"A Model of Spiritual Leadership"

“A Model of Spiritual Leadership”

2 Thessalonians 2:7-9

Mother’s Day 2016

Effective spiritual leadership is a combination of character and activity. First Thessalonians 2:1-6 presents the exemplary leadership virtues of Paul’s inner life and the lives of Silas and Timothy: tenacity, integrity, authority, accountability, and humility. In our passage today, Paul views the outward functions of the divinely approved spiritual leader.

He could have presented these functions by discussing preaching, discipling, protecting, and overseeing. But as the New Testament writers did for the sake of vividness and richness, the apostle used a metaphor. He could have chosen any one of several metaphors: a steward or household manager (1 Cor. 4:1-2); a bond-slave or servant (Col. 4:12); a herald or proclaimer of the message (1 Tim. 2:7); a teacher, solider, athlete, farmer (2 Tim. 2:2-6); or the common image of a shepherd (1 Peter 5:1-4; cf. Psalm 23). All those metaphors are replete with significance and paint helpful pictures. However, Paul chose to use the most intimate, compelling metaphor of a mother which illustrates the kind of spiritual care a leader must provide his people.

As mothers are absolutely and indisputably essential to the well-being of children, so spiritual leaders who minister with a mother’s gentleness, intimate affection, sacrificial love, and unselfish labor are essential for the health of the church.

Four Qualities of a Spiritual Mother/Leader

1. They display gentleness.

Paul reminded the Thessalonians that instead of operating by the deceitful abusiveness of Satan’s agents, they “proved to be gentle among you.”

The term “gentle” is at the heart of this verse. It means to be kind to someone and encompasses a host of other virtues: acceptance, respect, compassion, tolerance of imperfections, patience, tenderheartedness, and loyalty. Unlike many itinerant teachers, Paul and his preacher friends did not come to Thessalonica to exploit the people for their own prosperity but to live and serve among them with kindness.

Paul explained his degree of gentleness toward the Thessalonians by comparing it to a “nursing mother who tenderly cares for her own children,” the imagery Moses had used for his relationship to Israel (Num. 11:2). As the phrase “her own children” indicates, Paul was no paid surrogate mother or modern-style, hired worker. He exhibited the same feelings as a nursing mother when he cared for the Thessalonians’ feelings as a nursing mother when he cared for their spiritual needs.

This picture is foreign to all leaders outside the church. In fact, for most, it would appear to be sentimental, weak, and unproductive. The standard for worldly leadership is to accomplish the leader’s desires through people. In the church, leaders have the privilege of seeing things God desires done in people.

That changes the dynamic. As good parents are concerned about their children’s hearts, so are good spiritual leaders.

That verb “tenderly cares” literally means to warm with body heat. The loving mother would take the little one in her arms and warm the child with her own body heat. Such a vivid metaphor perfectly illustrates the kind of personal care the Thessalonians received. Paul, unlike the enemies of the truth, was not harsh or indifferent, but tenderly nurturing.

2. They harbor an intimate affection.

“Having so fond an affection for you…” (2:8a)

In extending the metaphor of a nursing mother, it was logical for Paul to mention the motive for such nurturing gentleness-love. He possessed fond affection to the Thessalonians A mother who carries an infant son or daughter on her breast has a naturally “fond affection” that is unequalled in other human contexts. The Greek word translated “fond affection” means to long for someone passionately and earnestly, and being linked to a mother’s love, is intended here to express an affection so deep and compelling as to be unsurpassed.

Ancient inscriptions on the tombs of dead babies sometimes contained this term when parents wanted to describe their sad longing for a too-soon-departed child.

Paul acknowledged that God naturally designed such intimate affection into the hearts of mothers. The hearts of all righteous spiritual leaders have been supernaturally given the same type of affection for their people, even as he and his companions had for those who were Christ’s.

3. They live out a sacrificial love.

“We were well-pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God but also our own lives, because you had become very dear to us” (2:8b).

Such personal and intimate supernatural affection was not out of a sense of obligation; they were not merely carrying out an assignment as God’s messengers. It was, rather, the highest joy of their hearts to so love. Paul said they “were well-pleased” to so minister. That desire defines an eagerness and zealousness generated from love-filled hearts.

They came first of all “to impart…the gospel of God.”

The verb translated “impart” means to share, or give someone something of which one retains a part. That is exactly what happens when Christians impart to other people divine truth. They give someone else the good news of salvation, yet without losing possession of it themselves.

Paul and his fellow workers taught the transforming truths of the “gospel of God” and yet retained those truths, even strengthening them by the giving (as all good teachers know), thus forming a loving, and enriching fellowship with those who accepted the message.

Besides imparting the complete gospel, Paul, Silas, and Timothy shared “also their own lives.” Literally, they gave up their souls-their real inner beings-for the sake of the Thessalonians. There was nothing superficial or partial about their sacrificial service.

A woman who fulfills the biblical role for motherhood does the same thing when she, at great cost to herself, unselfishly and generously sets aside her life for the benefit of her beloved children. That is especially true of a nursing mother who provides for her newborn’s needs.

4. They toil in unselfish labor.

“For you recall, brethren, our labor and hardship, how working night and day so as not to be a burden to any of you, we proclaimed to you the gospel of God” (2:9).

For proof of his affection for them, Paul again urged the Thessalonians to recall the character of ministry he had with them. “Labor and hardship” appropriately summarize the ministry at Thessalonica.  Labor emphasizes the difficulty of the deed itself, and hardship underscores the strenuous toil and struggle in performing it.

Those two words combine to reflect not only the loving attitude of motherly concern, but also the sincere application of that concern. Every mother knows there is no price her children can pay her for what she does for them. She does not expect them to compensate her for nursing them, for displaying a deep affection for them, or for embracing their every need sacrificially in heartfelt love. Likewise, Paul told the church that he and his colleagues eagerly ministered to them, with no desire for the compensation they had a right to expect (cf. 1 Cor. 9:7-11; 1 Tim. 5:17-18).

Paul did not want “to be a burden to any” of the Thessalonians because he knew they lacked material resources. Though they gave generously and sacrificially for the impoverished believers in Jerusalem (cf. vv. 3-4), it was out of the “deep poverty” that was typical of believers (cf. 1 Cor. 1:26-28), especially in the war-ravaged, oft-plundered Roman province of Macedonia.

So Paul pictured Silas, Timothy, and himself as spiritual mothers who made the maximum effort to provide gentleness, intimate affection, sacrificial love, and hard-working provision as they proclaimed to them the gospel of God.