Your Neighbor is a Person, Not a Prospect
Win Respect – Part 1

Scripture Reading: 1 Thessalonians 4:3-12

Key Verse: 1 Thessalonians 4:12

…so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.

In these past few days we have been studying how to treat non-believers as people rather than prospects.  It is not an easy thing to accomplish due to our deep desire to see them become believers.  Every person I meet, if I sense that they are far from God, I start thinking what to say to convince them of God’s love for them.  This desire has caused me to create awkward moments when I spoke rather than listened to God’s Spirit within me.

Our scripture for today represents the vast majority of the New Testament’s teaching on how to live among unbelievers.  In 1 Thessalonians 4:11 Apostle Paul tells us what our ambition in life should be: to lead a quiet life, mind our own business and work to earn our living.  The end of dong all that, according to God’s Word is: winning the respect of outsiders (1 Thessalonians 4:12).

I’m not proposing that there are never times when we verbalize our faith—there are!  However, the instructions of God’s Word fall heavy on the side of living out our faith so that non-believers can see a live commercial of what it means to be a Christ follower.  This wouldn’t surprise the marketing teams of the most successful companies in our world.  They create commercials for TV all the time trying to show how their product works in everyday life.  If we treat unbelievers as prospects, we create a poor representation of what following Christ looks like.  (Continued)

Father, as I start each day, remind me to rely on you and your strength so I can represent you well.  In Jesus’ name, amen.