THE POWER OF PRAISE

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Paul, Silas and Timothy,

To the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:

Grace and peace to you from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

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.

2 Thessalonians 1:1-4

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Today, we begin a study of Paul’s second letter to the church in Thessalonica and its members, the Thessalonian Christians. Whereas 1 Thessalonians is believed to have been written somewhere around 49-51 A.D., theologians believe this shorter letter was penned just afterwards, around 51-52AD, and also from Corinth.

As we see in today’s opening verses from chapter 1, Paul also lists Silas and Timothy, just as he did in the first letter. The opening message from 1 Thessalonians, The Power of Remembrance and Appreciation, offers background on these two faithful ministers of the Gospel (https://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com/2023/06/the-power-of-remembrance-and.html).

Note how Paul then makes it a point to identify his target audience as the church of the Thessalonians, adding an important tag:

...in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Thessalonian church wasn’t just another body of believers who places their hopes in a litany of gods, each with their own powers and specialties. No, the believers in Thessalonica who formed the church were in the one and only God, the God Almighty who also came to earth and walked it as Savior of the world in the form of the Lord Jesus. Christ and God were one (Matthew 10:30) and this is who the church worshipped. It’s what made them a Christian congregation, a congregation that Paul and the others wished the Lord’s grace and peace upon.

With the opening out of the way, we find the Apostle immediately turning to words of support and encouragement for his brother and sisters in Thessalonica, and in doing so, showing us the power found in praise. Beginning in verse 3, he writes:

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.

The Thessalonian church wasn’t perfect. There hasn’t been a church that has been. When you add this fact to the truth that the Thessalonian church had just been established into a Christianity religion that was new in its own right, you can see that there could have been any number of criticisms that Paul could have started with. Certainly, the church today faces enough condemnation and it’s now more than 2,000 years later. How much more would fault have been found in the first century?

There surely was plenty but as we see, the Apostle doesn’t immediately go into correction-mode. Rather, he focuses on the good things the church was doing and gave thanks for that. It had to be very uplifting for the Thessalonian Christians to read these positive words as Paul commends them for the following:

1. Their faith.

Your faith is growing more and more.

Go back to the day you decided to be a Christian. It wasn’t like you were immediately transformed into some super-believer. Rather, your faith and the understanding of the Lord and your responsibilities to Him were things that grew over time and indeed are still growing.

As we address new believers today, we should make sure we laud them for the way their faith is increasing as they develop as Christian believers.

2. Their love.

The love all of you have for one another is increasing.

If there was one thing that would indicate that the members of the Thessalonian church were going in the right direction under the leading of the Lord, it would be the love they showed toward God, one another, and others.

For as their faith was growing, so too was their comprehension of the scriptures and God’s overall salvation plan, a plan that was centered on the matter of love (John 3:16). God, then incarnate as Jesus, answered a question on what was the greatest commandment with these words, actually highlighting two:

“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” Matthew 22:37-39

In other words, love is at the center of the two commands that the Lord labels as number one and two on the list.

First, Christians are to love God with everything that they are and everything that they have. And then, with all their love centered on God, His love can then flow through them to others, allowing them to love themselves as well as their neighbors.

The Thessalonian believers were doing this and Paul didn’t hesitate to praise them for it.

3. Their perseverance through persecution. 

Among God’s churches we boast about your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and trials you are enduring.

As mentioned prior, the Christian belief system was the new kid on the block in the first century. It was in direct competition with other religions, mostly polytheistic, that weren’t interested in sharing territory.

And so the newly minted congregations in Jesus Christ were constantly in defense mode, under consistent attack and forced to endure trials. It wasn’t the more comfortable setting that most Christians enjoy today, for sure.

Taking this widespread persecution into consideration, now look at what Paul said to his brothers and sisters in Thessalonica. Because out of all the other fledgling congregations, Paul singled out the Thessalonians and boasted about their ability to endure through the assaults on when they believed.

Not only were these words encouraging but they would have served to further strengthen the resolve of the Thessalonian Christians, giving them the spirit to continue to stand firm for the cause of Christ and the Gospel.

Friends, imagine yourself as a member of the church in Thessalonica, perhaps a bit beaten down and working hard every day to try and grow in the midst of elements who tried to bring them down.

How would you feel in reading these words from someone who had the reputation of being the greatest Apostle, one who had endured more than his fair share of persecution himself?

I think you would see your spirit and energy lifted, knowing you were succeeding, not through your own work but rather from the work of the Lord you served.

In the end translation, there is power in praise and while there is always room for analyzing and identifying areas of failure, the church needs to always be intentional in paying tribute to the good things it is achieving collectively and the hard works of believers who are contributing to this good things happening.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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