Qualities of a Contagious Christian!

One of the greatest hindrances to the spread of the Christian faith has been non-contagious Christians who have been immunized with regular doses of institutionalism. By this I mean they isolate themselves as much as possible in church buildings or Bible study groups so that there is very little intentional contact with lost sinners. And where there is no contact, there is no impact. Just as with communicable diseases so it is with the Christian faith, the primary way to stop it is to quarantine it.  

This was certainly not the case with the infant church in the city of Thessalonica. The record of the founding of this church is found in Acts 17:1-15. It was during Paul’s second missionary journey that he had the vision of a man from Macedonia. We read in Acts 16:9, “And a vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia was standing there, urging him and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.”  Knowing this was the Holy Spirit’s leading, they headed out for Macedonia, stopping first at Philippi. And after a tumultuous, painful, but successful evangelistic effort in Philippi, they moved on to the bustling city of Thessalonica. Going first to the Jewish synagogue, Paul preached for 3 Sabbaths there and had great success. “But the Jews were jealous, and taking some wicked men of the rabble, they formed a mob, set the city in an uproar …” (Acts 17:5). Fearing for Paul’s life we’re told in Acts 17:10, “The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea …” 

A few weeks after being run out of town, Paul wrote one of his most loving, heart-felt letters to these young believers in Thessalonica. At the time of Paul’s letter to them, the church there had been in existence at most for six months, but they had already made such an impact that their turning to God through the gospel was being talked about by believers all over the Roman Empire.

Their faith in the Messiah was highly contagious. So, what does this kind of faith look like? We’ll drop down to the end of chapter 1 and work our way back up through the previous 9 verses.

A Conversion Which Gives Up the Dearest Idols – 1:9

“For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God,” 

What does the word idolatry suggest to your mind? Savages groveling before a totem pole? Cruel faced statues in Hindu temples? The dervish dance of the priests of Baal around Elijah’s altar? These things are certainly idolatrous, in an obvious way; but we need to realize that there are more subtle forms of idolatry as well.

Theologian J.I. Packer writes, “Imagining God in our heads can be just as real a breach of the second commandment as imagining Him by the work of our hands. How often do we hear this sort of thing: 'I like to think of God as the great Architect.' 'I don't like think of god as a Judge; I like to think of Him simply as Father.' We know from experience how often remarks of this kind serve as the prelude to a denial of something that the Bible tells us about God. It needs to be said with the greatest possible emphasis that those who hold themselves free to think of God as they like are breaking the second commandment. [Packer, KNOWING GOD p. 42]

The first and second “words,” or commandments, of Exodus 20 form a pair: (1) no other gods and (2) no carved images. The first deals with whom we worship (the true God alone), while the second concerns how: not in our own preferred way, nor by adopting the practices of surrounding, unbelieving peoples. Rather, it says, worship God in the ways he has revealed — ways that are often countercultural and sometimes uncomfortable, both then and today.

We are made to worship the living God and we become like what we worship. This is one of the major issues for our addictive selves. If we worship money we become a greedy person. If we worship sex we become a lust-filled person. If we worship power we become an egotistical person. If we worship chemicals we become a dependent person. Listen to what God says about the dangers of worshiping anything other than himself:

Jeremiah 2:5: “This is what the Lord says: “What fault did your father find in me, that they strayed so far from me? They followed worthless idols and became worthless themselves.”

Psalm 135:15-18: “The idols of the nations are silver and gold, made by the hands of men… Those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them.”

Hosea 9:10b: “But when they came to Baal Peor, they consecrated themselves to that shameful idol and became as vile as the thing they loved.”

The verb here is epistrepho, “to turn, return” and was used of a change of mind or course of action. Idolatry in any of its forms is the product of those who have turned away from God. In keeping with verse 8, turning to God involves faith in God through Christ, as the whole of the New Testament teaches. It is in essence the concept of repentance; it means turning from former sources of trust (whatever that might be) to trust in God’s plan of salvation and life through Christ. This also fits with verse 6 which shows the change in their lives was the product of welcoming the gospel in faith.

Hymnwriter William Cowper wrote: The dearest idol I have known, Whate'er that idol be, Help me to tear it from thy throne, And worship only thee.

A Consciousness of Living in the Ever Presence and Eternal Purpose of God – 1:4-5

“For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake.”

1. Beloved by Eternal Choice – 1:4; 2 Thess 2:13 – The entire redemptive purpose of God was born in His heart long before man was created or the universe formed.

The world is loved by God in a general way, but many in the world are loved in a special way. I love all women in a general way, but only one is my “beloved” and specially loved by me! “Chosen” is the Greek ekloge, “selection, election, choosing.” With this word, we are confronted with the doctrine of election, a doctrine that has different effects on various people. It makes some people angry, confuses many, and even seems to frighten others. Why? Because in this doctrine man’s finite mind meets head on with the infinite mind of God and a truth that really falls into the category of an antinomy. An antinomy occurs when we have what appears to be a contradiction between principles or conclusions that are equally necessary and true.

We are chosen in Christ, by Christ, for Christ.

There is the mystery of the grace of God, the marvel of the love of God, and the miracle of the salvation of God, all in the message of the gospel of God!

Salvation is planned in eternity and realized in time.

So far as God the Father is concerned, I was saved when he chose me in Christ before the world began (2 Timothy 1 :9).

So far as God the Son is concerned, I was saved when he died for me at Calvary (Galatians 2:20).

So far as God the Holy Spirit is concerned, I was saved on Sunday October 3, 1966, in a Baptist pastor’s home in Ethridge, TN.

2. Bidden by an Effectual Call - 1:5, “because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction.”

The Holy Spirit empowers the gospel with a call that wakes us from spiritual death, the way the words of Jesus did for Lazarus in wakening him from physical death. John 12:17 says Jesus “called Lazarus out of the tomb.” He called, “Lazarus, come forth!” And the omnipotent call of God created what he commanded, namely, life. It’s the same thing God did when he created the universe. He said, “Let there be light!” And there was light.

If you are a Christian, that is the way you became one. God did it. You were spiritually dead. Christ and his word and his lifestyle and his promises meant very little to you. You did not love him or trust him or enjoy him. You were dead to all these things. Then one day God called you. And you rose from the dead. And the sprouts of spiritual life broke through the ground and you tasted true faith and love and hope and joy in God for the first time.

This message Paul and his team preached was not merely in words. Men’s words can be very eloquent, persuasive, and entertaining and move people emotionally and intellectually, but such can’t save them and bring them into the family of God (see 1 Cor. 2:1ff.).

The words, “but also,” point us to the three positive elements.

First, in contrast to mere words, the gospel came “with power.”

Second, “And in the Holy Spirit” takes us to the second of the positive elements that gave these missionaries their assurance. Many seem to embrace the gospel as if they only half believed it, or as if it were a matter of very doubtful truth and importance; but this was not the case with the Thessalonians. There was the firmest conviction of its truth, and they embraced it “heart and soul;”

Third, “in with full conviction” or as the NKJV says “in much assurance.” It basically means the full confidence which comes from the Holy Spirit.

The Paul adds, “as you know what kind of men we were among you for your sake.” This means that the quality of the message was confirmed by the character of the lives of the preachers. Paul's exemplary life served as an open book for all people to read, establishing the credibility of the power and grace of God essential to making the message of redemption believable to sinners

A Concern Which Sacrifices Cost and Convenience for the Opportunity to Minister to Others – 1:3, 6b

1:3, “remembering without ceasing your work of faith, labor of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the sight of our God and Father,” 1:6b, “ …having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Spirit,”

Warren Wiersbe asks, “How did Paul know that these Thessalonians were elected of God? He saw a change in their lives. If you put 1Thess 1:3 next to 1Thess 1:9-10, You will get the picture:

“The person who claims to be one of God’s elect, but whose life has not changed, is only fooling himself. Those whom God chooses, He changes. This does not mean they are perfect, but they are possessors of a new life that cannot be hidden.”

Faith rests on the past; love works in the present; hope looks to the future'. Every Christian without exception is a believer, a lover and a hoper (not necessarily an optimist, since “optimism" is a matter of temperament, "hope" of theology).

So comprehensive is the vision created by your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ that John Calvin called it “a brief definition of true Christianity.” Bible commentator, Bengel similarly affirmed that “in these - faith, hope and love - the whole of Christianity consists.”

A Conduct Which Models Disciples Whose Lives are Worth Emulating – 1:6-7

“And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia.” 

The word “imitators” is a Greek word (mimetes) from which our English word “mimic” derives. Upon being converted to Christ, the Thessalonians became mimics of Paul, Silvanus, Timothy, and, ultimately, Christ Himself. As he writes, “You also became imitators of us and the Lord,” the apostle was commending their humble emulation of him as he followed the Lord. That is to say, they followed Paul as he followed the Lord. To the Corinthians, he would later write, “Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ” (1 Cor 11:1).

Paul said that the Thessalonian Christians were examples. The word for examples means patterns. It's like a pattern that someone would lay out and then trace around. He says your life was literally the model or the pattern of Christian living. Remember Paul told Timothy, he said, "In all things be a pattern of good works." 

For the Christian faith to spread it must become contagious because it’s better caught than taught, and this requires up close and personal relationships. Learning from others is the way we’re wired to learn and grow. From our earliest hours as infants we spend most of our time attached to a family member absorbing, through our five senses, the world around us and we catch the basics of human behavior. First, by experience and then later by explanation.

A Conviction that the Gospel is Too Good to be Kept to Oneself – 1:8

“For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not say anything.”  

Their faith was vital, visual, and vocal. The phrase “sounded forth” carries the idea of the sounding out of a trumpet or of thunder, to reverberate like an echo. It is not used anywhere else in the N.T. So “from you” as a sounding board or radio transmitting station (to use a modern figure). It marks forcibly “both the clear and the persuasive nature of the word of the Lord.:

The verb “sounded out” is in the perfect tense. This means that the action described happened and is still happening. The action stands completed, and its results are continuing on. The verb suggests that Gospel witnessing, Gospel advance, Gospel missions, must have a deliberate and definite beginning among Christians with an unceasing continuation.

Here’s what’s so amazing, the church in Thessalonica had hardly been established when its founding pastor was forced to leave town due to the threats against his life and could not return. Paul refers to this heart-breaking handicap several times in the letter (see I Thessalonians 2:17-18). Yet, in spite of the fact that this new and struggling church had no pastor, apparently no buildings, and no mature leaders, they still were used of God to aggressively “trumpet forth the Gospel” all over the known world!! 

A Conquering Joy Which Affliction Cannot Destroy – 1:6c

“…for you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit,”  

In turning from idols to serve God, these believers angered their friends and relatives, and this led to persecution. No doubt some of them lost their jobs because of their new faith. Just as the Jewish unbelievers persecuted the believers in Judea, so the Gentile unbelievers persecuted the Thessalonian believers (1Thess 2:14-16).

However, one of the great discoveries awaiting us is this strange union of suffering and joy. Paul states that "the joy of the Holy Spirit" came to them in their reception of the Word "in much affliction." For Paul and for them, obedience to God was always costly and frequently resulted in suffering (2Cors.11:22-33; Acts 17:1-10). But again and again they witness to the joy that comes in the suffering. Paul here uses the words for joy and suffering in the same sentence.

Perhaps one of the most completely concealed truths of our time is that suffering and joy go together.

Although pain is inevitable, misery is optional, and joy is available! Response to adversity is the real test of the authenticity, as well as the adequacy, of the Christian faith.  If it doesn't work in the furnace of affliction, it is a fraud.

Do I have a faith that is contagious? If not, why not? Is it because it’s been isolated and quarantined in a safe house called a church building?