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What does paradox mean? No it is not a place where you park boats. It means; a statement, proposition, or situation that seems to be absurd or contradictory, but in fact is or may be true. Can you think of any examples of a paradox? A paradox is a true statement that either is contrary to conventional wisdom or is seemingly absurd. Paradoxes can be a useful tool in teaching because it requires you to think more carefully about what is being said. Most people, when they first hear a paradox, immediately decide it cannot be true. But as they chew on the thought they realize that the assumptions they held are not necessarily correct. For example, “From death comes life” At first this will strike people as absurd because death is the end of life. Yet we see this in the world around us all the time. In order for a seed to germinate, it must first “die” being a seed. There is another way to look at this as well, from the death of a plant or animal comes food to sustain the life of other plants or animals. From one death comes many lives. Do you know that we as Christians are called to live in a paradox daily? One paradox we might understand is that in order to gain eternal life, our mortal bodies must die. We are called to live in the world but not be part of it. We are told to die to self and live for Christ and on and on. Paul used paradoxes often to get his points across to the believers. Even in this passage today he uses some seeming paradoxes to help the new believers in Thessalonica to understand their need to grow in faith and love for the Lord and in their relationship with others. The first paradox Paul gives is that sexual immorality should be avoided at all costs but our love for others should be practiced at all costs. I know you are asking where the paradox is. Even though sexual immorality and brotherly love seem contradictory they both have a common denominator. Luke 6:31 Do to others as you would have them do to you. Love for others means we would not do anything to them that we would not want done to ourselves, Vs 6. Vs 9-10 Here is a paradox for you! When we become believers, giving our life to Christ we become different even though we are still the same person. Ez. 36:26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. God gives us a change of heart by instilling His love and His Spirit into us. 1 John 4:7-21 Meet someone who says they are a Christian. Doing this we seem to unnaturally have a new sense of feelings for other believers, we are more open to them and accepting of them. When God poured the Holy Spirit into us we now know deep down that we should have a greater love for others, especially other believers. The Thessalonian believers had proved this out by the way they treated others already. Vs 1:3. This was something they had learned from God and not man. John 6:45 It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me. And they were doing very well at it. But, here is the paradox; Paul says they need to do so more and more. If they are doing so well at it why do they need to do better? They had given great evidence of their love to others through their selfless giving of their affections to other believers in Macedonia. The neighboring cities of Philippi and Berea had blossoming churches in them and the love of the Thessalonian believers had reached even to them, 1:8. Even amidst severe trials their love for others reached out. Paul even commends them to the Corinthian church. 2 Cor. 8:1-5 Look Together But there is still room for improvement. Are we the best we can be in loving others, is there still room for us to improve, to do so more and more? Vs 11-12 Here is another paradox. What Paul is telling them is to be ambitious about living a quiet life, be busy at being at being peaceful. It is not the big things we do for people from time to time that make a difference in our witness for Christ, it is how we act day in and day out, a consistency of lifestyle, which makes a difference in our witness. So heavenly minded that we are no earthly good. There were believers in Thessalonica who, after receiving Christ, had quit working and were going around telling everyone that Jesus was coming back, disturbing the whole church and others outside the church. In other words they were fanatics about the return of Christ. 2 Thess. 2:1-2. Our witness depends upon the consistent peace we have no matter what our circumstance are. Paul instructs the new believers to lead a quiet life not to be over reactive, pushy or demanding but to have peace no matter what life throws at us. To be settled in our being. Calm in a traumatic situation, brings calmness to others. Our peace will bring peace to others instead of a reactive lifestyle which is always bumping into others and disrupting them. Living reactively causes us to loose focus on to whom we belong and to whom we serve. 1 Thess. 5:16-22 Here comes another paradox, we are told to be busy not busy-bodies. Vs 11b How is this connected with how we love others? Proverbs 25:17 Seldom set foot in your neighbor’s house— too much of you, and he will hate you. How do we want people to react when we are coming down the street toward them? “Hey look here comes so and so, or Oh no here comes that so and so.” The Thessalonian church had people who were not working bit were busy bodies and it was affecting their witness. 2 Thess. 3:6-15 So he instructs them to busy and not busy bodies. This demonstrates brotherly love because a self supporting person is not a burden to others. Paul had already set the example for this kind of lifestyle.The paradox for these believers was that in Greek culture it was considered deplorable to do manual labor while for the Jews it was a highly respected thing. The Jews, no matter how wealthy they were, required that all boys learn a trade of some kind. Work is a blessing from God and ordained by Him. Gen. 2:15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. Work is a blessing and working with one’s hands to support oneself and family shows love for our brethren because we will not be dependent upon anyone for our needs but will be able to help others who are truly in need, who can not support themselves. Acts 20:35. When we are willing to do what it takes to provide for our family needs, to live a quiet life, minding our own business, we will win the respect of others, including non-believers. Doing so glorifies God. Matt. 5:14-16 People respect those who do not take advantage of them or others.We as believers should not expect special treatment or favors from other believers simply because they are fellow Christians.Nothing disrupts the peace of the Christian community more than the unwillingness of its members to shoulder their part of the responsibility for that community. Fanatics, busy bodies and loafers, nearly every church have them, too often wrapped all up all in one. Instead of putting their noses into everyone else’s business they should putting their noses to the grindstone minding their own business and caring for their own. Another paradox, Paul was not promoting a spirit of independence, which every believer should become completely self-sufficient but teaching personal responsibility. 2 Cor. 8:13-15 When we live in brotherly love we have the personal responsibility to strive to live peaceful lives seeking to work to provide for our needs as God supplies the work for us, minding our own business so to focus on our relationship with God and our testimony to others. Being mindful of the opportunities God gives us to share with others in need from what God has provided to us, including the gospel. All of this is living in brotherly love and is how we should treat others whom God has placed in our lives, whether for a moment or a lifetime. Think about this, another paradox; how does God increase our love for others? He does so by putting us into circumstances that force us to love more, to practice Christian love. We are called to live lives honoring to God and in love for others. I know this seems like a paradox today, in the world we live in, but with God’s help and the Holy Spirit’s indwelling we can do this;if we are willing to let Him be in control and not our selfish self-centered sin nature. Benediction: 1 Thess. 5:23-24
