V. Conclusion (5:23-5:28)
2. Request for Prayer (5:25)
Some Key Words (09/01/22)
Paraphrase: (09/01/22)
1Th 5:25 Brothers, pray for us.
Key Verse: (09/01/22)
1Th 5:25 – Brothers, pray for us.
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Thematic Relevance: |
Prayerful living models our trust in God. |
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Doctrinal Relevance: |
Prayer is commanded. |
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Moral Relevance: |
Prayer is requested, but not for personal gain or comfort. The concern of prayer is and should be God’s purposes rather than our own. |
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Doxology: |
God grants us access to Himself in prayer, both to speak our hearts and to hear His. This is perhaps the single most significant way in which we enter into His work, as our expressions of faith, and our proclamations of His glory realign our thoughts to better reflect His. What wonderful privilege is ours in this participation! Thank You, Father, for desiring that we might fellowship with You, know You better, love You more, serve You more wholeheartedly, even in this most quiet way. |
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Questions Raised: |
N/A |
Symbols: (09/01/22)
People, Places & Things Mentioned: (09/01/22)
You Were There: (09/01/22)
There’s not a great deal to consider here, in seeking to connect with the original hearers of the letter. Paul’s request is left open to any interpretation, but I suspect that is simply because he knew his readers would already share his interests. Looking at those other places he requests prayer, it is telling that they are never for his comfort, security, or provision, but always for the progress of the Gospel and the desire to be a true and faithful servant of God.
There is no calling in of chips, as the phrase goes, no wheedling with God for maybe an easier course. There is, really, no sense of concern for his own person at all. Even in those prison epistles, the focus is forced away from Paul and onto the Gospel. Let ministry flourish. Let those who need to hear, hear. Let the seed of the Gospel take root and grow in as many as possible, and what becomes of me in this temple of flesh is less than secondary. It is of no consequence. For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. Ever we find Paul’s prayers giving further evidence that these weren’t just words. They were his core.
Hearing such a prayer, seeing the concern of the Apostle ever outward focused, must surely have encouraged his flock to proceed from the same ground, to develop outward focus themselves, and set the Gospel first and foremost in their lives, whatever their activities. It should so encourage us as well.
Some Parallel Verses: (09/01/22)
New Thoughts: (09/02/22)
With only the one verse to consider here, it is no surprise that there are but a few thoughts to pursue. Really, there is but one thought I find myself focusing on, and that is the selflessness of this request for prayer. To truly gain an appreciation for that requires considering some of those other places where Paul asks for prayer, but I believe the same motivations that he expresses there apply here as well, but without the explicit identification of specifics. The focus that is revealed is one that is wholly wrapped up in God’s purposes, in the successful propagation of the Gospel. When Paul says, ‘pray for us,’ it is not a request for ease nor even for provision. It is for ministry success, with that success measured by God’s measure, not those of man.
If I consider my own prayers, I would have to say this presents a strong course correction. I suspect you could say the same. What do our prayers concern themselves with? We pray for health for this one or that one. That is probably the largest category of prayer requests that come through to us from our churches. Now, don’t suppose I am saying this is wrong. The preservation of life is always, by default, aligned with God’s purposes, with His essential being. He is life. He breathed life into us, as we saw in pursuing the previous verses, and where He withdraws His breath, death ensues, for life is gone. Yet, all our days are in His hands, and He has numbered them according to His good and perfect plans.
I had considered, or recalled to mind, that powerful declaration Paul makes to the Philippians in regard to his perspective. To live is Christ, and to die is gain (Php 1:21). This is powerful because, as the text there makes clear, this was a very real matter for Paul. Death was a likely outcome of his present circumstance, but it was, in his estimation, a thing to be welcomed, being as it would mean that separation from the Lord’s immediate and visceral presence would cease. If we die, we go to Him. “This day, you will be with Me in Paradise” (Lk 23:43). Barring a sense of duty to God’s continuing purpose, this really deserves to be our greatest goal.
Clearly, there are doctrinal reasons that we don’t turn Christianity into a suicide cult. Nor can we find any condoning of suicide in Scripture. How could one possibly square this with the clear message of the sanctity of life, and most particularly in those made in the image of God? But neither is there a call to seek life extended beyond its natural extent. Indeed, the prime example of this, it seems to me, is Hezekiah, whose reign had been one of the high points of Jewish rule. But when news came that his time had come, rather than rejoice at the approaching opportunity to be brought into the presence of God to live forever, he sought an extension, and God, for His own reasons, granted the extension. The results turned out rather poorly for Hezekiah, all but reversing the good his rule had done up to that point, as he became somewhat foolish, prideful, and presumptuous.
The hard balance of this equation comes to the fore as Jesus prays in the garden, with the agony of the Cross looming before Him. Father, if there’s any other way we could do this, can we take that course instead? But then comes the heart-corrective addendum. Nevertheless, Thy will, not Mine (Mt 26:42). This is the same resolve Paul displays in that comment to the Philippians. It is the same focus and concern that is expressed in, it seems to me, his every request for prayer, and that includes this rather open-ended request before us. “Pray for us.”
What to pray? That God’s purposes would be well served by these faithful servants; not just Paul, but Timothy and Silas as well. Indeed, I think we could widen the scope to take in the Thessalonian church as well, insofar as their zeal for the Gospel was a matter of some renown. But I think we can reasonably conclude that the more immediate focus is on that ministry occurring at the time in Corinth. The church in Thessalonica, whatever nascent troubles might be there, was an established work, a healthy, growing concern. In Corinth, things were still new, still in flux. Would this be another Athens, or something more like the churches in Macedonia?
We find, then, that his prayer is a matter of seeing the Gospel make progress. Pray that our exposition of the Gospel might be not merely well-reasoned, and proclaimed with style; but that it might be so imbued with the Spirit as to penetrate hard hearts and darkened minds so as to bring light and life here, as it did with you. This, too, speaks to a mindset that ought to be prevalent in our churches in every age. If we have grown satisfied with having our fellowship, our little community of common faith, and allowed concern for those without our walls to wane, something has gone wrong. “You have lost your first love” (Rev 2:4). You know, we hear that, and if we think to take our measure in light of it, we likely come only to the point of determining that no, we still love You dearly, Jesus. You are still upon the throne of our heart. And we get on with life. But what is that first love? Is it our delight in Him? Is it our thankfulness for salvation? In part, sure. But is it not more fully expressed in this expansionist concern for the Gospel, in our concern for the lost all around us? When was the last time, I wonder, that your prayers left you out of it? When was the last time your prayers were solely, exclusively upon the expansion of Christ’s kingdom, upon the application of the Spirit to those lost souls around us?
Is it just me? Am I projecting my own, unique short-comings upon all? It’s not out of the question, I suppose, but I suspect that’s not the case. I suspect that there are many who find their prayers turned rather thoroughly on their own problems and concerns. Look. There’s a place for that. David shows us as much. If we are in a hard place, then yes, by all means, let us call upon the Lord to guide us through and out the other side. Surely, this is right and proper. But there’s a larger purpose to life than just our own local conditions. There’s a vast ocean of lost souls out there, and as the sun rises on them as well as us, so also, we ought most devoutly to desire that the Son would shine in their souls as well as ours.
Our prayers need to move off of matters of circumstance and convenience. Would it be nice if all could live disease-free, experience long life and plentiful supply? Sure. Would it suit God’s plan and purpose? I don’t know as we generally take that into consideration. We just assume He would want that for us. And yet, there is that reminder to the Israelites as they contemplated entry into the Promised Land. You will have houses and fields and plentiful crops and flocks beyond number. Your vineyards will flourish, and amidst all this wealth of provision, you will forget Me. You will begin to think you have done all this for yourselves, that your life is good and settled, and the need for prayer, for attention to Yahweh has become a thing of the past. But no such thing is true. No such thing is ever true.
And like Israel, it is very much a matter of concern for us – or should be – that we have become too enrapt with our own concerns and left His concerns behind. Like Israel, we are set here not as some guarded enclave seeking to keep out all invaders, but as an invading force in our own right, or perhaps better seen as ambassadors. The ambassador does not come, set up base, and then hide away inside, refusing all contact with the society in which that embassy has been established. He seeks engagement, the opportunity for expressing the glories of his own kingdom, and the potential benefits that might accrue to this host nation through their aligning of interests. He comes, and he serves, seeking always the purposes of the King he represents. Israel was set as such an embassy, to bring the light of God to all, but it fell to jealously guarding that light, lest it be defiled by those unbelieving nations all around them. We can get into that same defensive mindset, particularly in the present societal conditions. But we mustn’t. For one, God really doesn’t need defending. He’s rather good at seeing to His own defense. But those lost folks outside? They need God’s defending. They need His rescue, just as we did. They need to hear as we have heard, to know His call as we have known it.
Pray, then. Pray for the progress of the Gospel. Pray for the will of God to be done on earth as it is in heaven. Pray as you were taught by your Master. “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done.” Let it be so in me. Let it be so in my actions. Let me indeed live for You, and be the instrument in Your hands that You have been fashioning me to be. Play on, Lord. You have called me, and I am Yours. Guide me, then, as You desire, and so work upon this stubborn mule that I might indeed come to be about that which You have purposed for me. Train my eyes to see what You are up to, and my feet to run after You and You only. Help me to develop this outward, Gospel focus, for I find it sorely lacking in me. Let this be more than words, Father, more than a felt need to respond appropriately, but only as a surface response. Get it deep within me, and let this poor man be the good servant You made me to be. Make me useful, Lord, in Your work, and by Your work.
