Everything has to go

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THE first chapter of our letter concludes with this; the acknowledgment that these early Christians had genuinely ‘turned from idols to serve the living and true God.’ c1v9.

Notice that the turning is twofold – away from one thing, to another. It goes wrong when either part is missed. Some people look to build a relationship with God but without giving up that which previously had held sway in their lives. Others sense a need for change and turn away from that which was damaging – their idol – but don’t go on to fill the void; to turn to God, that is.

To borrow from another of Paul’s metaphors, some people look to put on new clothes without first having stripped off the old! (Ephesians 4:22-24.) Eugene Peterson’s The Message puts it this way: ‘Everything – and I do mean everything – connected with that old way of life has to go.’ In those cases, what we’re seeing is a turning TO without there first having been a turning FROM.

The seventh century monk, Maximus the Confessor, wrote that ‘Christianity is an entirely new way of being human.’ Can you say that your life, as it is now, is entirely new? Are you living in a way that is markedly different to those who claim no allegiance to Christ?

According to Paul, the Thessalonian Christians had gone through just such an all-encompassing transformation.

I’m happy to say I’ve witnessed that ‘everything must go’ kind of transformation, not least in those my congregation has walked with through our Havilah ministry. At Havilah, we open the doors of our hearts to those who struggle with addiction – and for those who succeed in travelling the road to recovery, the ‘turning away from’ that which ensnared them has to be complete, and with no looking back. Others try to change but aren’t prepared to let go of the old and so embracing the new proves to be problematic and in the end, impossible.

Of course in the case of the Thessalonian Christians there would have been actual idols that had been the object of their devotion. That’s less likely to be the case nowadays and yet so much else in the modern world can, and does, function as an idol. It’s as simple as this: anything which takes God’s rightful place as first in our lives has become our idol.

Finally, we should see that these young Christians at Thessalonica had turned to God and to ‘wait for his Son from heaven…’ c1v10. This Son whom God had raised from the dead was the one who had saved them.

You can’t go far in terms of studying scripture before realising that there’s a lot of waiting involved for God’s people! In Old and New Testaments we find people patiently waiting for God to do what God has said will be done. The Psalmist calls on us to ‘Wait patiently for the Lord. Be brave and courageous and, yes, wait patiently for the Lord.’ (Psalm 27:14 NLT)

In Luke’s Gospel, we hear of Simeon and Anna who for long enough had been ‘waiting for the consolation of Israel.’ (Luke 2:25-38) Their waiting was not in vain. Jesus came.

God always delivers on his promises. The Thessalonians knew it. Let us too wait on the Lord, on his Son from heaven. Neither shall our waiting be in vain.

The Rev Dr Martin Fair is minister at Arbroath: St Andrew’s.

This article appears in the February 2020 Issue of Life and Work

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