2 Thessalonians 2:5-12

2 Thessalonians 2:5-12  Don’t you remember that when I was with you I used to tell you these things?  And now you know what is holding him back, so that he may be revealed at the proper time.  For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way.  And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming.  The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders, and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing.  They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.  For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.  

The man of lawlessness will be revealed in God's timing.  Up until now the Spirit of God has been present in this world to restrain the secret power of lawlessness.  Lawlessness has always been a part of mankind's makeup.  But, one day, a man will emerge as the very personification of rebellion to God's orderliness and peace.  He will perform through Satan's power many counterfeit miracles, signs, and wonders, but his lifestyle will display every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing or who are lost in their wickedness because they loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.  (John 3:19 KJV)  Sadly, the lawless one will be readily accepted by the sinful world because he epitomizes what is in their hearts of rebellion.  The anti-God generation would rather believe a lie than the truth.  They would rather believe that man can be as God than to bow down to the only true God through the saving grace of Jesus Christ.  They would rather believe in a false messiah than to take up the cross and serve the one whom to know is life everlasting and joy unspeakable.  Unfortunately when a man or a woman sows to the flesh rather than to the spirit, we reap what we sow.  Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked.  A man reaps what he sows.  The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.  (Galatians 6:7-8)  The antichrist may look and sound like a leader of men, but he will feed into man's basic sinful nature and reject the One who gave his Beloved Son to save them.

Rebellious behavior in mankind has existed since the beginning of time.  The history of civilization clearly reveals people's inability to live peacefully in harmony with others.  The acts of his sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like.  (Galatians 5:19-21)  When Adam and Eve chose their own way, they opened the door to lawlessness and darkness, which the man of sin eventually will personify.  He will display Satan in his fulness with all his evil intents.  Adam and Eve's decision in the Garden led all mankind into a world of chaos where they stumbled in the darkness, separated from the protection of God without the light of his glory.  In Lamentation 3:1-3, we see the condition of man on Earth:  I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.  He has driven me away and made me walk in darkness rather than light; indeed, he has turned his hand against me again and again, all day long.   Since that time, outside of Christ, mankind has been an active enemy of God rather than his friend.  The Bible says, 

There is none righteous, no, not one.

  (Romans 3:10)  Men tend to walk in their own righteousness, what is right in their eyes.  Our self-interest trumps God's plans and intensions for our lives.  Our lips speak of ourselves, not of him.  This is the nature of fallen man: self-worship, rather than God worship.  Jesus Christ highlighted the Pharisees and their lifestyle many times to show that the best of our religiosity missed the mark.  Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’  But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart."  (Matthew 5:27-28)   According to God's holiness, adultery in the heart is as evil as adultery in the flesh.  Bitterness in the heart is as evil as bitterness expressed in malice or rage.  Man's purity is not based on outward acts but the inward state of a man's heart.  For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.  (Proverbs 23:7)  In the last days, the man of sin will openly manifest sin in his lifestyle, but all who are impure in their thoughts are just as guilty and open for judgment as those who openly sin.    

But there is an answer to wickedness of the lawless one; there is answer for the sin of all mankind: Jesus Christ the Promised One.  Zechariah prophesied,  And you, my child (John), will be called a prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him, to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace.”  (Luke 1:76-79)  We who were born in the chaotic darkness have a lifeline to lift us out of the darkness into the glorious light.  God did not leave his fallen creation without hope.  Jesus Christ overthrows the lawlessness, the rebellion, the bondage to sin.  He changes the nature of a person's heart by creating a new heart in the new creation and filling the new believer with the Holy Spirit.   He said to Nicodemus, "You must be born again."  You must be new!  All of us who have put our trust in Jesus Christ are new for we are born again into the family of God.  The Peace Giver has come into our hearts.  The Spirit of the living God has come to dwell in the holy temple in us.  WE ARE NOW THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD.  We who are hidden IN CHRIST WITH GOD are in his light, HIS IMAGE ON EARTH.  To be his consistent and constant light, we must have ears to hear his word expressed by the Spirit of God.  Therefore, children, open up your ears.  You are no longer citizens of this rebellious world, led by the powers of darkness.  You have been born again, taken out of darkness.  Eternal life exists in you right now.  Open your mouths and praise him daily.  Give him the glory He so richly deserves, for He destroyed Satan's bondage.  You are no longer slaves to sin: you have a new Lord and King.  Jesus has made you his own, his servants, joint-heirs.  You are pleasing to Father God: He calls you daughter; He calls you son!  Amen!   

2 Thessalonians 2:1-4

2 Thessalonians 2:1-4  Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you, brothers, not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by some prophecy, report or letter supposed to have come from us, saying that the day of the Lord has already come.  Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for [that day will not come] until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction.  He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God.

Paul writes this letter to the Thessalonian Christians because he heard they were unsettled or alarmed by some prophecy, report or letter supposed to have come from him, saying that the day of the Lord has already come.  He assures them this kind of message did not come from him.  He also reminds them of his former teaching about the second coming of the Lord.  To reassure them that the Lord has not come already, he states, Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for [that day will not come] until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction.  It is interesting to note that this rebellious man will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped as God.  This man who will be revealed is, of course, the embodiment of the antichrist spirit which is endemic in mankind--all that is egocentric and anti-God, all that rejects the Son of God and continually cries out, "Crucify him."  Consequently, when this man is finally revealed and he commits the final abomination of setting himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God, there is nothing left for him but God's sure destruction.  People sometimes wonder why a God of love can allow evil in the world.  Evil is the rejection of God.  We all have free will: we all have a choice.  As long as people have the right to choose to go their own way, we will have evil.  God did not make us automatons.  The Bible says, There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.  (Proverbs 16:25)  When we reject God's best, all we have left is our own way, the way that leads to death.    

Mankind since Adam and Eve's fall from the Garden has been in continuous rebellion against God.  We have gone our own way, willfully devising gods in our own image for our own purposes.  We fail to comprehend the Light from heaven, God's own Son: In him [Jesus] was life, and that life was the light of men.  The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.  (John 1:4-5)  Rather than worship and glorify God, we have made him into a pet to do our biding.  We think He should serve us when we want him to serve us.  He will be faithful to us whether we are faithful to him or not.  He will be waiting at the door for our return when we desire to return.  We think God will SERVE US, NOT WE WILL SERVE HIM.  We create God in our fleshly image, according to our human desires and needs.  Even in the ancient times when the people worshipped images of wood and stone, their gods were to do their bidding.  Oh yes, they would bow down to that manmade god or have to sacrifice something dear, even their children.  But in the final analysis when they had done it all right, they expected their god of wood or stone to bless their crop or to heal their bodies or to give them victory over their enemies.  If they did their part, their personal idol would take care of THEIR NEEDS.  He made life easier.  But as it is today for so many people, the focus was not on serving the god but on getting all they could get.  Human beings seek gods who will do our bidding.  We are to be served, not serve.  We seek the gifts and not the giver  No wonder God said that we must not allow man to eat of the tree of life.  If he eats of the tree of life, he will live forever, and then this awful cancer of self-worship would spread throughout the universe.  If men and women lived an eternal existence as self-oriented, self-serving individuals, they would corrupt heaven itself.  Man's lawlessness, his lack of obedience to the only true God, would open up heaven and existence to continued lawlessness and upheaval.  Man's self-will brings disharmony into the harmonious and peaceful existence of God who is in control of all things.

Someday this antichrist or anti-God spirit will culminate in A MAN placing himself in the temple of God, demanding that all people serve him.  He will not be a just leader, bringing peace and prosperity.  His spirit of disunity and self-interest will bring great corruption, leading to widespread upheavals and unrest.  His spirit causes wars and rumor of wars, divorces, arguments and fights between neighbors, violence in once peaceful communities, and stirs up all kinds of evil as it spreads across the world.  The anti-God spirit is a disquieting spirit, a spirit of constant commotion and disruption.  When we consider the orderliness of God's universe, the many natural and physical laws that make existence as it is, we can understand fully what disharmony and disorder brings into human existence.  The antichrist spirit brings a destructive cancer to God's creation.  This disharmonious rebellious spirit, birthed in the Garden of Eden by disobedience, is part of fallen man's DNA.  The desire to be worshipped and to take control that will motivate the man who takes over when the Antichrist is reveal is part of every person's personal existence outside of Christ.  When we serve our unregenerate old nature, we want others to serve our personal god: to see the world as we see it; to bow down to our decisions, our ways, and our perspective.  If they don't see it our way, we are upset, angry, bitter.  We want to be served, but they have their own self-serving god; therefore, they want the same selfish attention to their needs that we want.  This spirit is a spirit of darkness, dissension, and division that leads to unrest, discord, and eventually hatred and violence.  

Even in the Christian church, this bold spirit of self enters the temple of God when Christians decide they deserve the best, and they should have first place because they are the King's kids; they have paid their spiritual dues, and God should come across with the blessings from above.  Protestantism has split into thousands of different churches.  Everyone demands his or her own way because each knows he or she is RIGHT.  Bold spirits of self-interest have entered the body of Christ in the past, demanding their perspective of God's will or the Trinity or else they will put the dissenting people to death. This gives the church a very bad name, and unbelievers who study history say, "Why would I want to become a Christian when they have persecuted each other with such horrible results?"  We have to deal with such questions.  Peter wrote: Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.  (1 Peter 3:15)  Christ came to bring us light, to cast aside these dangerous spirits of darkness.  The disciples wanted to stop a man from casting out demons in Jesus' name because he was not one of them and Jesus said to leave him alone.  “Master,” said John, “we saw a man driving out demons in your name and we tried to stop him, because he is not one of us.”  “Do not stop him,” Jesus said, “for whoever is not against you is for you.”  (Luke 9:49-50)  In other words, anyone who is doing the will of the Father is one of us.  Today, we have a living faith: we can say, "I was blind but now I see."  Each of us is called to walk in the light, to knock down the idol of self, to say by faith, "I will not worship there anymore!  I will bow to Christ alone."  Bless you dear ones as you worship God and serve your Savior by the power of the Spirit.  

  

2 Thessalonians 8-12

2 Thessalonians 8-12  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 majesty of his power 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 count you worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may fulfill every good purpose of yours and every act prompted by your 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. 

There will be a day when every son and daughter of the Most High will be revealed to all who believe.  On that day, every son and daughter will be fully clothed in the glory of God.  Jesus Christ's beautiful work will be manifested in and through all believers: HE IN US AND WE IN HIM.  Paul says, 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.  God's grace and mercy make every Christian a member of his family.  No other work is necessary to transform lives into the children of God.  This knowledge makes us truly happy and brings joy to our hearts.  The knowledge of us in him and he in us is fundamental in our Christian walk, but this understanding in our head does not help us if we don't allow the Holy Spirit to activate it within us and make Christ a reality in our daily lives.  If the presence of the Lord and the fruit of the Spirit are not activated, then the world will see evidence of the mere milk of the gospel or elementary knowledge of Christianity.  Precepts alone are important, but they must be put in practice or they only are our first steps, not a mature walk.  We may know Christ came to save sinners, but we may lack the ability to let the mind of Christ rule in our choices, our actions, and our reactions to the struggles and trials of life.  It is not enough to go to church on Sunday, shake the hands of fellow believers, and hear a good sermon.  Every Christian faces temptations and torments.  We must be worthy of his calling and ready for what comes that by his power he may fulfill every good purpose.  We read concerning the first church: Remember those earlier days after you had received the light, when you stood your ground in a great contest in the face of suffering.  Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution; at other times you stood side by side with those who were so treated.  You sympathized with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions.  So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded.  You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.  (Hebrews 10:32-36)  This is our example: these are those who marked the path to glory. 

How then do we describe the mature walk of a man or woman of God?  Jesus reveals this life when he says: “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.  Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.  For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.  Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him.   Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me.  This is the bread that came down from heaven.  Your forefathers ate manna and died, but he who feeds on this bread will live forever.”  When Jesus asked the Samaritan woman for a drink and she questioned him, Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst.  Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”  (John 4:13-14)  A walk of faith IN CHRIST demands constant feeding on the Bread of Life and drinking of the Living Water: Jesus Christ, Lord of All.  We cannot live on knowledge about his salvation gift; we must walk IN JESUS by eating and drinking of him.  His life in us demands daily attention to letting the Christ in us increase as the flesh decreases.  We must listen to his Holy Spirit's voice.  We must seek God's perfect will in our lives, not ours.  We cannot just live unto ourselves, feeding off of our self-centered desires and wants.  Manna came to the children of Israel daily.  Except for the Sabbath, a day of rest, they were forbidden to store up manna or in essence to rely on yesterday's provisions.  We too cannot store up God's wonderful provisions today for tomorrow's activity.  We must live in his reality every day.  Yesterday's revelations in God's Word were meant mainly for yesterday.  Today, a new revelation is needed for today's work, a new voice of the Spirit for each day's activities, each day's needs.  We must touch the hem of his garment TODAY.  Jesus knew strength went out from him when the woman touched his garment in faith.  Manna fell from heaven to her that day.  By faith we must touch Jesus today.  If we do, our hearts will overflow with praises, songs will well up within us, and we will go away healed of our spiritual sicknesses.  If we fail to touch him, if we do not partake of the bread and wine, our hearts will be bound to this world and we will face all its problems and sorrows without a fresh renewal, without manna from on high.

Paul says, we constantly pray for you, that our God may count you worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may fulfill every good purpose of yours and every act prompted by your faith.  He wants them to walk worthy of their calling, and he prays their every act will be prompted by their faith.  He desires for them to believe in God with a fervent passion, fulfilling God's good work in them, and showing the world Christ is alive in them.  As with the Thessalonian Christians, our daily lives should be prompted by faith, getting up in the morning with a purpose in our hearts to glorify God, and going through the day rejoicing with joy unspeakable and full of glory.  (1Peter 1:8)  Our lives no longer consist of merely arising in the morning enumerating the many activities that we want to accomplish for the day.  If we list only our needs and activities, we are eating and drinking at the trough of our lives and not partaking of his holy body.  God always has a definite purpose for our lives, a purpose dedicated to his glory.  We are not to live unto ourselves, but unto him.  The perfect will of God should be upmost in our minds, always before us: How can I best serve you today, Lord?  Where do you want me to go?  Who do you want me to bless or encourage?  Yes, we might know all about salvation.  We might have a lot of Bible knowledge stuffed into our heads, but unless we are collecting manna early in the morning, we are fooling ourselves: we are living our lives the way we want and not sharing his life.  The Bible says, Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.  (1 Corinthians 12:27)  It does not say tomorrow or in heaven we will become the body of Christ, it says now we are his body.  If we are now part of him, we belong to him, and we should be living his life and not ours.  In every way, we should make an earnest attempt to allow his glory into our lives by yielding lordship to Jesus.  If we claim He is Lord, then He needs to be Lord of our lives: LORD OF ALL.   

   

1 Thessalonians 1:4-10

1 Thessalonians 1:4-10  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 majesty of his power 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.

We know God is just and He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.  We know the ungodly will be banished someday into outer darkness with the concomitant suffering of everlasting fire.  This horrific judgment indicates God does not tolerate sin's open rebellion to his eternal rightness.  Sin is a virulent cancer that contaminates everything, bringing conflict, envy, selfishness and even violence into relationships.  We know the first act of sin outside the Garden was murder caused by envy: Cain slew his brother.  Cain decided he could do what was right in his own eyes.  When Adam and Eve partook of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they slipped into rebellion against God.  From that time until now, sin has reigned in the hearts of mankind: All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way.  (Isaiah 53:6)  This self-directed, self-willed life makes men and women enemies of God and all that is good and holy.  Divisiveness, rebellion, and discord are characteristic of the evil one, not of God.  God is love.  Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.  (1 John 4:8)   God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.  (1 John 1:5)  Obviously, those who reject the love and light of God represented in his Son, Jesus Christ, by choosing to live an implacable sinful life will eventually face the full wrath of God.  When we turn from God's salvation plan and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus, there is no other way to the Father, no other way to eternal life. When Peter and John were questioned for healing a lame man, Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders of Israel: If we this day are judged for a good deed done to a helpless man, by what means he has been made well, let it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man stands here before you whole.  This is the “stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone.’  Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved."  (Acts 4:8-12)

Paul consistently tried to raise the level of the spirituality of the people he addressed in his letters.  He used strong words with the Corinthians: Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly — mere infants in Christ.  I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it.  Indeed, you are still not ready.  You are still worldly.  For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly?  (1 Corinthians 3:1-3)  Paul is not equating the recalcitrant Corinthian Christians as Godless heathens, under certain judgment of the Lord, but He is implicitly saying their lives should be lived in obedience to the Lord Jesus and the example He gave.  The lives of all believers in and out of church should be lived under Christ's authority and according to the Word of God.  Paul indicates in the above scriptures that judgment will fall on all those who do not know God.  In writing to the Corinthians, we see Paul wrestling with the problem of overt sin in the church.  He knows the behavior of those who are away from God is contrary to the will of God.  Rather than seeking harmony and peace, they are intent upon going their own way.  As with the world, they are not coming under the authority of Jesus Christ.  They are not harvesting the fruit of the Holy Spirit.  Rather, they are quarreling, fighting, backbiting.  The sin of the world, the unregenerate nature of man, has crept back into the Corinthian church.  God is a just God: He will judge the sins of the world.  Paul knew, despite the wonderful grace of the Lord, if the church in Corinth was an unrepentant church at the coming of the Lord it would be judged.  Servants of the Lord must yield to him in all things, saying, "Not my will but your will, oh Lord; your authority, not mine.  Take my life and make it yours."  The Bible gives us the perfect way: Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.  Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.  (Romans 12:1-2) 

Yes, God is just; He sees the works of our flesh.  Every time we yell at our spouse or children in uncontrolled anger, we frustrate the grace of God.  Paul described the battle between the flesh and the spirit, saying that what he wanted to do, he failed to do, and what he did not want to do was what he did.  He concluded: So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me.  For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members.  What a wretched man I am!  Who will rescue me from this body of death?  Thanks be to God — through Jesus Christ our Lord!  (Romans 7:21-25)  Jesus is our Redeemer!  He died for our shortcomings, our sins.  But Paul reminds us not to let our freedom in Christ be a license for sin.  Since GOD IS JUST, He will repay ANYONE for hurting one of his children.  He will not allow a Christian husband to abuse his wife without assigning consequences to such actions.  He will not allow a willful temper to go unjudged.  We cannot just "swim in grace" and think we will get away with every willful act.  GOD IS NOT ONLY JUST; ABOVE THAT, HE LOVES HIS CHILDREN.  We who are in Christ will suffer in this world for sure at the hands of unbelievers, but we should not be suffering at the hands of those who love God and claim the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.  If we hurt others in the body of Christ, we need to come to the cross in true repentance, asking God to help us love others as we love ourselves.  We know God is a good father who answers our prayers.  As a true daughter or son of the MOST HIGH, we want to please him, for He has been so good to each of us.  He has forgiven us much; therefore, we should forgive others as well.  

For it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God?

  (1 Peter 4:17)  We must walk in love because God is love.  We must remember our inheritance and who we are: children of the light.  Remember the Word: For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.  Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.  This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.  (John 3:16-19)  May our deeds be glorious!  

2 Thessalonians 1:1-4

2 Thessalonians 1:1-4  Paul, Silas 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 rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love every one of you has for each other is increasing.  Therefore, among God’s churches we boast about your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and trials you are enduring.

How do we know that we are maturing in the Lord?  In the above scripture, we see Paul thanking God for his Thessalonian brethren because they are growing in their faith and love.  He is pleased that the seed he planted in them has not only sprouted but has thrived.  He happily boasts about them to other churches.  He knows they are fulfilling Jesus' words about fruitful seeds.  Jesus taught a parable about a farmer who went out to plant seeds.  As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up.  Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil.  It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow.  But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root.  Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain.  Still other seed fell on good soil.  It came up, grew and produced a crop, multiplying thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times.  (Mark 4:4-8)  As with the seed that fell on the good soil, the believers in Thessalonica were thriving, producing much fruit for the glory of God.  Paul knew about their perseverance and faith in the midst of persecutions and trials, and he could praise God that his hard work in Thessalonica was paying off richly.  He knew he now had a mature meat-eating church, warriors in God's army ready to do the work of the Lord and to faithfully love one another.   

We know that not all of Paul's churches were ready for the strong meat of the gospel.  Addressing the Corinthian church, he shares his disappointment in them for their lack of growth.  They still depended on milk as their sustenance rather than meat.  He calls them worldly, possessing the attitude and likeness of a child rather than an adult.   Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly — mere infants in Christ.  I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it.  Indeed, you are still not ready.  You are still worldly.  For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly?  Are you not acting like mere men?  (1 Corinthians 3:2-3)  In his letter to the Hebrews, he says their spiritual maturation is slow.  Instead of consuming meat, they are still in need of milk:  

We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn.  In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again.  You need milk, not solid food!  Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness.  But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.  (Hebrews 5:11-14)  What is solid food?  Paul definitely believes solid food is not the elementary teachings about Christianity:  

Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.  He postulates that mature Christians do not require continued instruction on how to be saved or more teaching on the basic tenets of Christianity, for such knowledge does not necessarily transform Christians into independent, loving images of God.  Christians who partake of Christ know his food is about self-sacrificing for others.  God came to the world in form of a man because HE LOVED THE WORLD.  John says, 

Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.  (1John 4:8)  God's love is demonstrated in giving, helping, caring, enduring.  We know He is patient and long-suffering because He goes the second mile.  He searches for the lost sheep and loves his enemies.  He cares for the poor, the widows, and the sick or disabled.  He drives the demons away from the oppressed.  He is LIFE, "THE WAY."  If we focus only on Christianity 101, we are still drinking milk.  If we actively put on Christ's personality, partake of his life of love, joy, and peace, we consume the sacrificial Lamb of God.  He becomes our strength when we eat of him daily.

As the Thessalonians matured, their faith in God increased.  They learned God's grace and mercy would take care of them regardless of rough waters.  When the disciples in the storm complained to Jesus that he did not care whether or not they lost their lives, Jesus questioned their faith.  

Why are you so afraid?  Do you still have no faith?  (Mark 4:40)  Otherwise, don't you know God is the caretaker of our souls--the keeper of the boat, the One in command of the seas?  Don't you know faith is placing your whole life in God's hands?  Jesus demonstrated faith all the way to the cross.  Faith is not whether we lose our lives in this world: faith is believing wholeheartedly we are in the God's hands at all times.  Paul said the Thessalonians were increasing in their faith: they were gathering as one body, not demanding their own way, but loving each other as they would want to be loved.  They were fulfilling the second cardinal law of loving others as yourself, loving others unconditionally without qualifications.  They were loving as God loved them.  In contrast, the Corinthians were stifled in their growth because they were bickering over who they were following: Apollos, Paul, Peter, or Christ?  Their community was splintering, revealing their gross immaturity and wickedness.  The image they portrayed was not of God but of a quarreling, confused body, clouded with darkness from the world.  The Corinthians failed to receive the full illumination, peace, love, mercy, and joy of the Lord.  Their community depicted disharmony and discord, pulling them away from the security of their salvation.  Jesus is the light of the world.  Christians who have put their trust fully in Jesus go forth as the light of the world.  Milk is for those still functioning as dependent, self-centered infants who need the constant support of others to make it through life.   Meat is for those using their strength to serve others by the power of the Holy Spirit, sharing God's love, giving their lives daily for Christ, in a dark and dreary world regardless of the cost to them.  Today, breakfast companions, eat heartily the meat of the Lord, for you will hear Paul's wonderful words of encouragement: we boast about your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and trials you are enduring.