A Faith that is Learned, Lived, and Longing for Christ

1 Thessalonians 1:6–10 ESV

6 And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit, 7 so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. 8 For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not say anything. 9 For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, 10 and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.

Most of what we learn in life, we learn by watching, not by being told.

Think about how you learned to talk… or work… or treat people. Someone didn’t sit you down with a lecture. You watched. You absorbed. You imitated.

And the truth is—people are still learning that way today. They’re learning from us whether we realize it or not.

That’s exactly what Paul is describing in 1 Thessalonians 1. The Thessalonians didn’t just hear the gospel—they watched it lived out. And what they saw changed everything.

Big Idea: A life that truly loves and awaits Christ’s return is marked by faithful imitation, joyful endurance, repentance, and hopeful expectation of His return.

Faith that begins by imitation grows into visible witness and endures by hopeful expectation.

I. Faith Is Learned by Watching (1:6-7)

Faith is Caught before it is Taught

They saw Paul’s lifestyle before them and knew he was genuine and truly lived for the Lord. Verse 5 clearly tells us that the Thessalonians saw what kind of men they proved to be among them.

Meaning, they lived out what they spoke. They did not just say do this and do that, but lived out what they said all should do. They were faithful and caring amongst the people.

People can tell pretty quickly when something is real.

You might fake it for a while—but life eventually exposes what you really believe.

Workplaces: people know immediately when you don’t know slang terms for items but say you have done that work.

That’s why Paul could say, you know what kind of men we proved to be among you. They didn’t just hear truth—they watched it under pressure.

People then and now all see how one lives and they will begin doing the same.

Kids watch and imitate more than they follow directions. So do many if not most adults.

The Thessalonians imitated Paul and the Lord

Because of their seeing and then learning after watching, the Thessalonians became imitators. They began to do the same things Paul did amongst them. They sought to be like him, they knew he was a faithful man. This is discipleship in action. As the old saying goes, and this ties back to what we just examined, no one cares what you know until they know how much you care. When we live lives of true Christian living amongst others, like Paul did, then those people may very well become imitators and begin living and doing as we do. This is strong reason for us to live this way in the world, at home, and in the work place. Many of us if not most of us live and act in ways we do because we watched and learned and then imitated. I know most of my horseshoeing skills came from watching a man and then asking him questions afterward. This is what Paul is saying here, they watched and learned and then went and did. But they did this even in much affliction.

Joy in affliction reveals the Spirit’s work

They had great joy even in much affliction because they had the Holy Spirit.

There’s a kind of happiness that disappears the moment things go wrong.

And then there’s a joy that shows up because things are hard.

That kind of joy doesn’t come from circumstances—it comes from the Spirit. And that’s what the Thessalonians had.

That is encouraging to me because these believers probably suffered tremendously for their faith and imitation of Paul. Affliction was part of the deal back in those times. They suffered a lot for their faith, yet they went and imitated and glorified God amongst many peoples as we see in the next verse, in verse seven we read that they became examples to believers in Macedonia and Achaia.

That means that in their imitation as well as in in our imitation that

  Faith doesn’t stay private, it becomes public

Public proclamation of our faith is part of imitating Paul as he imitates Christ. Paul went and proclaimed Jesus everywhere without holding back. He even went and did this in places where he knew he would suffer, but go he did anyway. Public faith, bold faith in face of opposition, and faith that goes even when it is hard, is receiving the word in affliction and fully imitating the one you learned it from. Even if the one you learned it from never suffered for their faith, they still shared their faith out and did not hide it away. Also, as this says about them becoming an example to other believers, you do the same. You become an example and then you are really imitating Paul even more because not only have you become bold in faith, but you are now the example for others to follow just like Paul was for the Thessalonians and untold thousands of believers today and in years gone by. The imitation circle comes full when we become examples to others. That is so because once we have learned and begin to live our faith, our…

II. Faith Becomes Visible (1:8) 1 Thessalonians 1:8 “For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not say anything.”

Have you ever noticed that you don’t have to announce something that’s obvious?

When a fire alarm goes off, no one has to explain it. When a storm rolls in, people can see it coming.

Paul says their faith echoed everywhere. He didn’t have to advertise it—it was already visible.

Lives echoed the gospel beyond their city

Macedonia and Achaia were two Roman provinces…Together, they covered almost the whole area of modern Greece and Albania, and also the southern part of Yugoslavia, which is still called Macedonia.

Simply put, the Thessalonian believers faith was an example to the whole of Greece. All Gentile people in that region knew of their faith.

What an honor and blessing to be that. We as Christ followers can live the same way so others see our faith and the whole of an area will know. Living a life of obedience and faith to the Lord will resound more than a thousand books ever could.

Living a life of faith and obedience will shout louder than any message. That life will impact more people than you can imagine.

Now that doesn’t mean we stop speaking or writing or anything, but it does mean we live lives that speak and show Christ always and that impact will be more than we will ever know.

God uses obedience to encourage others

Our behavior is what will encourage others. Living in joy in spite of circumstances encourages others.

Living with hope in spite of seemingly hopelessness encourages people.

Living a life of faithful obediencecin spite of the dangers that entails, encourages people.

Many soldiers have gone on to do seemingly impossible feats in war because their leader showed an undeterred resolve to complete the mission and led with courage, faith, hope, and seemingly fearlessness even in spite of fear.

Obedience to fulfill the orders received encouraged others. That is our lives and was the Thessalonians lives, we obey the call to be imitators so others will be encouraged and imitate.

That kind of visible faith always grows out of a changed allegiance—and Paul explains that change in verses 9 and 10.

III. Faith Rejects Idols and Waits with Hope (1:9–10)

An active faith involves repentance

Once we believe we will learn of many things we did that is against God. In our life of faith, we will spend a lot of time turning from those things to the Lord.

Some of this will be easy, some hard. Some early on, some long after salvation.

Like a couple I heard of who were living together out of wedlock. They were saved and began attending church. They heard a message that made them wonder about their living arrangement. They asked the pastor and he explained why that was sinful.

The couple made arrangements for one to live elsewhere until they were married.

This is what I am getting at. We will have things come up we never knew was sinful or wrong and then all of a sudden, boom, there it is and we have two choices: turn away from that to God in repentance or stay in it and receive discipline until we turn.

The Thessalonians d is the first.

Turning from idols is inseparable from turning to God

The Thessalonians didn’t simply add Jesus to their lives—they turned. They turned from idols to serve the living and true God.

You find out what your idols are when life falls apart.

Whatever you reach for first—that’s usually what you’ve been serving.

The Thessalonians didn’t just stop believing in idols—they turned from them to serve the living and true God.

Thessalonica was filled with pagan worship. Archaeological evidence shows dozens of gods, heroes, and personified virtues were worshiped there. And yet, if we’re honest, our culture may have even more idols—just dressed differently.

Some of us had many. Some of us may still have a few we’re learning to let go of. That’s not unusual. Sometimes we don’t even realize something is an idol until God reveals it—often through loss, hardship, or having things stripped away.

Turning from idols is inseparable from turning to God.

And true faith doesn’t just look backward in repentance—it looks forward in hope.

They waited for God’s Son from heaven—Jesus, whom God raised from the dead, who delivers us from the coming wrath. Christian hope isn’t wishful thinking; it’s anchored in a resurrected Savior who is returning.

True hope looks forward to Christ’s return and deliverance

Why does knowledge of the details of God’s coming future have healing and motivating power for us today?

Because hope lifts our hearts and minds from our present difficult circumstances.

It gives us a glimpse of a glorious future.

It helps us look upward and outward at a better life rather than drawing us downward and inward to obsess over our painful and pitiful experiences.

The more we recognize here and now the brevity and uncertainty of the present time compared to the eternal weight of glory in the future, the more our attitudes and actions in the present will be permanently affected.

Think about your time back in school. Oh man did we have problems then. Like the popular kids look at me funny. Or, maybe you were trying hard to be the popular kid.

Maybe you worried yourself sick over tests. Maybe you had petty squabbles with friends that seemed so important.

Yet, looking back now you realize that the problems that seemed so insurmountable, the squabbles with people you don’t remember, and those fears now all seem so foolish.

If you had only known then that most of those “huge problems” were foolish child’s play! The same is true when we compare our present earthly lives and the life of the world to come.

We live our lives with hope, looking forward, not despair looking backwards. We look ahead beyond what is before us. We look to Christ and spend each day living like it may be the last because it may be for us and it certainly is for another.

Live each day with this future hope as a present reality. When you do you can make it through anything and glorify God in it all.

You can do this and see e faithfully while waiting because the Lord is coming and that is all the hope we need.

Key Truth: A watching world should see a waiting people who still serve.

The world is watching—but not to be impressed.

They’re watching to see if our faith holds when life gets hard…

If it stays visible…

And if it keeps looking forward.

A watching world should see a waiting people who still serve.