An Honest Conscience
AN HONEST CONSCIENCE
1 THESSALONIANS 2:9-12
Your credentials as a Christian should include a vibrant faith in Christ and irreproachable behavior before God and other people.
Although there were many itinerant preachers and soothsayers in the ancient world who found marketplace “evangelism” a lucrative trade, Paul and his party could not be numbered among them. He had refused support from the new converts and had paid for the food consumed by himself and those with him (2 Thessalonians 3:8). During his stay in the city the Philippians twice sent gifts of money to him (Philippians 4:16), but his needs were met primarily by his own work as a skilled worker (see Acts 18:3). The wisdom of this course of action became apparent when the charge of greed was rumored about (2:5). Paul could remind the Thessalonians that he had worked very hard throughout the period he had preached the gospel (2:9).
The suggestion that the enthusiastic gospel of the Spirit which Paul proclaimed had led to impurity is met with a forthright appeal to the twofold testimony of the Thessalonians and God (2:10). The conduct of the evangelists had been irreproachable before God and people. Any standard lower than this would have been inconsistent with their own solemn charge to live a life worthy of God (2:12).
When Paul had wished to express the affection he had shown for the believers he spoke of a mother with her children (2:7). He now appeals to the image of a father with his children to express the moral earnestness with which he had instructed them (2:11). He had been sensitive to the particular needs of individuals and had adjusted his approach accordingly. With the hesitant he employed a word of urging; with the fainthearted he resorted to encouragement; with the weak he did not hesitate to command. His ministry undoubtedly entailed both public and private instruction (see Acts 20:20), for Paul knows that he has worked with “each one of you.”
His concern was to help each convert see what was implied by “a life worthy of God” (2:12)—the very God who now called former idolators to be citizens of his kingdom and participants in his glory. The motive for obedience which Paul planted in the mind of the Thessalonians was thanksgiving to God for his grace and an eager desire to experience fully what God has prepared for those who love him.