July 21, 2021
…And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for in spite of persecutions you received the word with joy inspired by the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers…
- 1 Thessalonians 1:6-7
What does a Christian look like?
Depending on how you read that question, what is on your heart or mind at the moment, or any number of other circumstances the answer to that question might change. Or the questions itself might seem loaded, as if there is some underlying agenda to the answer.
I don’t know why so many people seem to think there are underlying agendas to everything that happens in our world; perhaps they do exist, perhaps not. However, there is a greater agenda in which to place our focus. The agenda of the kingdom of heaven, promised by Jesus, as being so close, yet we feel it is so far away. Paul and his companions of the moment, Timothy and Silas compose a little letter to the church at Thessalonica, which speaks of a great example of faith found in the people there.
This letter is believed by scholars to be the earliest in Christian communication. At least this is the letter for which the earliest manuscripts are found. Before the writings of the gospels, revelation, and even the letters attributed to the disciples Peter or John, Paul’s letter to Thessalonica was written first (as best as we can tell). The early Christians did not have an easy road, and many were severely persecuted for leaving behind an old way of life and worship, and choosing instead to follow a patter of the man named Jesus. The teachers called Jesus the Christ, meaning king, but he was not an earthly king, but a heavenly one, teaching and living among the people to show them a better way.
The term Christian, in those days, meant that people were imitating the teachings of Christ and his followers. Paul says to the church ‘you became imitators of us and of the Lord…” And from that joy, “…became an example to all the believers…”
The lesson for the church, here, is that we might recapture what it means to truly be a disciple of Christ or Christian, to recapture the joy of sampling being the presence of Christ our God, knowing that He is with us now and always, and beginning to live in his example offering compassion, love, grace with everyone whom we meet, teaching through living our best life in Him. Then maybe we, too, can become the example our community needs to see, and example of how to live free in Christ – living into a kingdom we don’t yet see, but believe is here and still to come.
Grace & Peace,
Sam