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I ran track all throughout college, and the first week of practice was always the hardest.
Sure, we had been running and lifting all off-season, but there was nothing that could match that first week; nothing could replicate the intensity, the fervor, and the harshness of that first week. Our coach was always there, guiding us and putting our hard work in perspective, reminding us to persevere. He was especially cognizant of the freshman, who had a tendency not to understand what we were doing or why, and was always careful to encourage them.
That is essentially what I Thessalonians is, a letter of encouragement and joy from the apostle Paul to a group of believers who were new in their faith; challenging these new believers to remain strong in their faith and persevere through persecution and opposition.
Paul makes it very clear in verse 1 that the church at Thessalonica is a true church, an ekklesia; “those who are called out, those who are called for a special purpose.”
In verse 2, Paul thanks God for the believers’ dedication and persistence, and brings their names before the Lord in prayerful petition. Paul is thankful for the fruits of grace that were revealed in the lives of the believers.
Verse 3 can be translated various ways:
NASB: constantly bearing in mind your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ and of our God and Father
NIV: We continually 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.
ESV: remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.
The similarities in the words used within the verse is very striking: Work, labor, endurance, steadfastness, hope, inspired…it seems to me that Paul had something very important to say, something that isn’t quite captured by the English rendering.
When we break down the different words, we find the following:
Work is the word ergon, and denotes something by which an individual is occupied, something that takes up all their time and energy.
Faith is the word pistis, and carries with it the idea of faith, confidence, conviction, commitment, trust, fidelity, and guarantee. It is derived from peithomai (be persuaded, have confidence, obey).
Labor is kopos, and Paul envisions one who beats his breast with grief and sorrow when he uses this word, a beating of the breast which leads to intense labor.
Love is agape, agape being the highest form of the words used for love in the NT, meaning God’s love, love with deep respect, love according to value, love expressed in good will or deeds, love that manifests itself and puts itself on display; literally demonstration of love.
Steadfastness/endurance is hypomone, meaning endurance, from hypomeno, meaning to endure, to wait expectantly. The connotation is of someone who is not swayed from his purposes by even the most severe trials or sufferings. Those reading this in Paul’s time would envision this endurance as the most potent of all virtues, the vigor and perseverance of an Olympic athlete.
Hope here is elpis, referring to hope inspired by Jesus Christ, a confident, expectant, and joyful hope of salvation. This spiritual hope is contrasted with human hope, which is the uncertain or anguished longing for a desired good.
When we put verse 3 back together, we read Paul’s words in a slightly different light:
remembering all your time and energy occupied by obedient works of commitment, your passionate and intense labor of love that is not merely spoken, but demonstrated, and your confident and expectant hope in Jesus Christ, of which you are certain and for whom you endure all things.
6Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.7And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
– Philippians 4: 6-7
In the words of the apostle Paul, this is to be our recourse in those dastardly times of turmoil, tumult, and pain. When the storm closes in and threatens to sink our ship, Paul exhorts us to flee anxiety, and bring our most heartfelt needs to God. And he challenges to do so with thanksgiving and praise to God.
God is faithful and will respond, His peace will overwhelm us and comfort us.
How does Paul know this? What gives him the ability to make such great claims? What did Paul ever experience that was so tumultuous?
24Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes.25Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the deep.26I have been on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brethren; 27I have been in labor and hardship, through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure.
– 2 Corinthians 11: 24-27
Paul lived through it all, and came out the other side praising God for His goodness and His faithfulness. God had purpose in the storm, and His glory is on display for all to see because of it.
Do not fear the rough times in your life, but embrace them.
God has allowed the storm, and God has purpose for you in the storm.
Seek His face and draw nearer to Him, and He will comfort you and reveal Himself to you.
For His glory.
We’ve recently discussed Paul’s time in Damascus after he met Christ (found here).
And we know from Gal 1: 17-18 that after being accepted as a genuine apostle, Paul spent three years alone in Arabia.
How amazing and how wonderful to picture the uninhibited devotion Paul exhibited in the early years of his ministry? He knew where he had come from and he must have had some inkling of the life God would lay out before him. In need of strength, wisdom, and teaching, Paul sought God in the silence and the stillness.
He knew the words of God to Moses in Exodus 4: 11-12,
“11 The LORD said to him, “Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the LORD ? 12 Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.”
And in knowing these words, he was desperate to seek God, to know Him, and to have his heart and mind filled by the truth and wisdom God was offering. Paul knew he needed God’s words, and so he pursued that goal no matter the cost.
And wouldn’t we all benefit from three days (not to mention three years) of solitary confinement with only the Lord for company?
That we all could take time from our life to be still and know that He is God. (Psalm 46:10).
We read in Acts 9: 9 that following Saul’s encounter with Christ on the road to Damascus, he spent three days fasting at the house of Judas on Straight Street.
As a pharisee, Saul would have been very familiar with the practice of fasting and praying – though we can only guess if he ever pursued those practices motivated by truth and in a God-honoring fashion.
He goes to the house of Judas and – maybe for the first time – experiences what it truly means to be in communion and fellowship with the Creator of the universe in Spirit and truth, the God whom he has supposedly been serving up to this point in his life.
Now, if I could have been a fly on a wall in that room…..
For three days Saul communes with Jesus Christ. What does he pray about?
Does he confess his sins of pride? Does he repent of his sins of persecution the early church? Does he ask why God desired to use him? Did he seek wisdom and guidance for the next step in his life?
We read in the beginning of Galatians that Paul spent three years in Arabia (Gal 1: 17-18) alone, so we know his fellowship with Christ was sweet and fulfilling, and we can only imagine that these three days in Damascus were the beginning of that journey.
So why is it that I make it so hard to confess to God, to repent, to simply pray? Why is it a task, a job, a chore?
Here is Saul, infamous persecutor of the early Christian church, Saul who held the cloaks of those who stoned Stephen, Saul the man whom Christians feared the most, and what is he doing?
Here is gripped by the great grace of almighty God, doing nothing but devoting himself to eager, honest, and heartfelt communion with his loving Creator.
O God, teach me fervent prayer like your servant Paul.
Soften my heart like his, and may I always be hungry for Your truth and desperate for Your presence!
To have been a fly on that wall….
