1 Thessalonians 1:2-5: Faith's Work

2 We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, 3 remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. 4 For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, 5 because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction.

Target Date: Sunday, 12 December 2021

Word Study/ Translation Notes:

2 - Thanks – eucharistomen – the Greek word where we get the term “Eucharist” for the Lord’s Supper – an expression of thanksgiving to God.

2 - Constantly – unceasingly, without stopping.

3 – remembering before – more the meaning that they were recalling the faithfulness of the Thessalonian church rather than they were remembering them in their prayers.

The word before means “in the presence of”.

3 – work of faith – ergou – common word for work, esp. in James 2. This phrase is in the genitive (possessive) case or ablative (source, proceeding from) case, as both are indicated in the suffix change of on to ou. In either case, the phrase could easily be translated “faith’s work” or “work produced by faith”, implying either the possessive or the ablative idea as both would be consistent with Scripture.

Both work and faith are SINGULAR, indicating a singular work of their common faith, since the “your” is plural.

The word “your” is likewise genitive or ablative, the faith possessed by them that produces work originating with their faith.

Thoughts on the Passage:

Faith is based on the assurance that God has acted for his people’s salvation in Christ; love is the present (and continuing) relationship between God and his people through Christ; hope is bound up with the conviction that “he who has begun a good work” in them “will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Phil 1:6).

3 – remembering – these were no idle words

3 – your work of faith – “faith’s work”

Their faith was in God. The work of their faith was the outpouring through His Spirit through them.

For their faith’s work, as with the other two great graces, the evidence of the grace is not hideable – cannot be hidden.

Because this work proceeded from faith, it was compelling to these works:

Faith is NEVER portrayed in Scripture as a mere passive belief.

It produces extraordinary works that proceed from faith in God.

Love (agape) is NEVER portrayed in Scripture as a mere emotional affection.

In this passage, we see that there is great labor in love – extraordinary labor. It is toilsome.

Hope is NEVER portrayed in Scripture as mere wishful thinking or anything less than CERTAIN.

The hope that is mentioned is a hope that stands in spite of everything to the contrary, in spite of all opposition and persecution.

There is a climax here; faith manifests itself by its works—its active exertion; love by its toils—its works of self-denial; and hope by its patience—its endurance amid trials and discouragements. “Remembering, the apostle would say, your faith, hope, and love: a faith that had its outward effect on your lives; a love that spent itself in the service of others; and a hope that was no mere transient feeling, but was content to wait for the things unseen, when Christ should be revealed” (Jowett).

That, says Lightfoot on the passage, is the natural order. “Faith rests on the past; love works in the present; hope looks to the future.”

Faith’s work, fundamentally, is to move our hearts to a greater likeness of our hearts as they were originally-created, i.e. before the Fall.

Faith’s work will bring us to a greater dependence and reliance on the word of God for our direction.

It will bring us to trust less on ourselves as we live a faithful life.

It calls us to “lean not on our own understanding”

Work that proceeds from faith has the following characteristics:

Generous – How generous may a man be when he trusts in God to supply all his needs? There is no call or reason to hold back anything, but to dispense freely, as he has received freely.

Unselfish – Not meaning the same thing in the negative that we said of generosity in the positive. Unselfishness is doing things proceeding from faith that expect no recompense or repayment in this world, but look to God who sees our good works done in secret.

Humble – related to unselfishness in that no gain is expected from man in this work of faith.

Abraham to the king of Sodom – I will not have you say you have enriched me.

Unstoppable – good work that explodes from a true faith in God through Jesus Christ will not be dissuaded by any person. This is not a holy obnoxiousness, but a meek and irresistible commitment to the work of God in the world around us.

God-glorifying – when we perform work proceeding from true faith, we will not allow the enemy to cheapen that work by heaping adulation for our “goodness”. God did not set these good works before us to make us into “feel-good” stories, but to glorify Him and spread His gospel.

Extravagant – in understanding the opposition and costs (which we have counted), works of faith will often make decisions that are opposite to the rational and reasonable choices the world would make. The surpassing value of serving the one God causes other valuable things to lose much of their luster. When your treasure is heavenly, earthly things begin to resemble refuse.

Extra-ordinary – not in the “miraculous” sense, but in the sense that there are some things we do BECAUSE we are believers – attend church, pray, read the Bible. In most every case, these are NOT works of faith, but ordinary, common, necessary works for our growth and sanctification.

Faith’s work goes beyond simply appearing on the occasional Sunday – it is work outside the common activities that we do BECAUSE the faith we have in Christ compels us to do.

Patient – When a man is trusting in God for the works and the results, there is no need to force the results or press for what we consider to be the right outcome.

We must be earnest and not allow, where we can stop it, the enemy to pluck away the planted seed. But as workers in God’s field, there is often great patience that must be endured between the sowing and the harvest.

A word of warning: these characteristics could be said of sinful things we do in the name of Jesus Christ.

Many are the false teachers who have called people to extra-ordinary devotion, or to give unselfishly to line their pockets.

Many are those who would twist the word of God into a cultural revolution or political movement with many of these characteristics.

But the final mark of faith’s work is the unwavering commitment to the gospel of grace and mercy through Jesus Christ alone.

We live in the time of grace, not the time of judgment.

Surely enough, there will come a day when the God of the universe, the offended Creator of all things, will judge all people on the basis of His holy standard, and all men will be found lacking if they are apart from Jesus Christ.

But the gospel is NOT that people should obey God better; the gospel is that they must cling to the Lord Jesus Christ who provides the only hope to stand in the last day.

Seek first the kingdom of God and HIS righteousness, and all these other things will come to you.

Because it is very easy to see this “work of faith” as a path to salvation, but they are not.

Faith’s work is the EVIDENCE of salvation.

Show me your faith without works, and I will show you my faith BY my works.

We are not told what their “faith’s work” had been, but it would have been (likely) a body of work pouring from the same source that could have come from nowhere but their faith.

Not an otiose assent; but a realizing, working faith; not “in word only,” but in one continuous chain of “work” (singular, not plural, works), 1 Th 1:5–10; Jam 2:22. So “the work of faith” in 2 Th 1:11 implies its perfect development (compare Jam 1:4).

It is not the work produced by faith that saves you:

For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. – Ephesians 2:8-9

But it is that faith’s fruit IS good works:

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. – Ephesians 2:10

True faith changes you:

Removing self-righteousness in favor of the righteousness of Christ.

Removing sin in favor of obedience.

YOUR is plural, while the work of faith is singular. There is an inherent unity in this state, even in the midst of withering persecution.

They were not merely “like-minded”; they were of the SAME mind. Striving for the SAME work through the SAME FAITH in the SAME GOD.

Just like the Thessalonians, the gospel of Jesus Christ calls us to be mature believers in the work of God.

Called to spirituality in an age of sentimentality.

Called to faithfulness among a faithless people.

Sermon Text:

We look again this week at this opening greeting by Paul, Timothy, and Silas to the church at Thessalonica.

And this week I would like you to put your attention entirely on the phrase we find in verse 3 – your work of faith.

Many of you will remember that this is one of the three evidences of salvation that Paul and the others expressed thanks to God about.

The others, which I plan to consider in detail if the Lord is willing, are their labor of love and steadfastness of hope in Jesus Christ.

I would urge you not to become impatient to move beyond this opening section of the epistle.

Indeed, even when we are simply reading Scripture, we should strive to give full attention even to these parts, like the greetings, that we might be tempted to skip past.

Because, as I tried to emphasize last week, these items of thanksgiving to God, these evidences of salvation, are of great importance in understanding the rest of the letter.

These great themes of faith, love, and hope are so imbedded into Paul’s heart that he will mention them over and over again.

Another aspect I would have us all consider is that this great book we call the Bible is, in itself, a summary of centuries of God’s revelation of Himself to man.

And on a smaller scale, the epistles we have from Paul are likewise summaries of months or years of teaching he conducted in person.

So when we read of the work of faith, labor of love, and steadfastness of hope in Jesus Christ, we must begin with the assumption that these words were intended to immediately bring whole sermons and lessons back to the Thessalonians’ memories by the simple use of the term.

Because of that, it is crucial for us to discover the full meaning of these terms before we can declare we have understood the teaching.

We have no reason to think that this is the first time the Thessalonian church had heard these phrases.

They were at the heart of Paul’s and the church’s teaching for those who had become disciples of the risen Lord Jesus Christ.

And their presence here at the beginning of the letter and throughout the content of this letter lead us to the conclusion that this letter served to reinforce the teaching the church had already received from this team.

Paul is, in effect, picking up where they were forced to leave off when they were expelled from Thessalonica and Berea.

And it all begins with faith.

The first, the foundational, evidence that someone is in Christ is their FAITH in the Lord Jesus Christ.

if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; 10 for with the heart a person believes [same word as faith], resulting in righteousness - Romans 10:9-10

For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God - Ephesians 2:8

Faith is more than belief, even more than trust, although that word “trust” may be the best English word of definition we have other than the word “faith” itself.

Faith is un-hedging identification with Jesus Christ, knowing that we shall not be put to shame.

An identification with Jesus Christ so foundational that it defines who we are.

Faith is trust in God so complete that it drives every other decision we make.

Belief is not faith if it doesn’t change us in the direction of being more like Jesus Christ.

In short, faith in Jesus Christ is an active thing, trusting what the Holy Spirit is doing in us,

not a passive belief or confidence in the idea of Jesus as a great teacher, worthy example, or probable Son of God.

Many have acknowledged some of Jesus’s teachings, as they interpreted them, to be worthy of following,

But then have refused to bend their knee and put their trust, their FAITH, in Jesus Christ.

That is why Paul doesn’t talk about the FAITH of the Thessalonian church, but the WORK OF FAITH in the Thessalonian church.

How can we possibly know if we have faith in Jesus Christ unless that faith changes us?

Put another way:

For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead. – James 2:26

How can faith be known apart from the work it does, even to our own heart?

Can you really trust yourself to BELIEVE in something if, in your heart, you do not trust it enough for it to change you?

Can you really say you believe in God if that faith does not change you in a deep-down, to-the-core way?

The phrase Paul uses in our passage today – your work of faith – is really very interesting.

Without getting too far into linguistics, I would show you there are two ways you can take this phrase:

You can see it as possessive – your work that belongs to faith.

Or you can see it as indicating the source – your work that begins in and proceeds from faith.

But even in our modern English language, these two senses are normally combined in our speech.

By the time of the New Testament, this was also the case in the Greek language.

So another way we can put this “work of faith” would be entirely correct in both languages: faith’s work.

For our understanding, it doesn’t make any difference whether the work BELONGS to faith or PROCEEDS from it.

The point is that the work being done here is combined exclusively with faith in Jesus Christ.

There is no other source of this work, and there is no other loyalty that may claim it.

So when Paul saw the work of the Thessalonian church, and when he heard reports of the work of their faith, he could declare to them:

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. – 1 Thessalonians 1:8

But it is important for us to ask “What is faith’s work?”

Because there are other works that are useless toward God – such as the works of the Law:

knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified. - Galatians 2:16

So how are we to recognize faith’s work coming from us?

I offer you several characteristics, in no particular order, of faith’s work in us:

1. Faith’s work will be generous.

When a person in faith relies on God to supply all his needs, he can be generous in the work of the gospel.

When Jesus sent His disciples out on their first gospel journey without His direct presence, He told them:

Freely you received, freely give. – Matthew 10:8

This instruction wasn’t given to them to tell them to be generous with their money, although they certainly should have been;

The generosity Jesus was commanding in His disciples was to share freely their lives and their gifts with those they met.

It is often too easy to write a check when what we really should be generous with is our lives.

Our faith’s work will pay any price and endure any inconvenience to accomplish God’s purpose.

2. Faith’s work will be unselfish.

This is not the same as generosity, because, if you think about it, there are some who are quite generous and quite selfish.

For example, a person who gives a great deal of money or labor to charity so that he will gain fame or other value back from it.

This time of year, charities are making loud pleas to be noticed by those who would support them because they need a tax deduction.

Please understand, it is a fine thing to support good charities who are doing good work for people,

But if there is an expectation of repayment or benefit, it is NOT faith’s work.

Jesus taught this in Luke 14:12-14:

“When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, otherwise they may also invite you in return and that will be your repayment. 13 But when you give a reception, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, 14 and you will be blessed, since they do not have the means to repay you; for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

This teaching is not about dinner-party-etiquette;

It is another example of the unselfishness of faith’s work,

To live without expecting compensation for every good deed.

The work of faith does the good thing solely because it is right.

Not even letting one hand know what the other is doing, as our Lord says in Matthew 6.

So when we do the good works that God has prepared for us to do, the work of faith will not seek its own glory.

3. Faith’s work is humble.

Humility can be seen as the continued insurance against selfishness.

Because even if we begin faith’s work in secret, the good works we do cannot be hidden.

Like a beacon shining in front of people, when they notice the good things we do, faith will bring them to glorify God.

Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven. – Matthew 5:16

Faith’s work in us will never allow ourselves to be celebrated, even if we are certain we did not do the good thing to gain esteem for ourself.

After his nephew, Lot, was captured from the city of Sodom (before it was destroyed), Abram took his own men to recover Lot, defeating the kings and their army and taking great spoil.

When he returned home, the king of Sodom came out to Abram and offered him all the spoils from the battle.

Abram, who you may recall had given a tithe of the spoils to the priest Melchizedek, told the king of Sodom:

“I have sworn to the Lord God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth, 23 that I will not take a thread or a sandal thong or anything that is yours, for fear you would say, ‘I have made Abram rich.’ – Genesis 14:22-23

The humility of faith’s work will be content without recognition or compensation from anyone but God.

And that humility will ALWAYS seek to glorify God and not ourself.

To do otherwise would be to cheapen the good work.

4. Faith’s work is unstoppable.

I mean by this that no amount or quality of opposition will stop the work of faith.

Toward the end of Romans 8, Paul makes a daunting list of those things we might encounter as obstacles in our obedience to God, things that some might fear would hinder our fellowship with God.

But he sums up the truth:

But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. – Romans 8:37

Now we do always need to be careful when we see militant words like “conquer” to make sure we are not fighting that battle as the Gentiles do, as the pagans do.

For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, 4 for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh - 2 Corinthians 10:3-4

Faith’s work will be meekly relentless, not holy obnoxiousness.

It will, through the Spirit, work through irresistible love and commitment.

This can be foreign to those who allow the least obstacle stand in the way of the simplest obedience to Christ.

But, then, the work of faith is found in those who are every day seeking to be more like Jesus Christ.

5. Faith’s work will be extravagant.

In Luke 14, beginning in verse 28, Jesus teaches us to understand the cost of following Him.

In saying that faith’s work is extravagant, it doesn’t mean that we are unaware of the costs of the work of faith;

It is that the costs are WORTH IT, based on the faith we have.

It means that the surpassing value of the love of God makes everything else look cheap and dirty.

It means that the treasures of heaven mean more to us than the treasures of this world.

The value choices made in our faith will rarely match those choices the world around us would make.

The things we value will not, should not, be the same as the things the idolaters around us value.

And the work of our faith will give huge portions of this world’s things for the sake of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

6. Faith’s work will be extra-ordinary.

Not extraordinary in any miraculous sense, but in the sense that there are ordinary, minimal things we do because we are believers:

Attend church, pray, give, read the Bible…

In most every case, these are not works growing out of a great faith;

They are instead works that seek to grow our faith and obedience.

Faith’s work will move beyond these elementary things, beyond these common things.

Faith’s work will make extraordinary demands on us,

Following the call of God to preach the gospel outside our comfort zone, for example.

And in our faith’s work, we will obey the good and right call of God upon our hearts in spite of the difficulty or our fears.

7. Faith’s work will be patient.

When a person is trusting God for the works and the results, there is no need to press, argue, or force the results.

Certainly, we must declare the gospel with all earnestness and not allow, where we can stop it, the enemy to pluck away the planted seed.

But as workers in God’s field, there is often great patience required between the sowing and the harvesting.

Our flesh will seek results now.

Our flesh will be pragmatic.

The work of faith will continue with all earnestness to do the good work, and will wait on God to cause the growth.

For the weaker brother, we will bear with him gently and lovingly, tenderly bringing him along to maturity.

For the unconverted, rather than pushing them away because they try our patience or goodwill, we will continue to give without begrudging them the resources or time.

One final word of warning: any of these characteristics could also be applied to sinful things we do in the name of Jesus Christ, and not be proceeding from faith at all.

Many are the false teachers who have called people to extra-ordinary devotion or unselfish giving simply to line their pockets.

Many are those who would twist the word of God into a cultural revolution or political movement, describing themselves as unstoppable or unselfish.

But the final mark of faith’s work is the unwavering commitment to the gospel of grace and mercy through Jesus Christ alone.

We live in this world in the time of grace, not the time of judgment.

There will surely come a day when the great God, the offended Creator of all things, will judge every person on the basis of His holy standard.

And on that day, ALL people will be found lacking if they are apart from Jesus Christ.

But the gospel is NOT that people should obey God better;

That they should do more good things.

The gospel is that they must cling to Jesus Christ alone, who alone provides their hope to stand on the last day.

Because there are many who would declare that these works of faith are the path to salvation, but they are not.

by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight - Romans 3:20

The work of faith is the evidence of salvation, not the cause of it.

The work proceeds from the faith that the Spirit has given.

Obedience and all the rest, when found in a believer, flow from a fully-accomplished conversion through faith in Jesus Christ.