Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Combating Loneliness with Faith | New Testament | 1 Thessalonians 3

Episode Date: May 29, 2023

Loneliness is a health epidemic. Discover the impact of technology, mobility, and individualism on our sense of connection. Join as Keith explores what 1 Thessalonians 3 says about relationships, community, and the need for faith during trials. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Join the TMBT community in reading the entire New Testament in one year. Get your FREE reading plan here. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter@TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: 1 Thessalonians 3

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. On May 2nd of this year, the Surgeon General of the United States issued a report on loneliness, calling it a health epidemic. According to the Surgeon General, loneliness poses health risks, equivalent to smoking 15 cigarettes daily and costs billions of dollars annually. The 81-page report said that about half of U.S. adults say they've experienced,

loneliness. The research shows that Americans who have become less engaged with what the report calls worship houses, and you and I would probably call churches, less engaged in worship houses, community organizations, and family members reported an increase in feelings of loneliness. The number of single households has doubled in the last 60 years. Now, of course, we know the COVID pandemic exacerbated the loneliness crisis due to school and workplaces being shut down and people being told to shelter in place. What's caused this increase in loneliness? Well, of course, one thing we would point to as technology.

And one study cited in the Surgeon General's report found that people who used social media for two hours or more daily were almost twice as likely to report feeling socially isolated than those who were on such apps for less than 30 minutes a day. Of course, there's other causes. We could point to mobility. people have the opportunity to travel or to move from wherever they grew up to new places. That's exciting and attractive, but it pulls us away from our friend group and it pulls us away from our family. It makes us restart friendships, and that's hard to do.

And of course, then there's this individualistic mindset that we all have. We rely on ourselves. We think of ourselves as kind of lone rangers, people who really aren't accountable to other people. We don't live inside of a web of relationships. Instead, we do what we want to do. Here's how the AP story ends. Now, it's quoting the Surgeon General. He says this, there's really no substitute for in-person interaction. As we shifted to use technology more and more for our communication, we lost out on a lot of that in-person interaction.

How do we design technology that strengthens our relationships as opposed to weaken them? So let me ask you a question. Do you feel lonely? If you do, you're not alone. And if you don't feel lonely, someone you love does. The Bible has a lot to say about relationships and community. Like back in Genesis 2, it says it's not good for man to be alone. But the Bible doesn't just diagnose the problem.

It also offers solutions. And the solution to loneliness that's offered in the Bible is family and community. It turns out that a great neighborhood can make a big difference in a person's life. In 1 Thessalonians chapters 2 and 3, we see the need for community in the church. Here's chapter 2 verse 17. Paul writes, But brothers and sisters, when we were orphaned by being separated from you for a short time in person but not in thought, out of our intense longing we made every effort to see you. Paul says it was painful to be apart from the Christians in Thessalonica.

Even when they were physically separated, they were still in his thoughts and prayers. but he intensely longed to see them face to face and made every effort to do so. It's interesting that Paul describes this separation as being orphaned. Being separated from the church that he had started made him feel like a parent whose child had been taken away. When you listen to Paul, you recognize that he doesn't think of the church as a business, but as a family. Here's how chapter two ends.

For what is our hope, our joy, or the crown in which we will glory in the presence of our Lord Jesus when he comes. Is it not you? Indeed, you are our glory and joy. When Paul talks about the day that Jesus returns, he uses the same word that was used to describe the visits of kings or emperors to cities. The city that was receiving the king was supposed to provide a crown of gold for the king to wear. This might be what Paul is referring to when he says that the Christians in Thessalonica

will be his crown that he will lay down at the feet of the king to wear. of Jesus. One reason why God called early Christians to love one another is because the world did not love them. They had faced trials and difficulties because they followed Jesus. In 1st Thessalonians 3, he tells them that he doesn't want their faith to be unsettled by the hardships that they've faced, and he reminds them that God sends trials into our life to accomplish his good purposes in us. Trials are designed to produce godly character and to teach us to depend on Jesus. Jesus. There's a story of the Christian man who faced a series of troubles, including career disaster, financial ruin, and the loss of someone he loved very much. He was wandering the streets

of his city and depression when he came to the place where a tall cathedral was being erected. As he gazed at the construction, he noticed a workman chiseling at a piece of stonework and asked him what he was doing. The man explained that he was shaping an ornamental stone that had to be a precise shape and size to fit into the space at the very top of the church. Looking at the workman for a while, the man lifted his face upward and began to pray. He said, Lord, now I understand what you're doing in my life. You are shaping me down here so that I will fit up there. He understood that the trials in his life were shaping him into the kind of person that

God wanted him to be. In the eight verses that we're looking at today at the end of 1st Thessalonians 2 and the beginning of 1st Thessalonians 3, Satan is mentioned twice. The first time is when Paul explains that he repeatedly tried to go visit the church, but he says Satan blocked our way. Now, we don't know the form that took, meaning we don't know how Satan prevented Paul from visiting that church, but we just know that he did. Paul saw that he had a spiritual enemy that was trying to thwart the plan of God. It's interesting that Satan wanted to keep Christians away from each other. I wonder how he's doing that today. How is Satan keeping Christians from meeting together to worship on Sunday morning or in small groups?

Here's a partial list of what I hear from people. In other words, what keeps them away from meeting with other Christians? A fear of kids catching a cold, good weather, kids sports, and activities, travel, a lakehouse, yard work, staying out too late on Saturday night, hunting, needing a slow morning, options to watch services online, and unwillingness to commit to a small group? Is it possible that Satan is using these to block us from healthy in-person relationships? Now, the second time Satan is mentioned is in chapter 3, verse 5, where he is called the tempter who is tempting the believers to turn away from God in the middle of their trials.

Given all that this church was going through, Paul wanted to check in on their faith, and that's the reason he sent Timothy to see them. It's through faith in God's goodness that enables us to persevere through trials and hardships. Now, if Paul sent Timothy to check on the church's faith, I wonder if it might be wise for us to check in on our faith. Are we holding fast to Jesus? us. Or maybe even a better application is for us to check in on the faith of others, on our friends, our family, or those in our small group or who go to our church. Maybe they're enduring

hardship right now. And what they need from us is encouragement. They need us to ask them how their faith is holding up and to encourage them to keep believing God's promises. I know this. These chapters make clear that God calls every Christian to be involved in real Christian community inside their church. Hey, thanks for listening. If you want to go deeper, sign up for the 10-minute Bible Talk newsletter. You'll get a short email once a week. It'll challenge you to grow in your faith, give you interesting background on today's

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