First Thessalonians 2:5

The Bible says in First Thessalonians 2:5, “For neither at any time used we flattering words, as ye know, nor a cloak of covetousness, God is witness.” The Apostle Paul had the power of God in the words that he said. There are two reasons for this found in this verse. Paul did not use “flattering words,” and he did not use a “cloak of covetousness.” Why would a speaker use “flattering words?” Those who have a goal of being popular or of saying what the listeners want to hear would use flattering words. Those who want to please God would not do so. There are crowds of people who will refuse a speaker from God and who will reject his message of truth. Compromisers know that such is the case, and they change their message in order to please their hearers. Every speaker must make a choice between attempting to please God or attempting to please man. Jesus said, “No man can serve two masters.” You will hate one and love the other, and so you must choose one or the other.

Paul also said that he did not have a “cloak of covetousness.” False teachers are almost always motivated by covetousness. If someone is in a leadership position in a religious organization, find out the level of their bank account. If they have profited financially in the name of Christ, they probably did so by putting a “cloak” on their covetousness so that they could not be seen for what they really were. The Apostle Paul was a giver of spiritual things to the people of Thessalonica. He did not take their material things. He did not use his position to benefit from them materially. Paul’s priority was the spread of the gospel.

Paul wrote in First Thessalonians 2:6, “Nor of men sought we glory, neither of you, nor yet of others, when we might have been burdensome, as the apostles of Christ.” Human beings create hierarchies, but the Spirit of God creates equality. Human beings who are selfish create hierarchies, and then they struggle and compete to impose themselves at the head of those hierarchies. If true Christianity was a hierarchy, then the apostles would be at the top of it. But the apostles were led by the Spirit of God and therefore they did not establish themselves as being at the head. They did not make themselves “burdensome, as the apostles of Christ.” Their authority came from Christ who had sent them and from the purity and the truthfulness of their message. They were speakers and teachers of truth. They were not manipulators or controllers of others. They were coworkers.

Paul described his attitude to the people in Thessalonica, and Paul said in First Thessalonians 2:7, “But we were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherisheth her children.” Paul understood that the people to whom he was bringing the gospel needed help, and his goal was to help them. His attitude toward them was the same that someone should have who was taking care of children. Please notice that the correct way to handle children is to be “gentle” to them.

The Bible says in First Thessalonians 2:8, “So being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because ye were dear unto us.” This is another verse that shows why the Apostle Paul got the results that he did in his work among the people of Thessalonica. Before they were converted to Christ, Paul had a great longing and a great desire to see them saved. His concern for them was so great that he would have given them his own soul. Paul wrote the same thing about his concern for the Jewish people. In Romans 9:2-3 Paul wrote, “That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh.”

In First Thessalonians 2:9 Paul wrote, “For ye remember, brethren, our labor and travail; for laboring night and day, because we would not be chargeable unto any of you, we preached unto you the gospel of God.” The gospel of Jesus Christ is free. No preacher of the gospel should give the impression that he or she is preaching to get money. If you need money, get a job. If you are tempted to use the ministry to get money, then get a job. Evidently Paul was in a situation where he could have been misunderstood and where people might have thought that his purpose was to get their material things. Therefore, Paul got a job. Paul made sure that those who heard him preach the gospel could never find the slightest excuse to think that he was preaching to get money from them. Therefore, he labored “night and day.” The gospel is free because Jesus Christ gave His blood on the cross of Calvary. In these last days it is shameful the way that some people make money from their ministries. Money made from the preaching of the gospel should go back into the ministry, and should never go toward making ministers rich. Perhaps a minister should have no greater salary than the average person in his congregation. It is shameful the degree to which some people sell books, and CDs, and trinkets, and every imaginable thing, along with asking for donations. The gospel should be given out freely, and more people who call themselves ministers should make a greater effort in the way that Paul did to ensure that the gospel is given without being “chargeable” to any one.

In First Thessalonians 2:10 Paul wrote, “Ye are witnesses, and God also, how holily and justly, and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that believe.” Paul brought these people the Word of God. But his words would have done damage instead of good had his life not backed up what he said. Paul had a testimony by the way that he lived. He was holy: he kept himself from evil. He was righteous: he did the right thing. He was blameless: no one could accuse him of anything. Remember that the devil is the accuser of the brethren. He will always accuse you falsely, but he wants to get you to fail so that he can accuse you with reason. Keep yourself from falling because it is important to keep a righteous testimony before the unbelievers. There are few things more valuable than having a testimony for Christ.

In First Thessalonians 2:11 Paul said that he did three things among the Thessalonians. He wrote, “As ye know how we exhorted, and comforted, and charged every one of you, as a father doth his children.” He exhorted them, he comforted them, and he charged them. The word that is translated “exhorted” is the same word that was used of the Holy Spirit when Jesus called the Holy Spirit “the Comforter” in John 14:16. Jesus said, “And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever.” A comforter is one who is called alongside to be a companion and to give assistance. If you believe in Jesus, the Holy Spirit is your comforter. As you grow in Christ, you need to be more like the Apostle Paul and become a comforter to others.

In First Thessalonians 2:11 the word that is translated “comforted” comes from a word that means to encourage or to give soothing words. The words that you say to someone need to be positive words that help them to head in the right direction. Paul said that he exhorted and comforted those in Thessalonica. He also said that he “charged” every one of them. The word that is translated “charged” means to bear witness about serious and solemn matters. What is more serious or more important than the need to follow God through faith in Christ?

One of the important things to notice about First Thessalonians 2:11 is that Paul said that he dealt with these believers in the city of Thessalonica “as a father doth his children.” Paul was talking about how he comforted them, how he spoke to them encouraging words, and how he taught them the important and serious spiritual matters of life. That is also the number one responsibility of a parent: to teach. The primary responsibility of a parent is not to punish, but to teach. Teach your children the best way that you can, and then let them make their decisions as they grow old enough to make them. Protect them from the dangers of life, but not from the lessons of life. Never forget that your primary responsibility as a parent is to teach. You will be accountable to God for what you taught the ones that you brought into the world. Your children will be accountable for how they responded to your teachings. There are people who reject the teachings of Christ, and there are children who will reject the teachings of their parents.

We are told what Paul taught to his spiritual children in First Thessalonians 2:12. It says, “That ye would walk worthy of God, who hath called you unto his kingdom and glory.” If you have been called of God, then you have the greatest blessing already. Nothing better can ever happen to you because knowing Jesus Christ is the greatest blessing. This verse speaks of the final outcome of being “called” of God. The final outcome is that you will end up in “his kingdom and glory.” Faith comes before works, but faith without works is dead. We are saved by faith, but God wants us to add to our faith. We should desire to please Him because of what He has reserved for us. We should desire to serve Him because of how much He suffered for us on the cross of Calvary.

First Thessalonians 2:13 describes the correct response to hearing the Word of God. It says, “For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the Word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.” There are two kinds of people who are involved in organized Christianity: those who are followers of men, and those who are followers of God. When a person becomes truly saved through faith in God, it is because they turned to Christ personally. For the redeemed the Word of God is a living book. Those who are saved turn to the Word of God as their means of receiving information and communication from God. That is the reason that God gave His Word. True followers of God through Christ do not rely upon dreams or imaginations to hear from God. True followers of God rely upon the Word of God, because they know that truth comes from God.

The Bible is a spiritual book, and its pages are open to those who are spiritually minded. Concerning this important principle, the Bible says in First Corinthians 2:12-14, “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God: that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”

The Word comes from God, but of course, God gave the Word through human instruments. That is why Paul wrote in this verse, “the Word of God which ye heard of us.” God gave the New Testament portion of His Word through the apostles and their direct associates. And then God preserved His Word in written form so that all generations could read it, and know it, and hear from God through it.

In the last phrase of First Thessalonians 2:13, the Bible says that: the Word of God “effectually worketh also in you that believe.” There is a very interesting correlation between Jesus Christ and the Word of God. Jesus Himself is called the Word of God. It says of Jesus in the Gospel of John 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” The Word is the truth. Jesus is the truth. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” Jesus is the manifestation of God. God’s communication comes through Jesus and by way of Jesus. Because Jesus is the living Word, and the Bible is the written Word, there is a direct relationship between receiving Jesus Christ as Savior and receiving the Bible “not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God.”

If you do not have a relationship with Jesus Christ, turn from your sins today and come to the Truth. If you do, Jesus Christ will bring you into His kingdom, and you will have the Word of God as your spiritual nourishment both now and forever.

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