Where true love is found – 1 Thessalonians 4:9-10; 5:11, 14, 27, Part 1

Editor’s Note: I once again welcome Molly Stouffer as guest blogger. Molly is from Hagerstown, MD, studying Pastoral Ministries at Lancaster Bible College.

Almost a month ago, my favorite football team, the Eagles won the Super Bowl. And the week following that, there was great big parade to celebrate in the City of Brotherly Love. The name “Philadelphia” is from the Greek word meaning “brotherly love,” philia. For the past couple weeks, we have been studying Paul’s first letter to the church in Thessalonica. In 1st Thessalonians chapter 4, verse 9, Paul mentions brotherly love, philia. I wonder if Thessalonica was known as the city of brotherly love too?

To get the full picture that Paul is painting about brotherly love, we’ll have to jump between a few verses in chapters 4 and 5. These verses blend together in such a unique way, highlighting brotherly love. In the first few blog posts I’ll cover chapter 4, verses 9-10, and then later in the week, chapter 5, verses 11, 14, and 27.

I want to talk a little bit about this familial language in these verses. We know Paul didn’t get to spend much time in Thessalonica, and yet he knows their love. He knows their love so well, that in just two verses, love is mentioned four times.

And what goes right along with these phrases? Familial language. Christian family, brothers and sisters, its very personal and intimate language.

If this family language wasn’t enough, Paul highlights the father-like nature of God with us as His children. In verse 9, Paul says God has taught the Christians. God is our Heavenly Father, who guides and teaches us. We see in verse 9 these Christians already have love for each other why? Because their Father has taught them well.

We know from 1 John 4:16, that God is love. He himself encompasses what love is. So of course, God can teach us what love is, because it is Him! God is love and God is the perfect example of love for the church then, and the church today. And because God is love, love can only be found in Him.

1 Thessalonians 4, verses 9 and 10 aren’t the only places we find family language in the passage; our last verse, 5:27, ends with “brothers.” Paul intentionally uses familial language to begin and end this topic because it all starts with love. Without brotherly love established, what Paul invokes this church to do is meaningless.

They are to do these things with love, from love. They are to act because of the love given to them by God, and to share that love in their lives and actions. God gave them love, or rather revealed His love, when He sent His son to die in our place. I’m getting ahead of myself a bit, but we will come back to this idea of how God showed His love for us through Jesus.

What Paul introduces is the big idea in this passage: The church is called to love each other and encourage one another, and to provide for the lost, where our actions are flowing out of God’s love for us.

Photo by Alexander Sinn on Unsplash