Love Opens Us To Hope

Read 1 Thessalonians 3:6-13. Paul was such a connector. He reached out to others with so much feeling. You can hear it in these words. He cares for the Thessalonians.

He cares that the Thessalonians care! These people are still faithful and still loving. Paul brought these people to Christ, and Timothy has sent a good report.

But it’s true that they need to be encouraged. Life can throw up challenges that might lead us away from God’s open, loving Spirit.

How do you react when something bad happens? Do you shut yourself away? Some people won’t share their life. But we are made to be together.

If you know Movember, it focuses on men’s health. So often, men keep to themselves, instead of sharing their problems. Paul knows that reaching out is important.

Do you worry about what might happen in the future? There are many things to concern us. We can let these things depress us, or we can see opportunities in every challenge. When we share our troubles together, we have more reason to see the opportunities. There is less room for depression.

Paul is an evangelist, but he works more with stories of life than with words of wisdom. The big story of life is Jesus – a man who died on a cross. If we look at the cross with fear and disgust, we are depressed. If we see it as part of a bigger story of love, we are empowered.

We are in Advent. We look forward to the coming of the Lord. Jesus will come to earth again as he came to Bethlehem two thousand years ago. But not in the same way. The stories of the end times are scary. If we look at them with fear, we will be depressed.

But the answer is not to be eaten up by fear. Paul’s way is relationship.

In verse 12, Paul’s main prayer is that “the Lord will make your love increase and overflow for each other”. If we focus on our fear, we close in. If we focus on love, we reach out. In fact, Paul doesn’t stop with “each other”. He adds “and for everyone else”. So love will “increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else”. Love reaches out. Love is the key to growing a church community.

That community is bigger than we sometimes imagine. The bigger the body of believers, the more reason we have for hope.

And for Paul, even the end times are about community. Yes, he could focus on the conflicts and calamities. He could use the language of fear. But he doesn’t. He’s about being prepared. That means learning from others. Listening to good counsellors, like Paul himself. Being strong in hard times, built up by the prayers of others. Sharing the life of faith with others is so important.

How then does Paul see the end times? Even here, there’s a reminder of community. In the end, when Jesus comes, he will not be alone. He will come with “all his holy ones” – the “saints”, the people of God who have gone before. We need each other to be fully part of God’s vision. Let us take heart from that great cloud of witnesses, both those around us now and those who have gone before.