I am one of those “back to the basics” kinds of people… I don’t know whether that is from my years of playing baseball, or just how God has fashioned me as a left-brained guy. All I know is, when push comes to shove, it seems to me that many times it is good when we are trying to move in the right direction, make the right decisions, speak words of wisdom, or any such thing like these, to go back to the basics of what is right and true. In my years of playing ball, when things just didn’t seem to be going the way I wanted, I remember the advice I would get from my dad and the many fine coaches I had over the years – “See the ball, hit the ball… You have to pick the ball up coming out of the pitchers hand… Watch the ball all the way into your glove… You have to catch the ball before you can throw it…” and on and on. The basics – when it doubt go back to the basics.

I saw an example of this in an article I read today about Allen Craig of the St. Louis Cardinals who has been sidelined with a left foot/ankle injury and not played at all in the post-season. Having sufficiently healed he has been activated to play in the World Series and is in the line-up for game one as the Cardinals DH. Having not played for quite a while, he was asked how he was going to approach the game to which he responded, “I feel like I have a good approach to go out there and do well, having not played in a few month. We’ll just see how it goes. I’m going to go out there and focus on competing. I’m not going to worry about my swing or my stance or too much. I’m just going to compete against the pitcher and see what happens.” Did you catch that? Basically what he said was, “I am not going to over-complicate this. I am going to go up there and compete… see the ball and do my best to put a good swing on it… see the ball, hit the ball.” The basics – you gotta love that approach. (By the way, don’t take that to mean I am rooting for the Cardinals… <haha>)

By now you are asking, “What does this have to do with what Paul wrote to the Thessalonians?” Only this – buried in what Paul writes to the Thessalonian believers in these opening verses is a list of some of the basics of wholehearted living for Christ. In short, he lists the following basics present in their lives:

A receiving of the gospel in full conviction of the Spirit, in power unto salvation (vs. 5)
A true desire to be imitators of Christ (vs. 6)
A turning away from idols, those things that would compete for our affection and seek to remove the Lord from being on the throne of our hearts (vs. 9)
A desire to serve God alone with their lives (vs. 9)
A patient obedient waiting on the Lord until we stand before Him face-to-face (vs. 10)

While this list is not exhaustive, we find some of the “basics” we need to go back to when living for Christ at times becomes difficult, confusing, or feels impossible: a full conviction of the truth of the gospel and it’s ability to save us from our sins and the wrath to come, as well as in the daily difficulties we are confronted with in life; a simple life of asking “What would Jesus do?” and then obediently living out the answer to this question; a ridding our lives of anything that would exalt itself above Christ; seeking opportunities to serve Jesus and His people, for the Son of Man Himself came “not to be served, but to serve, and give His life a ransom for many”; a patient waiting while walking in obedience until He calls us home or until He returns.

What was the result of these basics being present in the Thessalonians’ life? The word of the Lord “sounded forth” (was heralded) throughout all of Macedonia and Achaia, and even further, due to the witness of their changed lives in Christ, such that Paul and His companions kept coming to places where the gospel had already been “preached” through the testimony of the Thessalonians faith. Amazing, isn’t it, the way the Lord can use the witness of people simply living the basics!!!

Until next time… I love the basics and trust you do too, let’s live them!!!!