“even so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who tests our hearts” (1 Thess. 2:4, NKJV)
Religion is big business. That’s why secular publishers are buying up Christian publishing houses, often to their secularization I might add. When money becomes the bottom line for kingdom work, the mission of Christ loses prominence. If cultural accommodation sells books, that sets the course because people will gravitate to what their itching ears want to hear, and profits will prosper.
I’ve noticed how the pastorate has changed in recent years. It used to be that pastors sacrificed the income they could be making for the sake of ministry. But now it seems that the pastorate is just another profession. It’s not outlandish for a pastor of a 40 member church to draw a six-figure salary, and that to go along with a work week more given to personal health than pastoral care.
Paul demonstrates a radically different approach to ministry. After remarking of the power and effectiveness of his presenting the gospel among the Thessalonians, he explains his approach. “For our exhortation did not come from error or uncleanness, nor was it in deceit. But as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, even so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who tests our hearts” (1 Thess. 2:3–4).
Paul describes a kingdom ministry that is of God and not of his own abilities, aspirations, and accomplishments. He says that his appeal was not manipulative or self-serving in any way. For him, the gospel was not a product to be hawked or to serve himself or to pander to those who heard. Rather, he was called by God and looked to please Him in service to His will.
The apostle makes it clear that he was not motivated by error, uncleanness, or deceit. Error has to do not merely with him being mistaken but rather with him being scheming. The same word is used in his letter to the Ephesians where he speaks of “the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting” (Eph. 4:14).
Uncleanness has to do with impurity and immorality, where he uses others for his own gratification. Again to the church of Ephesus, we get a feel for where Paul is coming from when he writes: “who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness” (Eph. 4:19).
Deceit speaks to treachery and trickery. These threefold qualifiers for his approach to gospel proclamation make it clear that Paul was simply being a faithful instrument in the hand of God for His purposes.
In stark contrast to what did not motivate him, Paul presents a strong adversative between verses 3 and 4. NOT this BUT this. Not my glory, not my efforts, not my gain, but God’s. He emphatically states that he has been approved by God and entrusted by Him with the gospel. This mandate defines and drives his mission.
His ministry is not man-driven but God-driven, not to please people but to please God. Lest we think Paul is simply saying the right things to make himself sound more noble, he closes by stating that God tests the heart.
Paul endorsed pastors getting paid but pastors are not to work for pay. They are to work for God, in the exercise of their calling, for the sake of Christ’s kingdom.
Whose kingdom are you seeking?
If you have found this meditation helpful, take a moment and give thanks to God. Then share what you learned with a friend. This is how the grace of God spreads (2 Cor. 4.15).
Except as indicated, all Scriptures are taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
