AP

2 Thessalonians 1:3-4   We ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love all of you have for one another is increasing.  Therefore, among God’s churches we boast about your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and trials you are enduring. 

Paul’s observation of what was happening at Thessalonica bears out an important growth principle that should be true of all Christians.  Two things will always happen together: healthy growth in our faith and understanding; and healthy growth in our genuine love for each other.  One involves our heads, the other involves our hearts.  We are deceiving ourselves if we think we are advancing in our grasp of biblical truth if this is not accompanied by demonstrable mutual love and concern at a practical level.  Or, a zeal for charitable work has little spiritual value if it does not go hand in hand with a deepening understanding of the Scriptures and of what God has done for us in Christ.  It is a sad Gospel witness if we can be rightly accused by a watching world of being ‘long on doctrine and short on ethics’; but it is equally damaging to be ‘long on ethics and short on doctrine’!  Getting the balance right does not come naturally to us.  We are usually hard-wired to lean one way or the other and part of our duty to each other is to help and encourage each other to get the balance right so that overall growth is healthy and genuine.

Verse 4 leads me to think about what thousands of my brothers and sisters throughout northern Africa are going through because of their faith in Christ, and I am truly inspired and humbled by their perseverance and faith in the midst of the persecutions and trials they are enduring, giving thanks to God for their awesome example, just as Paul did regarding the Thessalonians.

As militant opposition to the Gospel increases around us, are we comitted to standing firm in both our faith and our love for one another?  As Paul will go on to say to them, what they are enduring is well worth it as they look forward in hope for the glorious return of the Lord Jesus Christ in power, and with justice and judgement.

– Bruce Christian