NEVER THE SAME

Sometimes you can just never be the same again. There is no going back. Everything is different. That is what happened when the Gospel was preached in ancient Thessalonica. Nothing was ever the same for those who received it. Nothing was ever the same who lived in Gospel expectation.

Paul’s letter to the Thessalonian Christians began with his thankfulness. It’s really a beautiful word. Our English “We give thanks” just simply isn’t quite as incredible as the original “Εὐχαριστοῦμεν.” The word is full of goodness, grace, responsibility, and gratefulness. This is the way Paul felt about the Thessalonians. He looked at their new lives in Christ and poured out his joyful praise to God as was only right for him to do. But what would lead to such a joyful responsibility? What had Paul seen in the Thessalonians? How had they changed?

The change was unmistakable because of their “faith, hope, and love.” This “trinity of Christian virtues” encapsulates the Christian life.[1] This outward display of Christian virtue manifested the spiritual reality of salvation in the lives of these Thessalonian believers. These Christian virtues were real and visible signs of salvation in the believers. They could have confidence in their salvation because of the change that was wrought in them. They had the confidence to look up to God because he had changed them and given them new lives. They could look up because of their “work of faith, labor of love, and steadfastness of hope.”

Work of Faith

It was common for the ancient Greeks, and some of us today, to love idleness. To be involved with physical labor was a sign of the lower classes—to be a servant. But it is for this “work” that Paul praised the Thessalonians before God. But what does “work of faith” mean? The relationship of faith and works has been a source of much heated debate. Wanamaker offered a particularly good summary of the proper relationship of faith and works.

Our text clearly indicates that Paul did not conceive of Christian faith as radically opposed to works. For him Christian activity proceeds from faith, and thus he would probably have endorsed the views of . Paul does not specify what the “work of faith” consisted in here, but his readers probably would have understood it in terms of the totality of their new Christian life-style that distinguished them from the pagans around them and from their own past.[2]

The “work of faith” was not a work to earn salvation. The “work of faith” is the natural result or effect of true faith. Faith demands action. This relationship of faith and action would have been familiar to the Thessalonians. “The Roman and Greek understanding of fides/pistis(faith) can help clarify the close association between faith and works in these verses. In the relationship between patrons and clients, the client was said to be in the fides/pistis of the patron, for their part clients owed fides/pistis or loyalty to their patron, and this was shown in their actions.”[3] Leon Morris wrote, “When Paul is emphasizing that salvation comes from faith and not at all from works, he can set faith and works in sharp contrast; thus we are ‘justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no-one will be justified’ (). But while Paul insists that salvation is all of God, he also insists that faith is busy. Elsewhere he speaks of ‘faith working through love’ (, rsv), and here of faith leading to work.”[4]

The CSB translated this phrase, “work produced by faith.” This is what had happened in Thessalonica. The people heard the word of God preached. This preached word produced faith in the hearts of some just as Paul said, “faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ” (). That faith is immediately accompanied by works. No one is justified by works (; ), but faith includes works (; Js. 2:14-26). Faith and works are differentiated, but the two are never truly separated. Paul "received grace and apostleship" so that he could endeavor to "bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations" (). This work to bring about the "obedience of faith" was "according to the command of the eternal God" ().

When John preached, he told the people to “bear fruit in keeping with repentance.” We would do just as well to preach bear fruit in keeping with faith. Those who believe obey. Faith and works are not necessarily opposed to one another. Many attempt to be justified by works. Israel failed in this pursuit as well. says, “Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness did not succeed in reaching that law. Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone.” In the opposite extreme position, we see those who only believe and do not acknowledge the necessity of obedience. Paul preached the necessity of obedience (; ). James is best known for his presentation of the works which necessarily follow faith. James wrote, “You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone…. For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead’ (Js. 2:24-26).

Does your faith work? Faith and obedience go together. They cannot be separated. God decided that those who believe would be saved through the preaching of the Gospel (). When the Gospel was preached, people responded in faith by being baptized (, ; ; ). Just as repentance is part of faith, baptism is part of faith. Is there a competition between the act of baptism and faith? No. baptism is part of the faith (; ; ) . In , Paul praised the Thessalonian Christians for their “work of faith.” Faith demands action (). This is manifested in the way the word “faithful” is used. , for example says the wives of elders must be “faithful in all things.” In other words, their lives must correspond to their beliefs. They are faithful because of their faith. They would not be faithful without believing the truth.

Faith demands faithful work. is a great exposition faith’s relationship to salvation, but it ends with an exhortation to work. Paul wrote, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (). Salvation by faith demands the work of faith.

Labor of Love

The Thessalonians work of faith was accompanied with their “labor of love.” Some things can only be described as a labor of love. The phrase “labor of love” is generally used to describe some hard and tedious work that is largely unrewarded. The Thessalonians work was hard, but it comes with a great reward.

The word “labor” (κόπου) is defined as “to engage in activity that is burdensome.”[5] Paul described his own work as “in toil (κόπῳ) and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure” (). The Thessalonians remembered Paul’s “labor and toil” as they “worked night and day” ().

The CSB helps us to see the motivation of such work as they translate the phrase, “your labor motivated by love.” God’s love is why we work. says, “we love because he first loved us.” Just as the nature of God is the reason for all creation, the love God has for us moves us to act in his service for his glory. “God’s unconditional love poured out in our heart is the unique force impelling us to love him () and others and to express such love concretely (). Genuine faith and love produce works, without which people cannot say they have authentic faith and love.”[6]

The love of God in us is always going to be manifested in real and visible ways. When Paul wrote his second letter to the Thessalonians, he began again by praising their increasing love for one another (). John described the very real and very visible manifestation of God’s love which is to be reflected in the lives of Christians when he wrote, “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us” (). Just as creation continues at the word of Christ, this visible and increasing love for God and for brethren must be our continual pursuit.

Steadfastness of Hope

The final of these cardinal Christian virtues Paul mentioned was their “steadfastness of hope” (ESV) or “endurance inspired by hope” (). Christians are motivated by the future promised by God and guaranteed by Christ himself. “Endurance refers to a faith that persists even through trials because of the end-time hope in Christ’s coming and related events.”[7] This Christian hope moved Paul and Barnabas to risk their lives for the name of the Lord Jesus Christ ().

Paul proclaimed that Christian hope in when he proclaimed that “the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (). That assurance of the “glory to be revealed” is the hope in which we are saved (). But at the present time it is still hope or expectation. It is not our current experience. “For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience” ().

The message Paul taught the Romans is the same message he would have taught the Thessalonians and us too. Christians have the firm expectation of glory with Christ because of Christ. Paul reminded the Corinthians of why we can be confident of Christ’s resurrection and then said, “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me” (). We should continue to work in hope because “in fact Christ has been raised from the dead” (). Paul modeled that “endurance inspired by hope.” He wrote, “Otherwise, what do people mean by being baptized on behalf of the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized on their behalf? Why are we in danger every hour?....I die every day! What do I gain, if humanly speaking, I fought with beasts at Ephesus? If the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die” (). Why did Paul serve so vigorously? Why did he have such a great hope? It was because of Christ. It was because of the certainty of our resurrection based on the certainty of Christ’s resurrection.

Christians, we must follow that pattern of steadfast hope modeled by Paul (). Paul commanded Timothy “But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness” (). Jesus said, “Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life” (). teaches that “we are his house, if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope” (). describes the reward of the faithful martyrs. John wrote, “they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.”

This expectation governs the entirety of our existence. All our investments are to be heavenly investments. All our relationships are to be sacred relationships. Jesus said, “Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him” (). Christians are steadfast in their hope in Christ. Nothing in this world is worth shaking that hope. Nothing in this world is even remotely close to the value of the Christian’s heavenly expectation.

Never Going Back

There is no going back for the Christian. Their life is now filled with and shaped by faith, love, and expectation. This is the life for which Paul was thankful. This is the life for which we will be thankful if we choose it. This is the life God will reward.

Why not then be filled with faith, love, and hope? Isnt’ that the life you want? It is the life God wants for you. Look up to Jesus and see what could be.

[1] Gene L. Green, The Letters to the Thessalonians, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Leicester, England: W.B. Eerdmans Pub.; Apollos, 2002), 89.

[2] Wanamaker wrote, “Your work of faith” (ὑμῶν τοῦ ἔργου τῆς πίστεως) is of particular interest in the context of Pauline theology. The radical disjunction that Martin Luther claimed to have found in Paul’s writings between faith and human striving (work) and that led him to reject the letter of James as a “strawy epistle” needs careful qualification. In Galatians where Paul attacks “works” most vigorously and contrasts them with “faith,” he has a particular type of “works” in mind. He condemns those works proceeding from the Jewish Torah and what E. P. Sanders (Paul and Palestinian Judaism) calls “covenantal nomism” (cf. .; 3:2–5). His attack on “works of the law” in Galatians was a theological polemic designed to distinguish the new religion to which he belonged from the mother religion from which it and he had come (though obviously Paul would not have articulated it this way). The loss of the original context of the debate, especially since the Reformation, has led to a fundamental misunderstanding of Paul and Pauline theology (see Wanamaker, “Case”).” Charles A. Wanamaker, The Epistles to the Thessalonians: A Commentary on the Greek Text, New International Greek Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans, 1990), 75.

[3] Gene L. Green, The Letters to the Thessalonians, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Leicester, England: W.B. Eerdmans Pub.; Apollos, 2002), 89.

[4] Leon Morris, 1 and 2 Thessalonians: An Introduction and Commentary, vol. 13, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1984), 43.

[5] William Arndt et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 558.

[6] G. K. Beale, 1–2 Thessalonians, The IVP New Testament Commentary Series (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2003), 47.

[7] G. K. Beale, 1–2 Thessalonians, 47.