# 8 2019. Dev. I Th.1:2-3. Faith, Love, Hope! Read all of Ch. 1. The purpose of these devotionals is to draw Gremar and I closer to God and grow spiritually by applying His Word to our daily living. All passages are taken from the NIV.
Thessalonians 1:2-3 “We always thank God for all of you and continually mention you in our prayers. 3 We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Paul wrote to the Thessalonica church around 51 AD while on his second missionary Journey. He fled from there after a short visit because of persecution, see Acts 17:1-9. Paul wrote the early believers to give them encouragement under persecution and to give then further instructions some of it eschatological, doctrine of last things, Christ’s return.
Paul begins with greetings in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. “Grace and peace to you.” After his greeting he moves to a prayer of thanksgiving. Paul goes on: “We know that God has chosen you” by the power of the Holy Spirit and with “deep conviction for you welcomed the message in the midst of severe suffering with the joy given by the Holy Spirit.” At this time this church was “a model to all the believers” in the surrounding area. “The Lord’s message rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia—your faith in God has become known everywhere.”
O, if only that was true about churches today, what a blessing we would be in the world. Isn’t this why the Church exists; to be the body of Christ and the message of Jesus in the world today? The Thessalonica church is praised because they practiced the three values of following Jesus; faith, love and hope.
Look at Paul’s prayer: “your work produced faith”. We all must have that “deep conviction” that God sent Jesus (Jn. 3:16-18) to you personally; to save you, to save us, to save the world. Amen?
Paul goes on: “Your labor prompted by love”. We must have a deep love for one another, tolerant of leaders and members in the church, knowing the Holy Spirit is working and that Jesus is the head of the the church. Jesus’ prayer: “I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”
“Then the world will know that you (God) sent me (Jesus).” The goal is for the church to be the body of Christ; the physical presence of Jesus in the world. That means that every believer must love the unbeliever more than themselves! That is a command and is the mind of Christ, Philippians 2:3-4.
Paul goes on: “and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.”We live in the world and we are chosen to promote Jesus and his message in the world but we are not of this world. Our hope in Jesus is that we will not experience the second death (Hell, separation from God), be bodily resurrected when Christ returns and that we will live with Jesus and each other in the New Heaven and the New Earth forever more. Practice faith, love and hope!
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Heavenhigh 