2 Thessalonians 1
Paul, Silas[a] and Timothy,
To the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace and peace to you from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love all of you have for one another is increasing. Therefore, among God’s churches we boast about your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and trials you are enduring. All this is evidence that God’s judgment is right, and as a result you will be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are suffering. God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed. This includes you, because you believed our testimony to you. With this in mind, we constantly pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may bring to fruition your every desire for goodness and your every deed prompted by faith. We pray this so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ."
In baseball, when you are a small market team, you keep players the allotted number of years that you can pay them the league minimum and then when those years are used up, they usually can go to free agency and the teams with lots of money acquire their services. This can be somewhat delayed by giving them a "large" contract early on in exchange for more years of service. It's a gamble from the team's perspective because they are paying a player before they have proven anything in the big leagues large sums of money, betting that they are going to be successful in the majors like they were in the minors. It is also a gamble for the player because 5 years from now, he may be so good that he could be making $25 million per year instead of $10 million he committed to as a wide-eyed newbie.
What does this have to do with the passage? My mind went there when Paul talks about when the Day of the Lord comes, his prayer is that we may be found worthy. I remember when the Brewers signed Aaron Ashby, a pitcher, to one of those contracts. Instead of receiving $400,000 per year, he was getting $7 million. His response was," I hope I can prove myself worthy of the cost they are paying for me." To be honest, up until this year, he hasn't. Now, 4 years later it has all come together and he "is worthy" and playing a big role in our playoff run. However, during those 4 years, he has been terrible. Imagine his shame around management, fans he'd see in public or even teammates in the minors bitter that he is getting so much money while they are doing so much better and making a pittance of what he is.
God has paid a big price for you - his only son, and as He looks at you is He thinking, "What a waste."? When the angels see you are they thinking, "What did God ever see in them?" When fellow believers see you are they thinking, "(S)he is a waste of pew space."? Paul encourages the believers in Thessalonica, those "on the team", that they are to act on every good deed that has been prompted by the Holy Spirit and every desire for goodness that the spirit brings to their minds. He tells them that God's desire for them is to look like a bunch of little "Jesuses". His Son came to die in order to form His likeness in people all over the Earth who receive Him. If we are looking like Jesus, God is glorified. His investment was worth it. If we are not any different from the unsaved people in our life, you can almost sense His disappointment.
When you stand before God someday, is He going to say "Well done, my good and faithful servant!" or will you be ashamed on that day?
No comments:
Post a Comment