1 Thessalonians 1:3 We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.
What I find hard to believe is that there are those who want to reward irresponsible behaviors. Instead of rewarding those who work hard, put in the effort and make the slow gains, they want to give handouts to those who foolishly accepted the responsibility for debt, and then failed to count the cost. Rewards should be for those who earn it.
But so often our world is upside down. What seems so clear cut on the surface, and clear cut way down deep, these things just don’t get done. Instead, the opposite seems to take hold and get promulgated by a small minority and pushed down the throats of the majority. And this happens all over the world. Power has a way of corrupting those who hold onto it too tightly.
As Paul begins his letter to these believers in the ancient city of Thessaloniki, he starts as he often does, with expressing gratitude. And this letter is no exception. But what I find interesting is the pairing of work, labor and endurance with faith, love and hope.
The first elements of these phrases, work, labor and endurance, all speak of difficulty, efforts, struggle, hard work. As thees believers grew in their faith and grew in life, they put in lots of effort. What was given to them, faith, hope and love, was channeled into hard work and determination.
The faith and trust they had in the LORD produced in them work. They were so affected by the Gospel that they turned that energy into work. That is what help is supposed to do. When people are to receive help, our goal with the aide is to help them to step up and become more productive. The goal is to help them be able to help others in need. Receiving of help should almost never be a permanent state. If it becomes this, we who give have failed.
Faith isn’t the only thing that motivates people to work hard. Love prompted these ancient believers to labor. Labor is harder than simply work. Love produced a greater intensity in them to move forward in their faith.
Hope inspired them to endure. Oh how we need endurance! It can be so easy to get weary in well-doing. It is hard to keep up the effort over a long period of time. Most of us can rally a burst of energy to get a project done. But if it takes too long to finish, we too often run out of energy, or get distracted by the next project. But hope can sustain us, if we allow it to do that.
These believers can teach us where to focus when things get tough. They allowed their faith, love and hope to inspire them to move forward when they would otherwise quit.
Maybe we need to focus our attention on the faith, love and hope we have in Christ. Then we will have the energy and determination to see our journey through to the end with an energy and enthusiasm that will inspire others to join in the Gospel mission.
The Arnold Journey 