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Wrestling with the text

I've been encouraged by several of those I respect to blog more. I've decided, therefore, to do more of my wrestling with the text here. I usually do most of this in my private journal. In part that's because I don't like to arrive too quickly at answers to deep questions. I like to ask the question of the text and of God and then stew on it for a while, allowing the Spirit to work a deeper answer in my soul. I don't need head answers. I need heart and soul answers.

My question for today is this: What is the connection between love for one another and holiness?

Today I read in 1 Thess. 3:11-13 that Paul was praying for the church to love one another and all "so that" God would work holiness in their hearts. Looking forward to the day when we will all stand before the Father, Paul was praying for them to be ultimately right with God. And so he prayed that they would abound in love "so that" God would establish them blameless in holiness.

What does "so that" mean here? Is there a causal relationship? Is abundant "love for one another and for all" a prerequisite for final holiness? Is community that much more important to God than it is to me?

I suspect it is.
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bluggier said…
I don't know, Chris. I always thought that passage taught that love for one-another was a prerequisite.
July 20, 2008 at 3:45 PM
Chris Stewart said…
I went back and studied this text in Greek and decided that Paul was referring more to his own love for one another leading to their holiness: "...may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, so that (by my/our love for you) he may establish your hearts...."

I now think Paul was saying "I love you unto holiness" rather than "Love one another unto holiness."

That being said, however, I think the application can be the same. We are to love one another unto holiness.

This discussion now seems a bit silly, caught up in technicalities. But it challenges me nonetheless to do what Paul did.

Lord, help us to love one another until we are all established in holiness at the coming of Jesus.
August 1, 2008 at 9:13 AM
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