Thanks for visiting Bible Mountain. This lesson is part of a series of lessons on the book of 2 Thessalonians. In previous lessons in this series I looked at the background of 2 Thessalonians and went through the book a chapter at a time to give an overall sense of what Paul was communicating in this letter. Beginning with this lesson, I’m going to start looking at some specific verses and words to dig deeper into what Paul was communicating in 2 Thessalonians. In this lesson I’m going to look at chapter one, verse three, and talk about faith and love.
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Transcript:
Hi, thanks for visiting Bible Mountain. This lesson is part of a series of lessons on the book of 2 Thessalonians. In previous lessons in this series I looked at the background of 2 Thessalonians and went through the book a chapter at a time to give an overall sense of what Paul was communicating in this letter. Beginning with this lesson, I’m going to start looking at some specific verses and words to dig deeper into what Paul was communicating in 2 Thessalonians. In this lesson I’m going to look at chapter one, verse three, and talk about faith and love.
Before we get into verse three, it’s helpful to review the background of the church in Thessalonica. The church in Thessalonica was started by the Apostle Paul amidst a lot of opposition within Thessalonica. Let’s read about that in Acts 17, then we’ll come back to 2 Thessalonians and talk about love and faith.
Acts 17:1 Now when they had traveled through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. 2 And according to Paul’s custom, he went to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures, 3 explaining and giving evidence that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus whom I am proclaiming to you is the Christ.” 4 And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, along with a large number of the God-fearing Greeks and a number of the leading women. 5 But the Jews, becoming jealous and taking along some wicked men from the market place, formed a mob and set the city in an uproar; and attacking the house of Jason, they were seeking to bring them out to the people. 6 When they did not find them, they began dragging Jason and some brethren before the city authorities, shouting, “These men who have upset the world have come here also; 7 and Jason has welcomed them, and they all act contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus.” 8 They stirred up the crowd and the city authorities who heard these things. 9 And when they had received a pledge from Jason and the others, they released them.
Acts 17:10 The brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. 11 Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.
The church in Thessalonica was started amidst a riot. There was a lot of opposition within Thessalonica to Christianity. Keep that in mind as we read the first three verses of 2 Thessalonians, particularly verse three.
2Th. 1:1 Paul and Silvanus and Timothy,
To the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: 2 Grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
2Th. 1:3 We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brethren, as is only fitting, because your faith is greatly enlarged, and the love of each one of you toward one another grows ever greater;
The faith and love of the Thessalonians was growing, even though they lived in a city where there was a lot of opposition to Christianity. Because they were growing, Paul said he needed to be thankful for the Thessalonians. Before we talk about what this means for you and me, let’s make sure we understand the biblical definition of faith and love.
Let’s look at two verses to see the Biblical definition of faith.
Heb. 11:1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. 2 For by it the men of old gained approval.
Here, the word faith was used to communicate the concept of believing in things we haven’t seen with our own eyes.
Let’s go to Acts chapter six and see a different usage of the word faith.
Acts 6:7 The word of God kept on spreading; and the number of the disciples continued to increase greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were becoming obedient to the faith.
In this case the word faith was used as a synonym for Christianity. Many of the priests were becoming obedient to Christianity or the belief system of Christianity. You could say they were becoming obedient to Jesus.
Sometimes the word faith was used as a synonym for Christianity. Sometimes the word faith referred to believing in things that you haven’t seen. With that as a definition, let’s look again at 2 Thessalonians chapter one, verse three.
2Th. 1:3 We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brethren, as is only fitting, because your faith is greatly enlarged,
Paul said the faith of the Thessalonians was greatly enlarged. In other words, their knowledge of the truth-claims of Christianity was enlarged. Their belief in things they had not seen with their own eyes was enlarged.
The Thessalonians had never seen Jesus. They did not see Him rise from the dead. And yet they believed the truths about Jesus.
Now let’s talk about love. The New Testament defines love from a couple different perspectives. Let’s look at two of them.
John 15:13 “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.
That is self-explanatory. Love means helping other people, sacrificing for them, perhaps even dying for other people.
A second perspective on love is found in 1 John.
1John 5:3 For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments;
Loving God means obeying God. Those two definitions are connected because sometimes obeying God means sacrificing for God and perhaps giving our life for God.
Let’s go back to 2 Thessalonians.
2Th. 1:3 We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brethren, as is only fitting, because your faith is greatly enlarged, and the love of each one of you toward one another grows ever greater;
Paul said the love of the Thessalonians toward one another was growing ever greater. Their willingness to help one another, sacrifice for one another, and perhaps die for one another was growing greater and greater. I would assume their love for one another was growing ever greater because their love for God was growing greater. Their desire and willingness to obey Jesus was growing ever greater, and since one of the commands of Jesus is to love one another, then their love for one another was growing.
Now let’s talk about what this means for you and me. We saw in verse three of 2 Thessalonians chapter one that Paul thought it was necessary to give thanks for the Thessalonians because their faith was greatly enlarged and their love was growing ever greater. That was happening even though the Thessalonians faced a lot of opposition in their city. That is both an encouragement to us, and a challenge to us.
It’s an encouragement because it demonstrates that our faith and love can grow regardless of our circumstances. No matter what kind of opposition we face from our culture, it’s possible for our faith to be enlarged and for our love for one another to grow.
This is also a challenge to us. If the faith of the Thessalonians was enlarged and if their love for one another was growing amidst their opposition, that means you and I have no excuse if our faith and love are not growing. If we lack faith or love, we need to start by examining ourselves. We can’t blame our culture.
It’s possible for faith and love to grow regardless of the opposition that we face from our culture. It’s possible for faith and love to grow even amidst persecution. Therefore, our faith should be greatly enlarged and our love for one another should be growing ever greater.
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