Do you remember getting the “parent speech” when you were a kid right before leaving to stay overnight somewhere? You may have heard, “Don’t forget to say please and thank you, and don’t beg for anything, and be sure to help with clean-up, and…” The “parent speech” went on; you barely heard the rest of it, being anxious to just go.
In Paul’s final instructions to the church of Thessalonica, he gives at least 15 different directives. His words of admonishment sound like the mom at the door hanging on to her kid by the shirtsleeve while she rattles off the instructions one last time. But there is a huge difference: the child may want to escape without really paying attention, while the believer who reads these words need not feel that way. The child would be thinking that there is no way he can do all those things correctly. He could never measure up to those standards. But the Christian reading Paul’s words has the astonishing, comforting closing line that declares, “The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it”!