but even as we have been approved of God to have the glad tidings entrusted to us, so we speak; not as pleasing men, but God, who proves our hearts.
Before Paul ever spoke a word in Thessalonica, God had tested him and then trusted him with a message. The verse shows where a servant's confidence comes from, and whose verdict he works for.
The verse keeps a definite order. God's approval comes first, and the trust follows. Paul never took up this message on his own.
There was as good a conscience as there was boldness and endurance. There was integrity of heart, the very opposite of playing a part... Grace forms responsibility, and grace enjoyed in the soul keeps that responsibility alive. They had God before them, God who proves the hearts, not men whose breath is in their nostrils.
Paul's commission was unusual in scale. The principle behind it is not.
Any service we have had committed to us, however small it may be, has been given by God and not by man. So we are responsible to God, and He tries not only our words and acts but also our hearts. Paul was put in trust with the gospel in a way that was altogether exceptional. But the three words, "PUT IN TRUST," may well be written on all our hearts. We must never forget that we are trustees.
"So we speak" ties the way the message is delivered to its source. A preacher cannot trim God's trust to fit his audience.
This was a sacred trust indeed. God did not commit it to cherub, or seraph, or any heavenly being, but to mortal man. He was to be the channel through which such pure water would flow to everyone around him... How easy it is to tickle the ears of men and to preach smooth things! How easy to cut the gospel down to human ideas or wishes; to put darkness for light and light for darkness. How easy to please men by denying sin and eternal punishment, the holiness of God, and the atoning death of our Lord Jesus Christ!
The pull toward the audience is real. There is one cure for it.
The faces of men are before the preacher, and every servant has known the temptation of trying to please his audience. The cure for the trap is to remember where the service came from, and the responsibility that comes with it — to please Him who has chosen him to be a soldier. Then he will be able to speak as from God, in the sight of God, in Christ. For man will disappear, and God alone will be before his soul.
Why does Paul appeal to God as the one who tests hearts, rather than to his own record? Because no audience can check a motive. Older translations say God "proves" or "tries" the heart; the sense is the same — He puts it to the test.
They knew the gospel was a sacred trust, given to them by the grace of the eternal God. How could they do anything but speak it as men directly responsible to God? God's gospel was not there for the mere pleasure of men. It is a message of pure truth, and the apostle took care to speak it in the way that pleased his Master, who tested their hearts. Men could not always judge another's motives, but God knew them perfectly. How important it is, then, that the soul should be fully open before God, taking care to please Him honestly.
Refusing to please men can be misread as permission to be blunt and abrasive. Paul's own practice rules that out.
In trying to avoid being a man-pleaser, some fall into the opposite evil and become deeply unpleasant. The apostle sought to please everyone in everything, for their profit. He became all things to all men so that he might save some. Yet he upheld the truth of the gospel, "not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts." Being pleasing to God — that is what will keep us from falling on one side or the other!
- Approved — the order matters. God tested Paul first, then handed him the message. Nobody appoints himself to this trust.
- Entrusted — the gospel is a deposit, not property. Grace gives the trust, and the trust creates the responsibility.
- Trustees — the principle scales down. Whatever service you have, however small, came from God, so your accountability runs to God.
- Spoken — you pass on the trust the way God gave it. Smoothing it to suit the audience is not adaptation but breach of trust.
- Tested — hearers judge the words; God tests the heart behind them. Aim at His approval, and men fade from view. Yet pleasing God never means being unpleasant to people.
For we have not at any time been [among you] with flattering discourse, even as ye know, nor with a pretext for covetousness, God [is] witness;
Paul is defending the way he preached in Thessalonica. He does it by naming two things he never used. One is words that soothe an audience. The other is a respectable-looking cover for greed. To settle the charge he calls two witnesses — the Thessalonians for what they saw, and God for what only He could see.
The verse splits its proof. Flattery is public, so the readers can settle that question themselves. Greed hides inside, so Paul can only call on God.
Flattering words are the very worst words anyone can use. May we avoid all flattery. In this case Paul appealed to their knowledge of facts. They knew full well that he never flattered, but then might he not have coveted? He did not, and in this secret matter, where perhaps no human eye could see, he calls God to witness. In all this we learn his sincerity.
Flattery works by telling people something better about themselves than is true. That is what the gospel refuses to do.
"Flattering words" will win the friendship of people who are not honourable and careful themselves. An honest man will not accept flattery. Of course, flattery puts him in a much better light than is really true of him. It was by flattery that Absalom "stole the hearts of the men of Israel" (2 Sam. 15:1-6). But the gospel shows honestly the guilt of mankind and the pure grace of God. "A cloak of covetousness" would be a good appearance covering a greedy character. The Thessalonians knew this was not true of these servants of God, and God was witness.
One thing keeps a preacher clear of flattery, and it must be kept up all day.
No flatterer can be a faithful preacher of God's message. The one who would be kept from flattery must be in the fear of God all day long. Otherwise the fear of man, or covetousness, will betray him into what is so hateful to God and so harmful to men.
Older translations read "a cloak of covetousness" where the ESV has "a pretext for greed." Either way, this is greed hiding behind a reason that looks respectable.
He could therefore affirm that he had never used (1) flattering words — and he appeals to those he was writing to in confirmation of the fact — nor (2) "a cloak of," or with a pretext for, "covetousness," and of this God was witness.
These faults are not strange or rare. They are ordinary in the world, and flattery is the weapon that serves greed.
These three things are very common in the world. Men naturally seek their own things, so covetousness rules them, though they may disguise it under some cloak. Glory from man is also very dear to the human heart. Whether men chase possessions or glory, they find flattering words a useful weapon. With flattery they can often win favour with the influential. Paul refused all these things completely. As a servant of God, with God for his Judge and God for his Witness, they were altogether beneath him.
Every preacher looks into the faces in front of him. That pressure has one antidote.
The faces of men are in front of the preacher. Every servant has known the temptation to please his audience. The cure for this snare is to remember where the service comes from. With that comes the duty of pleasing Him who has chosen him to be a soldier. Then he will be able to speak as from God, in the sight of God, in Christ. Man will disappear, and God alone will be before his soul.
Money is not the only snare. Other pressures pull just as hard.
One cannot serve two masters. Patrons and congregations are not the only snares. Wanting influence, fearing disapproval, party spirit and church politics can all get in the way of loyalty to the Lord. In that case righteousness will surely suffer, and perhaps truth itself… If a worker of faith sees himself as approved by God and entrusted with the gospel, he will take all the more care that no one can blame the ministry.
- Flattery — the worst words anyone can use. They hand a person a better view of himself than is true. The gospel tells him honestly what he is.
- Greed — flattery's hidden partner. Men naturally seek their own things, and flattering words are the weapon they use to get them.
- Cloak — greed hides. It comes with a pretext: a respectable reason that covers the real one.
- Witness — flattery is public, so the hearers can testify. Greed is secret, so Paul calls God, content to have God judge him where no human eye can look.
- Safeguard — the servant who escapes these traps lives in the fear of God all day. He remembers who trusted him with the message. Then man disappears, and God alone is before his soul.