A Quiet Life

From a thought-provoking piece by "Chaplain Mike" at Internet Monk, commenting on 1 Thessalonians 4:10-12

...for that indeed is what you are doing to all the brothers throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers, to do this more and more, and to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one. (1 Thessalonians 4:10-12 ESV)

...My life is the one I live with my family. My life is the one in which I do my daily work. My life is the one I live among my neighbors, my friends, in my community, with the people in my congregation and at the ball field. Because I’m a writer, the context of my life includes Internet Monk and the people I meet through participating in these daily discussions.

No matter how hard it is, I have to fight every day to keep the main thing the main thing, to recognize real life for what it is, and to let Christ live in and through me in that context. 

To help me, I have clear apostolic instruction. Paul’s words to me are:

Be a quiet person, a person of peace.
Don’t stick your nose in places where it doesn’t belong.
Work hard.
Focus on the people you know and excel in love toward them.
Local, quiet, pastoral.
It’s the apostolic way.
It’s Jesus-shaped.

How much healthier would I be, would you be, would the Church be if 1Thessalonians 4:9-12 defined our life and witness?

A Gospel Explanation: Three Essential Things

What one Scripture passage would you use to explain the essential gospel message to an inquiring unbeliever? I would never have thought of using 1 Thess. 1:8-10 until I read this piece by Tony Payne at -Desiring God:

...if you had the opportunity to open up one simple Bible passage, and briefly explain to someone what it meant to be a Christian, where would you turn?

I would turn to 1 Thessalonians 1, verses 8-10:

For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not say anything. For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.

And with all the boldness, fluency and clarity that I wish I had in real life but only ever have in scenarios, I would read the passage with my new friend, and then say something like this:

"This part of the Bible is a letter written by one of the early Christian teachers (named Paul) to some people who had become Christians after he had shared the Christian message with them. And as he writes to them, he reminds them exactly what they did to become Christians. So it gives us a very neat summary of what the Bible says it means to become a Christian.

"It basically meant doing three things.