MAC KIRK

Walk Worthily I Thessalonians 2:1-12 Why is the Church here? Why I am here? Why are you here? ( Let me comment that the lectionary sometimes gets it wrong....should have gone to vs 12 today, so we are looking at that vs.) "...Walk worthily of God, who calleth you into His own kingdom and glory." The Apostle identifies what that means by his own example in vs. 10 " Ye are witnesses, and God also, how holily and righteously and unblamably we behaved ourselves toward you that believe..." 1. What does it mean to " Walk worthily"? As one commentator puts it, " ...Such a picture of a Christian pastor , drawn with such conscious sincerity and honesty, warns all the followers of Christ against the temptation of avarice and ambition and inspires them to emulate the courage, the purity, the tenderness, the self-sacrifice, and the fidelity which the apostle claimed and which all who knew him could testify he had embodied in his life..." Th

Reflection on I Thessalonians 1:3 What is the Church to be? In the Epistle today we hear what the Apostle calls the Christians there to continue in. We too need to hear what he is saying for our encouragement and growth in the body of Christ. Divisions over doctrine can be important of course, as well as the fine points of theology but here Paul tells us what is good and right about the Church in Thessalonica in their believing lives of love. They were commended for their " unceasing work of faith, the labor of love, and the endurance of hope " 1:3 Let us look at these individually through the use of the words in the original language. "Grace be to you, and peace, from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.2We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers;Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labor of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father; Knowing, brothers belove