David Bahn – Reflections

Light from the Word and through the lens

49 Week Bible Challenge – Day 170: A Reminder About Love


Click here for an audio version of this devotion.

I am using readings from the 49 Week Bible Challenge as the basis for these devotions. I encourage you to join me in this discipline. Today’s readings are 1 Thessalonians 4; Ezekiel 36; Hosea 4; 5.

1 Thessalonians 4:9-12

Now concerning brotherly love you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another, 10 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, 11 and to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, 12 so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one.

Scarlet Sage | Mercer Arboretum | August 2025

“O Tommy! Don’t I have just the most beautiful eyes you’ve ever seen?”

“Yep,” replies Tommy to his sweetheart Mary.

“And don’t I have the most luscious lips you’ve ever kissed?”

“Yep,” he replies.

“And don’t I have just the most perfect figure you’ve ever hugged?”

Yep,” he says again.

“O Tommy! You just have such a way with words!” [Rim shot!]

Silly joke, but an important truth. We may not need to hear that we are loved, but words of appreciation and love are one of the 5 love languages. And we need to know that we are loved.

Paul plays a little trick on the Thessalonians here. You don’t need us or anyone else to talk to you about brotherly love, he says. But in saying that he is reminding them of the importance of brotherly love. But he is also encouraging them through these words because they are practicing brotherly love throughout Macedonia.

Their love was not confined to their local church or community only. That love was expressed in providing shelter and support and shelter for traveling missionaries or persecuted believers. It was shown also as they shared their financial resources with poorer churches (cf. 2 Corinthians 8:1-5). They also sent messages and messengers of faith and encouragement so that their faith active in love was a model for others (cf. 1 Thessalonians 1:7-8).

Paul’s praise reflects their active, outward-focused love, extending beyond their local church to the broader Christian fellowship in Macedonia, fulfilling Jesus’ command to love one another (John 13:34–35). And even though they are praised here, Paul urges them to do this more and more.

This should serve as an example for us all. Jesus commands his followers to love one another. This is a command for all believers, and we have here a reminder that this is a lifelong calling. Even as Jesus’ love for us is being constantly renewed by others who reflect his love to us, so we too should seek continually to grow in our love for one another.


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