As for other matters, brothers and sisters, we instructed you how to live in order to please God, as in fact you are living. Now we ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus to do this more and more.
Now about your love for one another we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other. And in fact, you do love all of God’s family throughout Macedonia. Yet we urge you, brothers and sisters, to do so more and more …’
1 Thessalonians 4:1, 9-10 (NIV)
Paul encourages the Thessalonian Christians to live for Christ ‘more and more’ and to love one another ‘more and more’. The Greek word translated as ‘more and more’ actually means to be ‘superabounding’. What an amazing word! We are not just to ‘abound’ or excel in our life and love, but we are to superabound!
This reminds me of what Jesus said in Matthew 5:39-41:
If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles.
In 1 Thessalonians 4 we are not talking about being ‘slapped’, ‘sued’, or ‘forced’, but how we should live out our Christian lives. Yet there is a similarity in these two passages; in both Matthew 5 and 1 Thessalonians 4, people around us should know that Christ makes a difference in our lives. This difference should produce unexpected results in how we live, how we love and how we react to negative situations.
So don’t just abound in your faith, superabound!!
Every blessing
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