Around AD 50 Paul and his coworkers travelled to Thessalonica (modern day Thessaloniki in Greece) and preached the gospel. Amid stirring up controversy, they successfully made some disciples by God’s grace.
This resulted in the church at Thessalonica—an assembly of gathered disciples.
Paul would go on to other cities and countries, but he wrote to this church at least twice before he was martyred.
As in many of his letters to various churches, he begun in thanking God for the ways God’s grace has moved in the life of their church.
Paul wrote,
“We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers [and sisters], as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing” (2 Thessalonians 1:3).
Note the seeming simplicity of why Paul thought it right to thank God for them. It wasn’t because they all became scholars, nor that they set up social service programs for the community, nor because they received enough donations to start a building project.
It’s not wrong to be educated, nor to serve the hungry, nor to build a building—but Paul thanked God that God’s grace was continuing to grow the Thessalonians’ faith and love.
That’s it!
Their faith in Christ was growing abundantly, and their love for one another was increasing.
This means that their assurance and conviction of God’s glorious promises in Christ Jesus kept getting stronger, and their brotherly love and affection for one another in the church likewise grew.
I don’t think it’s wrong to actually measure the health of a church by these outcomes. If a church’s faith and love are growing, then thank God!
Do you feel like your faith in Christ is increasing? What about your love for others in our church community—is that getting stronger?
Also consider the fact that Paul had to have heard about the life of the church in order to write what he did. In other words, he witnessed evidence of their increasing faith and love. Most likely this came via messengers either from Thessalonica or others who had passed through Thessalonica.
Whatever the case, the reality is that the faith and love of the Thessalonians was “loud” enough for Paul’s ears to hear—even though he was miles away.
Therefore, genuine faith and love are not merely private experiences, closed off to others. While beginning in the heart, genuine faith and love must be exercised through the physical body—through feet, hands, mouths, etc.
In fact, in Paul’s first letter to this same church, he wrote of their “work of faith and labour of love” (1 Thessalonians 1:3).
Do you see it? Their faith and love were evidenced by their corresponding work and labour.
Let us pray that God, by the Holy Spirit, would increase our faith in Christ and love for one another!
Let’s be a healthy church!