Word of Encouragement (7/9/2021)

The prayer we are considering is, “To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Thess. 1:11-12). Today, let’s focus on the petition, “...may [God] fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power....”

What is Paul asking God to fulfill—“every resolve for good and every work of faith”? Is he talking about God’s resolve and work or ours? You may say, “Our resolve and work, of course! A work of faith is something God cannot do because an all-knowing God cannot have faith. But the Greek word for “faith” can also be translated as “faithfulness” as well. So, Paul may be speaking of God’s resolve and work. Besides, he is asking God to fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by His power.

But there is a problem. The expression, “work of faithfulness” is not common at all. But in his first letter, Paul commended the Thessalonians for their “work of faith” (1 Thess. 1:2). Besides, even if the word is to be translated as “faithfulness” instead of “faith,” “work of faithfulness” does not have to be God’s; believers, who are born again and being sanctified, are now capable of being faithful and doing works of faithfulness. Even more importantly, we must consider the immediate context. What did Paul just ask God to do? He prayed “...that our God may make you worthy of his calling....” In this second petition, he shows what it means for us to be worthy of His calling—to have our every resolve for good and every work of faith fulfilled.

If we understand “every resolve for good and every work of faith” as ours, it complements the first petition beautifully, doesn’t it? This prayer understood in this way fits well with what Paul said in another place: “...work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Phil. 2:12-13). “Every resolve for good” corresponds with “to will... for his good pleasure” and “every work of faith” with “to work for his good pleasure.” When we put these two passages side by side, we can see that our “every resolve for good and every work of faith” are a result of God working in us. We cannot take any credit for them.

But this petition goes further. It asks that God, by His power, would fulfill what He caused us to will and to work—our every resolve for good and every work of faith. To have every resolve of ours to be for good and to do every work of faith for the glory of God—this should be the instinctive response of those, who have been delivered from the eternal misery of hell by God’s free grace. I remember when I first accepted Jesus Christ at my very first summer retreat after my 8th grade. I woke up the next day, feeling so peaceful and elated at the same time. For the first time in my life, I felt my conscience clean and free. I didn’t want that feeling to go away. So, I vowed that I would never sin again to have my conscience defiled. Hearing the gospel for the first time (after growing up in a Buddhist home) and being a brand new Christian, I underestimated my sinfulness. But my desire to remain pure and not to sin against God was intense and sincere even though it didn’t last long before I sinned again to my utter shame and devastation.

Should I chuckle over my spiritual naivete and dismiss that intense desire not to sin as foolish? Yes, it’s impossible to be sinless in this life. Yes, it’s impossible for our every resolve to be for good. Yes, it’s impossible for us to do every work of faith. But do we stop loving others because we cannot love them perfectly? If we truly love someone, don’t we try even harder to love them because we cannot love them perfectly, feeling apologetic even when we give our best because we can’t do better and more for them?

But we don’t just try our best. We can pray to God as Paul did. We ought to pray. Let us pray that God would fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in us. For it is He who enables us to do so!