No RSVP

we request and exhort you in the Lord Jesus that, as you received from us instruction as to how you ought to walk and please God 1 Thessalonians 4:1

Request – Does God request your obedience?  Does He send an RSVP, asking you to consider whether or not you will decide to conform your life to His desires?  You might think that is the case if you take the Greek erotomen as a formal invitation.  But here, erotomen is not that tame.  The root word erotao can mean to ask about or inquire.  It also can mean to entreat or beseech.  Used in context with exhort (parakaleo), it must take this latter meaning.  Paul isn’t sending an polite request.  He is begging us to following the teachings of Yeshua.

Does this seem a little strange to you?  After all, Paul is writing to the church.  He is addressing a congregation (qehillah and ‘edah, remember?).  Why would he have to beg these people to follow Yeshua?  If anything, they should be clamoring to be as obedient as possible.  These people want to follow Yeshua.  They know Yeshua as their redeemer.  Their sins have been forgiven.  They are part of a new family and grafted into a new covenant.  Why do they need to be implored to be obedient?

Actually, you already know the answer.  So do I.  There is something deep within us that rebels, something that resists no matter how much we surrender.  There is an oily darkness for human domination that lubricates self-will.  It’s easy to slide away.  Paul knew it (Romans 7).  I know it.  You know it.  Without constant vigilance and sustained assistance, there is not one of us who can make it.  All the apostles experienced humiliating failure.  So do we.  No man who has ever lived on this planet has escaped the greasy fist raised against the God Who loves.   Except one, thank God.

There’s something else we need to know about this word that helps us see why we must have someone begging us to pay attention.  In John’s gospel, this word is used to describe the tender and compassionate relationship between Yeshua and the Father.  Yeshua says that He will “petition” the Father on our behalf.  When He prays, the word is erotao.  He acts as our priest, beseeching the Father for us (John 14:16).  But when we pray, the word changes.  John 14:13 says that when we ask (in Greek aiteo) in His name, He will do it.  Jesus prays as an equal.  We do not.  We ask as mere servants.  He asks as the King.

When Paul uses erotao as the verb for begging us to obey, he brings his petition as an equal.  He is also in need of exhortation.  He also needs to have someone beg him to stay the course.  He is just like us.  That’s where we must begin.  That’s why Paul writes to the community of the faithful in Thessalonica.  We simply can’t do it alone.  We are equally rebellious, equally prideful and equally in need of contagious confession.  The banner that flies over the true church reads, “Help me help you.”

I beg you, my brothers and sisters, as an equally ashamed sinner, to be obedient.  Help me help you.

Topical Index:  Obedience