“For our appeal does not spring from deceit or impure motives or trickery, but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the message of the gospel, even so we speak, not to please mortals, but to please God who tests our hearts. As you know and as God is our witness, we never came with words of flattery or with a pretext for greed; nor did we seek praise from mortals, whether from you or from others, though we might have made demands as apostles of Christ. But we were gentle among you, like a nurse tenderly caring for her own children. So deeply do we care for you that we are determined to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you have become very dear to us.” 1 Thessalonians 2:3-8
I had a friend in the seminary who was one year ahead of me. He did his internship year in town so we were able to keep in touch. I’ll never forget one comment he made to me that has echoed in my memory for all these years. Talking about his work at the church, he said, “I feel like a social prostitute. People pay me to be nice to them.” Ouch.
That line comes back to me whenever I hear Paul saying lines such as “we never came with words of flattery…nor did we seek praise from mortals, whether from you or from others…” Paul would also have rejected the idea that Christian leadership is about getting paid to be “nice” to people. According to Paul in 2 Timothy, a Christian leader’s calling is to:
“Proclaim the message; be persistent whether the time is favorable or unfavorable; convince, rebuke, and encourage, with the utmost patience in teaching. For the time is coming when people will not put up with sound doctrine, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths. As for you, always be sober, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, carry out your ministry fully.”
By the way, that door swings both ways. Just as the partnership that is Christian community means that pastors don’t get paid to be “nice” to people, it also means that members of congregations are not obligated to be “nice” to their pastors. That doesn’t mean the declaration of an open season for meanness and hostility, but it does mean that mutual encouragement often looks like the painful work of speaking the truth in love, of openly challenging and confronting and seeking a greater relational depth. It means engaging in constructive conflict rather than destructive gossip.
When we take the time to do that with and for one another, we discover the kind of deep community Paul experienced with the Thessalonians. They were united, not merely by shared affections (although that was there as well), but by a deeper sense of purpose. They were being and doing life as the people of God for the sake of the world.
Maybe one of the problems of the Christian movement in the United States today is that we focus too much on being “nice” to one another and too little on gaining clarity about our shared purpose or challenging one another when we get off track.
Let us pray: Dear Lord, may your Spirit have free reign among people of faith, both leaders and followers. Bind us together in love but more than that, bind us together with the willingness to walk together down the paths of servanthood and sacrifice, for the sake of the world. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Daily Devotions 
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