"Blameless in Holiness before our God and Father!

“Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you, and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.” (1 Thessalonians 3:11-13 ESV)

We’ve already established in Chapters 1 and 2 that Paul really loved the Thessalonian believers; as a matter of fact, he ends Chapter 2 with “For you are our glory and joy.” And begins Chapter 3 with “Therefore…”.  We’ve been told all our lives that whenever we find the word “Therefore” we need to stop reading and see what it is ‘There For’. So, what we see is that in Chapter 2, Paul’s heart is overflowing with gratitude to God for putting the love of the brethren in the hearts of the Thessalonian believers, and he wants to convey to them his longing to see them once again. So, we start Chapter 3 with “Therefore” and then he starts to tell his beloved Thessalonians, “For this reason, when I could endure it no longer, I also sent to find out about your faith…”. Then, when Timothy brought back a glowing report of the love these believers had shown. Paul is overwhelmed by the good news that they are standing in “the faith”.

In verses 11-13, Paul explains a wonderful Biblical truth that is for every believer, Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you, and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.”.  The first truth Paul establishes is that he relied on God the Father and Jesus, our Lord, to direct his life. All too often, we make decisions that completely leave God out of the equation. We make decisions about what to buy, where and how much to give, and which ministry to be involved with, but we forget to invite God into the decision-making process. God the Father and Jesus our Lord were such an integral part of Paul’s daily life that he knew God Himself directed his path. We need to be people like that, people who willingly and expectantly invite God into our decisions. Willing to pray and ask what is on our hearts, but also being willing to say, “not my will, but yours be done!”

Then, in verse 13, Paul once again teaches the truth about “our hearts being unblameable in holiness before our God and Father”.  I’m afraid that way too many people teach that the holiness of our hearts is all up to us. If we decide not to give everything over to God, that our hearts will NOT be blameless or holy, and that is not at all what Paul teaches. Paul starts this phrase out with “so that He may establish your hearts…”; it is God who has made your heart blameless and holy. It doesn’t depend on you; it depends on what God has done through the shed blood of Jesus our Lord.

You see, I’m blameless and holy the moment Jesus' blood was applied to my sins. I was washed clean at that moment; God will never remember my sins ever again. Jesus did the cleansing; He made it possible for all of us to “boldly approach the throne of Grace”. It’s not because I’ve been working hard to be a “good Christian”, it’s not that I’ve prayed enough, read the Bible enough, or given enough. My being blameless and holy is a gracious gift given by God the Father, just like our initial salvation was. We are all ready to quote “For by grace you have been saved…” but we need to remember God’s grace didn’t stop at the cross or at the resurrection. It continues every day of our lives.

Now, if you start thinking that “because of grace, then I can live anyway I want!”, how immature that type of thinking is. That is uneducated thinking, uneducated about what Grace really means in a believer’s life. To make sure no one misunderstands his point, Paul says in 4:1, “as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God…”.  How can we as imitators of our risen Savior, as a people who have experienced God’s saving and sustaining grace, not desire to walk and please God?

Grace isn’t just something that happened 2,000 years ago, or that only happened the moment you were rescued from your entrapment in sin. Because of God’s continuing grace, our hearts are now “blameless in holiness before our God and Father…”  So, believers, let’s start living like we understand this wonderful truth.

 "Living in Grace is not about what I can do, but about what Jesus has already done!"