and to the Nipawin Corps 14 Dec. 2008
By Captain Michael Ramsay
To read the 2008 version chick here: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2008/12/1-thessalonians-516-22-23-7-ps-and-pi.html
I don’t know if you have ever seen those motivational speakers on TV or in person. I’ve had some jobs in the past where they send someone in to rally the troops. They usually have – in the old days flip charts – these days PPT or DVD, lots of props and some way that they want you to remember what it is they are trying to motivate you to do. Sometimes it is just repetition.
One thing that people often use is an acronym – you spell out a word and every letter stands for something else. Here I’ll give you some famous acronyms and you tell me if you know what they mean:
Sometimes they just have an alliterative list with each item in the cue staring with the same letter or the same sound, like Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, or here’s another little quiz for you can you tell me:
1) In Four H, what are the 4 H’s?[2]
2) What are the 3 R’s from school?
a. How many of these words actually start with R?
b. Who can tell me which word that is?[3]
Paul in our scripture passage uses some of these very techniques and in this pericope that we are looking at today Paul gives us the 7 Ps (Pi’s) of being holy or blameless in preparation for Christ’s return (1 Thessalonians 5:23).[4] In Greek, the language in which Paul writes this letter to the Thessalonians, each of these phrases begins with the Greek letter ‘Pi’, which is roughly the equivalent of the English letter ‘P’. Now Paul knows that Jesus may come back at any moment and so he comes up with this way for us to remember how to be blameless, how to be holy in preparation for this event.
The First P is ‘Rejoice Always’ – In Greek it starts with a P – or a Pi anyway (the Greek equivalent of our P). So the first P, or piece of Pi, is ‘Rejoice Always’.
P 1 = Rejoice Always
Rejoice Always (Thessalonians 5:16, 18; cf. Deuteronomy12: 7,18; 1 Chronicles 16:10, 31; Psalm 40:16; Luke 10:20; John 16:22; Romans 5:1-5; Philippians 4:4; Colossians 1:24; 1 Peter 1:26, 4:13). Not about everything but in all circumstances, Paul says. This is important. This is because of the faith that we have that with God all things are possible (Matthew 19:26; Mark 10:27). We know that the war is already won (1 Corinthians 15; 1 John 5:4). Nothing that happens here on earth, in our lives, can change the Salvation that has already been provided through our Lord. Nothing: the only question is whether we will take advantage of it, whether we will experience it or not!
I think of a particular Salvation Army funeral a couple of years ago: when Major Neil Voice received his promotion to glory I heard that indeed his memorial service was a real celebration with a full brass band and everything! His funeral was a celebration of the fact that he served God well in his life and now he gets to continue doing so for eternity with the Lord. This celebration did not take away at all from the legitimate grief and appropriate laments from those who love him but this kind of celebration is a great example of the hope that we all have in Christ (1 Thessalonians 1:3; 2 Thessalonians 2:16). In The Salvation Army we do refer to one’s passing as a ‘promotion to Glory’ and promotions are good things, aren’t they? Christ died and rose again so that we all can live for now and forever, if we so choose to accept his invitation; indeed this is something to be joyful about (John 10:10; John 15:15).
I think of my cousin who was also promoted to glory a couple of years ago now – she was my age. She left many loving friends and family members behind, including two very young children but I understand that neither her faith nor the faith of her husband wavered at all. Difficult things happen[5] but we know that in the end everything will be okay for those who love the Lord; so indeed we can always celebrate that joy of our salvation, even as we lament, even as we mourn, even as we are sad, we can still rejoice (2 Corinthians 6:10) because God is good and God has provided our salvation for us all. It is there for whomever of us wishes to accept it. So the first P, the first Pi is Rejoice always.
P2 = Pray without ceasing:
The second P (or Pi) is Pray without ceasing: Unlike Pi #1, ‘Pray without ceasing’ actually starts with a ‘p’ in English, Now we know that our salvation comes from the Lord. We know that He is indeed looking out for us and so we pray continuously and we do give thanks in all circumstances for this is God’s will for us (1 Thessalonians 5:17; cf. Acts 12:7; Romans 1:9, 2 Timothy 1:3).
We know that we are in a spiritual battle. We know that we fight not as much against flesh and blood as we do against powers and principalities (Ephesians 6:12ff; cf. Romans 8:38; 1 Peter 3:22). We know that there is opposition to the gospel. We know that even though the gospel is good news, we know that there are people who hate the truth and we know that there are people who hate the tellers of the truth. John refers to many of these people as antichrists (1 John 2:18, 22; 4:3; 2 John 2:1-7; cf. 1 Corinthians 6:22). There are people who have left the faith; there are people who ignore what is obvious and there are people who will attack us instead. Because the devil, antichrists, and more and more people, and more and more things in this world seem to attack us, our beliefs, and our God – because we are constantly under attack, we need to keep in constant communications with God and that is what prayer is – communication with God.
When soldiers are in the heat of battle: when bombs are going off, when planes are coming in from a distance, and they cannot tell friend from foe and they cannot see what is even coming at them – what do they need? They need good communication with the base. They need good communication with one who can see the battlefield and this is what prayer is – it is keeping in touch with God; it is following Jesus into battle. If we fail to pray, if we forget to pray, we are like the soldier who stumbles blindly out of the trenches knowing neither at whom he is shooting nor who is shooting at him. This soldier cannot survive for long and – even though the war is already won – people are still perishing and we cannot survive for long without the Lord (2 Corinthians 6:2, 1 Corinthians 15:2, Ephesians 2:8, 1 Peter 1).[6] We need the Lord’s guidance, we need the Lord’s strength, and the Lord’s sacrifice so that indeed we can all live – and for this, we should be constantly giving thanks.
P3 = Give thanks in all circumstances
That brings us to the third piece of our holiness pi, our third P = Give Thanks in all circumstances (Thessalonians 5:16, 18; cf. Deuteronomy 12:7,18; 1 Chronicles 16:10, 31; Psalm 40:16; Luke 10:20; John 16:22; Romans 5:1-5; Philippians 4:4; Colossians 1:24; 1 Peter 1:26, 4:13).
This attitude of thanksgiving is so important. The Lord loves us. Now, like we said about our saved loved ones who pass on, we are not thankful by any means that they are gone but we do know that they have moved on to something better – no more sickness, no more death, no more tears (Revelation 21:4) and we do know that even though we miss our loved ones – God will never leave us nor forsake us (Deuteronomy 31:6; Hebrews 13:5). He will not give us more than we can bear. God loves us (John 3:16-17; 5; 15; 1 John 4). He loves all of us and He manages to work together even the most unpleasant situations somehow, someway for His Kingdom purposes, and because of this we can indeed be thankful in all circumstances.
To review the holiness Ps, the pi’s we have so far, are:
P1 = Rejoice always
P3 = Give thanks in all circumstances
This brings us to our next pi:
P4 = Do not quench the Spirit (1 Thessalonians 5:19; cf.1 Thessalonians 1:5,6,7)
Now, apparently when Paul was writing this letter, there were some ‘wakkos’ predicting the time and the day of the end of the world (cf. Mark 13:32-33) and there were ‘weirdos’ who would perform faked healings, false prophecies, etc. There were these snake-oil salesmen of sorts.[7] And some of these folks were leading people astray and some of these people with their false predictions just plain looked plain silly and they did so for no easily discernable heavenly purpose. Some things never change! There is a difference between being a fool for the gospel and just plain being a fool.[8] Now Paul knew this and Paul knew that in reaction to these people, some people could go too far in the other direction.
I was raised in the Canadian Baptist tradition – the Lord taught me a lot and I have a great respect for the many Christians who earnestly serve the Lord there. It has been said that the only time a Canadian Baptist raises his hand in church is to ask permission to go to the bathroom. (This joke probably represents the extreme!) I went to a church service once and I remember someone who was visiting asking if it had charismatic style worship at all; the response was, “The Holy Spirit showed up just the other night in an evening service but - don’t worry – the pastor asked him to leave.” I have certainly been in more than one service like this (in churches of different denominations) that indeed when the Spirit does show up, people don’t know what to do – and this is what Paul is telling us about with the fourth P. He is saying don’t quench the Spirit. So what are the Ps and our Pi’s so far?
P1 = Rejoice always
P2 = Pray without ceasing
P4 = Do not quench the Spirit
That brings us to our fifth holiness Pi of preparation, P5, which builds on P4 very nicely. We have to be careful not to quench the spirit and we have to make sure that we do not despise the words of the prophets.
P5 = Do not despise the words of the prophets
Like we said: there are many false prophets out there. We spoke two weeks ago about these people who are endlessly predicting the time and date for the end of times even when the Bible tells us not to do so (Mark 13:32-33).[9] There are all these false prophets out there and prophets who make mistakes as well – and, as shown by the fellow from California who predicted a couple of end of the world dates for this year (2011) that have already come and gone - the media loves these guys because they can use them to make Christians, to make us all, look like a bunch of liars and a bunch of fools. The truth is, that yes, as John says, there are many antichrists pretending to know what they do not know. There are many false prophets tickling our ears for the purpose of financial gain or to lead us astray but indeed Paul says, there are real prophets – and we should not despise their words. And this brings us to our next holiness point of preparation for Christ’s return.
P6 = But test everything, hold onto what is good
This is one of the most important things (cf. 1 Thessalonians 5:21). This is one of the primary reasons that we are given the Bible as it is, I imagine; so that indeed we can and we will test things and see what is right and see what is wrong. We must be like the Bereans (Acts 17:10-15). Paul applauds them – the Christians in the first century town of Berea – for this very thing. They do not accept what the Apostle Paul is telling them simply because he is telling it to them; they put his words to the test. They search the scriptures; we need to search the scriptures. It is very important. Smart people sometimes make mistakes. Good people sometimes make mistakes and when we hear someone utter what we think may be a mistake we need to look it up in the Bible. We need to pray about it. We need to then approach them about it – because if they are wrong, they need to change and if we are wrong, we need to change and either way as we are smart enough to test what is good and what is evil, we will indeed grow – provided we try to, P (Pi) 7, Abstain from every form of evil.
P7 = Abstain from every form of evil.
Doctrine 10 of The Salvation Army reads: "We believe that it is the privilege of all believers to be wholly sanctified, and that their whole spirit and soul and body may be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." Our text today says, abstain from every form of evil: This is holiness (Cf. TSA doc. 10). God tells us to be holy (1 Peter 1:15, Leviticus 11:44,45; 19:2; 20:7). God tells us to be blameless (1 Thessalonians 5:23). God tells us to be perfect (2 Corinthians 13; Colossians 1:28; Hebrews 11,12). John Wesley argued that this involves more than just avoiding vices. He says, quoting an heathen Epicurean poet, in a sermon entitled, ‘The Almost Christian’ that “Good men avoid sin from the love of virtue. Wicked men avoid sin from a fear of punishment.”[10] Avoiding evil and avoiding it because of a legitimate love of God is very important. It is very important and the opposite of what some people suggest: that we all sin all the time. We know that this is not true because if we did sin all the time, God would never tell us to be holy just as He is holy and He would never tell us to be even perfect and he would never tell us to be blameless as Paul records in Verse 23 of our text today – but He does. God doesn’t set people up for failure. He is a loving God. He would never ask from us that which is impossible. After all with God all things are possible, and in Verses 23 and 24, He tells us how it is indeed possible to be perfect even as God is perfect. He says He will do it. God himself will sanctify us through and through, keeping us blameless until the return of Christ. So this is exciting. We don’t need to sin. We don’t need to return to bad habits. We can rely on God, He will lead us through the 7 P’s (Pi’s) of holiness in each one of our lives and indeed He will make us holy, as He is holy.
So then as we prepare to meet Christ very soon, as we celebrate his coming 2000 years ago in a manger and as we look forward to his return anytime now. Let us turn to God and in the process let us make sure that we are prepared. Let us give P’s a chance. Let us not have any Pi missing as we present our lives holy unto God as a living sacrifice, trusting that He will preserve us blameless until the coming of the end of the age.
Let us pray.
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[1] 1) As soon as possible 2) North Atlantic Treaty Organization 3) National Hockey League 4) Mind your own business 5) The Salvation Army.
[2] Head, heart, hands, and health
[3] Reading, wRiting, aRithmetic: Only ‘Reading’ begins with the letter ‘R’
[4] Beverly Roberts Gaventa, First and Second Thessalonians (Interpretation: Grand Loisville, Kentucky, USA: John Knox Press, 1998), 84.
[5] Rober L. Thomas. The Expositor's Bible Commentary. Pradis CD-ROM:1 3. Responsibilities to oneself (5:16-18), Book Version: 4.0.2: ‘A final member of this triplet for personal development is "Give thanks in all circumstances." No combination of happenings can be termed "bad" for a Christian because of God's constant superintendence (Rom 8:28). We need to recognize that seeming aggravations are but a temporary part of a larger plan for our spiritual well-being. Out of this perspective we can always discern a cause for thanks.’
[6] Cf. Captain Michael Ramsay. “Romans 13:11-14: Victory: The Final Whistle” Available on-line: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2007/12/victory-final-whistle-romans-1311-14.html
[7] Beverly Roberts Gaventa, 84. Cf. Also. Captain Michael Ramsay, Mark 13: 24-37: Hope for a Happy New Year: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2008/11/mark-1332-37-hope-for-happy-new-year.html
[8] But cf. Mark Chapman, “Mark 1:1-8,” The Expository Times, Volume 120, number 2, ed. Paul Foster, John Riches, Karen Wenell, (London: 2008): 79-80.
[9] Captain Michael Ramsay, Mark 13: 24-37: Hope for a Happy New Year: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2008/11/mark-1332-37-hope-for-happy-new-year.html
[10] John Wesley, “The Almost Christian.” Cited from Outler & Heitzenrater 1991,67.
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