1 Thessalonians 1:2-3 (ESV)
We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul is writing to the church in Thessalonica. He wanted to know how they were doing after he visited them and preach the gospel to them on his second missionary journey. While there, he was run out of town by the Jews, because he dared to preach the gospel to the Gentiles. He would send Timothy back there to see how they were doing. He was hyper concerned that the Jews may have hindered his work among them. As seen in the above passage, this was not true. Timothy had returned to report great things about them:
1 Thessalonians 3:6 (ESV)
But now that Timothy has come to us from you, and has brought us the good news of your faith and love and reported that you always remember us kindly and long to see us, as we long to see you—
It is interesting that Paul commends them as believers who excel in faith, love and hope. These three would become the claim of Christian faith (1 Corinthians 13:13). Paul was not looking to see how they were dressed. He was not looking for signs that they sang the right songs in their worship. He was not looking to find out if they stayed separate in their actions (as important as all those might be). No, Paul characterized their great walk with God as having a work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. It might do us all well to evaluate our fellow believers with these three standards. We tend to all cast judgment on others. Let us, if we must, judge our fellow believers with these three guardrails. This what the Christian life is like. This is what it is supposed to be; designed to be. Work out your faith, labor in love and hold on steadfastly to the hope we have in Christ. If we do, we will fulfill what God intended for us by sending His Son to die for us.
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