An excellent Friday morning to you, my friend! Let us thank Our Lord Jesus for His grace towards us during this past week.
Read II Thessalonians 1:1 – 12.
This is Paul’s second letter to the early church at Thessalonica, a church that he established during his second missionary journey. Interestingly, according to the account in Acts 17, Paul was only able to minister the Gospel for a short time in Thessalonica before he and Silas were sent away from the city because of trouble stirred up by unbelieving Jews and “evil men from the marketplace”. So, Paul is writing to a church that continued to grow after his brief ministry and hasty departure; but also continued to be persecuted by those who did not believe. And today’s reading reflects that Paul is writing to encourage a group of Believers that has been facing trials and persecution.
As you reflect upon today’s passage, pay attention to the following:
In vv 3, Paul uses the term “we are bound to thank God”. What a great proclamation! The life of a Believer should be a life filled with thankfulness to God, so much so that we feel that we are “bound” to thank Him. Psalm 100 puts it this way: “Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.” Yes, we thank You, LORD, always and forever! Amen!
There are 2 more phrases in vv 3 that are worthy of consideration: Paul, speaking of the persecuted Thessalonian church, says “your faith grows exceedingly”. Not just that their faith is growing, but it is growing exceedingly. It is as if the entire group echoed the simple request the apostles made of Jesus in Luke 17 “Increase our faith.”. I wonder what would happen in both our churches and our world if every Believer, when faced with trials and persecution, would just utter the words of the disciples and say to the Lord “Increase our faith.”?
Next, Paul commends the church because “the love of every one of you all abounds toward each other”. Again, Paul uses a superlative to describe the love that exists among these Believers – their love for each other “abounds”. The Word is filled with commandments for us to love others, and we know that Our Lord Jesus instructed us to love one another. And Jesus Himself warned us that in the last days, love would diminish (Matthew 24): “And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.”. But it appears that Paul is writing to a group that truly “gets it”; that is, they are embracing the commandment to love, they are genuinely walking in love, and love abounds. My brothers, we are living in a time that we also should be actively pursuing love. And because love is commanded, it is something that we can choose to do – we can actually make a decision to love each other. The apostle Peter says this about love in the Body of Christ: “And above all things have fervent love for one another, for “love will cover a multitude of sins.”” (I Peter 4:8). Again, I wonder what would happen in our churches and in our world if we, as Believers, abounded in love?
In just these opening few verses of our scripture, we have covered thanks; and faith; and love. The LORD willing, we will look at the rest of this passage next Tuesday (Monday is a holiday).
Through the long weekend, my brother, I pray that thanks to God will be continually on our lips; that our faith will be increased; and that our love will abound, all in the Precious and Powerful Name of Lord Jesus! Amen!