What specific reason did the apostle Paul give in 1 Thessalonians 2:18 for not coming to the Thessalonians despite his deep desires to the contrary?
“Satan stopped/hindered them.”
Glance even further back to 1 Thessalonians 2:14-16. How had Paul‘s own countryman done something very similar?
“They drove them out of town so that they couldn’t speak the gospel to the Thessalonians.”
Without peeking ahead at the dictionary definition, take shot at defining the word ‘hindrance’ on your own. “hinder = to obstruct, to make difficult”
During the past year, which – others or Satan – has seemed the bigger hindrance to you and how?
“Satan because my first thought is neither – I hindered myself more than anyone else has, but Satan probably helped me some. (Though I believe it was Beth in another study who said ‘I can do bad all by myself.’)”
You’ve had some positive hindrances too. Share one.
“Too many to count, yet most won’t come to mind. Last week I wrote of my feeling of determination to get together with Aunt Betty, and it was far better to do it with Mom and Dad a week later than with Kirsten with less extra driving.”
You will never find a perfectionist who is, as it turns out, perfect.
To nail down the concepts, write the terms ‘legalism’ and ‘license’ on the ends of this continuum. Under each one, jot an example of that type of hindrance.
“Legalism
“Some people refuse to dance and forbid their children from dancing because it can be very sensual and sexually arousing, especially in young people.
“License
“A year ago (11/14) at the end of the Thanksgiving eve service, Brian had all the children come to the front of the for the last song, God‘s Great Dance Floor to praise God in a dancing area. Daniel and I danced in the side aisle. I hope no one left the church over it, but it was totally worth it!”
Now let’s zero in for a moment on 1 Thessalonians 2:18 with Satan as the hinderer. What do versus 19-20 suggest as a reason why Satan hindered them from getting back to the Thessalonians? What do you think Satan was seeking to prevent by keeping them apart?
“new converts and spiritual growth in existing ones”
He [Satan] not only works hard to see that wrong people unite; he runs the chainsaw until it smokes black so that good people divide.
He simply does not want people to be a joy to you. They would put your discouragement at risk.
If you’re like me, what you’ve personally refused to lay or cast down along the way has been the biggest hindrance of all in how you’ve run the race… I’ve continued practices that weren’t evil in themselves, but became increasingly erosive and heart numbing.
“(Or just energy and time-consuming.)”
Does anything about that definition, spark recognition in you regarding a present hindrance?
“Yes, my excessive playing of Odd Socks, Gardens of Time, and several King games is rather like an unnatural growth on my time, productivity, and sleep schedule, and is definitely an impediment. (One I enjoy thoroughly, but still…)”
Compare 2 Peter 2:18 and June 16 in the ESV. What description do these two verses have in common? “boast/boastful”
Sometimes the mass that needs throwing down is my own big head. We’ll never have a bigger hindrance than our own ego. The good thing about throwing down our head is that our bodies have to follow. All we have to do is go face down. It’s up from there.
Dearest Rachel -
It’s amusing to see you confront the somewhat false dichotomy as to what generally hindered you in your spiritual journey; when given the option as to whether Satan or other people are behind it, you default to the former simply because others weren’t really involved in what your considered the hindrance to be. And rather than settle on Flip Wilson’s old line about how “the devil made me do it,” you proceed to call out the author for leaving out the most significant hindrance in our lives – which she pointed out in a previously covered study – ourselves.
To be fair, the paragraph that you added a comment to (and I included here – despite your lack of underlining or highlighting – because of that) sort of addresses the fact that we keep things in our lives that hinder our walk with God. Your comment actually rather sands hers down, in fact, from “heart-numbing” to “time-consuming,” but you acknowledge that a distraction, especially one that took up as much time as yours did, is every bit as much of a hindrance as anything she listed; all without any clear outside influence of the devil or his minions. You even proceed to explain why you hold onto it – because you “enjoy [it] thoroughly,” which we all could admit to, with regard to similar such distractions.
Of course, as the study points out, not all hindrances are bad; sometimes, there’s a matter of better timing involved if one is delayed. You bring up your visit to your Aunt Betty; I’d forgotten that you’d originally intended to go downstate with Kerstin, but ultimately had to delay the trip by a week in order to accompany your parents to see her. All due respect to Kerstin, but in this case, family takes preeminence, even if there was a delay in accomplishing your plan.
I would question the examples you used in the legalism vs. license continuum; I imagine that the point is that things can be taken too far in either extreme, and the workbook wanted examples of both ends. For what it’s worth, I could tell you about how my dad’s father was a champion Charleston dancer in his day, but set it aside when he married Grandma and joined the church, as an example of legalism (not that he was legalistic, but that he acceded to the legalism of the church for her sake). Meanwhile, I keep hearing of churches these day who (to just stick with the dancing example) have drag queen performances on their platform, which seem to prove the point of the legalistic people you describe.
As it is, your example of “license” seems to be delivered with approval (you even describe the possibility of turning certain people off as being “worth it”), so I wouldn’t say it was as far to the edge of the continuum as intended. Then again, it may have been asking for examples from personal experience, so I may be giving you a hard time for no reason, in which case, I apologize. This is another one of those cases where I can’t ask you directly what was intended and what you meant to say; I wish things were otherwise.
In any event, while there are these outside pressures that get in our way, the real takeaway here that I think you got was that we can be our own worst enemy, when it comes to walking where God wants us to. God help us… literally.
