
It is a grave mistake to convince Christians that it is simple to live by faith in Jesus Christ. Having faith in Christ is not a magical guarantee that there will be no physical distress in your life. As long as Satan exists and is active, there will be physical distress and deception.
Paul told the Christians at Thessalonica, "I am delighted that our previous difficulties did not make coming to you a useless effort! I realize that in Philippi we endured a lot of pain and abuse. Please remember those experiences did not intimidate us as we shared with you God's good news--even though we continued to encounter opposition there. The basis of God's good news did not come from error, impurity, or deceitfulness. God entrusted us with His good news, so our goal was not based on pleasing humans but on pleasing God. We did not approach you with flattery. We were quite careful not to appear as greedy people who wished to exploit you. Remember that we were gentle with you as a mother who takes care of her own babies. We shared with you God's good news and ourselves because we love you. As we shared God's good news with you, we were conscious about never being a financial burden. In fact, we worked hard to take care of ourselves in order to prevent that from happening! You witnessed how careful we were to behave well among you. You also should remember how we exhorted, encouraged, and implored each of you in the same manner a father would do those things for his own children. Why did we act this way? We wanted you to honor God who calls you into His kingdom and glory."
This is a paraphrase of today's text. The point is to stress the fact that we must not let the physical distresses we endure put a "negative spin" on God's good news. We wish to establish relationship with those who are receptive to God's good news.
Paul did not take his "bad experiences" out on people he just met! It is common today for injustices to anger us. When we endure injustice, we easily can let the bad experience put us in a bad mood. We easily can let the bad experience spill over on people who had nothing to do with the injustice. Thus we easily can create negative impressions about who we are and how we act. If we allow that to happen, people learn rather quickly to avoid us.
One reason [not the total cause] for people who have not yet placed full confidence in God to avoid Christians is [too often] our reaction to the opposition of evil. We as Christians must realize our attitude affects our influence as we share God's good news.
Paul did not take his past bad experiences out on the Thessalonians. He did not let his bad experiences in Thessalonica affect his caring as he shared God's good news. In fact, he went to extremes ["out of his way," or "the second mile"] to make certain those who were receptive to his message knew how much he and his company cared about them. Why? Paul wanted the receptive Thessalonians to know God cared about them!
Paul had many reasons to let his bad experiences affect his presentation of God's good news, but he did not let that happen. He wanted those who were receptive to know he cared! If the receptive were to understand God cared, they must know Paul cared.
Too often we allow our troubles to affect God's message to other people! Those people lived in a world controlled by idolatry and idolatrous concepts. In the common view of divinity, (1) there were a lot of gods, and (2) the vast majority of gods were unconcerned about human needs and human affairs. Thus the first job of a person was to get a god's attention. The second job was to make the god concerned about the human dilemma the person experienced. The third job was to get the god to do something about the person's need.
Paul presented a new concept toward divinity to most idol-worshipping people. Most gentiles, to whom God sent Paul as an apostle, were idol worshippers. It is extremely challenging to teach people a new concept! Even now, we all abandon old religious concepts with great difficulty!
The concept of deity in the first century among idolatrous people was the opposite of the Living God. God always is aware of our situation; those who belong to Christ never need to get His attention (Matthew 6:25-34). He is always concerned about our physical and spiritual needs (previous reading). Christians never have to be concerned about motivating God to act in their behalf (Matthew 6:8). Our prayers to God must never be an attempt to manipulate God. They always must be our commitment to depend on God.
God knows our physical needs better than we do. God just wants us to have eternal priorities when we look at our physical needs. We must never view religious acts and involvement as a means to manipulate God. We do not seek to be godly to attempt to acquire insurance against undesirable physical things happening.
The Christian exists in two realms--the physical that is temporary and limited, and the eternal that is permanent and unlimited. The Christian uses physical experiences to transition into eternal reality. The end of the physical does not mean the end of existence. Thus the Christian refuses to evaluate God in only physical terms.
The Christian understands that life extends beyond physical death. Thus the Christian's evaluations and priorities always include factors beyond physical expediency.
If we are to meaningfully challenge people in hopes based on the eternal, we must not let our undesirable physical experiences shape the way we share God's good news. Our hope is not based on Jesus' physical life. It is based on his resurrection. His resurrection declares there is a power that is superior to physical death. We live in the assurance that physical death is not the end of life (Romans 8:18-39).
Accepting resurrection is central to the Christian hope. Hope is not based on physical well- being. The early church grew in spite of a crucified Savior, Christian martyrs, and lots of opposition [persecution]. We exist because God can use physical pain to achieve His objectives.
We as Christians must not create the impression among people who do not know God that the physically undesirable prevents God's gospel from being good news! (1) We must not allow physical opposition to make us confrontationists instead of sharers! (2) We must not allow our frustrations to make us antagonists who turn against people! (3) We must not create the impression that God is the enemy of people! (4) While we want all to be in profound awe of God, we also want people to find and commit to hope in God.
God's good news is greater than the physically undesirable! Christians must not let the physically undesirable shape the presentation of God's good news! The success of what God did for all people in Jesus' death and resurrection is not based on the temporary physical, but on the unending eternal.
Never forget salvation exists because of God's great love for people!
Our hope in God is based on God's love for us.
For Thought and Discussion
Yes, it is okay to be discouraged. The issue is focused on recovery from discouragement, not on an effort to never experience discouragement.
We should allow God to help us recover our perspective.
We need to totally change our concept.
Paul refused to allow his past "bad experiences" to affect the way he shared God's good news with the people he just met.
He wanted (1) to establish relationship with receptive people and (2) he wanted those people to know how deeply God cared for them.
(1) There were many gods. (2) The gods were unconcerned about human needs and affairs.
The Living God is always concerned about our situation in the full knowledge of what is happening to us.
The Christian exists in both the physical realm and the eternal realm.
The Christian's hope is based on Jesus' resurrection.
We must not create the impression that the physically undesirable prevents God's message from being good news.
We must never forget that salvation exists because of God's great love for people.
Link to Student Guide
Lesson 13
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