1 Thessalonians 4

This morning I was challenged by this passage.

So often we seek after those "mountain top experiences" in our spiritual lives. We desire the conferences, the retreats, the Sunday morning worship experience to feed us, and strengthen us to puruse God more and more.

These are good things.

The problem of this however, lies not in those events, but in our hearts.

We want to live on the mountain top, but God has called us to live in the valleys.
We want to live on the mountain top, but God only invites us to visit.

Many of us want to aspire to do great things. We feel like we have the ability and the greatness within us to be the next Matt Chandler, Billy Graham, Elisabeth Elliot, Beth Moore, etc.

The one thing I see in these people when I try to study their private, personal lives though is that they lead a quiet life.

They don't seek the spotlight.

Now concerning brotherly love you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another, for that indeed is what you are doing to all the brothers throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers, to do this more and more, and to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one. - 1 Thessalonians 4:9-12

What are you to do with this passage? As we battle our hearts and our sinful selves against the desire to be someone, to live on the mountain, to seek the spotlight... I hear Paul's voice gently calling us to lead quiet lives.

And he says to the church in Thessalonike, that this is how to walk properly before outsiders. THIS is how we evangelize with our lives.

I honestly don't know what to do with this passage at times, but I invite you to join me this weekend praying through it and looking how to unpack these words into our lives.


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Nathan Bryant

is a pastor living in Phoenix, AZ. As a student at Ozark Christian College in Joplin, Missouri he majored in Biblical Leadership, New Testament Studies, and Missiology. Nathan has a combined passion for unity and discipleship in the global church.

Christ's Kingdom is bigger than our causes.

Christ's Kingdom is bigger than our boundaries.

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