1 Thessalonians 2:10-12 Commentary

1Thessalonians 2:10 You are witnesses, and so is God, how devoutly and uprightly and blamelessly we behaved toward you believers (NASB: Lockman)

Greek: humeis martures kai o theos, os hosios kai dikaios kai amemptos humin tois pisteuousin (PAPMPD) egenethemen, (1PAPI)

Amplified: You are witnesses, [yes] and God [also], how unworldly and upright and blameless was our behavior toward you believers [who adhered to and trusted in and relied on our Lord Jesus Christ]. (Amplified Bible - Lockman)

NLT: You yourselves are our witnesses--and so is God--that we were pure and honest and faultless toward all of you believers. (NLT - Tyndale House)

Phillips: You are witnesses, as is God himself, that our life among you believers was honest, straightforward and above criticism. (Phillips: Touchstone)

Wuest: As for you, you are those who bear testimony to what you have seen, also God [who bears witness to what He has seen], how devoutly in a manner pleasing to God, how uprightly according to the standards set by God, how blamelessly we ordered our lives among you who are believers, even as you know how as a father exhorts and encourages his own children, (Eerdmans)

Young's Literal: ye are witnesses -- God also -- how kindly and righteously, and blamelessly to you who believe we became,

1Th 2:10, 11, 12 form a single sentence in the the Greek text.

This verse clearly emphasizes and concludes the section on the character and conduct of the missionaries' behavior.

You are witnesses and God - Paul makes a direct appeal to the memory and testimony of the Thessalonians concerning the missionaries' conduct during the 3 or more weeks Paul, Silas and Timothy had been in their midst. The Thessalonians had witnessed the character of the missionaries' lives and could testify to the their integrity. However men cannot adequately judge another's motives which explains Paul's appeal to God Who continually examines… hearts (1Th 2:4-note).

Matthew Henry said that…

It is a great comfort to a minister to have his own conscience and the consciences of others witnessing for him that he set out well, with good designs and from good principles.

Note the association of the testimony of the Thessalonians with the testimony of God just as we saw in 1Th 2:5 (note). (cp similar pattern of human and divine testimony in John 15:26, 27, Acts 5:32).

Witnesses (3144) (martus) refers to one who has information or knowledge of something and can bring to light or confirm veracity of . Three things are essential for one to qualify as a witness: (1) The witness has seen with his own eyes what he attests. (2) He is competent to relate it for others (3) He is willing to testify truthfully.

Hiebert comments that…

Three adverbs are used to summarize the conduct. Adverbs rather than adjectives are employed because the emphasis is not on the character of the workers but on the manner of their conduct. "How" before the adverbs points to the degree of manner. There is no claim to perfection but rather to an eminent degree of attainment in the areas specified. The Thessalonian believers were able to judge this. (Hiebert, D. Edmond: 1 & 2 Thessalonians: BMH Book. 1996)

Devoutly (3743) (hosíōs from hósios = sacred, holy) means sacredly or marked by a conscientious regard for divine law in a way pleasing to God, in a holy manner. It means to carefully fulfill the duties God gives to a person. Hosios points to an inner disposition that gives regard to the sanctities of life. Hosios is an adverb which is marked by a conscientious regard for divine law so that one behaves in a way pleasing to God or in a holy manner. This is the only use of hosios in the NT and there is only one use in the Septuagint (LXX) …

1 Kings 8:61 "Let your heart therefore be wholly devoted to the LORD our God, to walk (LXX= walk also holy {hosios}) in His statutes and to keep His commandments, as at this day. (Comment: Solomon prayed for the people what he should have prayed for himself!)

Vine says hosios…

is that quality of holiness which is manifested in those who have regard equally to grace and truth; it involves a right relation to God;

TDNT says…

A first reference of these terms is to actions that are regarded as sacred, lawful, or dutiful, i.e., good from the standpoint of morality and religion, no matter whether they are based on divine precept, natural law, ancient custom, or inner disposition. When combined with díkaios, what is indicated is that which corresponds to both divine and human law. (Kittel, G., Friedrich, G., & Bromiley, G. W. Theological Dictionary of the New Testament. Eerdmans)

Uprightly (1346) (dikaios from dike = right) describes being in accordance with what God requires or being in accordance with God's compelling standards. Here Paul is not referring to the "righteousness (dikaios) of the Law" but to the practical righteousness that God works out in our lives as we yield to Him.

In short, dikaios means manifesting right conduct, waking morally upright outwardly or in a right way which is in accordance with what God requires. It is a more general description of observable “rightness” in all aspects of life.

The missionaries' conduct came up to the full standard of what was right or just and concordant to the performance of the duties of life.

Hiebert writes that…

The term holy (devoutly) relates to inward disposition and points to the religious aspect of life; righteous covers the moral aspect, relating to that integrity and uprightness of conduct that must mark the Christian life. (Hiebert, D. Edmond: 1 & 2 Thessalonians: BMH Book. 1996)

Vine adds that dikaios was…

first used of persons observant of dike, custom, rule, right, especially in the fulfilment of duties towards gods and men, and of things that were in accordance with right. The English word righteous was formerly spelt rightwise, i.e., (in a) straight way. In the NT. it denotes righteous, a state of being right, or right conduct, judged whether by the Divine standard, or according to human standards, of what is right. Said of God, it designates the perfect agreement between His nature and His acts (in which He is the standard for all men). (Vine, W. Collected writings of W. E. Vine. Nashville: Thomas Nelson or Logos)

Blamelessly (274) (amémptōs from the noun ámemptos from a = negates following word + mémphomai = find fault) means irreproachably, faultlessly. The noun describes that which is without defect or blemish and thus describes not being able to find fault in someone or some thing (cf use in He 8:7 {note} regarding the Old Covenant). The idea is that the person is such that he or she is without the possibility of rightful charge being brought against them. Paul and his companions' life before the Thessalonians was such that there was no legitimate ground for accusation. This doesn’t mean that his enemies didn’t accuse him—because they did—but the charges didn’t stick.

The only other NT use of the adverb amémptōs is in chapter 5,

Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame (blamelessly) at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. (see note 1Thessalonians 5:23)

McGee makes a good point…

People will say ugly things about you, but the important thing is to make sure the criticisms are not true. Paul and his companions maintained a holy life. A holy life does count. It has nothing to do with obtaining your salvation, but it has everything to do with the salvation of folk around you, because they are watching you. (McGee, J V: Thru the Bible Commentary: Thomas Nelson or Logos)

Although Paul used a different word, his prayer in the next chapter for the Thessalonian saints was that…

He may establish your hearts unblamable (amomos) in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints. (see note 1Thessalonians 3:13)

This adjective ámemptos was often used to characterize someone who is flawless in the sight of other people.

The adverb amémptōs (differs by mark over the "o") is the very word archeologists have found on Christian tombs from ancient Thessalonica. When people wanted to identify a deceased friend or loved one as a Christian, they inscribed "amémptōs" or "blameless" on his or her grave, such behavioral blamelessness (not just the imputed and forensic) is the Lord’s desire for His church. In secular Greek it was used in the Greco-Roman world of people of extraordinary civic consciousness.

Barclay adds that ámemptos…

expresses what the Christian is to the world. His life is of such purity that none can find anything in it with which to find fault. It is often said in courts of law that the proceedings must not only be just but must be seen to be just. The Christian must not only be pure, but the purity of his life must be seen by all. (Barclay, W: The Daily Study Bible Series, Rev. ed. Philadelphia: The Westminster Press)

Paul, Silvanus and Timothy had behaved in such a manner that they had not elicited any reproach from the Thessalonians regarding their character. Even if a charge had been made against them, the adverb amémptōs signifies that the charge could not have been substantiated! Beloved, could other believers say that you have lived devoutly, uprightly and blamelessly before them?

Hiebert says that blamelessly sums up their character writing that…

It claims an irreproachable conduct as a whole, indicating that no charges can be maintained, whatever charges might be made against someone. It "affixes the seal of approval both by God and man.' The lives of the messengers had demonstrated that they not only believed the gospel but also behaved it. They were deeply aware of the importance of living lives that commended the gospel if their preaching was to have abiding results. They had conducted themselves with the utmost fidelity in word and deed toward the readers—you who believed (Hiebert, D. Edmond: 1 & 2 Thessalonians: BMH Book. 1996)

You believers - This is literally "you who continuously believed", believed as a lifestyle.

Believers (4100) (pisteuo [word study] from pistis [word study]; pistos [word study]; related studies the faith, the obedience of faith) means to consider something to be true and therefore worthy of one’s trust. To accept as true, genuine, or real. To have a firm conviction as to the goodness, efficacy, or ability of something or someone. To consider to be true. To accept the word or evidence of. Pisteuo indicates an adherence to, a committal to, a faith in, a reliance upon, a trust in a person, a truth or an object and this involves not only the consent of the mind, but an act of the heart and will of the subject.

Vincent notes that pisteuo…

means to persuade, to cause belief, to induce one to do something by persuading, and so runs into the meaning of to obey, properly as the result of persuasion

It is important to understand that the New Testament clearly teaches that to believe unto salvation is more than mental or intellectual assent to the truth of the Gospel, but includes (from Vine's' definition) (1) A firm conviction which produces full acknowledgment of God's revelation of Truth (2Th 2:11,12) and (2) a personal surrender to the Truth (Jn 1:12) and (3) a conduct inspired by and consistent with that surrender.

James says that

faith, if it has no works, is dead (James 2:17-note)

Comment: His point in James 2:14-26 (see notes beginning at Js 2:14) is that one can have assurance that they possess a genuine saving faith if they see good works, the works being the evidence but not the means of salvation. Salvation is by faith alone, but the faith that truly saves is not alone. Think of saving faith as a fire in the fireplace of a house. How can one see the evidence of the fire in the fireplace? The owner of the house might tell him he has a fire, but it is only validated by seeing the smoke coming from the chimney!

Hiebert comments that believe is in the present tense which…

pictures them as characterized by their continuing faith. Faith is central in the Christian life, and a vital, saving faith is a continuing faith in Jesus Christ as Savior. And it was that faith that enabled the Thessalonians to evaluate properly the conduct of the missionaries. Paul's appeal to their witness as confirmation of his claim proves the consciousness of his own integrity "Paul and his evangelistic party were scrutinized, examined, and cross-examined, and their testimony held good." (Ibid)

Vincent: writes that pisteuo…

means to persuade, to cause belief, to induce one to do something by persuading, and so runs into the meaning of to obey, properly as the result of persuasion

Literally - how devoutly and uprightly and blamelessly to you who believe we became

Became (1096) (ginomai) means the came into existence.

Spurgeon comments that…

Brethren, we shall not win success unless we hunt for it by careful lives. You wish to see your Sunday-school class converted. You are anxious to be blest on your tract-district. You want to see that little mission-hall crowded, and souls converted. Begin by looking to your own life. As the man is, depend upon it, so will his life-work be. There will not come out of any one of us that which is not in us. You must fill the pitcher, or you cannot go round and fill the cups of those who thirstily ask you for water. That which you would in part of grace or life must be in yourself first; and when God has wrought it in you, then it shall be yours to work out. The water of life must be placed in you to be a well of living water, springing up, and then the word shall be fulfilled in you—"Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water." Personal piety is the back-bone of success in the service of God. Be you sure of that. Our mistakes and blunders in the work itself usually originate in faults in the closet, faults in the family, faults in our own souls. If we were better, our works would be better. If we walk contrary to God, he will walk contrary to us.

We cannot be too careful of our conduct if we aspire to be used of the Lord. Though the Lord is jealous of all his servants, he is especially jealous of those whom he honors in service. "Be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the Lord." That which he might have passed over in one of his common servants he will not wink at in those whom he largely blesses. Therefore, dear friends, let us remember that rejoicing servants of God must be holy servants of God. They shall not give thanks for the purity of their people unless they have set a holy example themselves. This renders all work for Christ a very solemn thing. May we always think it so, and never go to it in a trifling spirit, but with many cries to the Holy One of Israel that he would make and keep us clean and bright as vessels fit for the Master's use! (Three Sights Worth Seeing)

1Thessalonians 2:11 just as you know how we were exhorting and encouraging and imploring each one of you as a father would his own children, (NASB: Lockman)

Greek: kathaper oidate (2PRAI) os hena hekaston humon hos pater tekna heautou parakalountes (PAPMPN) humas kai paramuthoumenoi (PMPMPN) kai marturomenoi (PMPMPN)

Amplified: For you know how, as a father [dealing with] his children, we used to exhort each of you personally, stimulating and encouraging and charging you (Amplified Bible - Lockman)

NLT: And you know that we treated each of you as a father treats his own children. (NLT - Tyndale House)

Phillips: You will remember how we dealt with each one of you personally, like a father with his own children, stimulating your faith and courage and giving you instruction. (Phillips: Touchstone)

Wuest: exhorting and encouraging and bearing witness to each one of you, (Eerdmans)

Young's Literal: even as ye have known, how each one of you, as a father his own children, we are exhorting you, and comforting, and testifying,

Paul now employs a second parental metaphor, this time of a father (cf. 1Co 4:14, 15, 16, 21; 2Cor 6:11, 12, 13; Php 2:22-note; Phile 1:10).

Just as you know - Paul again appeals to the personal knowledge the Thessalonians had of the facts he is stating. This evidence in confirmation of the virtuous life of the missionaries is in full harmony with the personal knowledge of the readers.

You know (1492) (eido/oida) literally means perception by sight (perceive, see) as in Mt 2:2 where the wise men "saw His star". The meaning of eido/oida is somewhat difficult to convey but in general this type of "knowing" is distinguished from ginosko (and epiginosko, epignosis), the other major NT word for knowing, because ginosko refers to knowledge obtained by experience or "experiential knowledge" whereas eido often refers to more intuitive knowledge, although the distinction is not always crystal clear.

Wuest says eido/oida "speaks of absolute, beyond the peradventure (chance) of a doubt knowledge, a knowledge that is self-evident… a positive knowledge… to know absolutely and finally… to know absolutely… a sure knowledge, a positive knowledge… an absolute acquaintance with something."

Eido/oida is not so much by experience as an intuitive insight that is "drilled into your heart" so to speak. Eido is that perception, that being aware of, that understanding, that intuitive knowledge that only the Holy Spirit of God can give. Eido/oida means to see with the mind’s eye and signifies a clear and purely mental perception. The verb is in the perfect tense which conveys the sense of a permanent or abiding state of knowing.

In short, eido/oida suggests fullness of knowledge, rather than progress in knowledge, which is expressed by ginosko, a distinction illustrated in Jn 8:55, (Jesus said "you have not come to know {ginosko} Him, but I know {oida} Him). Here Jesus says in essence "I know God perfectly (oida)". In John 13:7 Jesus addresses Peter (Jesus answered and said to him, "What I do you do not realize {oida} now, but you shall understand {ginosko} hereafter.") Another example of ginosko-type" knowledge is found in 1Jn 2:13 where the verb know is ginosko (to know by experience) not eido/oida (absolute, immediate knowledge of a fact once for all) and in context the fact that we know Him is knowledge gained by experience day by day, experiential knowledge gained from the experience of keeping His commandments. Obedience is the way to know (ginosko) Him more and more (cp Jn 14:21).

Marvin Vincent adds that eido/oida refers to "Mental comprehension and knowledge, and referring to the whole range of invisible things." (Word Studies in the New Testament 1:716).

Hiebert comments that…

It is an appeal to the readers' own experience concerning the efforts of the missionaries to induce them to live virtuous lives. This concern of the missionaries for the lives of their converts is evidence of their own high aspirations. "For if any one can be truly desirous that others walk virtuously, this presupposes the endeavor after virtue in himself.' (Hiebert, D. Edmond: 1 & 2 Thessalonians: BMH Book. 1996)

Note that each of the following three verbs (exhorting, encouraging, imploring) are in the present tense indicating that these activities as the missionaries' continual practice. All three of these participles are in the plural, indicating that his colleagues joined Paul in this work. Their appeals carried three elements according to the need…

beseeching or urging, the hesitant, encouraging the faint-hearted, and charging or adjuring, the wavering.

Warren Wiersbe writes…

I once received a letter from a radio listener who thanked me for the encouragement of the messages she had heard. “When we go to church,” she wrote, “all our pastor does is scold us and whip us. We really get tired of this. It’s refreshing to hear some words of encouragement!” (Wiersbe, W: Bible Exposition Commentary. 1989. Victor or Logos)

Exhorting (3870) (parakaleo [word study] from para = side of, alongside, beside + kaleo [ word study] = call) means literally to call one alongside, to call someone to oneself, to call for, to summon. Parakaleo can include the idea of giving help or aid but the primary sense in the NT is to urge someone to take some action, especially some ethical course of action. Sometimes the word means convey the idea of comfort, sometimes of exhortation but always at the root there is the idea of enabling a person to meet some difficult situation with confidence and with gallantry.

Kent Hughes illustrates the root idea of parakaleo "to come alongside and encourage" with the following example

I see this exemplified every time my church has a roller skating party, and the parents put their little ones on skates for the first time. Mom and Dad skate with their child, holding on to his or her hands, sometimes with the child’s feet on the ground and sometimes in the air. But all the time the parents are alongside encouraging… [exhortation] is a wonderful gift, and we are to place it at Christ’s feet and be willing to be worn out in its use.

Encourage one another - Study the "one anothers" - most positive, some negative

Note that Paul repeatedly uses parakaleo in his communication to the Thessalonians (here and also in 1Thes 3:2, 7; 4:1, 10, 18; 5:11, 14; 2Thess. 2:17; 3:12)

Vincent says that persuading is a better translation as "Persuasion is the form which the exhortation assumed."

In classic Greek parakaleo was used of exhorting troops about to go into battle. One of the Greek historians has an instructive used of parakaleo in his description of a Greek regiment which had lost heart and was utterly dejected. The general sent a leader to talk to it to such purpose that courage was reborn and a body of dispirited men became fit again for heroic action. That is what parakaleo means (Click here for more discussion and examples.)

Encouraging (3888) (paramutheomai from para = towards, beside, pictures one coming to another's side of one to stimulate or comfort + muthéomai = to speak from múthos = a tale, myth, speech) literally means to speak to someone coming close to his or her side and speak to them in a friendly way. The meaning can develop along two main lines -- with reference to rousing up someone's will about what ought to be done (admonish to something) or with reference to what has happened rousing up hope for a good outcome (to console about something, cheer up - as in a secular use - "consolation for Alexander when he was depressed") It was used in secular Greek especially in connection with death or other tragic events.

In the NT it means to relate near, encourage, console (to serve as a source of comfort in disappointment, loss, sadness, trouble). The idea is to speak kindly or soothingly so as to comfort or pacify.

As someone has said paramutheomai denotes the soothing and encouraging side of exhortation, inspiring the converts to continue the desired course of action. It means to encourage in the sense of comfort and consolation which is critical in assisting spiritual growth because of the many obstacles and failures Christians can experience.

As noted below paramutheomai is used in John 11 referring to the consolation given to Lazarus' grieving family. Thus it was a word reserved for the tender, restorative, compassionate uplifting needed by a struggling, burdened, heartbroken spiritual child.

Wiersbe explains paramutheomai noting that…

This word carries the same idea of “encouragement,” with the emphasis on activity. Paul not only made them feel better, but he made them want to do better. A father must not pamper a child; rather, he must encourage the child to go right back and try over again. Christian encouragement must not become an anesthesia that puts us to sleep. It must be a stimulant that awakens us to do better. (Wiersbe, W: Bible Exposition Commentary. 1989. Victor or Logos)

The TDNT makes the point that…

It is natural to seek a distinction between parakaleo and paramutheomai, but difficult to find a convincing criterion by which to draw any sharp line of demarcation. Both are characterized by the twofoldness of admonition and comfort, nor can one show that in the NT the element of comfort is the more pronounced in the case of paramutheomai. For in all the relevant passages other meanings might be seen with at least the same right, eg., “to encourage” at 1Th. 2:12, “to strengthen” at 1Thes 5:14… In the NT, however, the close relation between admonition and consolation in the two groups has a very different basis from that in secular usage. In the secular world consolation only too often takes the form of moral exhortation… In the NT, however, admonition becomes genuine comfort and vice versa, so that it is hard to separate or distinguish between the two… The unity of admonition and consolation is rooted in the Gospel itself, which is both gift and task. (Kittel, G., Friedrich, G., & Bromiley, G. W. Theological Dictionary of the New Testament. Eerdmans)

Paramutheomai occurs only 4 times in Scripture…

John 11:19 and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary, to console them concerning their brother.

John 11:31 The Jews then who were with her in the house, and consoling her, when they saw that Mary rose up quickly and went out, followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there.

1Thessalonians 2:11 just as you know how we were exhorting and encouraging and imploring each one of you as a father would his own children,

1Thessalonians 5:14 And we urge you, brethren, admonish the unruly, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with all men.

Imploring (3143) (marturomai from mártus = witness) (See related word studies - epimartureo; diamarturomai) in its original sense meant summon to witness and thus conveys the idea of testifying in affirmation or exhortation.

The idea of implore is to beg earnestly or even desperately. Interestingly, the English word implore is from the Latin implorare meaning to "invoke with tears" with a suggestion of greater urgency or anguished appeal!

To affirm (state positively, assert as valid or confirmed, implying conviction based on evidence, experience or faith) something with solemnity (see NT uses below). The verb means to appeal to by something sacred. To urge as a matter of great importance and thus to affirm, insist or implore (Ep 4:17-note, 1Th 2:11-note) To be emphatic in stating an opinion or desire.

It refers here in Thessalonians to making an emphatic demand (implore, insist, urge, charge). This verb conveys an authoritative tone (like a father would do) and points to the solemnity and earnestness with which the appeal is made.

The idea of marturomai is to bear witness with a solemn protestation, making an emphatic affirmation or a serious declaration (see below - Acts 20:26, 26:22, Gal 5:3). It means to make a serious declaration on the basis of presumed personal knowledge

McGee states that marturomai…

has a note of severity in it—it involves discipline. It is a virile word, a robust, firm, masculine word. I’m afraid that we find a lot of sissy preaching in our pulpits today. The popular thing is to have a little sermonette given by a preacherette to Christianettes. There is so little urgency. Someone has defined the average church service in a liberal church as when a mild-mannered man gets up before a group of mild-mannered people and urges them to be more mild-mannered. Oh, that is sickening, my friend! (McGee, J V: Thru the Bible Commentary: Thomas Nelson or Logos)

Marturomai is used only 5 times in the NT…

Acts 20:26 Therefore I testify to you this day, that I am innocent of the blood of all men.

Acts 26:22 And so, having obtained help from God, I stand to this day testifying both to small and great, stating nothing but what the Prophets and Moses said was going to take place

Galatians 5:3 And I testify again to every man who receives circumcision, that he is under obligation to keep the whole Law.

Ephesians 4:17 (Note) This I say therefore, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind,

1Thessalonians 2:11 just as you know how we were exhorting and encouraging and imploring each one of you as a father would his own children

Each one of you - This phrase is placed emphatically forward which stresses Paul's work in every convert, not just his "favorites". The Way translation picks up this sense rendering it "each of you, one by one."

AS A FATHER WOULD HIS OWN CHILDREN: os pater tekna heautou: (Ge 50:16,17; 1Chr 22:11, 12, 13; 28:9,20; Ps 34:11; Pr 1:10,15; 2:1; 3:1; Pr 4:1-12; 5:1,2; 6:1; 7:1,24; 31:1-9; 1Co 4:14,15)

While Paul compares himself to a nurse or mother when he speaks of cherishing his converts, he compares himself to a father when he speaks of instructing them.

Father (3962)(pater) is a father, spoken generally of men and in a special sense of God.

Hiebert writes regarding the nursing mother and exhorting father that…

The former simile stresses the tenderness of the missionaries' dealings with their converts; the simile of the father shows the sterner aspect of their love for their children. The apostles dealt with them not with the severity of the taskmaster but with the earnest concern of the father intent upon training his children according to their individual needs. The figure of a father was commonly used by Jewish teachers to denote their relationship to their pupils. Converted under their ministry, the Thessalonian believers were indeed the writers' spiritual children who needed their instruction and guidance. (Hiebert, D. Edmond: 1 & 2 Thessalonians: BMH Book. 1996)

His own (1438) (heautou)

Children (5043) (teknon [word study] from tikto = bring forth, bear children, be born) is strictly a child produced, male or female, son or daughter. Teknon is thus a child as viewed in relation to his or her parents or family. In the plural, teknon is used generically of descendants, posterity or children. Note that another Greek word huios (5207), translated son, differs from teknon because the latter gives prominence to the fact of birth, whereas huios stresses the dignity and character of the relationship and usually speaks of one who is fully mature. Despite these distinctions, because these words often overlap in meaning and are used seemingly without discrimination, one should not press their semantic differences in every case but allow the context to rule in the interpretation (always a good rule!)

Paul is speaking of coming alongside (the root meaning of the first verb parakaleo) his own children for the purpose of aiding, directing, and instructing wisely in their growth in Christian character and conduct.

Paul claims the privilege of giving his Corinthian converts fatherly admonition explaining that…

1Cor 4:14 I do not write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children. 15 For if you were to have countless tutors in Christ, yet you would not have many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel.

1Thessalonians 2:12 so that you would walk in a manner worthy of the God who calls you into His own kingdom and glory (NASB: Lockman)

Greek: eis to peripatein (PAN) humas axios tou theou tou kalountos (PAPMSG) humas eis ten heautou basileian kai doxan.

Amplified: To live lives worthy of God, Who calls you into His own kingdom and the glorious blessedness [into which true believers will enter after Christ’s return]. (Amplified Bible - Lockman)

NLT: We pleaded with you, encouraged you, and urged you to live your lives in a way that God would consider worthy. For he called you into his Kingdom to share his glory. (NLT - Tyndale House)

Phillips: Our only object was to help you to live lives worthy of the God who has called you to share the splendour of his kingdom. (Phillips: Touchstone)

Wuest: that you should be habitually ordering your behavior in a manner worthy of the God who summons you into His own kingdom and glory. (Eerdmans)

Young's Literal: for your walking worthily of God, who is calling you to His own reign and glory.

So that (1519) (eis) is literally unto or into and introduces the goal or mission of Paul's ministry to the Thessalonians.

So that you may walk in a manner worthy of the God - Here is the supreme purpose of his mission - that the Thessalonians live lives worthy of God. No worthier goal is conceivable in this life for it impacts the eternal life to come!

George MacDonald wrote that…

God will help us when we cannot walk, and He will help us when we find it hard to walk, but He cannot help us if we will not walk. (And so even though you fall, you must try again.)

It is not surprising that Paul's desire for believer's to walk worthy runs as a common thread through all his epistles…

Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness (a brand new potential to live free from the power of sin and self) of life. (see note Romans 6:4)

Let us behave (walk) properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy. (see note Romans 13:13)

We walk by faith, not by sight (2Cor 5:7)

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. (Gal 5:16) (The Spirit enables us to walk in that newness of life procured by Christ for every believer).

in which (your trespasses and sins) you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. (see note Ephesians 2:1)

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (see note Ephesians 2:10)

I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, entreat you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called (see note Ephesians 4:1)

This I say therefore, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, (see note Ephesians 4:17)

And walk in love, just as Christ also loved you, and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma. (see note Ephesians 5:2)

for (explaining why we are not to be partakers with the sons of disobedience) you were formerly darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light (see note Ephesians 5:8)

Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men, but as wise (see note Ephesians 5:15)

Brethren, join in following my example, and observe those who walk according to the pattern you have in us. For many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ (see note Philippians 3:17; 3:18)

John echoes Paul's sentiment about the vital importance of a walk that matches ones talk writing…

I was very glad to find some of your children walking in truth, just as we have received commandment to do from the Father. (2John 1:4) (Comment: Walking in the sphere or "atmosphere" of truth, means ordering one's life by the Word of God, and thus includes not only accepting the veracity of the Word but also making the moment by moment choice to obey in the power of the Spirit.)

I have no greater joy than this, to hear of my children walking in the truth. (3John 1:4) (Comment: Walking about in the sphere of the truth implies a course of conduct or life or a living in the truth of God's Word. This verse highlights the vital importance of doctrinal integrity and truth.)

Walk (4043) (peripateo from peri = about, around + pateo = walk, tread) means literally to go here and there in walking, to tread all around. Most NT uses are figurative meaning to conduct one's life, to order one's behavior, to behave, to make one's way, to make due use of opportunities, to live or pass one’s life (with a connotation of spending some time in a place).

The verb peripateo is used 4 other times in Paul's letters to his beloved Thessalonian brethren…

Finally then, brethren, we request and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that, as you received from us instruction as to how you ought to walk (peripateo) and please God (just as you actually do walk), that you may excel still more… 12 so that you may behave (peripateo) properly toward outsiders and not be in any need. (see notes 1Thessalonians 4:1; 4:12)

Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep aloof from every brother who leads (peripateo) an unruly life and not according to the tradition which you received from us… 11 For we hear that some among you are leading (peripateo) an undisciplined life, doing no work at all, but acting like busybodies. (2Thes 3:6,11)

In this verse the present tense marks the habitual conduct of their daily life.

Such a walk should reflect the character of God and bring honor to God (note Matthew 5:16). Paul seeks to inculcate in the converts a life encompassing both attitudes and behavior in which the characteristics of God Himself might be observed. Indeed, it had been for "their faith toward God had gone forth" (note 1Thessalonians 1:8) in every place, but Paul's desire was always that they excel still more.

Luke uses peripateo to describe the bent of life or life-style of Zacharias and Elizabeth, the parents of John the Baptist who were…

righteous in the sight of God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and requirements of the Lord (Luke 1:6).

Paul admonished the Ephesian believers to

walk no longer just as the Gentiles (in context a description of all the unsaved) also walk, in the futility of their mind (see note Ephesians 4:17).

John declares that,

if we walk in the light as [God] Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin (1Jn 1:7)

Paul used peripateo in each chapter of Colossians charging the Colossians

As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk (aorist imperative - command to do this now, don't delay, can even convey a sense of urgency) in Him (regulate your lives and conduct yourselves) in union with and conformity to Him.) (Col 2:6-note)

To walk in Christ is to live a life patterned after His supernatural life as one is strengthened and empowered by His Spirit. In Colossians 3 Paul describes how his readers walked before Christ transformed their heart and mind…

In (the sphere of immorality, etc {Col 3:5-note} things that on will bring to culmination the wrath of God) you also once walked, when you were living in them. (Col 3:7-note)

In other words before the Colossians were saved, they ordered their behavior and regulated their lives within the sphere of trespasses and sins. Not a ray of light from God, nothing of God's righteousness or goodness, and not a single good thing in the sight of God penetrated that circle of their conduct in Adam. All their thoughts, words, and deeds were ensphered in an atmosphere of sin. Not one of their acts ever got outside the circle of sin -- their previous manner of walking is a description of what is often termed total depravity.

In Colossians 4, Paul's charges the saints to

Conduct (present imperative - command to make this their habitual practice) yourselves with wisdom [practical application of God's truth - living prudently and with discretion] toward outsiders (non-Christians), making the most (exagorazo [word study]) of the opportunity (continually seizing, redeeming or buying up the opportunity). (Col 4:5-note)

Comment: Conduct refers to our behavior in our daily life, and it is a conduct that the unsaved are watching with critical eyes, so there must be nothing in our daily walk that jeopardizes our witness.

J Vernon McGee adds the practical comment that

Walking is not a balloon ascension. A great many people think the Christian life is some great, overwhelming experience and you take off like a rocket going out into space. That’s not where you live the Christian life. Rather, it is in your home, in your office, in the schoolroom, on the street. The way you get around in this life is to walk. You are to walk in Christ. God grant that you and I might be joined to Him in our daily walk. (McGee, J V: Thru the Bible Commentary: Nashville: Thomas Nelson)

Ray Stedman comments on walk writing

I like that figure because a walk, of course, merely consists of two simple steps, repeated over and over again. It is not a complicated thing. In the same way, the Christian life is a matter of taking two steps, one step after another. Then you are beginning to walk. Those two steps follow in this passage. Paul describes them as, "Put off the old man" (Col 3:8-note; Col 3:9-note) and "put on the new." (see notes on specific attitudes and actions beginning in Col 3:12-note) Then repeat them. That is all. Keep walking through every day like that. That is how Scripture exhorts us to live. (Click for full text of True Human Potential)

The purpose of all knowledge is conduct. A Christian’s walk is a Christian’s life. Our walk and our talk should be twins going along on the same trail. Christian service is result of Christ devotion. The work that we do is the outflow of the life that we live abiding in Christ (Jn 15:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8). God must make the worker before He can do the work!

Warren Wiersbe reminds us that

Practical obedience means pleasing God, serving Him, and getting to know Him better. Any doctrine that isolates the believer from the needs of the world around him is not spiritual doctrine.

Evangelist D. L. Moody often said,

Every Bible should be bound in shoe-leather.

Paul is telling the Thessalonians to live in a way that proves you belong to the God Who was continually calling them -- A Christian’s walk is a Christian’s life. An Indian pastor who was worried about the inconsistent lives among some of his flock said to a missionary, “There is much crooked walk by those who make good talk.”

Vincent comments on the counterfeit phrase worthy of the god (not "the God") among the pagans writing…

The formula worthy of God is found among the Pergamum papyri. A priest of Dionysus is described as having performed his sacred duties axios theou (worthy of god). A priestess of Athene as having served worthily of the goddess and of her fatherland. A chief herdsman as having conducted the divine mysteries worthily of his chief, Dionysus.

Hiebert comments regarding the Thessalonians that…

The task of training these converts from paganism how to live, so that there would be true agreement between their new faith and their conduct, enlisted the utmost zeal and persistent efforts of the missionaries. For Paul there was a close connection between Christian faith and life. Acceptance of the gospel message carried with it the obligation to live a life consistent with that message. Paul was never content merely to gain large numbers of converts without seeking to induce them to walk worthily of the Lord they had professed. For a true believer the character of his daily life can never remain a matter of indifference. Morris well remarks,

Paul rapidly turns from contemplating what men should do for God to what God does for men.

And there is a close connection between the two. The walk demanded of believers is so holy that if left to their own unaided powers they could never attain to it. But God is ever at work in the lives of those He has redeemed, aiding and directing them in the pursuit of holiness. (see notes Philippians 2:12; Philippians 2:13) (Hiebert, D. Edmond: 1 & 2 Thessalonians: BMH Book. 1996)

In a manner worthy (516) (axios) means weighing as much as, of like value, worth as much. It means having the weight of another thing and so being of like value or worth as much. In other words axios has the root meaning of balancing the scales—what is on one side of the scale should be equal in weight to what is on the other side. By extension, axios came to be applied to anything that was expected to correspond to something else. A person worthy of his pay was one whose day’s work corresponded to his day’s wages.

Axios was used to describe the Roman emperor when he marched in a triumphal procession. He was "worthy". John tells us however that the One Who is truly "worthy" is the Lamb, recording that he heard all creation rightly declare

Worthy (axios) is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing. (Rev 5:12-note)

The Lamb slain (the resurrected and glorified Lord Jesus Christ) is the only One Who is

worthy to open the book and to break its seals? (Rev 5:2-note)

The Redeemer Alone had the right to redeem His creation, the culmination of which was set in motion by His breaking of the seven sealed scroll, which many futuristic commentators identify as the "title deed to the earth" (Click discussion).

Paul uses axios to urge the Philippians saints to

conduct (present imperative = command to make this your lifestyle) yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ (Php 1:27-note).

In the verse above, Paul is exhorting the saints at Philippi to live their lives like what they are, citizens of heaven (Php 3:20, 21-note), so their conduct in a sense "weighs as much as" (axios) the gospel they preach and the faith they profess. In other words, believers in Christ are to see to it that they practice what they preach, that their experience measures up to their new standing as children of the King. We do not behave (or conduct ourselves in a certain way) in order to go to heaven, as though we could be saved by our good works, but we do conduct ourselves accordingly because our names are already written in heaven!

In Ephesians 4, Paul marks his transition from doctrine (Ephesians 1-3 = The Work of God/Our heavenly standing/We in Christ) to duty (Ephesians 4-6 = The Walk of the Believer/Our earthly walk/Christ in us) writing…

I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, entreat you to walk (peripateo) in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called (Ep 4:1- note)

Jesus said that

He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me (Mt 10:37, 38, 39)

Saints are to walk

in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing forbearance to one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. (In short to walk like Jesus walked!) (Ep 4:1, 2, 3-see notes Ep 4:1; 4:2; 4:3)

The believer who walks in a manner worthy of the calling with which he has been called is one whose daily living corresponds to his high position as a child of God and fellow heir of Christ. His practical living matches his spiritual position. As an aside, don't be surprised what happens when you are walking worthy of your calling (walking like Jesus walked), in humility rather than pride, in unity rather than divisiveness, in the new self rather than the old, in love rather than lust, in light rather than darkness, in wisdom rather than foolishness, in the fullness of the Spirit rather than the drunkenness of wine, and in mutual submission rather than self–serving independence. When we walk like Jesus walked, we can be absolutely certain we will experience opposition and conflict, for Paul wrote that…

indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus (enabled by His Spirit, walking supernaturally) will be persecuted. (2Ti 3:12-note)

WHAT DOES A "WORTHY WALK"

LOOK LIKE SCRIPTURALLY?

A good picture of a worthy (axios) walk is a set of scales that balance so that the same weight is on one side as on the other side. If Jesus is in me (Col 1:27-note, Ro 8:9-note) then enabled by His Spirit (Eph 5:18-note, Ro 8:13-note, cp Jn 6:63) and depending continually on His all sufficient grace (cp 1Co 15:10, 2Co 12:9-note, 2Co 12:10-note), I possess the supernatural ability to live a lifestyle that will "Measure up" to Who is in me and which gives a proper opinion to the lost and perishing world of His supernatural life (Mt 5:16-note, cp Php 2:15-note, 2Co 2:14, 15, 16, 1Pe 3:15-note). A worthy walk brings "forth fruit in keeping (axios) with repentance." (Mt 3:8). Those who claim to know Christ, who say they are born again, will demonstrate a new way of walking that corresponds to ("has a weight that equates to" or is worthy of) their new birth (cp 2Co 5:17-note). And so first observe an illustration of a worthy walk and then read the "Scriptural definition" of this walk…

MY WALKCHRIST IN ME

The Bible defines a worthy walk

as consisting of the following…

A worthy walk is a walk in …

truth (2Jn 1:4, 3Jn 1:3, 4)

faith (2Co 5:7)

the Holy Spirit (Ro 8:4-note; Gal 5:16-note, Gal 5:25-note)

humility, gentleness, patience, forbearing (Ep 4:2-note)

fear (holy)**(1Pe 1:17-note, cp 2Co 7:1-note)

purity (Ro 13:13-note; Ep 5:3-note)

good works which God prepared beforehand (Ep 2:10-note)

a manner worthy of your calling (Ep 4:1-note, cp 1Th 2:12-note)

bearing fruit in every good work (Col 1:10-note)

steadfastness (Col 1:10, 11-note)

joy (Col 1:10, 11-note)

thankfulness (Col 1:10, 12-note)

newness of life (Ro 6:4-note)

obedience like a child (1Pe 1:14-note)

holiness (2Pe 3:11-note, cp 1Pe 1:15, 16-note)

sacrificial, Christ-like love (Ep 5:2-note, 2Jn 1:5,6)

light, bearing fruit (which is good, righteous, true) (Ep 5:8-note; Ep 5:9-note)

the light, in fellowship with one another (1Jn 1:7)

light (no longer in darkness) (Jn 8:12)

the same manner Jesus walked (1Jn 2:6, cp 1Pe 2:21-note)

the knowledge of God which is increasing (Col 1:10-note)

wisdom (Ep 5:15-note, Col 4:5,6-note)

unity (Ep 4:3-note)

one spirit standing firm, striving together for the faith of the gospel (Php 1:27-note)

A worthy walk is …

with a whole ("perfect", fully devoted) heart (Isa 38:3, 2Ki 20:3)

in truth, doing what is good in God's sight (Coram Deo) (Isa 38:3, 2Ki 20:3)

associated with prayer for one's heart to be united to fear God's Name (Ps 86:11-note)

motivated by remembering God's lovingkindness (Ps 26:3-note)

associated with righteousness, uprightness of heart before God (1Ki 3:6)

with all one's heart and soul (1Ki 2:4, cp Mk 12:29, 30)

**Fear (holy) - This fear includes a self-distrust, a Spirit dependence, a tender conscience, a "trembling" at the Word of God (Isa 66:2, 5, Ezra 9:4, 10:3 - "tremble" in all 4 verses = Hebrew chared = reverential awe), a constant vigilance against temptation (Mt 26:41, Pr 4:23-note), taking heed lest we fall (He 3:12-note, He 4:11-note), a constant awareness and apprehension of the deceitfulness of the desires of the fallen flesh (the evil disposition still resident even in believers until we reach glory; Ep 4:22-note, cp He 3:13-note) and the insidious (intractable, irrevocable) the corrupting power of lusts (cp 2Pe 1:4-note, 1Pe 2:11-note where "wage war" = continually strategizing!), and a constant caution and circumspection which timidly (or perhaps "boldly") shrinks away from whatever might offend and/or bring shame and dishonor to the Holy Name of our God and Father (cp Ge 39:9). (See sermon by Alexander Maclaren)

You honor God's name
When you call Him your Father
And live like His Son

In short,

The one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked” (1Jn 2:6).

Only such a Spirit filled (controlled), grace enabled walk can please God (1Th 4:1-note).

Jesus addressing the church at Sardis said

But you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their garments; and they will walk with Me in white; for they are worthy. (Rev 3:4-note)

As we discussed above axios was originally used of drawing down a scale and hence it had to do with weight and so of that which is of value. For example when Paul says in Ro 8:18-note "that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy (axios) to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us" the picture he is painting is that present sufferings are of no weight in comparison with future glory and are not even to be balanced on the scale with the "heavy" glory that endures forever!

Am I conducting myself in a manner
worthy of the Gospel?…

is a good question for us to ask ourselves regularly. Right thinking should always lead to right conduct. Knowledge and obedience go together. One cannot separate learning from living. The idea of worthy is that the conduct of the saints weigh as much as the character of Christ. Why? Because when we are surrendered to His will, He is living His life through us. Ultimately His conduct is the only conduct which is truly worthy for no other conduct would balance God's perfect scales that look at hearts, motives, agendas, etc (God "examines our hearts" 1Th 2:4-note). Christ Alone pleases the Father completely and as we allow Christ to rule and reign in our lives, our lives become pleasing to the Father. Our responsibility is to purpose in our heart to be pleasing to Him motivated by love and enabled by His Spirit. We cannot work for God unless we are walking with God and we cannot walk with God if we are ignorant of His will. Having the knowledge of God’s Word controlling and renewing our minds is a key to righteous living for what controls your thoughts will control your behavior. James gets very personal commanding all readers of the Word of Truth to…

Prove (present imperative) yourselves doers of the Word, and not merely hearers who delude (present tense = continually literally - reasoning beside the truth thus misleading the mind or judgment and deceiving by false reasoning) themselves. (James 1:22-note)

WHO CALLS YOU INTO HIS OWN KINGDOM AND GLORY: tou kalountos (PAPMSG) humas eis ten heautou basileian kai doxan:

God Who calls (2564) (kaleo) where kaleo is in the present tense indicating that God is continually calling them. Yes He called them initially to salvation (see discussion of klesis) but this verse speaks of an ongoing or continual divine calling.

God's initial call unto salvation is described in the second epistle where Paul writes…

And it was for this (For what? for salvation) He called you (how was this call realized?) through our gospel, (what is the purpose of the call?) that you may gain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. (2Th 2:14)

God's initial call is to salvation (justification by faith) and His continuing call is to a life of holiness and obedience (sanctification, present tense salvation - see Three Tenses of Salvation).

Peter pictures God's call to initial salvation and associates this call with a subsequent life manifest by a blameless walk writing…

As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be (aorist imperative) holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, "YOU SHALL BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY." (See note 1 Peter 1:14; 1:15; 1:16)

Hiebert explains God's continual calling this way…

The Thessalonians had of course heard and accepted God's initial call, which first came to them through the preaching of the gospel. But God is ever calling believers to increased efforts and higher goals. The Christian life is a matter of advancement and growth. God's call is "a continual beckoning upwards, until the privileges offered are actually attained." (Ed note: However it is not that our efforts merit or earn these privileges!) God's call to His saints will find its consummation at the return of Christ. (Hiebert, D. Edmond: 1 & 2 Thessalonians: BMH Book. 1996)

Believers should be thoroughly consumed by our future hope of His kingdom come to earth wherein righteousness finally and eternally dwells. If we have such a "consumed" future directed mindset, we will be more likely to live circumspectly and then will have confidence and no fear that we will not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming (1Jn 2:28). As explained below, all true believers are even now a part of God's kingdom and each one to some degree manifests His glory. But there is coming a day when we shall enter His eternal kingdom and fully share His glory (Hallelujah!) and this blessed hope (Titus 2:13-note) should be a motivating truth, governing our lives and making us desire to live in a manner pleasing to our Lord and our King, Whose imminent return will soon bring in the consummation of God's Kingdom and glory.

Michael Holmes in the NIV Application Commentary (Zondervan) writes that…

Two points may be noticed here. (1) Paul directs his converts’ attention not to a list of commandments or directory of prescribed behaviors, but to the character of God. This reminds us that for Paul, internal motivation, not simply external actions, is of critical importance. (2) Paul does not view any of this activity as having anything to do with earning or generating God’s love or attention. Instead, it is clearly a response to the God who, on his own initiative, “calls” them “into his own kingdom and glory.

Kingdom - The kingdom indicates God’s righteous rule or dominion and as such is a dynamic rather than a static concept. That is, the kingdom has already been inaugurated by the coming of Jesus, and is to some extent a present reality for Paul writes…

He delivered us (believers) from the domain of darkness (kingdom of Satan), and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son (Col 1:13-note)

Therefore do not let what is for you a good thing be spoken of as evil for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. (See notes Romans 14:16; 17)

For the kingdom of God does not consist in words, but in power. (1Cor 4:20)

However the full manifestation of the kingdom of God awaits a future revelation, when God will fully establish His rule over all creation at the return of the King of kings to establish His Millennial Kingdom which will be following by the New Heaven and New Earth. In short the kingdom of God has both a present and an future or eschatological aspect.

The point is that believers need to get a perspective of God’s great plan and purpose and live in the light of eternity - walking worthy!

The kingdom of God is held out as something which his children are to inherit an inheritance from which evildoers are excluded (1Cor 6:9, 10; Gal 5:21-note; Ep 5:5-note).

Glory (1391) (doxa [word study]) in this context refers to the radiance and splendor of God’s presence and to the glory which He confers upon Creation and upon every believer. God's glory was lost as a result of sin (Ro 3:23-note). Paul explains that in the future His glory will be restored to Creation and believers writing…

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God (in glory). For the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body (our glorified bodies). For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one also hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it (our future redemption and receipt of our glorified bodies). (See notes Romans 8:18; 8:19; 8:20; 8:21; 8:22; 8:23; 8:24; 8:25)

In the meantime it is seen most clearly in Jesus…

John 1:14 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt (tabernacled) among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

2Cor 4:4 the god of this world (the devil) has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 5 For we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your bond-servants for Jesus' sake. 6 For God, who said, "Light shall shine out of darkness," is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.

Believers now experience this glory to some degree for as we

with unveiled face (are) beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, (we) are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit. (2Cor 3:18)

And believers are to radiate the glory of God for Jesus exhorts us…

Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven. (Mt 5:16-note)

Paul links kingdom inseparably with glory in that both words share a single preposition and article, and a single possessive pronoun, His, governs both words. The two together indicate a believer’s ultimate goal which is to live under the dominion (kingdom) and in the presence (glory) of God -- the kingdom as marked by the visible radiance of God's presence. God's calling to believers looks forward to their intimate participation in the eschatological kingdom awaiting Christ's return.

Hiebert explains kingdom writing that…

The kingdom of God centers in the person of the King; it is essentially God's rule in action. It is established by the presence and power of God and is not brought about by human effort. It is now a reality in the hearts and lives of those who accept His rule, but it will have a future, visible manifestation in glory when the King returns to establish His rule over the nations (Mt 25:31; Lk 1:32, 33; Re 2:26, 27, 20:4-see notes Re 2:26; 2:27; 20:4). It is the kingdom in its future aspect of glory that is the hope of the believer. Although his present lot is suffering on behalf of Christ and His kingdom (Acts 14:22; 2Th 1:5), the saint yet rejoices amid suffering in hope of the glory of God (Ro 5:3, 4, 5-see notes Ro 5:3; 5:4; 5:5). This reference to glory leads the thought to the final consummation of the Messianic kingdom (see study of Millennium). And thus the paragraph closes with an eschatological outlook. But this eschatological note is ethically motivated. The continuing summons of God to the future kingdom and glory is an ever-renewed inducement to holy living. (Hiebert, D. Edmond: 1 & 2 Thessalonians: BMH Book. 1996)

Vincent comments on kingdom and glory writing that this is the only instance of these 2 words in the NT writing that…

God's kingdom is here conceived as present - the economy of divine grace to which the readers are called as Christians. Glory is the future consummation of that kingdom…

Glory of God expresses the sum total of the divine perfections. The idea is prominent in redemptive revelation: see Isa 60:1; Ro 5:22 (note); Ro 6:4 (note).

Glory of God expresses the form in which God reveals himself in the economy of salvation: see Ro 9:23 (note) Ep 1:12 (note); 1Ti 1:11.

Glory of God is the means by which the redemptive work is carried on: 2Pe 1:3 (note); Ro 6:4 (note); Ep 3:16 (note); Col 1:11 (note).

Glory of God is the goal of Christian hope: Ro 5:2 (note); Ro 8:1 (note), Ro 8:21 (note); Titus 2:13 (note)

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Alexander Maclaren has a pithy, piercing sermon on walking worthy of God noting that…

HERE we have the whole law
of Christian conduct in a nutshell.

There may be many detailed commandments, but they can all be deduced from this one.

We are lifted up above the region of petty prescriptions, and breathe a bracing mountain air. Instead of regulations, very many and very dry, we have a principle which needs thought and sympathy in order to apply it, and is to be carried out by the free action of our own judgments.

Now it is to be noticed that there are a good many other passages in the New Testament in which, in similar fashion, the whole sum of Christian conduct is reduced to a ‘walking worthy’ of some certain thing or other, and I have thought that it might aid in appreciating the many-sidedness and all-sufficiency of the great, principles into which Christianity crystallizes the law of our life, if we just gather these together and set them before you consecutively.

They are these: we are told in our text to ‘walk worthy of God.’

Then again, we are enjoined, in other places, to ‘walk worthy of the Lord,’ who is Christ.

Or again, ‘of the Gospel of Christ.’

Or again, ‘of the calling wherewith we were called.’

Or again, of the name of ‘saints.’

And if you put all these together, you will get many sides of one thought, the rule of Christian life as gathered into a single expression — correspondence with, and conformity to, a certain standard.

I. And first of all, we have this passage of my text, and the other one to which I have referred, ‘Walking worthy of the Lord,’ by whom we are to understand Christ.

We may put these together and say that the whole sum of Christian duty lies in conformity to the character of a Divine Person with whom we have loving relations.

The Old Testament says:

‘Be ye holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.’

The New Testament says:

‘Be ye imitators of God, and walk in love.’

So then, whatever of flashing brightness and infinite profundity in that divine nature is far beyond our apprehension and grasp, there are in that divine nature elements — and those the best and divinest in it which it is perfectly within the power of every man to copy.

In there anything in God that is more God-like than righteousness and love? And is there any difference in essence between a man’s righteousness and God’s; — between a man’s love and God’s? The same gases make combustion in the sun and on the earth, and the spectroscope tells you that it is so. The same radiant brightness that flames burning in the love, and flashes white in the purity of God, even that may be reproduced in man. Love is one thing, an the universe over. Other elements of the bond that unites us to God are rather correspondent in us to what we find in Him Our concavity, so to speak, answers to His convexity; our hollowness to His fulness; our emptiness to His all-sufficiency. So our faith, for instance, lays hold upon His faithfulness, and our obedience grasps, and bows before, His commanding will But the love with which I lay hold of Him is like the love with which He lays hold on me; and righteousness and purity, howsoever different may be their accompaniments in an infinite and uncreated Nature from what they have in our limited and bounded and progressive being, in essence are one. So, ‘Be ye holy, for I am holy’; ‘Walk in the light as He is in the light,’ is the law available for all conduct; and the highest divine perfections, if I may speak of pre-eminence among them, are the imitable ones, whereby He becomes our Example and our Pattern.

Let no man say that such an injunction is vague or hopeless. You must have a perfect ideal if you are to live at all by an ideal. There cannot be any flaws in your pattern if the pattern is to be of any use. You aim at the stars, and if you do not hit them you may progressively approach them. We need absolute perfection to strain after, and one day — blessed be His name — we shall attain it. Try to walk worthy of God and you will find out how tight that precept grips, and how close it fits.

The love and the righteousness which are to become the law of our lives, are revealed to us in Jesus Christ. Whatever may sound impracticable in the injunction to imitate God assumes a more homely and possible shape when it becomes an injunction to follow Jesus. And just as that form of the precept tends to make the law of conformity to the divine nature more blessed and less hopelessly above us, so it makes the law of conformity to the ideal of goodness less cold and unsympathetic. It makes all the difference to our joyfulness and freedom whether we are trying to obey a law of duty, seen only too clearly to be binding, but also above our reach, or whether we have the law in a living Person whom we have learned to love. In the one case there stands upon a pedestal above us a cold perfection, white, complete, marble; in the other case there stands beside us a living law in pattern, a Brother, bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh; whose band we can grasp; whose heart we can trust, and of whose help we can be sure. To say to me: ‘Follow the ideal of perfect righteousness,’ is to relegate me to a dreary, endless struggling; to say to me, ‘Follow your Brother, and be like your Father,’ is to bring warmth and hope and liberty into all my effort. The word that says, ‘Walk worthy of God,’ is a royal law, the perfect law of perfect freedom.

Again, when we say, ‘Walk worthy of God,’ we mean two things — one, ‘Do after His example,’ and the other, ‘Render back to Him what He deserves for what He has done to you.’ And so this law bids us measure, by the side of that great love that died on the Cross for us all, our poor imperfect returns of gratitude and of service. He has lavished all His treasure on you; what have you brought him back? He has given you the whole wealth of His tender pity, of His forgiving mercy, of His infinite goodness. Do you adequately repay such lavish love? Has He not ‘sown much and reaped little’ in all our hearts? Has He not poured out the fulness of His affection, and have we not answered Him with a few grudging drops squeezed from our hearts? Oh! brethren! ‘Walk worthy of the Lord,’ and neither dishonour Him by your conduct as professing children of His, nor affront Him by the wretched refuse and remnants of your devotion and service that you bring back to Him in response to His love to you.

II. Now a word about the next form of this all-embracing precept.

The whole law of our Christian life may be gathered up in another correspondence, ‘Walk worthy of the Gospel’ (Php 1:27-note), in a manner conformed to that great message of God’s love to us.

That covers substantially the same ground as we have’ already been going over, but it presents the same ideas in a different light. It presents the Gospel as a rule of conduct. Now people have always been apt to think of it more as a message of deliverance than as a practical guide, as we all need to make an effort to prevent our natural indolence and selfishness from making us forget that the Gospel is quite as much a rule of conduct as a message of pardon.

It is both by the same act. In the very facts on which our redemption depends lies the law of our lives.

What was Paul’s Gospel? According to Paul’s own definition of it, it was this: ‘How that Jesus Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures.’

And the message that I desire now to bring to all you professing Christians is this: Do not always be looking at Christ’s Cross only as your means of acceptance. Do not only be thinking of Christ’s Passion as that which has barred for you the gates of punishment, and has opened for you the gates of the Kingdom of Heaven. It has done all that; but if you are going to stop there you have only got hold of a very maimed and imperfect edition of the Gospel. The Cross is your pattern, as well as the anchor of your hope and the ground of your salvation, if it is anything at all to you. And it is not the ground of your salvation and the anchor of your hope unless it is your pattern. It is the one in exactly the same degree in which it is the other.

So all self-pleasing, all harsh insistence on your own claims, all neglect of suffering and sorrow and sin around you, comes under the lash of this condemnation: ‘They are not worthy of the Gospel.’ And all unforgivingness of spirit and of temper in individuals and in nations, in public and in private matters, that, too, is in flagrant contradiction to the principles that are taught on the Cross to which you say you look for your salvation. Have you got forgiveness, and are you going out from the presence-chamber of the King to take your brother by the throat, for the beggarly coppers that he owes you, and say: ‘Pay me what thou owest!’ when the Master has forgiven you all that great mountain of indebtedness which you owe Him? Oh, my brother! if Christian men and women would only learn to take away the scales from their eyes and souls; not looking at Christ’s Cross with less absolute trustfulness, as that by which all their salvation comes, but also learning to look at it as closely and habitually as yielding the pattern to which their lives should be conformed, and would let the heart-melting thankfulness which it evokes when gazed at as the ground of our hope prove itself true by its leading them to an effort at imitating that great love, and so walking worthy of the Gospel, how their lives would be transformed! It is far easier to fetter your life with yards of red-tape prescriptions — do this, do not do that — far easier to out- pharisee the Pharisees in punctilious scrupulosities, than it is honestly, and for one hour, to take the Cross of Christ as the pattern of your lives, and to shape yourselves by that.

One looks round upon a lethargic, a luxurious, a self-indulgent, a self- seeking, a world-besotted professing Church, and asks: ‘Are these the people on whose hearts a cross is stamped?’ Do these men — or rather let us say, do we live as becometh the Gospel which proclaims the divinity of self-sacrifice, and that the law of a perfect human life is perfect self- forgetfulness, even as the secret of the divine nature is perfect love? ‘Walk worthy of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.’

III. Then again, there is another form of this same general prescription which suggests to us a kindred and yet somewhat different standard.

We are also bidden to bring our lives into conformity to, and correspondence with, or, as the Bible has it, ‘to walk worthy of, the calling wherewith we are called’ (Ephesians 4:1).

God summons or invites us, and summons us to what? The words which follow our text answer,

‘Who calleth you into His own kingdom and glory.’

All you Christian people have been invited, and if you are Christians you have accepted the invitation; and all you men and women, whether you are Christians or not, have been and are being invited and summoned into a state and a world (for the reference is to the future life), in which God’s will is supreme, and all wills are moulded into conformity with that, and into a state and a world in which all shall — because they submit to His will — partake of His glory, the fulness of His uncreated light.

That being the aim of the summons, that being the destiny that is held out before us all, ought not that destiny and the prospect of what we may be in the future, to fling some beams of guiding brightness on to the present? Men that are called to high functions prepare themselves therefor. If you knew that you were going away to Australia in six months, would you not be beginning to get your outfit ready?

You Christian men profess to believe that you have been called to a condition in which you will absolutely obey God’s will, and be the loyal subjects of His kingdom, and in which you will partake of God’s glory. Well then, obey His will here, and let some scattered sparklers of that uncreated light that is one day going to flood your soul lie upon your face to-day. Do not go and cut your lives into two halves, one of them all contradictory to that which you expect in the other, but bring a harmony between the present, in all its weakness and sinfulness, and that great hope and certain destiny that blazes on the horizon of your hope, as the joyful state to which you have been invited. ‘Walk worthy of the calling to which you are called.’

And again, that same thought of the destiny should feed our hope, and make us live under its continual inspiration. A walk worthy of such a calling and such a caller should know no despondency, nor any weary, heartless lingering, as with tired feet on a hard road. Brave good cheer, undimmed energy, a noble contempt of obstacles, a confidence in our final attainment of that purity and glory which is not depressed by consciousness of present failure — these are plainly the characteristics which ought to mark the advance of the men in whose ears such a summons from such lips rings as their marching orders.

And a walk worthy of our calling will turn away from earthly things. If you believe that God has summoned you to His kingdom and glory, surely, surely, that should deaden in your heart the love and the care for the trifles that lie by the wayside. Surely, surely, if that great voice is inviting, and that merciful hand is beckoning you into the light, and showing you what you may possess there, it is not walking according to that summons if you go with your eyes fixed upon the trifles at your feet, and your whole heart absorbed in this present fleeting world. Unworldliness, in its best and purest fashion — by which I mean not only a contempt for material wealth and all that it brings, but the sitting loose by everything that is beneath the stars — unworldliness is the only walk that is ‘worthy of the calling wherewith ye are called.’

And ‘if you hear that voice ringing like a trumpet call, or a commander’s shout on the battlefield, into your ears, ever to stimulate you, to rebuke your lagging indifference; if you are ever conscious in your inmost hearts of the summons to His kingdom and glory, then, no doubt, by a walk worthy of it, you will make your calling sure; and there shall ‘an entrance be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom.’

IV. And the last of the phases of this prescription which I have to deal with is this.

The whole Christian duty is further crystallized into the one command, to walk in a manner conformed to, and corresponding with, the character which is impressed upon us.

In the last chapter of the Epistle to the Romans (Ro 16:2-note), we read about a very small matter, that it is to be done ‘worthily of the saints.’ It is only about the receiving of a good woman who was traveling from Corinth to Rome, and extending hospitality to her in such a manner as became professing Christians; but the very minuteness of the details to which the great principle is applied points a lesson. The biggest principle is not too big to be brought down to the narrowest details, and that is the beauty of principles as distinguished from regulations. Regulations try to be minute, and, however minute you make them, some case always starts up that is not exactly provided for in them, and so the regulations come to nothing. A principle does not try to be minute, but it casts its net wide and it gathers various cases into its meshes. Like the fabled tent in the old legend that could contract so as to have room for but one man, or expand wide enough to hold an army, so this great principle of Christian conduct can be brought down to giving ‘Phoebe our sister, who is a servant of the church at Cenchrea,’ good food and a comfortable lodging, and any other little kindnesses, when she comes to Rome. And the same principle may be widened out to embrace and direct us in the largest tasks and most difficult circumstances.

‘Worthily of saints’ — the name is an omen, and carries in it rules of conduct. The root idea of ‘saint’ is ‘one separated to God,’ and the secondary idea which flows from that is ‘one who is pure.’

All Christians are ‘saints.’ They are consecrated and set apart for God’s service, and in the degree in which they are conscious of and live out that consecration, they are pure.

So their name, or rather the great fact which their name implies, should be ever before them, a stimulus and a law. We are bound to remember that we are consecrated, separated as God’s possession, and that therefore purity is indispensable. The continual consciousness of this relation and its resulting obligations would make us recoil from impurity as instinctively as the sensitive plant shuts up its little green fingers when anything touches it; or as the wearer of a white robe will draw it up high above the mud on a filthy pavement, Walk ‘worthily of saints’ is another way of saying, Be true to your own best selves. Work up to the highest ideal of your character. That is far more wholesome than to be always looking at our faults and failures, which depress and tempt us to think that the actual is the measure of the possible, and the past or present of the future. There is no fear of self- conceit or of a mistaken estimate of ourselves. The more clearly we keep our best and deepest self before our consciousness, the more shall we learn a rigid judgment of the miserable contradictions to it in our daily outward life, and even in our thoughts and desires. It is a wholesome exhortation, when it follows these others of which we have been speaking (and not else), which bids Christians remember that they are saints and live up to their name.

A Christian’s inward and deepest self is better than his outward life. We have all convictions in our inmost hearts which we do not work out, and beliefs that do not influence us as we know they ought to do, and sometimes wish that they did. By our own fault our lives but imperfectly show their real inmost principle. Friction always wastes power before motion is produced.

So then, we may well gather together all our duties in this final form of the all-comprehensive law, and say to ourselves, ‘Walk worthily of saints.’ Be true to your name, to your best selves, to your deepest selves. Be true to your separation for God’s service, and to the purity which comes from it. Be true to the life which God has implanted in you. That life may be very feeble and covered by a great deal of rubbish, but it is divine. Let it work, let it out. Do not disgrace your name.

These are the phases of the law of Christian conduct. They reach far, they fit close, they penetrate deeper than the needle points of minute regulations. If you will live in a manner corresponding to the character, and worthy of the love of God, as revealed in Christ, and in conformity with the principles that are enthroned upon His Cross, and in obedience to the destiny held forth in your high calling, and in faithfulness to the name that He Himself has impressed upon you, then your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the painful and punctilious pharisaical obedience to outward commands, and all things lovely and of good report will spring to life in your hearts and bear fruit in your lives.

One last word — all these exhortations go on the understanding that you are a Christian, that you have taken Christ for your Saviour, and are resting upon Him, and recognising in Him the revelation of God, and in His Cross the foundation of your hope; that you have listened to, and yielded to, the divine summons, and that you have a right to be called a saint.

Is that presumption true about you, my friend?

If it is not, Christianity thinks that it is of no use wasting time talking to you about conduct.

It has another word to speak to you first, and after you have heard and accepted it, there will be time enough to talk to you about rules for living. The first message which Christ sends to you by my lips is, Trust your sinful selves to Him as your only all-sufficient Saviour. When you have accepted Him, and are leaning on Him with all your weight of sin and suffering, and loving Him with your ransomed heart, then, and not till then, will you be in a position to hear His law for your life, and to obey it. Then, and not till then, will you appreciate the divine simplicity and breadth of the great command to walk worthy of God, and the divine tenderness and power of the motive which enforces it, and prints it on yielding and obedient hearts, even the dying love and Cross of His Son. Then, and not till then, will you know how the voice from heaven that calls you to His kingdom stirs the heart like the sound of a trumpet, and how the name which you bear is a perpetual spur to heroic service and priestly purity. Till then, the word which we would plead with you to listen to and accept is that great answer of our Lord’s to those who came to for a rule of conduct, instead of for the gift of life: ‘This is the work of God, that ye should believe on Him whom He hath sent.’ (Alexander Maclaren. Walking Worthy. 1Thes 2:12)

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1Thessalonians 2:12 - Living Royally - There is an ancient story about a man named Astyages who determined to do away with a royal infant named Cyrus. He summoned an officer of his court and told him to kill the baby prince. The officer in turn delivered the youngster to a herdsman with instructions that he should take him high up into the mountains where the baby would die from exposure.

The herdsman and his wife, however, took the child and raised him as their own. Growing up in the home of those humble peasants, he naturally thought they were his real parents. He was ignorant of his royal birth and his kingly lineage. Because he thought he was a peasant, he lived like one.

Many Christians fail to realize the royal heritage that is theirs in Christ. They live as spiritual peasants when they should be living royally. According to the apostle Paul, believers "are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:26). He also said, "Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, 'Abba, Father!' Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ" (Galatians 4:6, 7).

God has given us everything we need to live victorious, fulfilling lives. Let's not live like peasants.—Richard De Haan (Our Daily Bread, Copyright RBC Ministries, Grand Rapids, MI. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved)

Rejoice—the Lord is King!
Your Lord and King adore!
Rejoice, give thanks, and sing
And triumph evermore. —Wesley

A child of the King should reflect his Father's character.

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Learning To Walk - I remember those days long ago when our children were learning to walk. First they showed their readiness by pulling themselves up and taking a tentative step or two. My wife and I would reach out our hands and encourage them to walk toward us. We held them up by their hands or by the suspenders on their overalls. We praised every effort and encouraged every attempt. We never grew discouraged, nor did we give up until they learned to walk.

So it is with our heavenly Father: He “taught [Israel] to walk” (Hosea 11:3). He took His children “by their arms” and “drew them with gentle cords, with bands of love” (Hosea 11:3, 4).

Our heavenly Father stands before us with outstretched arms, encouraging us toward holiness, eager to catch us when we stumble. He picks us up when we fall. He is never discouraged with our progress, nor will He ever give up. The more difficult we find the process, the more care and kindness He expends.

George MacDonald put it this way: “God will help us when we cannot walk, and He will help us when we find it hard to walk, but He cannot help us if we will not walk.” Even though you fall, you must try again. Your Father holds you by the hand. —David H. Roper (Our Daily Bread, Copyright RBC Ministries, Grand Rapids, MI. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved)

Savior, let me walk beside Thee,
Let me feel my hand in Thine;
Let me know the joy of walking
In Thy strength and not in mine. —Sidebotham

We can’t run the Christian race until we learn to walk.