How God feels and thinks about you – 1 Thessalonians 1:4-10, Part 2

What do you think God thinks about you?

How does God feel about you?

Some of us might think that there is a distance between ourselves and God, like a friend who used to be close, moved away, and though you said you would remain close, now years have gone by and you haven’t talked at all.

Some of us wonder if God is angry at us, because we’ve made some selfish or wasteful or hurtful choices.

As we continue studying the New Testament letter, 1st Thessalonians, we’re going to learn precisely how God feels about us, 

In chapter 1, verse 4, the author of the letter, Paul, writes that Christians are “brothers and sisters loved by God.”  Some Bibles do not include “sisters.” Why?  The word Paul uses is in the masculine gender, “brothers,” and thus some Bibles just print “brothers.”  But we know that Paul, when he writes to churches writes to everyone in the church.  He is not just thinking about males only.  We know this because he frequently refers to women in general and specifically by name.  What Paul is writing here is for everyone in the church, men and women. 

Notice the family language: brothers and sisters.  Why not “men and women” or “people”?  The early church often used family language to refer to themselves.  God adopts us into his family, and thus we are like brothers and sisters.  We are sons and daughters of the King.  There are many other ways to describe the church.  But a primary one is using family language.  How does God feel about us? Like we are his family!  

Who are the brothers and sisters Paul is writing to?  In Acts 17, which I referred to last week here, we learned that Paul was writing to people in the Greco-Roman city of Thessalonica.  They were Jews and Greeks.  Men and women.  This was a diverse church.  It was a network of house churches that was socio-economically diverse, ethnically diverse, culturally diverse, generationally diverse.  Many (maybe even most) of them were previously followers of Judaism.  They were looking for the Messiah, and Paul introduced them to the Messiah.  They excitedly became faithful followers of the Messiah, Jesus Christ.

Then Paul reminds them in verse 4 that they are loved by God. That is a key identity marker.  They are loved by God.  The same is true for us.  You and I are right to see ourselves as people loved by God.  Do you sometimes make mistakes and sin?  You are still loved by God.  Do you wonder if you have failed in some way?  Parents often wonder that about their parenting.  You are loved by God.  Do you wonder if you haven’t earned enough money, maybe made bad financial decisions?  You are loved by God.  Do you wonder if your family and friends really like and care for you?  You are loved by God.

It just might be our core identity: We are people loved by God.  We can quickly forget the truth that we are loved by God in the busyness of the life, in the distractions that fill our world.  But let’s be reminded. God loves you.  God’s posture toward you is love.  We can think “God is probably disappointed in me.”  No, God loves you. 

After assuring the people that they are loved by God, Paul says, “I know God has chosen you.”  With that word “chosen,” Paul brings up one of the most confounding theological problems that has caused Christians confusion and consternation for centuries.  Do we choose God or does he choose us?  Do we have free will so that we choose to place our faith in God or not?  Check back tomorrow as I try to bring some perspective to that thorny issue.

Photo by Greg Rakozy on Unsplash