Day 193

Key Verses: 3, 6, 10

Work, labor, and endurance are three words we don’t necessarily like to hear spoken to us about our future. We want to hear relaxation, pampering and ease. The Jesus-followers in the large city of Thessalonica had accepted the faith in a time of intense persecution. They had grown rapidly in their trust in Christ and Paul wanted to encourage them. If Paul were writing this letter to us, what in our lives would he have to encourage us about?

When Paul presented the Gospel to them he did it with more than mere words. God confirmed the message with powerful acts. We read about this moment in history in Acts 17:1-9. Over a three week period Paul preached and they responded. Then persecution broke out and Paul was rushed away for his own safety. When someone is ready for the Gospel it doesn’t take long for understanding and conversion. They were Jews who knew the Scriptures. All Paul had to do was show them that Jesus fulfilled the Scripture. The rest is history.

Part of our difficulty in presenting the Gospel today is that people don’t have a common understanding of how the world works. In our culture every “truth” is of equal value and held to be equally “true” in spite of glaring contradictions and the obvious errors. But so many have lost the ability to think critically, to examine some fact being presented and evaluate it logically and critically. And without this ability to actually use our god-given mind we fall for anything that is presented to us.

The Thessalonian believers accepted the message and applied it to their lives, even in the middle of persecution. Their lives became a model to be followed, just as Paul had become a model for them of how to live godly in Christ. We all need models, flesh and blood examples of godly living. We need to see what endurance looks like lived out in the face of suffering, so that we can do the same when it is our turn. Our lives need to be more open to each other, allowing our lives to be read by those around us.

Remember, our reputation does spread. In the age of Facebook we know that everything we post can be seen by future employers. With a few clicks of the mouse it will all be present on their desktop. Criminal activity, mischievous activity, even indiscretion will be seen. The pictures of the British royals recently caught in exposed positions should be an example for all of us. We may not have constant cameras pointed at us by outsiders, but we do often have cameras pointed at us by our friends and immediately posted online.

Maybe we need to think about what we are modeling before we act! We are allowed to choose behavior that reflects what we say we believe. Jesus is coming again. He did rise from the grave. He will rescue us from Judgment Day. Some objects of worship are just idols, having no value in determining our place in eternity. There are just as many idols today as there were back then. Ours just come in shinier packages.