Pleasing God, not pleasing men

We will spend the whole week reading the first Epistle to the Thessalonians, which is believed to be the first epistle written by St. Paul in around 51 A.D. By that time, he was preaching in Corinth. He heard of the problems encountered by the church in Thessalonia but he could not leave Corinth to handle their problems. Therefore, St. Paul wrote a letter to the Church of Thessalonia to advise and encourage them. Most of the Thessalonian Christians were Gentiles. They did not have any Jewish burden. Therefore, they were more receptive to the gospel preached by St. Paul. Since this letter was among his first epistles, the theology is easier to follow.

Every community has to struggle with internal and external problems. The Thessalonian Church was no exception. The envious Jews posed them an external problem. The believers had to face theological challenges, personal attacks and physical persecutions from without. Among the believers, some abused the freedom gained through the gospel and relapsed to an earlier licentious life. Others gave up their jobs and waited idly for the second coming of Christ. Yet others lamented for those who had died before Christ returned. St. Paul had a bunch of difficult nuts to crack.
Early in his writing career, St. Paul had displayed a certain style. As a teacher, there are a lot of things I should learn from this great Apostle. Instead of scolding them for their poor performance, St. Paul was able to pick up their strength and praised them instead.
We give thanks to God always for you all, constantly mentioning you in our prayers,
remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Thessalonians 1:2-3).
In one breath, St. Paul spelt out the three theological virtues: faith, hope and charity. He gave thanks to God for the Thessalonian Christians had shown these virtues well. Though these remarks of St. Paul were subjective, he must have found something in the believers worth praising.
Teachers have been entrusted young children who have even greater opportunities to change for the better. Therefore, we teachers should not be a miser in giving out encouragements and praises.

The atmosphere of the society is changing all the time. In earlier generations, teachers and truth were to be respected. Teachers were keepers of truth and knowledge and therefore should be respected. Most parents did not have the chance to attend school. They gave their children the best they could afford. Parents told their children at home that they should pay attention in class to what the teachers taught. Nowadays, these well-educated children have become parents themselves. Some are even more learned than school teachers. They put their children into schools more or less for babysitting purposes. Teachers are told that parents are stakeholders. Therefore, parents are not to be offended. Many head teachers would bow to the demands of parents and instruct their subordinates to do likewise. The whole school runs to please the parents! I think St. Paul would not agree with such an attitude.
but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please men, but to please God who tests our hearts (1 Thessalonians 2:4).
If we claim to be offering Christian education, we should practise what St. Paul preached. We serve not to please men, but to please God.
Will it please God to punish students when they make mistakes, when they fail to hand in homework in time? Will it please God to give students a free hand to do whatever pleases their appetite? Will it please God to implement mandatory drug screening for students? Will it please God to renovate the D&T Room into a distance-learning centre for students? Will it please God to deny drug rehabilitators a better learning environment in Mui Wo? Are we seeking our own pleasure and glory in doing all these?
nor did we seek glory from men, whether from you or from others, though we might have made demands as apostles of Christ (1 Thessalonians 2:6).
In short, do we love God enough? Do we love our students enough?
But we were gentle among you, like a nurse taking care of her children.
So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us (1 Thessalonians 2:7-8).
I did not mean to abase ourselves to call ourselves "babysitters" because this was what St. Paul taught us in his early letters. We should be gentle like a nurse, love and take care of our students and share our life with them. The teaching profession is a sharing of our own selves.

Dear Lord, make us generous babysitters to share our life with our students. Amen.