Sunday, October 6, 2013

Thought on I Thessalonians 5:17: Pray More

A couple years ago I was in a rather diverse Bible study.  Represented were at least three different ethnic groups.  There were three individuals with Ph.D.s (myself included), two ordained ministers, three pastor's kids (myself included), and about five adults who grew up outside the church and who had not yet graduated from high school.  Yep, diverse group.

The leader asked us to write down a summary of I Thessalonians 5:12-22.  Those of us highly educated "churchy" people went about on our exegesis and none of us came up with anything particularly profound.  When we got to verse 17 the leader asked what one of the guys who hadn't graduated from high school and who did not grow up in the church to explain vs. 17.  He said simply, "Pray more".  The room fell silent as we thought about how profound those two simple words were. No one in the room has forgotten and I always think of that every time I read I Thessalonians 5.  And it humbles me because I know that I need to pray more.

It also reminds me that I shouldn't always over-analyze the texts.  Sometimes simple is far more profound.

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