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.