{"id":485,"date":"2019-02-25T15:17:21","date_gmt":"2019-02-25T15:17:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unionchapel.org\/?p=485"},"modified":"2020-02-20T17:51:06","modified_gmt":"2020-02-20T17:51:06","slug":"the-believers-responsibilities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unionchapel.org\/?p=485","title":{"rendered":"The Believer’s Responsibilities"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

1\nThessalonians 4: 9-12<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nIV.\nExhortation to the Thessalonians\n(<\/strong>4:1-5:22<\/strong>)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nA.\nExhortation Regarding Personal Needs\n(4:1-12<\/strong>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nThe\ninfluence of Jesus and His followers landed upon the Roman Empire\nlike an antibiotic upon a plague. In so many ways, as\nthe\nWords of Scripture with the work of the Spirit began permeating the\nEmpire,\nthe\nhearts and lives of its citizens\nbegan to be transformed.\nBabies began to be seen as having intrinsic value. Girls and women\nbegan to be seen as valuable in their own right, not just for how\nthey could be used by men. Wealth began to be seen for its true value\nas a way to help others, rather than having value in and of itself.\nAll humans began to be seen as of equal value and worth, not\ndetermined by the circumstances of birth, economics, position in\nsociety, etc.\nThe gods began to lose their force of influencing evil behavior and\nGod’s righteousness began to become a motivating force for behavior.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nTwo\nways society was transformed are included in these four verses here\nin 1Thessalonians\n4:9-12.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n2.\nFamily\nresponsibilities\n(<\/strong>4:9,\n10<\/strong>)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nA\nPatron and his clients. (The following four paragraphs are copied\nfrom A History of Private Life<\/em> vol. 1)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\u201cMaterially\nfree within the limits of the manumission agreement, the former slave\nremained symbolically under the authority of his patron, and the\nRomans, much given to vaguely paternalistic pronouncements, often\nrepeated that a freedman had the duties of a son\u2014duties of\npiety\u2014toward his former master, whose family name had become his\nown. [Early on] freed slaves were required to appear twice a day at\nthe home of their former master, to bid him good morning and good\nevening, but this duty fell into neglect [over the centuries]. \u2026\n<\/em>It seems that freedmen, unlike clients, were not required to pay\nthe patron a protocol visit (salutatio) <\/em>every morning. But\nthey were often invited to dinner, where they found the master on his\ncouch surrounded by those same clients. Dinnertime brawls between the\ntwo groups of loyal but unequal retainers were common. Poor clients\nresented having to compete with prosperous ex-slaves for the master’s\nattention. The [Roman] poets Juvenal and Martial, reduced to paying\ncourt to the great in order to live, hated wealthy ex-slaves as well\nas Greek clients, for these were their competitors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nWith\na “court composed of clients and toilsome, not ungrateful\nfreedmen.” as Fronto puts it, a household made a brilliant place\nfor itself on the public stage\u2014a necessary and sufficient condition\nto be deemed worthy of membership in the ruling class. “I had\nmany clients,” wrote one very wealthy former slave as proof of\nhis success. What was a client? A free man who paid court to the\npaterfamilias and openly declared himself the client of his patron;\nhe could be rich or poor, miserable or powerful\u2014sometimes more\npowerful than the patron to whom he paid respects. There were at\nleast four kinds of clients: 1) those who wished to make a career in\npublic life and counted on their patron for protection; 2) men of\naffairs whose interests could be served by the patron’s political\ninfluence, particularly when he stood to profit from their success;\n3) poor [people] such as poets and philosophers, often Greek, many of\nwhom had nothing to live on but what their patron gave them and who,\nnot being commoners, would have found it dishonorable to work rather\nthan live under the protection of a powerful man; and, finally, 4)\nthose clients who were powerful enough to move in the same circles as\nthe patron himself and who might legitimately aspire to be remembered\nin the patron’s will in gratitude for their homage. This last-named\ngroup would have included leading statesmen and imperial freedmen,\nall-powerful administrators. A wealthy old man without heirs would\nhave had many clients of this kind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nSuch\nwas the mixed crowd that lined up in regulation order every morning\nin front of the patron’s door at the hour when the cock crows and the\nRomans awoke. The clients numbered in the tens, sometimes even\nhundreds. Neighborhood notables were also besieged, but by smaller\ncrowds. Far from Rome, in the cities of the Empire, the few powerful\nrural notables also had their clienteles. That a wealthy or\ninfluential man should have been surrounded by prot\u00e9g\u00e9s and\nself-seeking friends is hardly surprising. But the Romans erected\nthis unremarkable custom into an institution and a ritual.\n“Unimportant people,” Vitruvius wrote, “are those who\nmake visits but receive none.” A man who was the client of\nanother man proclaimed the fact loudly, boasting of his own\nimportance and stressing the patron’s influence. People referred to\nthemselves as “the client of So-and-so” or “a familiar\nof Such-and-such a household.” Those who were not themselves\ncommoners would pay for the erection of a statue of their patron in a\npublic square or even in the patron’s own home. The inscription on\nthe base would list the patron’s public duties and spell out the name\nof the client.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nThe\nmorning salutation was a ritual; to fail to appear was to disavow\none’s bond of clientage. Clients lined up in ceremonial costume\n(toga), <\/em>and each visitor received a symbolic gift (sportula),\n<\/em>which enabled the poorest to eat that day; in fact this custom\nsupplanted the earlier practice of simply distributing food. Clients\nwere admitted into the antechamber according to an inflexible\nhierarchical order that duplicated the civic organization by ranks.\nAt dinners, too, guests of different rank were served different\ndishes and wines of different quality, according to their respective\ndignities. Symbolism reinforced the sense of hierarchy. The\npaterfamilias did not simply receive individual greetings from\ncertain of his friends; he admitted into his home a slice of Roman\nsociety, respecting public rank and inequalities. Over this group he\nexerted moral authority, and his knowledge of proper behavior always\nexceeded that of his clients.\u201d A History of Private Life<\/em>\nvol. 1, pp. 89-91.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nSo\nhere is Roman society. Either you were a Patron, a free-born citizen,\na freed slave, or a slave. If a slave, you were property. If a freed\nslave or a free-born citizen, then you were a \u201cClient\u201d of a\n\u201cPatron\u201d to whom you owed obsequious (fawning) attendance every\nmorning or evening, looking for some handout. The Patron\u2019s\nreputation depended on how many \u201cClients\u201d he had lining up at his\ndoor every morning. Society was built upon everyone using someone\nelse in order to get ahead in life, either through fawning over or\nthrough basking in the fawning of as many people as one could get.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nWe\ncan hear some of this fawning in James 2:1-7<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nMy\nbrethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ\nwith an attitude of personal favoritism. For if a man comes into your\nassembly with a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and there also\ncomes in a poor man in dirty clothes, and you pay special attention\nto the one who is wearing the fine clothes, and say, “You sit\nhere in a good place,” and you say to the poor man, “You\nstand over there, or sit down by my footstool,”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nAnd\nit was into this self-serving, self-absorbed culture the Holy Spirit\nlobbed the grenade of \u201cLove one another.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nNow\nas to the love of the brethren, you have no need for anyone to write\nto you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nTo\nlove one another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nWhat\neffect do you suppose this had upon those who basked in people\nfawning all over them? Who determined the size of gift by how loudly\nthey proclaimed his greatness? How do you suppose a Patron\u2019s\nattitude would change when he became a believer in Christ and the\nHoly Spirit began grinding into his soul every morning \u201cLove\none another?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nAnd\nhow do you suppose the \u201cClient\u2019s\u201d attitude would change when he\nstops to line up every morning with the rest of the crowd to fawn all\nover the Patron in hopes of gaining something from him, and the Holy\nSpirit begins to rasp at his soul with the command \u201cLove\none another?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nImagine\nyou yourself are that wealthy Patron. Some, if not many, of those at\nyour door are there to fawn all over you with praise and honor coming\nfrom lips simply looking for food for his family. What would you do?\nWould you give them a finances for food and clothing and tell them\nnot to come back until they need more? That would hurt your standing\nin the community if the numbers at your door began to dwindle. Would\nyou continue to accept the words you knew in your heart were\nunearned? What should you do?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nThis\nis why what Paul wrote was so powerful. He did not attempt to tell\nthem how to handle each situation. He simply reminded them that the\nHoly Spirit was teaching them. But they needed to do better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nfor\nindeed you do practice it toward all the brethren who are in all\nMacedonia. But we urge you, brethren, to excel still more<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nHow\nabout if you were a client lined up outside the door of a wealthy\nPatron? What would you say? Is it loving to lie? Can you be as\nobsequious as the custom demands, and still be able to have a sweet\ndevotional life with your Lord? Yet, if you are not, you may not be\nable to feed your family that night. What do you do?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nYou\nlisten to the Holy Spirit. You act in Love. You let the Holy Spirit\ncontinue to teach you as you seek to live out your life even more\nloving than before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n3.\nSocietal\nresponsibilities\n(4:11,\n12<\/strong>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nAnd\nit may be this exact situation Paul had in mind because of the way he\nmoved into the instructions of verses 11\n& 12.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nand\nto make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own\nbusiness and work with your hands, just as we commanded you,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nIt\nmay be this idea of living off the handouts of another that Paul has\nin mind because he immediately moved into instructing them to work\nwith their own hands. It was so common for poorer people to live off\na wealthy member of society by fawning and false praise rather than\nby laboring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nFor\nfollowers of Christ, living off another\u2019s wealth was an unbecoming\nlife. Think of it. Being loudly effusive in false praise is not\nexactly leading a quiet life. Dancing attendance at another\u2019s\ndoorstep with many others in order to fawn and scrape is not\nattending to your own business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nHow\none\u2019s life would be simplified if he simply began to work to earn a\nliving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nPaul\nhimself did exactly that. In Acts 18:1-3<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nAfter\nthese things he left Athens and went to Corinth. And he found a Jew\nnamed Aquila, a native of Pontus, having recently come from Italy\nwith his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews\nto leave Rome. He came to them, and because he was of the same trade,\nhe stayed with them and they were working, for by trade they were\ntent-makers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nPaul\ncould have lived off Patrons or, like itinerant orators, lived off\nspeaking fees. Instead, he did exactly as he instructed others: he\nworked with his hands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nAnd\nthis was another grenade lobbed into the godless culture of Rome\nbecause manual labor, working with your hands, was despised in Roman\nsociety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\u201cIdleness\nwas the cornerstone of \u2018private life;\u2019 in fact, in the [Roman\nEmpire] it was considered a virtue.\u201d AHoPL<\/em>, p. 118.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The nobility had a contempt for labor, and they had an undisguised scorn for those who worked with their hands. They exalted leisure as the indispensable quality of a worthy life. The worker was regarded as very much a social inferior, one who lived a base and ignoble life. In a society where a person\u2019s value was determined by his wealth, to work with your hands meant you were poor and essentially worthless. \u201cWorkers were reviled not because they worked, but because they belonged to the inferior class [of those who could not life a life of leisure].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nNow\nhere comes Paul telling these new Believers to work with their hands.\nWhat a slap in the face of the old ways of thinking and valuing. If\nyou are wealthy, what do you do? If you are free-born, your culture\ntells you to dance attendance on some wealthy person to provide you\nwith a living.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nWhat\ndo you do? Do you follow the culture and not lose face in their eyes?\nDo you follow the Spirit in obedience? What do you do?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nBecoming\na follower of Jesus Christ impacted a Believer far more than just\nstopping the worship of idols and the emperor. It began to change a\nperson\u2019s whole manner of life. His whole manner of functioning in\nsociety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nAnd\nPaul\u2019s rational for this transformation is so\nthat you will behave properly toward outsiders and not be in any\nneed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nThe\nculture\u2019s attitudes between its members did not reflect righteous\nbehavior. A Believer who followed the customs of the culture was not\nbehaving properly towards those who were not Believers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nThe\nword translated \u201cproperly\u201d is a word denoting \u2018with proper\ndecorum,\u2019 \u2018in an honorable or decent fashion.\u2019 Our behavior\ntowards those outside of the Faith is to be behavior that reflects\ndecently on our new identity in Christ. Lieing to another, living off\ntheir earnings, accepting unearned praise and honor, all reflect\nbadly on who we are as followers of Christ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nAs\nBelievers, we rely on God to provide. We work and earn our own way,\nand depend upon God to care for us. He alone deserves our praise, our\ngenuine praise. We are not to take praise to God and give it to the\nundeserving simply to get what we want.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nWe\nneed to work with our own hands, attend to our own business, and lead\nlives that reflect the quiet the Spirit has brought to our souls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nConclusion<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nWe\nface similar dilemmas every day. Our culture demands we behave\ncertain ways in order to fit in. Our culture demands certain beliefs\nin order to fit in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nBut\nthe Holy Spirit speaks into our souls through His Word telling us to\nbe different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nThe\nApostle Peter told us, in 1Peter 1:14-16:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nAs\nobedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were\nyours in your ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be\nholy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written,\n“YOU SHALL BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nAnd\nthen, in chapter 4:1-5:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nTherefore,\nsince Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the\nsame purpose, because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased\nfrom sin, so as to live the rest of the time in the flesh no longer\nfor the lusts of men, but for the will of God. For the time already\npast is sufficient for you to have carried out the desire of the\nGentiles, having pursued a course of sensuality, lusts, drunkenness,\ncarousing, drinking parties and abominable idolatries. In all this,\nthey are surprised that you do not run with them into the same\nexcesses of dissipation, and they malign you; but they will give\naccount to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paul wrote to the Thessalonians some very simple instructions. But, if they followed them, their lives would become radically different from the culture, even to the point of becoming despised by the cultural elites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nThe\nonly real dilemma for those Believers then, and for us today, is\nthis:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nWho\ndo you want to please?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1 Thessalonians 4: 9-12 IV. Exhortation to the Thessalonians (4:1-5:22) A. Exhortation Regarding Personal Needs (4:1-12) The influence of Jesus and His followers landed upon the Roman Empire like an antibiotic upon a plague. In so many ways, as the Words of Scripture with the work of the Spirit began permeating the Empire, the hearts […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pastorsblog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unionchapel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unionchapel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unionchapel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unionchapel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unionchapel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=485"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/unionchapel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":614,"href":"https:\/\/unionchapel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485\/revisions\/614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unionchapel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unionchapel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unionchapel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}