Title: Glory of Man, Glory of God
Paul's situation
In such a difficult situation, Paul could lean on the Gentile community he had established. Of course, even a Gentile community is not made up solely of Gentiles. Because Diaspora Jews were included, they were connected through several channels with Jewish orthodox legalists. Moreover, another difficulty was that Paul could not stay in one local community. After Paul had founded and left, it was common for wandering preachers and evangelists from Judea to reverence Paul's teachings. The church Paul founded by these people continued to shake.
Moreover, even the church he founded did not support him consistently. There is a religious part, and there is an economic part. Now that the missionaries are receiving sufficient material support in their home countries, they can be guaranteed a certain amount of life, but in the case of Paul, the situation was very bad. If we look at verse 9 today, we can understand the situation. “Fellow students, you will remember our hard work and effort well. We worked day and night so as not to be a nuisance to anyone while we preach the gospel of God to you.” The situation he was in was a pity to the extent that he preached the gospel while preparing his own food.
false preachers
However, Paul's greatest concern is that the Thessalonian church is being doctrinalally swayed by false evangelists. In today's text, Paul reveals that fact in a very subtle way. We haven't read it, but according to verse 14, the Thessalonians have already been persecuted by the Jewish legalists. Paul makes this fact more explicit in verse 16. “They even hindered us from preaching the gospel to the Gentiles so that they could be saved.” Paul is writing today's text with the concern that the Thessalonians might deviate from the grace of the gospel.
He describes false evangelists like this: It's a bit long, but let's read verses 3-5 again. “We are not encouraging you with false ideas, impure motives, or deceit. We are speaking as people approved by God and on a mission to preach the gospel, not to please people, but to please God, who searches our hearts. As you know, we have never used flattering remarks, and we have never been greedy with deceit. God is well aware of this.” Here, Paul seems to be pleading to know his inner heart, but in reality he is warning of the reality of false evangelists. False evangelists are deceiving the Thessalonians. They try to win people's 'favor'. So they are always ‘flattening’ and ‘greedy’. The behavior of these false evangelists is to seek the glory of men (verse 6).
What specifically did these false evangelists from Judea cause? Today's text does not go into detail about it, but only indirectly points out their attitude. But we can see what Paul was concerned about from the fact that they were legalists from Judea. They must have poured out all sorts of cowardice to negate Paul's teaching that we are saved by faith alone without the law. Why is it that people are shaken by the claims of these false evangelists? It's really hard to tell just this part. As it is now, these false evangelists do not always say strange things, but most of them say plausible things. He wins people's hearts with his very sophisticated attitude. Moreover, there is an attractive power in the law itself that they claim. Isn't that still the case? Being knowledgeable in the Bible, fluent in prayer, good service to those in need, donating a lot for church building, etc. It is attractive to be an exemplary member of the church. Who can deny that in front of the saying that if you live like this, you will be praised by God?
But Paul was aware of the fundamental pitfalls of such legalistic beliefs. And he was correctly aware of the fact that it prevents people from entering the world of true peace, freedom, and joy. He knew experientially and existentially that unity with God was not possible through such human efforts and achievements. In his view, such legalistic faith was nothing more than seeking glory from people. Then, in the end, it is only a relative value that changes depending on the person's reaction. The law itself is not bad, but making it absolute is bad. In that case, we can say that we should not make it an absolute and accept it as an appropriate line, or openly going to extremes like Paul would only create quarrels with each other. If our religious life is to make money or work, it is possible, but it is impossible because it is related to absolute life. Life-related is to choose one or the other, not to cross both legs appropriately. Because life is absolute, the oriental monks spent their whole lives in the hermitage and wrestling with the topic.
like a mother, like a father
Paul explains that he preaches completely differently from the Thessalonians, hoping that they will not be shaken by false evangelists who are engaged in mass-following activities. In a way, I don't know if this explanation is unnecessary. If Paul spoke with such a sincere heart, the Thessalonians would know it without needing to confirm it. I think that Paul is psychologically being chased a little now. In a kind of theological debate or truth debate, especially, since the false evangelists are directly instigating the members of Thessalonica in the field, they must have thought that it was necessary to convey their argument strongly. In order for a person's heart to become one-hearted, much deeper communication must be established, and since the Thessalonians and Paul have not yet reached that point, Paul explains his actions to them one by one, just as a teacher teaches students now. We can see such traces in the fact that he uses the word meaning “you know” six times (1, 2, 5, 9, 10, 11) in this text.
Unlike the false evangelists, when Paul preached the gospel, he did not assert the authority of an apostle (verse 7). Instead, he treated the Thessalonians with tenderness like his mother. Perhaps the false evangelists acted very authoritatively with the authority of the Jerusalem church community, which was the center of the apostles. Such authority has a very seductive nature, and when such authority is established within an organization, it blinds the judgment of all involved. Just as modern people, who regard economic power as absolute authority, turn away from the essence of justice, peace and freedom, authority acts as a very powerful force regardless of east and west. Paul treated the Thessalonians like a mother who treats her children with love, not the authority of a mother. So, as mentioned earlier, in order not to impose an economic burden on the Thessalonians, he did not hesitate to work on his own.
Paul taught them not only with a mother's warm heart, but also with clear goals like a father's (v. 11). If a mother's heart is soft, then her father's heart will be firm. If mothers set their children's hearts, fathers will give them direction. He provided a clear direction for the Thessalonians to live a life that pleases God.
God's Kingdom and Glory
What is a life that pleases God here? It is easy to get lost in this passage because these terms are fundamentally abstract, and it is difficult for us to follow the thinking of those who lived in Bible times. People understand these words as simply coming to church, worshiping well, and living an exemplary life in the world. However, it is not easy for us to empirically say what pleases God. Let's take the example of a person. Here is a mother and daughter. This daughter dropped out of school with the intention of making her mother happy and went to a 24 hour convenience store to work part-time. She did her best to do her best, but she did not know that it was not pleasing her mother. We often think that doing something for God is pleasing to God, but basically we have very little to do for God. Rather, God does everything for us.
Korean Christians work much harder to please God than do Christians from other countries. Some of these efforts are valuable, but many are meaningless. We must recognize clearly that there is nothing we can do for God. Only then can our worship or our devotion and service be meaningful in their own way. Otherwise, all such things easily degenerate into self-fulfillment greed.
But what does Paul mean in today's text as if he could please God? He is not now saying that we can please God by doing something, but that it is to please God to give up on it and depend completely on God's grace. He does not focus on our human actions, but on God's actions. It's not what we do, it's what God does. It is our attitude that pleases God when we do nothing so that God can work alone.
So Paul describes God in the last paragraph like this: “God is calling you to enjoy his kingdom and his glory” (verse 12). Acknowledging this fact is all we have to do. The kingdom of God is the reign of God. Its reign is the glory of eschatological life. God has already come to us like this and has given us such glory. The only problem is that we did not acknowledge it and did not participate in it.
You may not realize that you are enjoying the glory of God. Remember that the Spirit of life is with us now in our lives. The Spirit is also the Spirit of Jesus of Nazareth. By believing in him and believing in that fact, the Spirit of life is with us. That fact is the glory of God.