Would you dare say this?

The word of God often surprises me, but none so much as last week when I was studying 1 Thessalonians 4: 1-12.   Clearly a passage about sanctification (the word and its lexical friends occurs all through the passage) -- Paul begins it in a way that was -- well, shocking, outrageous.  I think he actually undermines his whole argument -- but I imagine Paul, under the inspiration of God, knows better what he is talking about than I.

The exhortation is simple -- it is about how to walk and to please God (4:1).  Walk is the usual idea of a lifestyle, the daily-ness of godliness.  Pleasing is a word of relationship -- to do what brings the other person joy.  Jesus said, if we love God. we will keep his word because he is the One we want to please. 

But Paul inserts this little phrase, "as you are already doing" -- "how to walk and please God, as you are already doing."  Now why would he say that?  What is the point?

Was this church some paragon of godliness?  Well,  there was clearly a work of grace in their midst, a powerful one at that.  But the fact that Paul has to instruct them on the sinfulness of sexual immorality, and the urgency of work shows they had sin present among them.  There may have been division too as he has to speak to them of love.  And their eschatology was confused.  The latter problem and the issue of laziness will become so pronounced that he will have to write the second letter to help them more.  No, they are no super-saints.

How then are they pleasing God?

It is because of the work of Christ.  They are in Christ.  He has lived the sinless life that please God. He has offered the atoning sacrifice that removes wrath.  God sees them in Christ and they are his sons and daughters.  They have been given the Spirit.  They have a desire to please God as he has taught them to love each other (these two items are listed later on).  In other words, God no longer sees them in themselves alone.  He sees them in Christ.  They are pleasing God and he calls them to grow in this.

Wow, here is my question: would I ever tell the church I serve that they are pleasing to God?  Would I ever tell an individual I care for that they are pleasing to God?  Do I ever go to bed at night with the thought that in that day God was pleased with me in Christ?  Or would I so condition and hedge the statement that the person hearing it would end up saying, "I guess I do not please God after all."  Oh yes, there are warnings in the NT -- but Paul sees no need to state one here.  Later we will speak to the reality of wrath (v. 6) and that makes this opening line all the more amazing.

Paul does not hedge his statement.  He does not qualify it.  "even as you are pleasing God in your walk right now" is a fair paraphrase.  What a difference that makes in how I see my people, see individuals, see my wife and children who are in Christ.  Paul is not shocked by their sin -- he is expressing no disappointment in them -- he matter-of-factly tells them they are pleasing to God and bids them abound in a life that pleases God. 

A number of years ago I had a member of my congregation come to me after a sermon.  They said something very simple, "Pastor, we really are trying to do this.  I am sorry we disappoint you."  They did not mean it as a rebuke.  They were sincere.  But it was a massive rebuke.  I was, apparently, conveying a "your life is not pleasing to God" perspective. 

This is remarkable.  How can sanctification be motivated by that?  Don't we have to threaten and cajole?  Thomas Chalmers speaks to that in his "The Expulsive Power of a New Affection."  It is a remarkable essay, for two reasons.  First, it was written in a day when I think pastors were paid for writing by the word.  In other words, it is not concise.  But the last few pages are well worth the labor.  Second, it is grace motivating.  Chalmers asks -- when you are engaged in admonishing people to be holy as the condition of a life pleasing to God, what can you expect but despair?  Holiness is impossible.  Telling people to strive for it in order to please God is not encouraging at all.   But, he notes, when they begin their sanctification from a settled conviction that they are fully accepted (and not merely tolerated) before God because of the Savior -- they are free to seek to please God with joy.  Far from encouraging licentiousness, grace enables godliness.

More than that, I resist this.  I have begun to see how profoundly self-righteous I am.  I simply do not want to believe that my life is pleasing to God in Christ.  I do not want God to be pleased.  I almost fear the idea. Because I am not yet pleased with myself and God must be mistaken.  I must attain a level of godliness that I think is suitable and then I can accept this. I may not be alone in this. Our small group discussed this and one of the folks said, "I never think of my life as pleasing God. I have too much yet to do."

I have found it instructive this week to remind and be reminded that our lives are pleasing to God.  yes, they have sin in them and that sin is not pleasing to God -- but God looks at me in Christ and takes pleasure in my feeble and stained and stumbling obedience.  That is amazing grace.