It is a truth universally known that a person with a message needs people to trust her or him. If they don’t trust you they won’t trust your message. I guess that is why many of the screen personalities who project confidence are the ones who command the big dollars. We trust them, and so we believe what they say, whether it is the news or advice or advertisements. Influencers become influential because people think they can be trusted.
As a Christian, I want people to trust me because I have a message that is of the utmost importance. It is far more important than the footy scores or the stock market predictions or the coolest holiday destinations. It is a message about immortality and life—what could be more important? It is a message from an utterly trustworthy God. But people hear it from my lips and I am far from utterly trustworthy. I long and pray they will trust my message, but that will involve trusting me; I can point them to other people with the same message, or to YouTube videos that argue for the truth of my message; I can point them to the original scriptural documents; but so often it still comes down to whether they trust me. Will they believe the videos I point them to? After all, there are thousands of videos saying the opposite.
How do you get people to trust you? Humanly speaking it seems vital for all of us who want to share the gospel of Jesus, whether preachers and evangelists, or Christians in their everyday workplaces and leisure haunts. It is vital they trust us if they are going to believe our message and so be saved.
Paul in Thessalonica
I have been pondering 1 Thessalonians chapter 2 verses 1 to 12 recently. Paul, who brought the message about Christ to Thessalonica, writes to them a few months after leaving. He is acutely aware that he had arrived in Thessalonica as a complete stranger, to tell them an extraordinary message about the true and living God whose Son was raised to life and who can rescue them from the coming wrath of God. They had believed the message, even though most of their compatriots not only didn’t believe but actively opposed it and ran Paul out of town. Then the Thessalonian Christians heard nothing from Paul. It would be understandable that they might start to think they had been taken for a ride.
Paul writes 1 Thessalonians to assure them that he did not scam them. He does it be recounting how he conducted himself while he was with them. What he recounts is what they know was true: ‘You know … as you know … You know … Surely you remember … You are witnesses … For you know’ (1 Thes 2:1–2, 5, 9–11). Paul gives a wide-ranging description of how he conducted himself, covering both his actions and his motives.
Actions:
- ‘we dared to tell you God’s gospel in the face of strong opposition’ (verse 2);
- ‘we never used flattery, nor did we put on a mask to cover up greed’ (verse 5);
- ‘we worked night and day in order not to be a burden to anyone’ (verse 9);
- ‘we dealt with each of you … encouraging, comforting and urging you to live lives worthy of God’ (verse 11–12).
Motives:
- ‘the appeal we made did not spring from error or impure motives, nor are we trying to trick you’ (verse 3);
- ‘[w]e are not trying to please people but God who tests our hearts’ (verse 4);
- ‘[w]e were not looking for praise from people, not from you or from anyone else’ (verse 6).
Actions and motives are mutually illuminating. His consistent hard work to support himself shows that he did not want to be a burden on them, and so they can be sure his ministry was no clever cover-up for greed. And his refusal to use flattery showed he was not trying to please them, and so to win their praise. Paul is saying to the Thessalonians: ‘You can trust me, because you know I did not try to win your trust. And you can trust my message because you can trust me. I did not deceive you when I told you the incredible news about Jesus. You know that is not what was going on.’
Integrity and Trust
I find this very helpful. It encourages me not to try to win people’s trust. Instead, it encourages me to focus on genuinely loving and serving them, with honesty and candour. If I try to get people to trust me, I will be tempted to flatter them. I’ll be sensitive to what they think of me. I will look for praise from them. Those susceptible to the manipulation of flattery may well trust me, but some will see through me and become suspicious.
What Paul did was love them. He began loving them before he had met them, by daring to come to Thessalonica to evangelise them. He loved them by continuing to preach the gospel even though he faced strong opposition. His love for them grew into personal affection as he cared for them like newborn spiritual babies. He expressed his love by avoiding becoming a burden to them even though it meant labouring day and night, ‘tentmaking’ to support himself doing gospel ministry. He wasn’t trying to get anything out of them. His goal was to please God, faithfully fulfilling the trust God had committed to him. There was no adjustment of the message so that it was more palatable to the listener. He spoke the gospel truth to them with love and integrity. And the Thessalonians knew it.
Two thousand years later, Paul’s words still carry weight. I was not in Thessalonica, so I am not an eyewitness to Paul’s trustworthy ministry. But as Paul in this public letter confidently asserts that those who were eyewitnesses knew with certainty that they could trust him and so trust his message, so can I. As an historical document, it is virtually impossible to have a fictitious account of events accepted by those who were there. He was not tricking the Thessalonians; he is not tricking me either. And his extraordinary and wonderful message about God’s Son, raised from the dead, who rescues us from the coming wrath rings true.
Do you want people to believe your message? Do you want people to trust you? Then don’t try to get them to trust you, just love them with integrity. Dare to tell them the gospel of Christ in the face of ridicule and rejection. Care for them, sharing your life with them as you have opportunity. Seek God’s approval, with honesty in all you say and do. And they will trust you. And some will, I pray, also trust your message.
