More and More

Scripture Reading: 1 Thessalonians 4:1,10

We ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just are you are doing, that you do so more and more…But we urge you, brothers, to do this more and more, and to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you…

Paul repeats the same language in verse ten that he used in verse one. “More and more.” He wanted them to keep doing what they were doing but do more of it and then keep doing more of it.

If we are not careful in our approach to a verse like this, it could seem to be more of a burden than necessary. We could hear this like we hear the chiding of a father whom we can never please. We could receive condemnation and not encouragement from it, thinking it means that nothing is ever going to be good enough.

That would be a mistake.

Reading this in the context of everything Paul wrote to this church, we can see that Paul is not putting the burden of “nothing is ever good enough” on them. In the previous chapter, Paul tells them about how the news of their faith has brought him great joy and comfort. He is not down on them.

Paul is being complementary not critical of their faith. To paraphrase Paul, he is looking at their lives and what they are doing and saying, “Do more of that.”

May the Spirit work in our lives in a way that whatever we are doing, the Lord could say, “Yes, do more of that.”