1 Thessalonians 2:7–8: 7 But we were gentle among you, just as a nursing mother cherishes her own children. 8 So, affectionately longing for you, we were well pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God, but also our own lives, because you had become dear to us.

The last couple exhortations have focused on the character and duties of fathers. Fathers are to live devoutly, justly, and blamelessly before our children as we exhort, comfort, and charge them to serve the Lord with joy and gladness all their days. Today we touch on the responsibilities of mothers.

In our text today, Paul compares his conduct among the Thessalonians to that of a mother. So what does it mean to be a mother? To be a mother is to cultivate the characteristics of gentleness, affection, and loyalty.

First, mothers are to be gentle. Paul writes that we were gentle among you, as a nursing mother cherishes her own children. We have been privileged in the last year and a half to witness the births of many children; we get to see all you new mothers out there cherishing your babies and we are thankful for you. A woman’s body is made to foster and nurture life. Therefore, a woman who strives to be hard or harsh, who endeavors to suppress her natural gentleness, is a woman at war with what God designed her to be. And this is why shrill women, harsh women, rarely earn respect. Mothers are to be gentle.

Second, mothers are to be affectionate or loving. Paul describes his emotional attachment to the Thessalonians as affectionately longing for you… and then goes on to declare that the Thessalonians had become dear to us. A mother is to be a model of love and devotion. Her heart is to be inclined to her own – her own husband, her own children, her own people. These are mine. Mothers are to be affectionate.

Finally, and closely related to affectionate, mothers are to be loyal. Paul writes, “we were well pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God, but also our own lives.” Motherhood is about imparting oneself to one’s children. It is not simply about giving things or relaying information; it is about giving oneself. A mother’s body nourishes life and reveals what motherhood is about. Because a mother loves her child, she gives herself to her child, gives herself for her child. She considers her child’s needs greater than her own, their good greater than her own, their growth greater than her own. Mothers are to be loyal.

Commenting on the nature of love and loyalty, G.K. Chesterton remarks about women in his book Orthodoxy (76):

Some stupid people started the idea that because women obviously back up their own people through everything, therefore women are blind and do not see anything. They can hardly have known any women. The same women who are ready to defend their men through thick and thin are (in their personal intercourse with the man) almost morbidly lucid about the thinness of his excuses or the thickness of his head. A man’s friend likes him but leaves him as he is: his wife loves him and is always striving to turn him into somebody else…

So, mothers, how are you doing? Are you cultivating the virtues of gentleness, affection, and loyalty? Or are you perhaps permitting bitterness and resentment to harden your heart toward those you love and to drive a wedge between you? Are you subtly poisoning your husband with your bitter words, “I just don’t feel loved. Nobody cares for me. No one reaches out to me.” Are you gossiping to others, undermining their loyalty to their brothers and sisters in Christ? If so, then repent and return to the Lord Jesus. Find your security in Him and, secure in Him, cultivate the virtues of gentleness, affection, and loyalty.

The calling of mothers to be gentle, affectionate, and loyal, reminds us that we all of us, fathers and mothers, have failed in many ways to live up to our calling in the eyes of God. We have sinned, and are in need of the forgiving grace of God in Christ. And so let us confess the many ways in which we have fallen short. We will confess our sins privately and then corporately using the printed confession found in your bulletin. As you are able, let us kneel together as we confess.