1 Thessalonians 5:1-11 Self-Control

 

We’ve been on a journey this spring with Galatians 5:22-23, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control,” as our guide. We’ve talked about and reflected on how love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness and gentleness shape our hearts and souls as the core of our Christian character. It’s challenged us and, at least for myself, there have been “ouch” moments where I’ve seen a lot of areas in my own walk with Jesus that I still have a lot of room to grow. The last year and a half have been difficult at times and I have not always lived out the fruit of the Spirit as well as I should have, and if some of you have felt hurt at times because of that, I apologize. This is why self-control is so important.

Self-control is the part of the fruit that provides a foundation for the rest of the fruit. Paul’s wise in ending the description of the fruit of the Spirit with self-control. Someone asked this week about the fruit of the Spirit, and that if it comes from the Spirit, then the Spirit must produce it. They were wondering how that happens. Self-control’s a good time to reflect on that a moment. The Spirit does produce the fruit in our hearts and lives, but like with many gifts from God, the fruit is given to us and then, through practices such as the spiritual disciplines like scripture reading, prayer, meditation, serving others, confession, silence, generosity, and others, we nourish and grow these seeds of the fruit of the Spirit so they shape and feed our hearts, souls and lives more into the image of Jesus.

Paul’s writing to the church in the city of Thessalonica. Here, near the end of the letter, he’s encouraging the people to live life in such a way that they’re always be ready for Jesus coming back. As Jesus said, even he didn’t know exactly when he’s coming back. As a number of his parables warned, his return will be like a thief coming in the night, unexpectedly. Just before this, Paul was talking about when Jesus will return like a king coming to inspect his city. Before his arrival, the city cleans everything up, white washing the buildings so that when the king arrives at sunup from the west, the sun will shine over the city, making it glow brightly. Watchers were placed outside the city to let everyone know when they see the king arriving and then the entire city goes out to escort the king to his city, this is the only time the word rapture is used in the Bible, to describe the people going out to escort the king into his city. This is the image of Jesus’ return. This is why Paul is telling the people in the church here to keep watching for Jesus, to not fall asleep or get distracted and miss out on his return. This takes self-control.

Thessalonica was a bustling city, which is why Paul’s ends the letter with a warning to not get sucked into the ways and values of the culture of the city. Pastor Amy Peeler tells us a little about what Thessalonica was like, “In the first century world, many of the religious options of the day included nocturnal celebrations that included alcohol and sexual promiscuity. Dionysus, the god of wine, was worshipped in Thessalonica, and his nighttime celebrations had the reputation of being frenzied, ecstatic, carousing events. The Thessalonians, being called from the worship of dead idols to serve the living God, no longer should participate in such events. Instead of being unclothed they are to put on the specific clothing readying them for battle.” Night times were filled with these wild parties, which helps us understand why Paul calls the people “to be awake and sober.” The word Greek word for sober ‘nepho’ also means self-control, but because of Dionysus, Paul goes with sober, but the idea is staying in control of yourself when everything else is crazy around you.

As one commentary mentions, Paul’s calling them to be who they are, “children of the light and children of the day.” Since they’re children of the light and day time, it makes sense that they’re not going to sleep, that they’re awake and alert, unlike the followers of Dionysus who sleep during the day because they’re getting drunk at night. The word “sleep” was often used for being dead, but here, when Paul uses the word “sleep,” he’s talking about moral dullness, about having minds so dull and slow that they no longer even have a sense of good or bad, of what’s healthy and what’s unhealthy for them morally, spiritually, and even physically. It’s easy to slip into this way of thinking and living life when all we hear and see all around us is to do what feels good, and it doesn’t look like anyone is really getting hurt, at least not that badly. It even looks like a lot of fun and like many people, deep down, a lot of us do believe that following Jesus means that we have to give up having fun like our friends and everyone else.

Yet, in the long run, this kind of lifestyle of the Thessalonians hurts them and the different relationships in their lives. I’ve unfortunately seen way too many marriages, friendships, and families break apart because of similar life style choices. It hurts to see people you care about hurt themselves and the people around them, all the while thinking that they’re living the great life while using each other to forget how meaningless their lives really are. Paul and God want better and more for them. This is why Paul encourages them to protect their heads and hearts by putting on the breastplate of faith and love and the helmet of salvation. Pastor Amy Peeler writes, “With the vital organs protected, the Thessalonians could live with emotions protected by faith and love, and thoughts shielded by the hope of salvation. Again, Paul is only encouraging them to continue practicing what they are already doing, as he has expressed prayerful thanksgiving for their faith, love, and hope.” 

Paul believes Jesus is coming back soon and he wants as many people to come to know Jesus as possible before Jesus returns. Paul tells the church to practice self-control and to live lives that are different from the people around as a witness to their faith. What we really believe and value does show up in how we live our lives and the people around us notice. The early church grew because they sought out ways to show God’s love to their communities, building hospitals, schools, and taking care of the poor, the orphans, and those who were hurting. The Roman Empire had a hard time stamping out these followers of Jesus because they made the Empire look bad by taking care of its poor and sick when Caesar didn’t care. This is why the church grew so quickly among the poor and the slave class.

It takes self-control to be different, to live out the fruit of the Spirit in our lives. Shaping our minds and hearts on the parts of the Spirit takes self-control, choosing to approach life and people with the Holy Spirit shaping how we see and interact with others, whether they are people we like, or people whom we may dislike. We choose to shape our lives around who Jesus tells us we are to be. We control our thoughts, our feelings, our perceptions and beliefs, always centering them on Jesus; on who Jesus is, how he lived his life and who he taught us to be as his followers. We put into practice the fruit of the Spirit in our lives, practicing it over and over again, like an artist or athlete, so it becomes a natural part of who we are.

When love is hard to do, we remember how God chose to love us and we act in love until our heart catches up with our head. When we get tempted to see only the negative and brokenness in the world, we train ourselves to look for where God is at work and celebrate as we join God in what he’s doing. When there is conflict, we work to bring reconciliation and peace rather than add to the brokenness. When the world feels harsh, we seek out ways to be kind and gracious, when selfishness seems everywhere, we focus on deliberately finding ways to do good. When it seems that faithfulness has disappeared, we remember that God is faithful to us and we recommit ourselves to being a blessing and remain faithful to Jesus and his call to build his kingdom here and be an encouraging presence. We do all this with a spirit of gentleness and love, caring always for our neighbours and brothers and sisters, even ahead of ourselves because we recognize the image of God in them.

Loving God with everything we are and have, loving our neighbours as ourselves, loving them so much that our heart desire is to share the gospel news of Jesus with them and invite them to join us in following Jesus. We’re called to live as if Jesus is coming back today, while at the same time, planning and doing ministry to make disciples for Jesus so, that when he returns, there will be a multitude to accompany him as he comes to claim his kingdom here.