I Thessalonians 1:1-5
Paul and Silvanus and Timothy,
To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace.
We give thanks to God always for all of you, making mention of you in our prayers; constantly bearing in mind your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the presence of our God and Father, knowing, brethren beloved by God, His choice of you; for our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction; just as you know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake. You also became imitators of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much tribulation with the joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. For the word of the Lord has sounded forth from you, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith toward God has gone forth, so that we have no need to say anything. For they themselves report about us what kind of a reception we had with you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, that is Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath to come.
It is a great comfort to me to know that Scripture is “God Breathed” to use the words Paul used when he wrote to Timothy. Knowing that the Bible is “God Breathed” helps drive me to look at every part of the Bible with an expectation that God put things in our Bible for believers, and to take that a little step further, since I am a believer, it’s there for me and it is there for you.
Some parts are what people might call identifiers, things such as the name of the authors of the letter or the recipient of the letters. This is also good thing because we know that the person who wrote this has the authority to speak on the things of the Lord. There were a lot of people who were writing letters, in fact there were even some letters that were written by the apostles that didn’t make into our Bible. The reason is because God is in charge of what is in our Bible and He didn’t want it included. Some people might think that the things that aren’t there are a mistake – if you believe that the mistakes of man are more powerful than the plans of God, then you don’t know the God of the Bible. The God of the Bible created the heavens and the earth. He moves nations at His will and He directs lives and as He desires. He is the power behind all powers and He is the knower of all things. He is infinitely good and He is always directing history towards His objective. This is a God who never overlooks anything, not in your life and not in your Bible. So we have confidence in our Bibles. The biggest critics of the Bible are those who don’t study it or they study it without the author’s guidance, looking to find fault anywhere they can.
So here is our letter today, this letter from Paul and Timothy to the church in Thessalonica. Notice how he begins, that they are in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. This might seem like a formality but it is important that he begins there because you can’t be a part of God’s church unless you are in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Seems so basic but without the basics, things fail don’t they. It’s not hard to find things in history when someone ignored the basics. You might have heard about the French state railway who spent 15 billion dollars on a new fleet of trains, only to find after they were delivered that the train’s wheels were too wide for the tracks. 15 billion dollars wasted. We can laugh about those, but this truth is nothing to laugh about. Unless a church is in God the father and the Lord Jesus Christ, it is not a church. And of course a building cannot be a believer, the church is made up of believers who meet together under the same name. If you are wondering if you are a part of God’s church you only have to ask yourself are you in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. If you still aren’t sure, that is a very important question. You need to ask more questions about what that means because your eternity rests on if you are in Christ or not.
Paul goes on to in his letter to make sure that the church in Thessalonica knows that they are appreciated. It is again interesting to me to notice who Paul thanks for the church. The normal human response is to thank the person who is the object of the appreciation. If you open a door for me, I’m going to thank you for that act of kindness. If someone buys me lunch, I make sure that I mention my gratefulness for that gesture. But Paul begins down a different path when he mentions that he and Timothy give thanks to God. There is a message behind this. Paul is teaching what he knows to be true, that every good gift comes from the Father. (James 1:17) He wants the church to know that their service and devotion to God is a blessing to other believers and that their actions cause others to give thanks to God. Any good work, including what you and I do for our church is to bring glory to God. The dinners you serve, those are for God. The playgrounds you install, that is for God. The elevators you put in, that is for God. The roofs you put on, for God. So God gets the credit and the thanks.
And it is a collective thanks – in fact it is like what Pete Steele mentioned several times, that he was grateful for Hobart Church. You might say, well I never gave a nickel to Pete Steel, but if you are a part of Hobart Church, you were a part of the Steele’s support. All of us –in the same manner as Paul mentioned to the church in Thessalonica – for all of you. We are collectively the church of Hobart, just as a group of individuals collectively made up the church in that city of Thessalonica. And what is so very important to realize is that what you do impacts the testimony of every person in this church. You know that insufferable neighbor? Well, it is possible that they might not want to come to the church because they don’t get along with you. You know that argument you had with that parent on the opposing team in your grandchild’s soccer league, what if they decided to come to church and ran into you, they might just turn around and walk out. And you know that act of kindness you showed to that widow who lives next door, and the family you brought food to because you knew they were struggling, those acts bring God glory and cause people to give thanks for your church. We are in this together. We support missionaries together. We build things for the community together and we impact others for God’s Kingdom together. All of you. Don’t think that the way you live your life doesn’t touch the testimony of the whole church, because you know that it does.
Paul expresses his thanks in the way we all should all give thanks, making mention of you in our prayers. Some believers have not yet learned the value of giving thanks in their prayers. I don’t mean we don’t give thanks for our food, but when was the last time you spend any time in an effort to express your gratitude for all God has given you in your prayers? Of course you have so many things on your “I need list” that are needs – and God expects you to bring those things that are on your heart to Him in prayer. We are told to give Him our burdens and lay down our troubles. However, we are also told to give Him thanks, to praise Him. You might rightly say, not too much in my life is worth giving thanks for – but the book of Ephesians 5, which some of can quote, tell us – always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father. As Jesus sat down for the last supper, prior to heading towards the cross and those final hours with his disciples, what did He do? After giving thanks, He broke bread and said, “This is my body”.
So Paul is giving thanks for the church but what should be of interest to you and to me is: What is Paul thankful for in the lives of these believers? What is it that Paul sees in their lives? Can I learn to be more like this church, someone whom others are thankful for? It is good to see those things that God’s servants find worthy of approval. It is good for us to find an expert on the right behavior. When we want to know what a good church looks like there were few better in the New Testament than the church in Thessalonica. Our world today is full of people who look to experts all the time. If I am going out to eat, I look at the reviews online to see two things, first can I afford this and second, what did other people think of this restaurant. If a book or a movie is highly reviewed by someone I respect, that will influence my decision to read it or to watch it. We like to know what is acceptable because we know not everything is.
So of course we will look to the Bible to find out what is good behavior for a church. This is how are we going to learn what is acceptable to God. This is how we going to find our example to follow in a world that is hostile to God? That is another reason why God provided the Scriptures, so that we might find good examples to follow. Paul points out three things here, and I’d like to take a deeper look at them. Bearing in mind
- your work of faith and
- labor of love and
- steadfastness of hope
And all this in our Lord Jesus Christ in the presence of our God and Father,
When I first looked at this passage, the first thing that jumped out at me is the opposite notions of each trait Paul mentions about this church – their work of faith – their labor of love – and their perseverance of hope. (Not so much for the third one, but very much so on the first two.) I thought that faith and works were completely different things. Why would Paul put them together like this? That’s what the church teaches. The church teaches that the only thing that is acceptable to God are those things that are done in faith. How are we to balance this idea that we have a “work” of faith?
It really isn’t very complicated. It can be said this plainly: Your faith in God is going to change the work you do. Saving faith has always, always had an impact on a believer’s life. The person who believes that they can be saved and not change anything about their life is fooling no one, least of all God. If you are saved, your life will colored by the works of art you do for God. And those are not your Masterpieces, but your pieces for the Master.
Paul’s comment here is about the actions that their faith had driven them to do. True faith is a driving and changing force. Faith wants us to do more, at the same time with the understanding that we are no longer trying to earn something we already own, we are working to complete the things God planned for us to do since the beginning of time. We don’t have to earn our salvation because we already have it. These works of faith have no role in our redemption since the work of redemption is completely God’s work. People who try to be good enough to get into heaven are people who are trying to do God’s work, and none of us are equipped to do God’s work. No matter how much the pot wants to be potter, it isn’t. You and me, we are pots and He is the potter. We were never expected to earn our salvation but we are expected to live our faith out in practical ways and through our relationships. Faith is by nature turned and toned toward obedience. So, good works are inevitable, showing the presence of salvation. Faith always manifests itself in a measure of obedience.
For the church in Thessalonica, there were several ways they showed their work of faith, their support for other believers. One was the way they embraced the teachings of the apostles. They became imitators of their spiritual leaders, Paul and Timothy. They recognized the things that were of value and they replicated the godly behavior they saw in Paul in their own lives. See how faith is going to change your world? You are going to see things in yourself that need to be brought under God’s control and you are going to see things that you should not be doing. And you are going to find things that should be done. You are going to find both sides, where you need to get rid of the old and put on the new.
Not sure if you realized this, but the church in Thessalonica lived in a city that was known as the capital of their region, the Washington DC of their time. But even though the climate was not friendly to Christianity, the believers of this church were receptive of God’s word. To show you how close this was to our own modern day political situation, Paul and Timothy had to run for their lives from this city. They had to literally escape out a back window when they were preaching in this town. And even after they had run for their lives and began to preach in another town, Paul and Timothy were pursued by the non-believing citizens of Thessalonica. Does that sound like our own capital, not only do they want to crush out God’s witness in Washington DC, but they want to make rules to chase Him out of every school and city. It is as though our own capital would like to shut us up, they want to stop us from talking about God and God’s values? That was exactly what Paul and Timothy experienced and the church of Thessalonica helped them escape with their lives. In that hostile city, the support of the church was like a light on the hill. In that darkness, they made a difference for the believers. This was their work of faith because they weren’t satisfied to go along with the crowd, they were determined to serve God.
Another way this church showed their work of faith was that they welcomed the Gospel message even though it was at a huge cost to them, they followed. They themselves were confronted with tribulation but refused to back down or give up because they knew (like we should remember) that their citizenship was not in that city. They were foreigners in their own home town. They were ostracized from all the normal groups but they didn’t consider changing back just because it was not popular to be a Christian. If you know Christ as your Savior, you know the truth of the Hymn – “This earth is not my home, I’m just passing through”. There are times it is not popular to stand for God but you have your sights set on a higher reward than being liked by people who hate God. Matthew 10:32 reminds us: “Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven.”
The next thing Paul highlights is that the church was known to him for their labor of love. Labor of love – interesting phrase. There are many things we do out of love but it still remains a labor. We are willing to do things but that doesn’t make it easy. Getting up with little children in the middle of the night, you tell me Moms, do you get up in the middle of the night? Of course, and you do that out of your love for the child but does it remain a labor? Of course it does. In fact, this word for labor means difficult, wearying to the point of exhaustion, [that certainly sounds like my daughter and her youngest son] sweating it through to the end. Raising a baby is like that. It is a labor. But why is it you continue to do it? You do it because you love the one you labor for. You are willing to do something you wouldn’t normally choose to do, to spend time you would have counted your own, and these things are done out of love.
Let me say, if you need an example of love, show up on Monday night and watch those who work in the kitchen for the people who come for dinner on Monday nights. Every Monday, with very few exceptions, people go get food, pile up food, defrost food, make a plan to cook food, gather early to prepare the food, come to serve the food, and gather to clean up after those who eat – all out of love. All out of love, there is no other way to explain it. Love is what brings people out when they would rather watch the football game or just stay home and put their feet up. If you love the Lord, you are going to love people. You can’t have only one part of this kind of a “labor of love”. You won’t be able to labor of love if you don’t first love God. This kind of love is in the DNA of every believer. There are some who fight it but there is no joy in resisting the God who made you to love. Of course there are some people who aren’t as comfortable in public situations as others. That is true because God didn’t employ cookie cutters when He is making humans, but every believer has God driven love in their heart for the brethren.
The final thing that Paul points out here is this: There is a steadfastness of hope. Another version uses perseverance of hope. This is not the hope we have every year at the beginning of the baseball season that maybe this year, the Mariners will be in the playoffs. That is a hope that gets crushed, that comes and goes as the wins or loses pile up. This is a hope that doesn’t fluctuate from one end of the spectrum to another, but is firmly fixed on the promises of God, and not just any promise that we desire but the promises that are in Scripture. God promised He is coming back to earth. God promised that we would reign with Him. God promised that we will join Jesus in His inheritance. God promised He would wipe away every tear. These are big promises, and what good does it do us to have hope on Sunday and Monday if we live without hope on Tuesday through Friday? An unshakeable hope. An unflappable hope. A hope that no matter how stupid or wrong someone else acts or behaves, we remain confident in our hope in God. A hope that no matter what happens in life, God’s promise is true and absolutely right. And it is that hope that gives us the strength to live for something different, for a reward not yet seen. People will tell you that most sin comes from selfishness, and I believe that is true. But I would add that there are times when acts of sin are a results of a loss of hope, a sense of despair. We lose hope and so we seek rewards that are not from God or not in God’s timing. If you have a steadfast hope, you will be willing to wait for God’s rewards and for God’s timing for all things. We all believe God spoke truth through the writer of Hebrews when He inspired the words – he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him. (Hebrews 11:6) Everyone who believes in Christ has this hope, but not all have a perseverance of hope. This church in Thessalonica did, and many of you do too.
It’s seems like almost every day we hear people saying,
“You can be saved and have a faith that doesn’t work;
you can be saved and have a love that doesn’t labor; and
you can be saved and have a hope that doesn’t persevere.”
That is an effort by others to nullify the gospel that changes people. It is not true. Paul has notes these things so that you can have assurance of God’s choice of you, so that you can live in the assurance that you are a Christian because these things are in your life. If they are not there, what reason do I or anyone else have to assume that God has truly come into your life? The faith God gives – works. The love God gives – labors. And the hope God gives – perseveres. Of course, if you’ve got some other kind faith, a faith that you generated on your own, it isn’t going to work. And if you’ve got some other kind of love, a love that you tried to muster up on your own, it isn’t going to labor for very long. And if you’ve got some other kind of hope, some hope in something not biblical and not based on the teaching of the Creator, a hope that you found in some empty philosophy book or a hope that you’ve designed, it isn’t going to persevere. But the kind of hope that God gives give you will persevere. That’s basic to your understanding of salvation. A true hope can’t be killed, it overcomes everything.
So there you have it, three things we can value. Our work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. When these three things are present, you get another bonus from them. Then you will know, brethren beloved by God, His choice of you. This is the following verse. Living the Christian life full of faith, love and hope will give you the assurance that you are God’s. Note very carefully, it doesn’t save you but it permits you to live in the joy of your salvation as God intended you to live. If you are faking it, if you are trying to do all these things in your own strength, then the only solution for that is to get honest with God about the state of your heart.