The Third Goal of Godliness

The Third Goal of Godliness

1 Thessalonians 3:9-13

By Everett Wilson, Pastor

Three points by way of introduction.

1. All of the letters Paul wrote, which is about a third of the New Testament, were addressed to people who were born again. They knew both from Paul’s preaching and from their own experience the big difference between the works of the flesh and the fruits of the Spirit. Paul could not have addressed the words of our text to the general population of Thessalonica, but only to the Christians there. That is why modern Christians treat the letters of Paul as addressed to us as well as to his first readers, and why Paul is not a good source of inspirational sayings for non-Christians. What he says does not apply to them nor work for them, until the Holy Spirit gives them by new birth.

2. The word “godliness” does not appear in the text, but godliness in the church at Thessalonica is what Paul is grateful for and asks for more of. In Christian terms, godliness is an inward relationship with God and an outward expression of God’s love to the world.

3. In the modern church we do not expect godliness from a church full of new converts, none of whom had been Christians a very few years earlier. In Thessalonica, none of them had grown up in a Christian home, since there were no Christian homes when they were growing up, and none of them had gone to Sunday School because there were none of those either. Some of them may have grown up in the Synagogue, but that was as close they got to the Word of God.

The way Paul addresses them indicates that the Thessalonians had come a long way in a short time, .

How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy that we feel before our God because of you? Night and day we pray most earnestly that we may see you face to face and restore whatever is lacking in your faith.

What Paul says about them is my testimony about you, and may be your testimony about one another. If you are a visitor, it may be your testimony about your church at home; if you have no church, we hope you will get a sense this morning of just how big it is to be part of a church, which he calls in a another place the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and bulwark of the truth.

The Thessalonians were teachable Christians. Paul was confident that they would understand him because they saw things as he saw them, and needed only to know more. On the basis of this confidence Paul prays for them to achieve the third goal of godly living, which is to be blameless before God when Jesus comes.

We often talk about the first two goals of godliness, which are to honor God and bless the world. Paul had a great deal to say about them throughout his letters. The third goal is more rarely stated, probably because it contains a personal ambition; but this first Sunday of Advent is a perfect time to consider it, when we are thinking about how Jesus came into the world to save us, and is coming again to take us home to be with him forever,

New Birth the Starting Point

The starting point of a godly life is new birth. The first Christians, like the Thessalonians, knew no other way to live it apart from this starting point. The Spirit of God in our lives is required for godly living, because the fruits of the Spirit must come from the Spirit. Otherwise all we can produce are what Paul calls “the works of the flesh,” none of which are very nice. Even listing them makes us uncomfortable.

Now the works of the flesh are obvious: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. I am warning you, as I warned you before: those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

These are only examples of “things like these.” If you don’t understand some of the long words, they describe some pretty icky stuff; in explaining them I would get off track and I would tell you more than you want to know, or need to know to meet the third goal of godliness. Enough to say that the works of the flesh are all bad, and all have evil consequences—yet they are all that can be expected from those who are born only of the flesh. It’s no great surprise that Jesus says, What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be astonished that I said to you, “You must be born from above.”

Those who have been born from above understand the third goal of godliness: for each of us to appear blameless before God when Jesus comes with all his saints.

Needing No Excuse

To be blameless means to need no excuse. If you need an excuse, you need more than that: you need to repent, and apologize, and be forgiven.

Blame is usually self-blame, inhibitions imposed by a guilty conscience. Other people do not blame us nearly as much as we blame ourselves. We look for excuses to mitigate the self-blame, to convince ourselves that we are not such terrible sinners after all.

Excuses are bad strategy for two reasons. They usually aren’t true, and they dodge responsibility. Instead of excusing yourself, you need to repent before God and apologize to your spouse, your teacher, your boss, your neighbor, your parents, or whoever else you offended by messing up. You may still have to bear the consequences. You don’t repent or apologize because it will get you off, but because it is the only way to face reality. We don’t need an excuse; we need forgiveness.

The television drama JAG, acknowledges this obvious truth. When the heroes, who were all Naval and Marine officers, were accused by their commander of messing up in some way, they had one response only: “No excuse, Sir,” or “No excuse, Ma’am!

To appear blameless, needing no excuse or apology, is a high goal even if your appearance is before a commanding officer, or Judge, or Principal, or Dean, or employer; how much higher it is to appear blameless before God when Jesus comes with all his saints! Yet that is exactly what Paul prayed for in our text: may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, just as we abound in love for you. And may he so strengthen your hearts in holiness that you may be blameless before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.

It was possible for Paul to pray for the church as he does because the church was neither indifferent or hostile to this prayer. The Christians wanted for themselves what Paul wanted for them, which is what God wanted for them too. They didn’t want to have to say, “No excuse, sir.”

Not a Lot of Time Left

We do not have a lot of time left to abound in love and be strengthened in holiness. In our gospel reading this morning, Jesus warned us to get ready, because we don’t know when the end will come. He said that his coming will be as sudden and decisive as the springing of a trap.

If we knew when it was going to happen it wouldn’t be sudden. There are only two possible outcomes in the Bible.

Þ We will will meet Christ when we die.

Þ We will meet him when he comes again.

You are not going to miss him!

A great-grandmother I know put it in perspective when she said that she has a smaller fraction of her total life left to live today than she yesterday. She doesn’t know exactly what the fraction is, but she knows that it is getting smaller every day. So, whether you are young are old, there is not a lot of time left!