Many Bible verses that begin with the word "may" are verses intended to bless. The word "may" is the launch word to convey that sense of God doing something good and special for us. Blessings come from God. Even when we bless one another it is only because of God. As the old doxology says..."Praise God from whom all blessings flow." We, like Paul is here are just conduits of His blessing through us.
This particular blessing is wonderful because Paul is asking God to give the Thessalonians strength. Not physical strength, but heart strength. Not just strength enough to survive, but strength enough to thrive. That same strength of heart is given to us from God for a purpose. That purpose is explained in this verse. We are to be blessed with strength of heart so that we may be blameless and holy. Wow! Heavy duty expectation don't you think? How in the world can we be blameless and holy when we know ourselves to be so guilty and corruptible? Obviously with His help and with His guidance. Because we do live in this world we definitely need to combat our corruption and unholiness.
We live in a broken, sinful and corrupted world. We must be set apart for His work. Our hearts must be found in Him. We must receive His strength to even consider blamelessness and holiness. Blameless is not perfect. It just means conscientious. In order to be blameless we must consider Him in everything. We must not be "the problem" in life, or the "troublemaker" or the "fly in the ointment" as we learned from Ecclesiastes recently. Let us be clear. Only God is holy. But we should emulate His holiness. Not with an arrogant, high-minded attitude, but with humility and compassion. When we think of holy we automatically think of our noses up in the air acting all religious or something. When in effect that is exactly the opposite of what is meant. Holiness is about purity and clear conscience. Holiness is about reverence and kindness. Paul encourages us to be holy as he is holy. Meaning that we should only emulate his actions as they reflect what God desires.
This verse closes with the admonition that we are to be strengthened of heart so that we may be blameless and holy for when Jesus returns. We don't know when that is, but we do know that it comes sooner with each passing day. Christ could return today or in thousands of years. We don't know. But, we should act like it is today. Are you ready? What would He find you doing if He came today? We should work on our blamelessness and holiness until He returns. Each day we should consider Him, and His plan. His purposes and His desires. Perhaps if I started by making a more concerted effort to be less corruptible, less unholy, that would be a start. We are to be blameless and holy. We can be much better at it. We should try a lot harder. After all, what if He did return today? Wow! Heavy duty consideration, don't you think? Hopefully today I made you think. I am going to work on it myself.
In Him,
Pastor Fred
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