Sharing Our Very Selves

1 Thessalonians 2 and Paul’s Defense of His Ministry

We'll turn to your Bibles, please, to 1 Thessalonians, chapter 2, and set your eyes on verse 1. Preaching will be this morning from verses 6 through 8, but as we've been doing, I will begin reading from verse 1 so we get some idea of the context.

And just to remind you of where we've been before we go into this morning's message, the Apostle Paul is here continuing his defense of his gospel work there in Thessalonica. Unnamed detractors have slandered his motives, even his character, even denigrated his character as being too lacking in the boldness that would be expected in that day of what amounted to traveling charlatans.

Well, not so, says the Apostle. Their visit there, verse 1, as you will hear in a moment, was not in vain. The specter of cruel suffering could not quench the gospel from him. That's verse 2. Their appeal had its source in God's truth.

It was ethically and morally pure. There was no deception. That's verse 3. In verse 4, he lays his heart open to God's review, and then in verse 5, he denies any motive other than this, that he was pleasing God.

And then in verses 6 through 8, this morning's text, he points to what the Thessalonians had seen for themselves, that Paul and his companions' behavior was not only irreproachable, but was of ethical and high purity and tenderness.

Paul loved the people of this church with a passion that would be rivaled only by his tenderness for the Ephesians, who he departed from with tears in Acts chapter 20. So with that background, please stand for the reading of God's word, 1 Thessalonians chapter 2, beginning at verse 1.

For you yourselves know, brothers, that our coming to you was not in vain. But though we had already suffered and been shamefully treated at Philippi, as you know, we had boldness in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in the midst of much conflict.

For our appeal does not spring from error or impurity or any attempt to deceive, but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please men, but to please God, who tests our hearts.

For we never came with words of flattery, as you know, nor the pretext for greed. God is witness. And now we begin the text for this morning at verse 6. Nor did we seek glory from people, whether from you or from others, though we could have made demands as apostles of Christ.

But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children. So, being affectionately desirous of you, we are ready to share with you not only the gospel of God, but also our own selves, because you have become very dear to us.

God bless the reading of his word. Please be seated. Let's take a moment again to pray and ask God's blessing upon the preaching of his word. Heavenly Father, we come now to proclaim and to hear your word.

I trust, God, that you by your Spirit have prepared me to preach this message of the gospel of Jesus Christ to those whose hearts are prepared this day to hear it, and that all this, Father, that you would work in us what only you can, which is to transform us into the image of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

And I pray that you would do this for his sake. In Christ's name, amen. So let me begin with a question, a question for all of us. What trait of the Apostle Paul would you most like to take after? What trait do you have within you that is similar to something the Apostle Paul has or had that you would like to grow?

What trait are you lacking that you see in him that you need? And what trait in the Apostle Paul would you most like to take after? Would you like to be the miracle-working healer? Would you like to be the fearless apostle who called down blindness upon the sorcerer Elimus?

Would you like to be the man who faced down kings and mobs with equal humility and courage? Or how about just that, what I said, his humility? Would you like to be more humble? Think of all the traits we have of the Apostle Paul, all that you know of him, who wrote almost half of the New Testament.

Which of those would you most like to see within or grown within yourself? Think about that for a moment. Now, I don't want a show of hands, but I would wonder, how many would choose, especially among us men, how many of us would choose what I just read in verse 7, where the rugged apostle compares his regard for the Thessalonians to what?

To a nursing mother. A nursing mother taking care of her own child. I mean, of all the similes that Paul could come up with, I'd be happy to follow his footsteps, if he said he protected them the way a lion jealously guards his pride.

And if he has to use a female in this simile, why not a mother bear or something like that, protecting her cubs from danger? A nursing mother. How many of us chose that when I said, which trait in the Apostle Paul would you most like to see in yourself, especially amongst us men?

How many chose that? Which the Apostle Paul sets forth in the middle of these three verses as the core of his demeanor towards these Thessalonians. A nursing mother. The gentleness of a nursing mother.

I hope you ladies will forgive us men, if that's a little hard for us to get behind, but get behind it, we must. Here in this letter, the rugged apostle who withstood beatings and stonings, shipwrecks, starvation, and snakebites, and yet carried on with the gospel, he compares himself to a gentle mother, nursing and cradling and cherishing her little baby.

Now maybe the reason this trait came out low on many of our lists, I would imagine it did come out low on our list of his traits that we would like to most emulate, but maybe the reason it comes down low is because there's something within that tells you and tells me that a nursing mother cherishing and guarding that little infant is made of somewhat sterner stuff than most of us are.

Gentleness Is for All Christians, Not Just Pastors

Before we dig into these verses here and speak about this gentle characteristic of the apostle Paul which we as gospel ambassadors should be emulating, before we dig into this, I want to say something here of what these verses are not.

As a matter of fact, what this whole chapter is not, what this whole book is not, it is not a primer on missionary work or even pastoral ministry. You'll often find 1 and 2 Thessalonians, 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus grouped together under the title the pastoral epistles.

And sometimes also then they're used as a primer, as a manual for missionary work. If you peruse Sermon Audio, you'll see that these verses going back to verse 1 are often taught that way. They're used for seminars to pastors.

They're used for talks. And they do relate to pastoral ministry. They do relate to missionary work, but they apply to the church at large. They apply to you all. All Christians should deflect personal glory.

All Christians should give all glory to Christ, as verse 6 instructs us. All Christians should be as gentle and giving as a nursing mother, as Paul says in verse 7. He and his friends were to the Thessalonians.

And all Christians, all of us, all of you, all of us should be ready to share not only God's gospel, but your very selves. So it is not a primer just for the professional, the missionary, or the pastor.

It's for all of us. And for you who are closer to those who could be a nursing mother or have been nursing mothers, this may be easier for you to grasp. But it's for the women, for the men alike, for all Christians.

You see, gospel ministry must be done with the character of the purveyor of the gospel. And who is the purveyor of the gospel? God our Father and Jesus Christ his Son. God who before the foundation of the world designed this gospel for which he sent his Son to accomplish.

And if we're going to purvey this gospel to anyone, we need to do it with the character of he who we represent, which is God. And the three verses that we have this morning, 1 Thessalonians 2, 6, 7, and 8, combine toward this part, this point.

Each one providing a support for the next. This gentleness which we all must have because of the gentleness of God in the gospel and Jesus Christ and what he accomplished for us. Look at verse 6 again.

Relinquishing Rights for the Sake of the Gospel

Nor did we seek glory from people, whether from you or from others, though we could have made demands as apostles of Christ. You see, to be a true witness of the gospel of Jesus Christ, you must not only be willing to, but you must relinquish your rights.

You must relinquish your rights if you would be a true witness of this gospel. This is what the Apostle Paul did, and this is part of this gentleness, leaving nothing that would impair the proclamation of the gospel, that would put a false barrier between those who hear the proclamation of it and faith in Christ Jesus, who is the core of that gospel.

You know, back in Paul's day when this was written, religious salesmen, those traveling charlatans I referred to earlier, they proved their worth by what they demanded of people. They claimed the right to rule because of their wisdom.

And how did they show how important their message was? It was, well, I've given you something of great value, now you give to me room and board and money and sustenance or whatever it is. And the more you asked, the more prestige you seemed to have.

And if you didn't make any demands, it seemed that you lowly valued what you were trying to sell. Their demands, you see, the demands that they made proved the value and the prestige of their message or their philosophy or whatever new thing they were bringing.

So you know something that our local news stations do that sort of bugs me? I think it started on Channel 7, not to name names, but I think it started there. But they had this habit of introducing the next story, have you heard this?

And the next story about such and such and such and such, which you will only hear on this station, KMPT or whatever it is. If you switch channels, you're going to miss what only they can provide. No one else has a story that you've got to hear.

So these wandering charlatans of the day, they're sort of like that. You can only hear what they had to say from them. And it was worth everything because their message was so unique and so beneficial to those who would hear it.

And if you go to the next traveling charlatan, the next salesman, you're going to miss this one, which you can only get here. And their goods didn't come cheap. Their goods came with these demands. Now Paul might have been hearing accusations like he did in Corinth, that he was not impressive in appearance or in speech.

Who would follow someone like that? And on top of all that, he won't even ask anything for the message that he's giving. This new philosophy, this new religion. It's worth so little to him. He doesn't demand anything from you for giving it to you.

If he believed his own message, if he thought it was worth anything, he'd be making some demands from people who accepted it. He was saying, okay, now I've given you something of value. Here's what I need in back.

And without reservation, he says, they're right. They are correct. We didn't make demands. And you Thessalonians know this as well. We made no demands upon you. We could have, but we didn't. We could have, from the highest authority there is, as Apostles of Christ Jesus, the Sovereign Lord.

He gave us the right to make demands upon those who hear and accept the Gospel. There's a lot we could have demanded of you, but we didn't. We didn't. Without reservation, they're right. Why did he not do that?

Why did he not climb aboard the prestige liner and show them how much value he brought by how much he wanted from them? What's the answer? What's the answer? It's the same answer that has to apply to us in what we do when we are purveyors and heralds of this Gospel.

The question is, who gets the glory? What Paul is saying here is we did not seek glory from people, whether from you or from others. Okay, that's one part of the clause. That's one part of the sentence there.

We didn't do this, but we could have made demands. Making demands would have been taking glory to himself. Insisting on our way is taking Christ's glory and putting it to ourselves. Making demands is a barrier to the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

This is what he is saying here. We didn't make demands, that we could have. We didn't, because that would have been to take Christ's glory and focus it upon ourselves. Because that would be seeking glory for himself and glory seeking for the Apostle Paul and God willing for us is beyond the pale.

It's something we simply cannot do and it slips in so easily. This insisting upon our way. This looking and saying, I have a right to my opinion. I have a right to have things my way. I will proclaim it the way I want to proclaim it.

And so it goes on and on and on. We make demands. We will not give up our rights. The Apostle Paul did here and it was very important to the way he brought the Gospel to Thessalonica, to Philippi, later to Athens, after that to Corinth.

He gave up his rights for the sake of the Gospel. Now some of you might be asking why Paul didn't insist on them supporting him in light of what Jesus Christ said when he sent out his disciples. Do you remember that?

When he sent them out he said, Don't take a bag. Don't take any money. Because the laborer deserves his food. Do they go into a house? Are they to be lodged there? Are they to be fed there? And if they're not, they're to shake off the dust of their feet as a testimony against them.

The laborer deserves his food. That's something the Apostle Paul also confirms in the epistles. So Paul had the divine right from Jesus Christ, from no less than Jesus Christ, to be supported by those to whom he preached.

So why did he decline it? Well, he didn't say specifically other than this idea of glory, that he would be glorifying himself. But the best reading is that he did not want to be associated with those traveling charlatans of the day, no matter the cost.

We could have made demands that could have been rendered. We could have been a weight to you. We could have been a burden to you. Again, we need to think in terms of the gentleness that this message is trying to bring forth eventually.

Why did he decline that for them? Well, we know from other places in Scripture, and we'll come to that in a few moments, the Thessalonians in that church were very, very poor. Food on the table for them was a day-to-day affair.

And Paul looks at himself, well, he had other means of support. He was a tent maker, and he worked with his own two hands almost everywhere he went. So he could support himself. He also had the Philippians, who we know from other places in Scripture, supported him, and they sent gifts to him while he was in Thessalonica.

So he had support independent of the poor Thessalonians. To have imposed his rights would have been a heavy and an unnecessary burden upon them. It would have been an impediment to the Gospel. You see, our rights, our opinions, our agendas, our hobby horses in Scripture, they all have to give way to freedom of people to hear this Gospel.

So there's nothing in the way of it. What rights do you have to surrender? Well, as before, we're not going to take a survey, as I did with the traits of the Apostle Paul, but let that question just sink in.

What rights have you not surrendered? What opinion, what hobby horse, what particular doctrine that so excites you that you just can't get out of the way? Making demands on others is a way of seeking glory for self.

The disciples learned this from Jesus when the sons of Zebedee asked to be seated at Jesus' right hand and left hand when he entered his glory. You remember how they were rebuked for that, how they caused a rift with the other Apostles.

Well, why? Because they had their own glory in mind and not our Lord's glory. Surrendering of rights, setting our own egos and agendas aside for the sake of those to whom we proclaim this Gospel. It's so important.

The model, of course, is not the Apostle Paul. The model is the Lord Jesus Christ. I'll read to you from Philippians chapter 2. Remember Philippi being the city that he was in just before he came to Thessalonica.

He says, So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each one of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, and here it is, who though he was in the form of God did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.

And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. What did Jesus give up? His prerogatives to rule in heaven, his sitting at the right hand of God on high in order to serve the gospel to you if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ.

The question for us is, what are we willing to give up for the sake of the gospel? Think about that gospel, the gospel that God has reconciled himself to sinful men by the cross of Jesus Christ. It's the gospel that Jesus Christ suffered our penalty that was owed to an infinitely holy God whose wrath is fully justified.

The gospel that God's infinite wrath at every sin was poured out on Jesus Christ as he hung on the cross, and Jesus being perfectly just and holy, being completely free of any sin or blemish, could suffer it all for the sake of others, for you and for me.

The gospel that if you will believe that Christ died for your sins and that God raised him on the third day, you will be saved. What rightful demands could you surrender in order to proclaim clearly a gospel like that?

This is the question in Philippians 2, what I just read. Paul doesn't set the Lord Jesus Christ up and say, well, here's what he did, and you can't do that. He says, have this mind in you, which is also yours in Christ Jesus.

What must be set aside? Anything that might impede the gospel. Where do we have to look for that? My agenda, my ego, my, my, my. Look carefully to your spirit before God and ask him, what do I keep as a barrier because I just can't let go of this thing that I have a quote-unquote right to.

So rather than demanding our rights as Paul could have, but would not do, we're called to be gentle. And why was Paul so willing to surrender his right to be supported by those to whom he preached? It's right here in verse 7.

The Gentleness of a Nursing Mother

But we were gentle among you like a nursing mother taking care of her own child. You must be, you must give to those to whom you, you, you, you bring the gospel with the abandon of a nursing mother if you're going to be a true witness of the gospel.

To be a true witness of the gospel, you need to give with the abandon and the fullness and the gentleness of a nursing mother. That's the simile. I asked earlier what trait you'd most like to cultivate in yourself.

This is what Paul, rugged Paul, cultivated in himself. Gentleness. And not just any old gentleness, but one of the tenderest pictures of self-giving gentleness that there is, which is a nursing mother.

Now I can picture this. This still makes me kind of wince a little bit. Of all the things that the Apostle Paul could set and say be like this because I was like this. I was gentle this way. Of all the things.

And I can really picture it now. Let's say I run into an old friend of mine from my rowdier days. He runs up to me, sees me and says, Hey, J .J. I don't know how many of you knew. I used to go by my initials, Joshua James.

J .J. How you doing? He said, man, I haven't seen you since that brawl back in 72 with Oak Grove. Dude, how you doing? And I'd say to him, Yeah, man, it's good to see you. I'm doing great. You know, I'm growing in the Lord and now I'm trying to be as gentle and as kind and as tender as a nursing mother.

What do you think of that? And he'd say, Sorry, I thought you were my old gang pal. My mistake. See you later. Good luck with that nursing thing. But you know, this just, you're not the guy I thought.

But that's what it is. That's what it's set before. It's gentle. Like a nursing mother taking care of her own child. Are you with me, men? Are you with me? Taking care. In the New King James and the King James translates a little better than our ESV.

Cherishing her own child. On the depth of commitment and tenderness and gentleness. Just keeps growing on us. Gentle like a nursing mother cherishing a helpless child. Back in that day, wealthy Romans would feel like there was something beneath them and they'd hire the duty out to a wet nurse.

That's something like we read in the book of Exodus, Pharaoh's daughter did when she found Noah in that little ark that his mother made for him. And she sent Moses' sister to find his mother to do what?

To nurse him so she wouldn't have to. So he had the best of all worlds. He's adopted by the princess of Egypt and he's nursed by his own mother. But usually, that was not the case. Wealthy Roman matrons would hire out wet nurses.

This is a fairly common phrase that we hear. The infant would get to know his or her wet nurse and there would often be this bond between them that was so deep that it drove the wealthy matron to drive out the wet nurse.

But that bond, as close as it was, could not compare to the bond between a mother and her own child. I don't know how much we can get this and this culture and this practice of the day. But as a poor church in Thessalonica, certainly many of the ones who heard this first were hired out as wet nurses and knew exactly what the apostle Paul was talking about.

This connection between the one who gives all for this child. And you know, a nursing mother doesn't just give. She must. When the child cries, every fiber of her body responds to address the need. So what do we have here?

Does Paul mean that we're all to become nursing mothers? Well, of course not. That'd be ridiculous. He didn't say become a nursing mother. He searched for a picture that would convey his attitude and his demeanor towards the church, towards those he preached to, towards those he was beseeching God to change hearts.

And nothing would convey this picture better than what he gave us, that of the gentleness of a nursing mother. What is gentleness? I want to tell you what it is not. I want for a moment to tell you what gentleness is not so we get a clear picture of where we're going with this.

It is not an easygoing tolerance that's unwilling to take a stand. It is not just allowing anything to go so long as the person feels good about themselves. It's not as if gentle, nurse-motherish Paul would have been accepting or tolerant of the idols they had once worshipped.

And he says in verse 9 of chapter 1,. For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God. How did they turn away from idols?

With Paul being so gentle. Did Paul come up and say, What a nice idol that is. Can you show me how you worship it? Let's see if we can incorporate that so you feel good about what you're doing and what you've done.

And I wouldn't want to take anything away from you because I'm being gentle with you. And let's see if we can add Jesus to your panoply of worshippers. No, of course he wouldn't do that. Gentleness does not mean to tolerate anything that would offend God.

Later in this letter, gentle, nurse-mother-ish Paul gently is going to demand in no uncertain terms their sexual purity among other ethical imperatives. So the apostolic gentleness is about the manner of his speech.

It's the manner of his conduct. He ministered in a way that drew people to the truth and didn't drive them away. But it had no toleration for sin. It had no toleration for anything that would keep people from worshiping the true and living God.

It simply does not tolerate sin. We need to make this clear. I've been putting forth this idea that comes straight from the scripture. We men, we tough, rugged men, we'd like to, like Paul, reach into a fire, be bit by a snake, and survive it because we're tough.

Gentleness, gentleness cannot tolerate sin. Could someone who is kind and tender-hearted and forgiving, that's Ephesians 4, verse 32, possibly ignore something in someone that is very dear to them, that is destructive to them?

You might think of someone you love who would have a problem with, let's say, alcohol. And they've been clean, they've been off the bottle, as we say, for so many years. And then you start to see in him or her this pattern that they're going back to that old way.

They might be heading back to that habit that was so destructive to them. And would you, if you were gentle, say, well, okay, as long as you feel good about yourself. I just don't want you to feel like I'm condemning you, so try not.

Of course not. Gentleness doesn't mean lacking in firmness. Gentleness would not tolerate anything that would be harmful to the one you love. No, a truly gentle spirit couldn't do that. How unlike a nursing mother would that be?

How unlike the apostle, how unlike Christ. Yet even when we attack sin, our own and especially others, we need to follow what the apostle Paul wrote, for example, in Galatians 6 .1. Brothers, if anyone has caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness.

Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Gentleness does not mean tolerance. Gentleness is speaking of the demeanor by which we firmly confront anything that is harmful to this one whom we gently love and want to nurture the way a nursing mother loves and cherishes and nurtures an infant.

That's what he's talking about here. Too often we equate gentleness with making sure people feel good about themselves. Gentleness, true gentleness, confronts whatever is detrimental to those who you love.

And it does so in a way that shows the kind of concern a nursing mother has for her own cherished child, but it does not compromise the biblical definitions of good and evil. Gentleness is the stinging rebukes to the Pharisees from Jesus Christ.

Gentleness, as when he overturned the tables at the temple, shows us it doesn't mean toleration. Now we can leave the holy indignation to Jesus, but let us no less resolutely confront sin in ourselves and in our brethren.

And I would suggest to you, I would argue to you from this scripture, that to be gentle like a nursing mother means to confront whatever is detrimental to that person whom you cherish and who you cherish, husbands and wives most especially, anyone for whom Christ died, your brothers and sisters in the Lord.

Gentleness certifies that you have others good in mind. It doesn't compromise on truth. It doesn't hold back the rebuke. It flavors how we do it. It ensures a good hearing and is conducive to people agreeing and going and saying, as David did when he was confronted by Nathan, I have sinned.

And then in a spirit of gentleness, restoring the person. Gentleness certifies that you have their good in mind. And gentleness also opens yourself up to them. It exposes to them. Verse 8, so being affectionately desirous of you, we're ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our very selves because you have become very dear to us.

Sharing the Gospel and Our Very Selves

Our very selves translates the word for soul. We share our very soul with you. The word there to share is to give. It has a sense of imparting something. Paul imparted not only the gospel but their very selves to them.

Now how can this happen? How can you be so exposed and so vulnerable to someone? He says being affectionately desirous. You have become very dear to us. This language continues. Well, there's a realism here.

It's being honest and transparent with the people to whom you preach. You preach as individuals. You preach to those in your families, to those at work, to whoever you proclaim the gospel. How can we become so vulnerable?

Let me ask you, if you're in the Lord Jesus Christ and when you came to Him, were you not exposed by His Spirit as a sinner you are? Were not all the layers of protection taken down and stripped away and you were left blind, naked and beggarly before Him?

What was left of you when Jesus Christ by His Spirit showed you your sin? Nothing. And then what happens? And then He shows you Christ and His cross and the love of God and the salvation that we have in Him and He gives you faith to believe this message.

He strips away all the things that we put up that keep people from being able to see inside. This is what Paul is saying here in his gentleness as a nursing mother is gentle. He was so desirous of them, the way a nursing mother is desirous of her child and seeing their good.

He was able to let them see the real Him, the real you. To know that it is a sinner trying to draw sinners to the only answer to sin which is God. How could the Apostle Paul who stood guarding the coats of the men who stoned to death Stephen the first martyr of the church become this?

How could the Apostle Paul who in his previous life was advancing past all his peers in Phariseeism and studying with the greatest scholars of the day in Phariseeism and Hebrew theology and so forth become this?

The Apostle Paul who pursued believers in what they called then the way even to death is by having your own self by God's Spirit exposed to you and seeing that God remakes the Spirit that God will make you new that God transforms you into a new person that's Titus 3 .5 by the washing and regeneration of the Holy Spirit He saved us not according to works of righteousness which we have done but according to His mercy He saved us and in that mercy exposing us to ourselves and so without fear the Apostle Paul can expose himself to them his very soul the depth of his being and have that be the connection have that be part of this gospel brotherhood that he has with them.

It is one of the distinguishing marks of Christianity compared to any other religion on earth. It draws men into a relationship with God by faith in Christ and it's one of our distinguishing marks that no other religion can boast of that it's about relationship.

The Jews miss this the Muslims fear their Allah. Hindus and Buddhists strive for themselves to get to the goal of Nirvana. God calls on men to love Him to be in relationship with Him. Jesus Christ was sent because of the Father's love.

We love Him because He first loved us and this is love that He laid down His life for His friends. The love of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit who has been given to us in a gospel like that.

What do we need to hide from anybody if God has seen the depth of your sin and by faith in Christ forgiven it can we not be real with everyone we meet with those to whom we wish to evangelize. The gospel is more than an imparting of knowledge.

It's an imparting of your very self. He said we shared not only the gospel of God. We imparted not only that but imparted in the same way our very selves to the very soul. I would suggest to you that this is one way we can find it easier to see what rights we keep and hang on to tenaciously.

You know this is risky ground here. This is dangerous ground for many of us. It demands vulnerability. It can't exist without putting Jesus ahead of our own fears of rejection. But if God didn't reject us when we were exposed to Him in this way then how can we fail to be real with those and let them see how is this even possible.

It's only by the power of God. Remember Paul's earlier life the Pharisee who so hated Christians that he approved of death for them and participated in it. What could take him from there to the testimony of 1 Thessalonians 2 verses 6 -8 which we read.

What could turn a raving madman and murderer into this tender nursing mother. It's the same power that turned you from a raving mad murderer killing your fellow man with your thoughts while smiling to his face.

Only the power of God can bring about such a change as this. Only the overwhelming knowledge of sin can humble us like that. And only the even more overwhelming power of the Spirit of God can heal us.

So how many of us would look now and say I would like to be more like a nursing mother cherishing her child and have that gentleness that would tolerate nothing that we can take steps against. That would be detrimental to someone else.

How many of us would choose that as a Pauline trait that we'd like to have. So we have the courage to let people see inside as we draw them to Christ and show them the transforming power of the Gospel even as God worked in us.

The nursing mother gives of herself expecting nothing in return. What do we bring to God but empty hands. In fact the one to whom she gives is completely unable to give anything back except waking her up at all hours of the night taking from her until satisfied no regard for her comforts or her needs.

This is the picture that we have. This is the way Paul brought the Gospel to the Thessalonians. And this is how we must be if we're to be purveyors the same Gospel we must in that way emulate the character of the God of the Gospel to whom we now serve.

Amen. Let's pray Lord God. We thank you again for bringing us together. We thank you for the word of God which convicts us and brings us closer to you Father as we look to it and understand it and follow your ways.

I pray Father that by your transforming spirit you would mold us into this character that would be effective ambassadors of your Gospel. That in our gentleness which mimics Jesus Christ we would not be tolerant of anything that would hold people away from transformation into transformation into his image.

And we thank you for these and ask them in Jesus name. Amen.