God Calls You

 Meditations on 1 Thessalonians

June 11, 2021

God Calls You

For he called you to share in his Kingdom and glory.

1 Thessalonians 2:12b

Read: 1 Thessalonians 2:9-12

There are two parts to this brief passage. First, Paul continues to affirm his personal conduct while he was in Thessalonica. I don’t think Pau was trying to hold himself up to earn praise from his friends there. Rather, he was pointing to his lifestyle as a model. Remember, those cities were outposts for the Roman way of life which was highly pretentious. Over and against the Roman way of life, Paul was modeling the life in Christ as the way of life. Paul pointed out his hard work and his devout and honest and faultless lifestyle as a way of life they too were called to emulate.

Secondly, there is the brief sentence at the end of the passage, “For he called you to share in his Kingdom and glory.” (v.12b) God didn’t just call the Thessalonians; He has called each of us as well to share in His Kingdom and glory. This reminds me of another simple phrase Paul used in Philippians 4:2, “because you belong to the Lord.” (see my meditation for June 3)

My Takeaway: The thought that we belong to the Lord, that he has called us to share in his Kingdom and glory, these simple phrases demand much pondering on our part. How different might our lives be if we actually believed these phrases, and acted on them?

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

 

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com.

 

Copyright © 2021 by Alex M. Knight

 

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.