| The Christian Life | December 1944 |
Zeal and Patience
Evidences of Faith, Love and Hope
“Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labor of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God our Father.”—I Thessalonians 1:3
OUR text indicates that the are brethren who made up the church at Thessalonica abounded in faith, love and hope. Their faith worked, their love labored, and their hope enabled them to wait patiently for the return of their Lord, when all the precious promises pertaining to their share in His Kingdom would be fulfilled. It was because all three of these Christian graces were so well blended and manifested in the lives of the Thessalonian brethren that Paul was able to write to them in such a complimentary manner.
The apostle loved all his brethren in Christ, especially those to whom he was instrumental in giving the truth; and those at Thessalonica were among the many who first heard the Gospel from the lips of this inspired servant of God. This local group of Christians was composed mostly of Greeks, but there were a number of Jews also, these having been convinced by Paul’s preaching that Jesus was their Messiah. When Paul and Silas went to Thessalonica following their imprisonment at Philippi, they first visited the Jewish synagogues in order to witness to their own countrymen. On three successive sabbaths they proclaimed the Gospel, with the result that a few Jews were convinced and accepted Jesus as their Redeemer and Messiah.
But their work among the Greeks, from the standpoint of numbers, brought greater results for we are told that “of the devout Greeks a great multitude, and of the chief women not a few” believed. (Acts 17:4) The Jews of the city who did not believe as a result of Paul’s preaching began to oppose the work. They succeeded in stir ring up a mob spirit among the citizens of Thessalonica and the mob sought to lay hands upon those who had become followers of Jesus.
Apparently, the group held more or less regular meetings in the home of one of the brethren named Jason, for there the infuriated crowd gathered to assault the house and force the brethren to appear before them. Perhaps the brethren had been warned; anyway, the majority of the ecclesia were not there at the time. Jason and a few others were taken by force, brought before the rulers of the people, and charged with conspiracy against Caesar. The rulers, however, did not press the charge too severely. They allowed Jason and his friends to go free under a bond to keep the peace.
Meanwhile Paul and Silas went to Berea, there to give the witness of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Paul did not remain in Thessalonica long enough to observe the growth of grace in the hearts and lives of the new converts. As time went by he doubtless often wondered how the class was getting along, whether the seed he had planted there had fallen on good ground, or on stony ground, or among thistles. He knew that some of the seed had started to grow, but only the test of time and circumstance could prove how deep-rooted it was in hearts of sincerity and truth.
Paul knew that the storms of persecution had burst upon the budding Christians at Thessalonica. He knew that these experiences would test their faith, and love and hope. No wonder he was anxious to know about them. He endeavored to visit the Thessalonian brethren, but, as he explains, Satan hindered him. Still anxious to learn of their welfare in Christ, he sent Timothy to serve the ecclesia and to bring back a report of the brethren’s spiritual growth.—I Thess. 3:2
Timothy brought a good report, and Paul was much pleased. His first letter to this church seems to have been written partly, at least, as an expression of his joy in learning that these dear brethren of his were standing fast in the Lord and in the truth. In the letter he refers to them as his “glory,” his “joy,” and the “crown” of his rejoicing.—I Thess. 2:19,20
A True Brotherly Viewpoint
Paul’s interest in the brethren at Thessalonica indicates how richly the Spirit of God filled his own heart. Nothing should bring greater joy to the Lord’s people than to know that their brethren are prospering spiritually. Proper love for the brethren prompts to sacrifice in order to serve them. And our hearts should reach out to all our brethren, everywhere. It may be proper, to conclude that “true charity begins at home,” but a Christian who has the Welfare of all his brethren at heart will not be satisfied to have his love find expression only on behalf of those who may happen to cross his pathway.
In nominal church circles this universal interest in one another is seldom manifested. Members of a Methodist congregation in one section of a city are usually total strangers to Methodists who attend church in another part of the same city. It is not thus with true followers of the Master. They want to know and fellowship with their brethren not only in their own community, but so far as possible, in other places as well. The fraternity of the saints is international, and if we are members of this fellowship we will be genuinely and deeply interested in our brethren the world over. Paul was not satisfied to know that once he preached the Gospel in Thessalonica and that some believed. He wanted to know how the believers were prospering in the truth, and when he learned that they were holding fast the profession of their faith, he rejoiced.
From the apostle’s letter to them we can understand somewhat the nature of the report Timothy brought to him. Our text speaks of their “work of faith,” their “labor of love” and their “patience of hope.” Evidently, however, the report was more specific than merely that they had faith, love and hope. It indicated that they had a faith which worked, a love which labored, and patience which was the practical outgrowth of the hope with which they were inspired.
How Faith Works
The Apostle James tells us that faith without works is dead. (James 2:17) But the faith of the Thessalonian brethren was very much alive. “From you,” Paul wrote to them, “sounded out the Word of the Lord not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith to Godward is spread abroad; so that we need not to speak any thing.” (I Thess. 1:3) What a testimony of a working faith! They not only believed the Gospel themselves, but they believed in it so wholeheartedly that they were laying down their lives to let others know about it. Thus they were “ensamples to all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia.”—I Thess. 1:7
We may say to ourselves and to others that we have absolute faith in the truth, but is our faith working? True faith always works. By faith “Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain.” (Heb. 11:4) By faith “Enoch walked with God.” (Heb. 11:5; Gen. 5:22) By faith Noah built the ark. (Heb. 11:7; Gen. 6:13,22) By faith Abraham left his native country and dwelt in tents in a strange land. (Heb. 11:8,9; Gen. 12:1,4) By faith he prepared to offer Isaac in sacrifice. (Heb. 11:17; Gen. 22:1-9) By faith Moses led the children of Israel out of Egypt and through the Red Sea. (Heb. 11:24-29) All the great things which were accomplished by the ancient worthies were wrought by faith.—Heb. 11:13,39,40
Yes, faith is a moving power in the lives of the faithful. Faith in God and in His cause makes that cause our own for which we are willing to die and without asking how, when, or why. If we really believe the divine plan nothing can prevent us from talking about it. Faith that, in the near future, the Creator of the universe will use His power to establish a righteous government upon this earth which will bring peace and health and life to the people, is a power leading all who possess it to sacrifice even life itself in appreciation of such knowledge.
Love that Labors
While work of faith and labor of love are closely related and, in reality, inseparable in the true Christian life, Paul’s use of the two expressions helps to give us a more comprehensive understanding of the manner in which the zeal of the Thessalonian brethren was demonstrated in what they did for others. Their work of faith was an expenditure of energy along the lines of evangelism, while their labor of love was the practical evidence of their interest in the brethren. We get this thought from the apostle’s language in Hebrews 6:10, where we read, “For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love, which ye have shewed toward His name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister.”
Timothy’s report to Paul of the condition which prevailed in the Thessalonian church must have convinced the apostle that these brethren did indeed have a true love for all the Lord’s people. He writes to them, saying, “But as touching brotherly love, ye need not that I write unto you: for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another. And indeed ye do it toward all the brethren which are in all Macedonia: but we beseech you, brethren, that ye increase more and more.”—I Thess. 4:9,10
Just as the faith of the Thessalonian brethren had caused them to engage in extension work far beyond their own immediate vicinity, so their love prompted them to serve the brethren outside of their own group. Evidently, Jesus’ commandment to love one another had taken on a wider meaning to them than that of doing what they could merely for their own ecclesia. Their labor of love for the brethren had reached out and become a blessing to the saints throughout all, Macedonia. The fact that Paul complimented the Thessalonian brethren for this all-embracing love indicates that without doubt he shared their viewpoint and was pleased with their efforts.
Could any other viewpoint be wholly pleasing to God? Were not the last words which Jesus uttered to His apostles in the nature of a command that they should go into all the world and preach the Gospel, making disciples from among all nations? (Matt. 28:19,20, margin; Acts 1:8) Making disciples involves a great deal more than giving them the opportunity to hear the Gospel. Those who hear and believe need to be built up in the most holy faith. They need to he comforted and strengthened. They need sympathy and understanding. They need to be warned against the encroachments of the Adversary, who is ever on the alert to attack the saints through false teachers and teachings.
All the opportunities of service thus represented are as universal in scope as is the command to preach and make disciples. Our vision of them should embrace “all the world,” and our use of them should be limited only by circumstances which make it impossible for us to reach out farther in our labor of love. “All Macedonia” was a wide field of service for the one ecclesia at Thessalonica, and their labors in this wide field indicate that they took seriously the command of Jesus to serve in all the world if possible.
In chapter 5, verse 11, Paul writes, “Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do.” The expressions “yourselves together” and “one another,” are evidently intended by Paul as references not merely to the church in Thessalonica, but to all the brethren they so lovingly served. Paul admonished them to comfort all of these, not because they were failing to do so, but because he wanted them to know how pleased he was that they were doing it—“even as also ye do.”
Not only was their labor of love manifested in their comforting the brethren throughout Macedonia, but they were also to warn the unruly, and support the weak, and be patient toward all. They were to see to it that none rendered evil for evil, and were to encourage the brethren to follow that which is good, both among themselves, and to all. It was the doing of all these things that constituted their labor of love.—I Thess. 5:14-23
“Patience of Hope”
“For we are saved by hope,” writes Paul to the church at Rome. But, as he explains, “Hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.” (Romans 8:24,25) All the unfulfilled promises of God to the followers of Jesus combine to give them hope. Outstanding among these are the promises concerning the coming and appearing of the Lord Jesus. Paul speaks of this particular hope in his letter to Titus, saying, “Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ.”—Titus 2:13
In both of Paul’s letters to the church at Thessalonica, there is much to indicate the brightness of their hope in the return and appearance of Christ. Evidently their “patience of hope” was manifested particularly by their keen interest in the subject of our Lord’s return. But their interest in the second coming of Christ was by no means unrelated to their Christian activity. Indeed, the outgrowth of their hope in the Lord’s return, and their patient waiting for the fulfillment of that hope, was their faith that worked and their love that labored. Paul wrote to them saying, “And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all, even as we do toward you. To the end that He may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming [presence] of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints.”—I Thess. 3:12,13
Brethren in the early church did not realize that the second coming of Christ would not occur until many centuries after they had fallen asleep in death. James wrote that “the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.” (James 5:8) Peter and Paul understood that Christ would not return until after their death, but how long afterward they do not indicate. In Peter’s second epistle he writes much about the second coming and explains that he wanted the epistle to be a means of establishing the brethren after his decease.—II Peter 1:15
In Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians he writes about the second coming and explains to the brethren that they were to comfort one another with “these words.” (I Thess. 4:16-18) He knew, apparently from the report brought to him by Timothy, that they were well grounded in the truth on this subject, for he remarks that “Yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.” He explained, however, that the brethren would not be in darkness that that day should overtake them “as a thief.”—I Thess. 5:1-4
Doubtless the reason they “knew perfectly” concerning the manner of Christ’s second presence was because they were students of what Jesus Himself had taught on the subject. Perhaps, though, it was a new thought to some of them that, when the Lord returned the brethren themselves would not be in darkness or unaware of His presence, and some of them built more upon this viewpoint than Paul intended. In their eagerness to experience the fulfillment of their blessed hope which was so inseparably related to Christ’s return, these developed the theory that Christ had already returned, using what Paul had said about the subject in an attempt to prove their conclusion.—II Thess. 2:1-3
A little lack of patience in waiting for the fulfillment of this blessed hope could easily lead to an erroneous conclusion concerning what the apostle wrote to them. I Thessalonians 4:16,17, indicated to them that following Christ’s return there would be a short period during which those who are “alive and remain” would continue here in the flesh. This, coupled with the further thought that Christ’s presence would be unknown during this period to anyone except the brethren, was evidently misinterpreted to mean that He had already come. It was a wrong conclusion, but expressive nevertheless, of their enthusiastic desire for Christ’s return in order that their Kingdom hopes might be realized.
First, a Falling Away
That some in the Thessalonian church did get this wrong thought from Paul’s first epistle is apparent from what he writes in his second epistle. We quote: “Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto Him, that ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition.”—II Thess. 2:1-3
Paul did not say that the brethren at Thessalonica had misunderstood what he had written concerning the manner of Christ’s coming and presence. He did not say that none of the saints would remain on the earth for a time following Christ’s return. The only argument he offers to counteract a wrong conclusion that Christ had already returned, was that an important prophetic event must first take place. This was the development of the great antichrist system which he terms, “the man of sin,” “the son of perdition,” “the mystery of iniquity,” and which is depicted in the Old Testament under the figure of “Babylon.” The apostle explains not only that this antichrist would develop and become manifest before Christ’s return, but also that the brightness of Christ’s presence would be the power which would destroy it in the early phase of His Kingdom reign.—II Thess. 2:4,7,8
Thus we are furnished with a helpful example of proper and improper interpretations of prophecy. All of us at times may become impatient in our waiting for the fulfillment of our hopes and, because of our impatience, indulge in speculation concerning the date for the glorification of the church and the full establishment of Christ’s Kingdom. Our position with relation to the prophecies is, of course, somewhat different from that of the Thessalonian brethren. What some of them erroneously concluded as having then occurred, is now a reality. The day of the Lord is here. The great falling away and the development of the antichrist are matters of history, and the bright shining of the Master’s presence is even now exposing its hypocritical claims and preparing for its complete destruction.
It is given to us to be of those who are “alive and remain.” It is our portion to experience the foretold blessedness of those who would be here at the conclusion of “the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days.” (Dan. 12:12; Rev. 14:13) But we still need to exercise the patience of hone. Not until we are “caught up” or exalted to meet our Lord in the “air”—the spiritual phase of the Kingdom—will our hones he realized. (I Thess. 4:17) We long for that consummation, and would hurry it if we could: but we should remember always that our times are in the Lord’s hands and be willing to leave them there.
We know that we can’t actually change God’s times and seasons, but there is a temptation to speculate concerning them. It is well to be watchful, to be alert, and earnestly to desire the speedy fulfillment of all our hopes; but we should not run ahead of the Lord by attempting to decide dates and events of which He has given us no certain knowledge. To do this, it seems to us, would indicate an impatient waiting rather than “patience of hope.”
It is well to remember that we have dedicated ourselves to the Lord for all eternity. Whether it is His will for us to serve this side of the veil or on the other side should not be permitted to weigh against our endeavor to make our calling and election sure. (II Pet. 1:10) It is a privilege and an honor to serve God in any capacity and under all circumstances and conditions. How blessed indeed is our lot, while patiently waiting for the consummation of our hopes to have the opportunity of proving our faith by our works and of laying down our lives in a “labor of love” on behalf of our brethren.
Well might we all take to heart Paul’s admonition to the saints in Thessalonica, “Be not weary in well doing.” (II Thess. 3:13) Even though Christ is now present, until we are glorified with Him, we must still patiently wait, just as the “husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain.”—James 5:7
While waiting, we can rest in the assurance that there is no actual tarrying of the divine program, hence in God’s due time we will hear the “Well done, thou good and faithful servant, … enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.” (Hab. 2:3; Matt. 25:21) Yes, we will hear these blessed words of reception into the Kingdom if we have been “good and faithful” servants—if we have shown our faith by our works; if we have laid down our lives in a “labor of love,” and if we have manifested “patience of hope.”