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2 Thessalonians 1:3-4, 11-12
3 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. 4 Therefore, among God’s churches we boast about your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and trials you are enduring.
11 With this in mind, we constantly pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may bring to fruition your every desire for goodness and your every deed prompted by faith. 12 We pray this 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.
New International Version (NIV)
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Do you save your old correspondence? Not long ago I found a bag of old letters which Melanie and I sent to each other during our courtship. The words we wrote to each other revealed the growth of our relationship. They are love letters written on really nice stationery (How did we afford that paper?). Some of them are a little sappy, to be honest. Our kids laughed out loud as they enjoyed a few lines that I shared with them. It was good for them to hear these expressions of our love over 35 years ago. Once upon a time, there was us before there was them.
Have you ever thought that when we read Paul’s letters to the churches, we are reading someone else’s mail? They aren’t really lists of laws and rules to enforce, but love letters from a pastor to his people. This is Paul’s second letter to the church in Thessalonica. Remember, they were facing persecution and trials. How did they respond? In the fertile soil of their suffering, two surprising crops grew. Their faith grew more and more and their love for each other increased.
Paul’s letters have served as Christ’s love letters to the church for around 2000 years. In many places today the church is being persecuted. Are we surprised that the disciples in those areas are growing strong in their faith in Christ and love for each other? Christians suffer along with everyone else in the current pandemic. We are not immune from illness just because we follow Jesus. So what difference does it make to be a Christian in troubling times? We trust. Our faith often grows fastest when we exercise it. So, too, our love for one another. To this day, people will only know we are Christians by our love.
One caution: this growth is not automatic. Preaching professor Haddon Robinson lamented that as his father grew older and more ill, he began to doubt the goodness of God. Even now we see Christians arguing with each other about whether we should comply with government requests to practice social distancing. I know we all have opinions about these matters. Sitting in the critic’s chair does not reveal the love of Christ. It may be easy to ridicule others who believe differently about the right response, but it is not loving. We know we are called to compassion. Officials in the government and the churches are working together to slow the spread of the illness. Not much good comes from arguing about it on social media.
The closure of churches to public worship can either make us angry or it can make us long to worship God privately and publicly through livestream gatherings. God is in the details. In previous centuries we did not have these options available. Thousands are choosing to trust God and to love him out loud in our homes as ministers lead by video. Faith and love will grow in this soil, if we let it. This could become the time of revival we have longed for. It turns out there was a church before there were buildings to house it. There still is!
Someday the current health crisis will pass. When it does, I pray that we will be able to look back and say, “Look how fast our faith, our trust in God grew in that difficult season.” I pray that others will say, “During the coronavirus pandemic, the Christians really loved each other well, and they loved everyone else as well by trying to save lives.” According to Rodney Stark’s groundbreaking work on the historic growth of Christianity, this is our heritage from the Christians of earlier centuries. Let’s claim it now.
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Pray with me:
Father, thank you for your love letters to us in the scriptures. Grow our faith and love in the terrible soil of troubles. Like children measuring their growth with marks on a wall, may our journals and our prayers reveal that we are bigger and stronger in our faith than we used to be. As we sing, so also we pray our own love letter back to you, “Jesus, Jesus how we trust you, how we’ve proved you o’er and o’er. Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus, O for grace to trust you more.” In You alone we trust. Amen.
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Join us in memorizing the Word. Scripture for this week:
Matthew 5:23-24
Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift.
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| Our 2020 Every Day with Jesus readings will follow the Foundations New Testament reading plan. Copies of the reading plan are available at Tallowood Baptist Church, or download your copy at REPLICATE.ORG
We would love for you to join us as we read the New Testament through this year, five chapters a week. In addition I will continue my long-standing practice of reading one Psalm a day through the year. Use Robby Gallaty’s H. E. A. R. plan to study each chapter (also found at REPLICATE.ORG). Highlight verses which speak to you, explain what they mean in your own words in a journal, apply them to your own life, then respond by doing what God tells you to do.
Joyfully,
Duane
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