When I was a professor at university, I had a colleague who had been educated at a private Catholic boarding school run by British nuns. She had some stories about how strict and ruthless those nuns were! To say they were demanding is truly an understatement. They demanded the best grades; the best behavior and they scolded the children constantly to demand their best.
They used harsh language. They never used vulgarity, but always found a way with words to get their message across in a hurtful way. There was one remark my colleague remembered quite well. This was used when the offense was deemed very serious. One of these nuns would approach her and, after a couple of moments of terrifying silence, with the most severe of tones, would say “You’re no credit to your family!” Then, the nun would walk away and leave the subject of such comment in silence to reflect on that. For the nuns, that meant not only that your behavior or actions were not reflecting a positive reputation of your family; essentially, you were doing something that made your family look bad or ashamed of you. And, once again, quoting the words of Michael Jackson, that was bad, bad, really, really, bad.
Last Sunday, as we discussed with Pastor Ken the first letter of Paul to the Thessalonians, we said that one of the unique features of this letter is that there is no rebuke. This is a church that is doing well! One of the reasons we know that is the case is because wherever Paul, Silas and Timothy went, they found people telling them about their faith, about the fact they served the true and living God and how they were looking forward to the return of Jesus (vv. 8-10) They were a credit to their family! They brought praise to their family, their community of faith in Thessalonica. And by doing so, they brought praise to their God.
Are we a credit to our family of faith? Do we bring honor to our God with the way we live? As we approach a new year can I challenge you to consider this? If you have any doubts about how to do this, let me suggest a few things that Paul tells the Thessalonians to do:
Always be joyful. Never stop praying. Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus. Do not stifle the Holy Spirit. Do not scoff at prophecies, but test everything that is said. Hold on to what is good. Stay away from every kind of evil. 1 Thessalonians 5: 16-21
At this time of resolutions (if you make them, and if you don’t, it’s always a good idea to consider this) let’s resolve to bring honor and glory to the same living God our brothers and sisters at the church in Thessalonica served. Happy New Year!
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