1 Thessalonians 2
1 Thessalonians 2:10-1210) Ye are witnesses, and God also, how holily and justly and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that believe:
11) As ye know how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you, as a father doth his children,
12) That ye would walk worthy of God, who hath called you unto his kingdom and glory.
Are you walking worthy of God? You may think you are doing okay, but the standard for how we live our lives is God. The truth it that none of us are worthy. No-one is good enough to make the grade, but God is slowly changing us to be more like him as time goes on, through the power of the word in our lives. So a different question, when people see you, and observe how you live your life are you living in the manner they would expect? The phrase you least want to hear from non-Christian friends is, “Why are you doing that? I thought you were a Christian.” It is not only God that has high expectations, the world also has an expectation of that is worthy of God and what is not. Ask yourself if you measure up?
The second part of this is, how do you behave toward other believers? Could you in all honesty walk up to any brother in Christ and say, “You know how Godly I have been.” It sounds a bit prideful to say it like that, but Paul’s point is that knowing how he acted, we should act the same towards each other. When was the last time you exhorted someone? That means to encourage them to action, to spur them on, motivate them. As a pastor I can tell you motivating people is really difficult, yet we are told to do it. Do you comfort others, helping them through suffering? And do you charge people, that is, do you delegate to them passing on a task from God? The desired result is multiplied action. That is when we will also see growth.