More & More – Faithful & Flourishing
In our passage this week, Paul begins to discuss the main content of his letter. Bookending the passage with the exhortations to walk and to please God (v. 1) and to walk properly before outsiders (v. 12), Paul implores the Thessalonians to do so more and more (v 1, 10). And he gives them three pictures of how to do so: Abstain from sexual immorality (vv. 3-8), love one another (vv. 9-10a), live quietly, mind their own affairs, and work with their hands so as to be dependent on no one (vv. 10b-12). As we will find, these three pictures work together to make one larger picture that is informative for daily life. The Thessalonians lived out these pictures, but Paul urged them to do so more and more. Will we?