Word of Encouragement (6/7/2021)

We have another prayer of Paul’s in 1 Thess. 1:2-3: “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.”

This is another prayer of thanksgiving Paul gives regarding the church he is writing to. Thanksgiving was the way Paul usually opened his letter after identifying himself and greeting the recipients. This is a good thing to remember, isn’t it? A good practice for our intercessory prayers (that is, the petitions we lift to God for others) is to open with thanksgiving to God for the ones we are praying. If you are praying for those you love, giving thanks to God for them will increase your love for them and make your prayers all the more sincere and fervent. And if you are praying because you are having trouble with someone, trying to give thanks for him will force you to recognize his value as an image-bearer of God and thus free you from anger and bitterness so you can pray for him out of love and compassion. More importantly, it will open your heart toward God. Quite often, when we are frustrated by someone or a situation, our bitterness gets directed to God, too. We blame God for our situation because we know deep inside that God is sovereign and He allowed the bad situation to happen. But giving thanks for the one you are praying about will remind you that God intends something good to come out of the bad situation and help you seek God’s will in it.

For what does Paul give thanks to God for the Thessalonians? For “your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.” This triad of faith, hope, and love occurs a lot in the New Testament. We have the most famous of them all in 1 Cor. 13:13: “So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” There are other occurrences in Paul’s letters: “But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation…” (1Thess. 5:8); “…we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven” (Col. 1:4-5; see also Rom. 5:1-5; Gal. 5:5-6, Eph. 4:2-5). This triad appears also in other New Testament books (Heb. 6:10-12; 10:22-24; 1 Pet. 1:3-8, 21-22).

Why are faith, hope, and love considered three primary virtues of the Christian? We cannot know for sure because the Bible doesn’t explicitly explain why. But from what the Bible says of them, we can guess why. By faith, we are connected to Christ and all His benefits. By love, we enjoy our fellowship with God and our fellow saints. With hope, we overcome all our disappointments and despair and look forward to the consummation of our salvation. How rich will be our Christian life if we have faith, love, and hope! Let us pray for these virtues that they would increase in us and our fellow saints!