Week 48 1 Thessalonians
Halfway through chapter five there’s a subtitle that says Paul’s Final Advice. I count 15 items.
It’s a kind of bible-reader’s To-Do & To-Be List.
I re-read it to see if anything jumps out at me. They all do but a couple jump higher than others:
be patient with everyone…
try to do good to each other…
be joyful…
be thankful.
Even my short list is pretty demanding. I know these are things I (only) aspire to – in other words they’re not comprehensively-&-totally achievable – but that doesn’t mean they’re disregardable.
I sit thinking about how to address the list.
Be patient with everyone… I visualize a person I know who’s difficult to be patient with. Since Paul doesn’t say that some people can be exempted from his be-patient-with-everyone list I figure my task is to take a first step (on what I fully expect will be a long-long-long road) of trying-trying-trying to be more patient with that person. I figure I’ll not likely ever be as fully patient with him as I am with some other person I’m patient with. On the other hand I’m figuring that – in the process of experimenting with a variety of Patience-Building Exercises and also praying for Enhanced Divine Assistance over a period of years & decades – that I’ll eventually develop more patience (even if I am only moving along at the pace of evolution).
Note: quoted from 1 Thessalonians 5:14, 15, 16, 18 (NLT). Added reading update: as of December 1 I’ve read 1654 of 1730 pages.