Would you say that you are in need more of reassurance from God's word, or in need of challenge from God's word? I don't ask which you want; I ask which you think you most need. Both can be necessary; either can be dangerous.
The danger of receiving reassurance from God's word is that it can lead us to complacency. We think we've arrived, we've made it, and we're so reassured we have nothing left to work at. The danger of being challenged is insecurity. If we're not careful, the challenges from God's word could undermine the wonderful truth that being a Christian is not about what we might do for the Lord Jesus Christ, but about what he has already done for us.
The reality is we need both. We all need regular reassurance from God's word and we all need regular challenge. The Christian life is all about grace. It's all about God's free and undeserved love that we cannot earn and that he gives to us free of charge. It's all about grace. But because grace is real, there is a response. We need to grow, and we must not let the wonder of God's grace lead us to a place of complacency.
Recap
Well, let me remind us where we are in the Bible. We're working our way through this winter and spring the letter that Paul wrote to the church in Thessalonica — 1 Thessalonians. To remind you of the background of the church to which he writes: remember, Paul visited Thessalonica for somewhere between two and four weeks. It was a very short visit, but in that time a number of people became Christians and the very first church in the city was established. But then trouble ensued. A riot, incited by both Jews and Roman loyalists, led to Paul being accused of things he hadn't done and forced to flee the city under cover of darkness, and he hasn't been seen or heard from since.
Well, Paul eventually just had to find out how this young church was doing, so he sent Timothy to find out what was going on on the ground. Timothy has just returned to Paul and reported back that the Thessalonian Christians are in great shape indeed, and Paul is delighted. He's so encouraged to receive this news, and the letter we have in our Bibles is the result, as he — beaming from ear to ear — writes to them, so thrilled to discover that this new church is doing okay.
He writes to encourage them. But let me also remind us where we are in the letter itself, because Paul has indeed written so far in the first half of the letter to reassure these Christians. He wants to reassure them on three fronts.
Genuine Ministry
The first front is that Paul's ministry was genuine. Paul worked hard in Thessalonica. He held down two jobs. He worked with his hands so he could feed himself and live, and he worked to minister the good news of the Lord Jesus and to establish this fledgling church. And he loved these Christians like a loving parent. And when he had to leave — to flee — he describes it as being torn away, as like being orphaned, and he's longed for these Christians ever since.
Paul's ministry was genuine. But he also wants to reassure them that their response was genuine. They responded to the good news with faith, love, and hope. The Thessalonian Christians turned from the idols — the false gods that they worshipped before — to serve the true and living God, and they received Paul's message as what it really is: the word of God himself.
Genuine Response
Paul's ministry was genuine, their response was genuine, and he also wants to reassure them that their suffering was normal. This is not some sign that things have gone wrong, that God's plan has fallen apart. No — the way they are being treated is the same way that Jesus was treated, the same way Paul himself has been treated, the same way that churches and Christians in other places have been treated. And in his short time in Thessalonica, Paul warned them that such suffering would indeed come. For Paul, the truth that Christians will have to suffer for their faith was not some small print that you mention only when people have been a Christian for a number of years. It was at the heart of the gospel itself — the hard truth that Christians must suffer just as their Lord did.
Normal Suffering
So Paul has written to reassure them: his ministry was genuine, their response was genuine, and their suffering is normal.
And now we find ourselves at the midpoint of the book. We're almost exactly halfway through. Last week we saw how Paul concludes this first half of the letter by giving great thanks to the Thessalonians. The first half of the letter opened in chapter 1 verses 2 and 3 with a prayer of thanksgiving, and it ends in chapter 3 verse 9 with another prayer of thanksgiving. And today Paul turns from thanksgiving to prayer. He prays for the Thessalonian Christians, but as he does so he echoes that opening thanksgiving. So as he brings the first half of the letter to a close, with his joy, he turns the themes of his opening thanksgiving in chapter 1 verses 2 and 3 into a prayer in chapter 3 verses 10 to 13.
So the prayer we're looking at this morning has all the same themes in play as the thanksgiving that opened the first half of the book. The first half of the book is neatly closed off with this prayer that perfectly mirrors the thanksgiving at the beginning of the first half. At the same time, this prayer we're looking at is what launches the second half of the letter, because the themes of this prayer will effectively act as headings for chapters 4 and 5 — for the rest of the letter. The areas that Paul wants them to work on are the very things for which he prays here. And so as he prays for the Thessalonians, he's praying for their growth, for their maturing as Christians, and as he prays for that he's setting up the things he's about to talk about in the second half of his letter.
So in this prayer there are three things that Paul prays for for these Thessalonian Christians. They will be great things to pray for yourself, for your family, for friends in the church, for your godchildren if you're a godparent. These are great things to pray for any Christian, and great things to aspire to in yourself by way of your own Christian growth and maturing.
1. Growing Faith
So area number one that Paul prays for is growing faith.
In chapter 1 verse 3 Paul thanked God for their work produced by faith, and now chapter 3 verse 10: "Night and day we pray most earnestly that we may see you again and supply what is lacking in your faith." Paul needs to see them for this to happen. Timothy's visit plugs the gap a little; this letter will plug the gap a little; but ultimately he needs face-to-face time. We know, don't we, that Zoom and YouTube and technologies like that allow us to keep in touch with people we love when we're distant from them, but it's not as good as sitting in front of someone, sitting in someone's living room with a cup of tea and actually talking to them. And if there are hard things that need to be said and challenges to be issued, all the more that really needs to be face to face — not Paul's delegate Timothy, not a letter, but Paul himself actually working these things through with them. He needs to see them face to face so that he can supply what is lacking in their faith.
Now here's the question: what is lacking in their faith? It's a really good question, because at one level nothing is lacking. Faith is just another word for trust. All you need to be saved is to have faith in Jesus, to trust Jesus. What matters is not how much faith you've got or how good your faith is, but having your faith in the right person — in the Lord Jesus Christ. There's no such — we don't — we don't need faith plus something else. There's no such thing as defective faith, faith with shortfalls. You either have it or you don't. Jesus taught that all we need is faith as small as a mustard seed. The thief hanging on the cross next to Jesus as he died simply said to Jesus, "Remember me." He didn't have time to do any good works, to give money to the poor, to help the needy, to do anything. He simply said to Jesus, "Remember me," and that simple act of faith — trust — was enough for Jesus to say to him, "Today you will be with me in paradise." All that matters, you see, is that you are anchored to something solid, not something that will give way. Once your anchor is attached to something solid — or rather, to someone solid, the Lord Jesus — he will look after you, will hold you.
So at one level nothing is lacking in their faith; they have faith. Praise God — that's the one thing they need: to make sure that it's Jesus that they're trusting and not something else. But there's more to faith than that. Faith involves grasping what God says, and faith involves leaning on what God says in practice, in the way that we live.
And as we read on in chapters 4 and 5 of 1 Thessalonians we will see areas where Paul needs to teach them some truths about God — there are gaps to be plugged in their knowledge. That's to say, their grasp of what God says in his word needs to grow. But also as we read on in chapters 4 and 5 we will see that there are areas where Paul needs to urge them to live consistently with what they grasp of what God says in his word — where their leaning on the word of God in practice is what needs to grow. Specifically, Paul will need to teach them about Jesus's final return, and he will need to urge them to live consistently with what God says in areas of morality, including idleness and sexual ethics.
So: first of all, make sure you are a Christian. Make sure it's Jesus that you're trusting. Make sure you're anchored to him. Make sure you have faith — that is, faith in him. But then we all need to grow in our faith. We all have things we need to learn from God's word. We all have areas where our living is not consistent with God's word. Growing in faith is a lifelong journey.
That's Paul's first prayer for them. He prays for a growing faith.
2. Overflowing Love
Second, he prays for overflowing love.
In chapter 1 verse 3 Paul thanked God for their labour prompted by love. Now chapter 3 verse 12: "May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you." So again, in the area of love there is always scope to grow. Notice the verbs — there's scope for our love to grow in the way we do it: "May the Lord make your love increase and overflow." The picture is of a river where there's been heavy rain in the surrounding area, or melting snow, and all the water has been gradually flowing into this river until the water level starts to increase — until, horror of horrors, it starts to overflow the banks of the river and water the meadows around. Well, if it's flood water, that's a bad thing; but if it's something good that is increasing and overflowing, it's a wonderful thing. And here it is their love for others that starts small but grows, increases, until it overflows and reaches far beyond the boundaries that they originally thought it would spread to. That's the way their love increases and overflows.
But it doesn't only need to grow in terms of the way it does it, but in terms of the object of that love — who they love. "May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else." For each other, and for everyone else.
So it's easy to love people in your inner circle. Jesus himself says, doesn't he, if you love only those who love you, what good is that? Everybody manages that — to love those in their inner circle; that's not hard. But God's love is love for the unlovely. It's love for those beyond the boundaries of the people who deserve his love. And the love here expands beyond our own immediate circle twice. The ripple kind of goes out twice. Firstly it expands beyond our immediate circle to each other. Church is family. It's not just a club that we come to — we're family here. That's one of the main biblical pictures of the Christian church: we are a church family. And so our first responsibility is to love each other — not just those that we like or know particularly well within the church, but to have a culture where we're looking out for one another in the church. Each other, and everyone else: as the river breaks its banks, the love reaches beyond the church family to everybody else round about, to whoever we know anywhere who might need our love.
And remember what we said when we looked at chapter 1 verse 3: Christian love is not sentimental, it's not just a feeling. Paul thanks God in chapter 1 verse 3 for their labour prompted by love. Christian love entails back-breaking work for the benefit, for the good, of other people. It's practical and it's hard work.
Overflowing love.
3. Sanctifying Hope
Paul prays for growing faith, he prays for overflowing love, and third he prays for sanctifying hope.
In chapter 1 verse 3 Paul thanked God for their endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. And now chapter 3 verse 13: "May he strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones."
You see, our hope is that the Lord Jesus will return. In English, when we say we're hoping for something we often just mean that we wish for it. In the Bible, hope is a certain future based on the promise of God. Our hope is all tied up with Jesus himself coming back to this world at the end of time in his glory with all his holy angels. Paul here uses a phrase that Jesus himself used of his own return. This is a real event — it will happen. There is a date in the calendar when Jesus will come back to this world in all his glorious splendour. It might be while you and I are still alive; it might be after we've long died. We don't know, but it is happening.
And there will be people alive at the time to see it. When that happens, we will be transformed. We will be given renewed bodies — bodies that no longer get sick, bodies that no longer die. But even more wonderful, our sin will be gone as well. We will no longer think or say or do anything that is unkind, untrue, or unloving.
Now, we want that when that miracle happens — when Jesus returns — to be the final, natural step in a life that has been heading in that direction for a long time. That Jesus has been little by little transforming us into people who are more like him, and then the final and natural step is the miracle whereby that process is perfected and we are made like him in every way. That's what we want. And the best motivation to grow in likeness of the Lord Jesus is to know the destination, to know that that is where we're going. And the best evidence that someone in the present has that future with a firm grip on their life is to see that their life is being transformed into what they will one day become.
And so Paul prays for them to have a sanctifying, transforming hope.
Be Reassured and Be Challenged
So, do you mainly need reassurance from God's word, or challenge? The Thessalonians needed both. Paul praises God for their faith, their love, and their hope, and then he's written three chapters reassuring them that the gospel and their response are genuine and that their suffering is normal. But then he prays for them before spending chapters 4 and 5 urging them to have a growing faith, an overflowing love, and a hope in the Lord Jesus and his return that transforms and reshapes their lives, little by little and day by day.