1 Thessalonians 2

Paul had been “put in trust with the gospel” (1 Thess. 2:4). It was not a message that he made up or that he received from men (Gal. 1:11–12). Paul looked on himself as a steward of God’s message.

A steward owns nothing, but possesses and uses everything that belongs to his master. Joseph was a steward in the household of Potiphar (Gen. 39:1–6). He managed his master’s affairs and used all his master’s goods to promote his master’s welfare. Every steward one day must give an account of his stewardship (Luke 16:1–2). If he is found unfaithful, he will suffer.

The message of the gospel is a treasure God has entrusted to us. We must not bury it; we must invest it so it will multiply and produce “spiritual dividends” to God’s glory. Some Christians think that the church’s only responsibility is to protect the gospel from those who would change it (Gal. 1:6–9). But we also must share the gospel; otherwise, we are protecting it in vain.

Faithfulness is the most important quality a steward possesses (1 Cor. 4:1–2). He may not be popular in the eyes of men, but he dare not be unfaithful in the eyes of God. “Not as pleasing men, but God who trieth [testeth] our hearts” (1 Thess. 2:4). The Christian who “plays to the grandstands” will lose God’s approval. When we see the characteristics of Paul’s ministry as a steward, we understand what faithfulness means.

The manner of his ministry (vv. 1–2). Paul and Silas had been beaten and humiliated at Philippi, yet they came to Thessalonica and preached. Most of us would have taken a vacation or found an excuse not to minister. Paul was courageous—he was not a quitter. He had a “holy boldness” that was born of dedication to God. Like the other apostles before him, Paul boldly proclaimed the good news (Acts 4:13, 29, 31).

His preaching was “with much contention.” This is an athletic term that means “a contest, a struggle.” The Greek world was familiar with athletic contests, and Paul often used this idea to illustrate spiritual truths (1 Cor. 9:24–27; Phil. 3:13–14; 2 Tim. 4:7). He used this same word in Philippians 1:30, where he pictured the Christian life as an athletic contest that demanded dedication and energy. It had not been easy to start a church in Philippi, and it was not easy to start one in Thessalonica.

The message of his ministry (v. 3a). “For the appeal we make does not spring from error” (niv). Here he assured them that his message was true. Six times in this letter he mentioned the gospel. This message of Christ’s death and resurrection (1 Cor. 15:1–6) is a true message and is the only true gospel (Gal. 1:6–12). Paul received this gospel from God, not from man. It is the only good news that saves the lost sinner.

The motive of his ministry (v. 3b). He was not guilty of “uncleanness,” for his motives were pure. It is possible to preach the right message with the wrong motives (Phil. 1:14–19). Unfortunately, some people in Paul’s day used religion as a means for making money. Paul did not use the gospel as “a cloak” to cover his “covetousness” (1 Thess. 2:5). He was open and honest in all his dealings, and he even worked at a trade to earn his own support (see 2 Thess. 3:8–10).

Paul was very sensitive about money matters. He did not want to give anyone a reason to accuse him of being a religious salesman (1 Cor. 9:1–18). As an apostle, he had the privilege of receiving support. But he gave up that right in order to be free from any possible blame that would disgrace the ministry.

The method of his ministry (vv. 3c–6). Paul did not use guile or trickery to win converts. The word translated “guile” carries the idea of “baiting a hook.” In other words, Paul did not trap people into being saved the way a clever salesman traps people into buying his product. Spiritual witnessing and “Christian salesmanship” are different. Salvation does not lie at the end of a clever argument or a subtle presentation. It is the result of God’s Word and the power of the Holy Spirit (1 Thess. 1:5).

Often we hear, “I don’t care what your method is, just so long as your message is right.” But some methods are unworthy of the gospel. They are cheap, whereas the gospel is a costly message that required the death of God’s only Son. They are worldly and man centered, whereas the gospel is a divine message centered in God’s glory.

Paul’s enemies in Thessalonica accused him of being a cheap peddler of this new message. They said that his only motive was to make money. In describing himself as a faithful steward, Paul answered these critics, and Paul’s readers knew that he told the truth. (Trace that phrase “as ye know” in 1 Thess. 1:5; 2:1, 5, 11; 3:3–4; 4:2; 5:2.) Paul appealed to the witness of God (1 Thess. 2:5) and to their own witness. He had “a conscience void of offense toward God, and toward men” (Acts 24:16).

Paul abhorred flattery (1 Thess. 2:5). David also hated this sin. “They speak vanity everyone with his neighbor; with flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak” (Ps. 12:2).

I once read that a flatterer is a person who manipulates rather than communicates. A flatterer can use either truth or lies to achieve his unholy purpose, which is to control your decisions for his own profit.

Some people even flatter themselves. “For he flatters himself in his own eyes” (Ps. 36: rsv). This was the sin of Haman, that evil man in the book of Esther. He was so interested in flattering himself that he even plotted to slaughter all the Jews to achieve that goal.

Some people try to flatter God. “Nevertheless they [Israel] did flatter him [God] with their mouth, and they lied unto him with their tongues” (Ps. 78:36). Flattery is another form of lying. It means saying one thing to God with our lips while our hearts are far from Him (Mark 7:6).

Some Christians try to win friends and influence people by appealing to their egos. A true ministry of the gospel deals honestly (but lovingly) with sin and judgment and leaves the unbeliever with nothing to boast of in himself. Paul’s method was as pure as his motive: he presented the Word of God in the power of the Spirit, and trusted God to work.

Chapter 1 of 1 Thessalonians introduced us to Paul the evangelist. This chapter introduces us to Paul the pastor, for it explains how the great apostle cared for the new believers in the churches that he founded. Paul considered “the care of all the churches” (2 Cor. 11:28) a greater burden than all the sufferings and difficulties he experienced in his ministry (2 Cor. 11:23ff.).

Just as God uses people to bring the gospel to the lost, so He uses people to nurture the babes in Christ and help lead them to maturity. The church at Thessalonica was born through the faithful preaching of the apostle and his helpers, and the church was nurtured through the faithful pastoring that Paul and his friends gave to the infant church. This helped them stand strong in the midst of persecution.

In these verses, Paul reminded them of the kind of ministry he had as he taught and cared for the young church. Three pictures of his ministry emerge.

The emphasis of the steward is faithfulness; the emphasis of the mother is gentleness. As an apostle, Paul was a man of authority, but he always used his authority in love. The babes in Christ sensed his tender loving care as he nurtured them. He was indeed like a loving mother who cared for her children.

It takes time and energy to care for children. Paul did not turn his converts over to babysitters; he made sacrifices and cared for them himself. He did not tell them to “read a book” as a substitute for his own personal ministry (though good Christian literature can help young believers to grow).

Paul had patience with the new Christians. Our four children are into adulthood now, but I can assure you that my wife and I needed a great deal of patience before they reached that state. (To even things up, our parents needed patience with us!) Children do not grow up instantly. They all experience growing pains and encounter problems as they mature. Paul’s love for them made him patient, because love suffers long, and is kind (1 Cor. 13:4).

Paul also nourished them. First Thessalonians 2: can read “even as a nursing mother cherishes her own children.” What is the lesson here? A nursing mother imparts her own life to the child. This is exactly what Paul wrote in 1 Thessalonians 2:8. You cannot be a nursing mother and turn your baby over to someone else. That baby must be in your arms, next to your heart.

The nursing mother eats the food and transforms it into milk for the baby. The mature Christian feeds on the Word of God and then shares its nourishment with the younger believers so they can grow (1 Peter 2:1–3). A nursing child can become ill through reaction to something the mother has eaten. The Christian who is feeding others must be careful not to feed on the wrong things himself.

Besides making sacrifices, having patience, and giving nourishment, a mother also protects her child. It was this fact that enabled King Solomon to discover which woman was the real mother of the living child (1 Kings 3:16–28). Paul was willing to give not only the gospel but his own life as well. His love for the Thessalonians was so great he would die for them if necessary.

But it is not easy to be a “nursing mother.” Even Moses felt the burden of caring for God’s people. “Was it I who conceived all this people? Was it I who brought them forth, that Thou shouldest say to me, ‘Carry them in your bosom as a nurse carries a nursing infant, to the land which Thou didst swear to their fathers’?” (Num. 11: nasb). But if we do not nurse the new Christians on the milk of the Word, they can never mature to appreciate the meat of the Word (Heb. 5:10–14).

Paul considered himself a “spiritual father” to the believers at Thessalonica, just as he did toward the saints at Corinth. “For if you were to have countless tutors in Christ, yet you would not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel” (1 Cor. 4: nasb). The Spirit of God used the Word of God in Paul’s ministry, and many people in Thessalonica were born again into the family of God.

But the father not only begets the children; he also cares for them. As he defended his own work against false accusations, Paul pointed out three of his duties as the spiritual father to the Thessalonicans.

His work (v. 9). The father works to support his family. Even though the Christians in Philippi sent financial help (Phil. 4:15–16), Paul still made tents and paid his own way. No one could accuse him of using his ministry for his own profit. Later on, Paul used this fact to shame the lazy Christians in the Thessalonican church (2 Thess. 3:6ff).

Paul used the words “labor and travail.” J. B. Phillips translated these words “our struggles and hard work.” “Toil and hardship” would be another translation. It was not easy to make tents and minister the Word at the same time. No wonder Paul toiled “night and day” (Acts 20:31). He toiled because he loved the believers and wanted to help them as much as possible. “For I seek not yours, but you: for the children ought not to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children” (2 Cor. 12:14).

His walk (v. 10). Fathers must live so that they are good examples to their children. He could call the Thessalonican believers as witnesses that his life had been exemplary in every way. None of the members of the assembly could accuse Paul of being a poor example. Furthermore, God had witnessed Paul’s life, and Paul was not afraid to call God as a witness that he had lived a dedicated life, while caring for the church family.

His life was holy. In the Greek, this means to “carefully fulfill the duties God gives to a person.” Our word pious is close to it, if you think of piety at its best and not as some fake kind of religion. This same word is applied to the character of God in Revelation 15: and 16:5.

His life was also righteous. This refers to integrity, uprightness of character, and behavior. This is not the “righteousness, which is of the law” but the practical righteousness that God works out in our lives as we yield to Him (Phil. 3:4–10).

Paul’s life was also unblamable. Literally, this word means “not able to find fault in.” His enemies might accuse him, but no one could level any charge against Paul and prove it. Christians are supposed to be “blameless and harmless” as they live in this world (Phil. 2:15).

His words (vv. 11–12). A father must not only support the family by working and teach the family by being a good example, He must also take time to speak to the family members. Paul knew the importance of teaching these new believers the truths that would help them grow in the Lord.

Paul dealt with each of the believers personally. “For you know that we dealt with each of you as a father deals with his own children” (1 Thess. 2: niv). As busy as he was, Paul still had time for personal counseling with the members of the assembly. While it is good for church leaders to address the larger group, spending time with people on a one-to-one basis is also needed. Our Lord was never too busy to speak to individuals, even though He preached to great multitudes. To be sure, this is difficult and demanding work. But it is rewarding work that glorifies God.

Paul encouraged the new believers. This is what a father does with his children, for children are easily discouraged. New Christians need someone to encourage them in the Lord. The word exhorting in our Authorized Version means “to call to one’s side, to encourage.” It does not mean that Paul scolded them. Rather, it means he encouraged them to go on with the Lord.

I once received a letter from a radio listener who thanked me for the encouragement of the messages she had heard. “When we go to church,” she wrote, “all our pastor does is scold us and whip us. We really get tired of this. It’s refreshing to hear some words of encouragement!”

Paul also comforted them. This word carries the same idea of “encouragement,” with the emphasis on activity. Paul not only made them feel better, but he made them want to do better. A father must not pamper a child; rather, he must encourage the child to go right back and try over again. Christian encouragement must not become an anesthesia that puts us to sleep. It must be a stimulant that awakens us to do better.

Finally, Paul charged them. This word means that Paul “testified to them” out of his own experience with the Lord. It carries the idea of giving personal witness. Sometimes we go through difficulties so that we may share with new Christians what the Lord has done. God “comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God” (2 Cor. 1: niv).

We who are parents know that our children (especially teenagers) do not like to hear us say, “Now, back when I was a kid.…” But this is an important part of training a family. It is a wonderful thing when a “spiritual father” can encourage and help his “children” out of his own experience with the Lord. “Come, ye children, hearken unto me: I will teach you the fear of the Lord” (Ps. 34:11).

What was the purpose for this fatherly ministry to the believers? His aim was that his children might “walk worthy of God” (1 Thess. 2:12). Just as a father wants to be proud of his children, so the Lord wants to get glory through the lives of His children. “I was very glad to find some of your children walking in truth” (2 John 4 nasb). Paul ministered to them in such a personal way because he was teaching them how to walk.

Every child must learn how to walk. He must have good models to follow. Paul admonished them to walk “worthy of the Lord” (see Col. 1: and Phil. 1:27). We are to walk worthy of the calling we have in Christ Jesus (Eph. 4:1). God has called us; we are saved by grace. We are a part of His kingdom and glory. One day we shall enter the eternal kingdom and share His glory. This assurance ought to govern our lives and make us want to please the Lord.

The verb in 1 Thessalonians 2: is in the present tense: “who is continually calling you.” God called us to salvation (2 Thess. 2:13–14), and He is constantly calling us to a life of holiness and obedience. “But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation [behavior]; because it is written, ‘Be ye holy, for I am holy’” (1 Peter 1:15–16).

This passage gives us a beautiful example of New Testament follow-up. Paul has shown us how to raise the babies. We must be faithful stewards, loving mothers, and concerned fathers. If we are not faithful to God, we may find ourselves becoming doting mothers and pampering fathers. Children need discipline as well as love. In fact, discipline is one evidence of love.

No wonder the church at Thessalonica prospered in spite of persecution, and shared the gospel with others for miles around. They had been born right (1 Thess. 1) and nurtured right (1 Thess. 2). This is a good example for us to follow.

The church has been founded on the Word of God (1 Thess. 1:6), the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The same Word that brings us salvation also enables us to live for Christ and endure suffering for His sake. Paul was thankful that the saints in Thessalonica had the right spiritual attitudes toward the Word of God. This helped them endure in the hour of suffering.

They appreciated the Word. They did not receive it as the word of men; they received it as the Word of God. We must never treat the Bible as any other book, for the Bible is different in origin, character, content, and cost. The Bible is the Word of God. It was inspired by the Spirit of God (2 Tim. 3:16) and written by men of God who were used by the Spirit (2 Peter 1:20–21). God’s Word is holy, pure, and perfect (Ps. 19:7–9). The Bible was written at great cost, not only to the writers, but to Jesus Christ who became Man that the Word of God might be given to us.

The way a Christian treats his Bible shows how he regards Jesus Christ. He is the living Word (John 1:1, 14), and the Bible is the written Word, but in essence they are the same. Both are bread (Matt. 4:4; John 6:48), light (Ps. 119:105; John 8:12), and truth (John 14:6; 17:17). The Holy Spirit gave birth to Jesus Christ through a holy woman (Luke 1:35), and He gave birth to the Bible through holy men of God (2 Peter 1:20–21). Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God forever (Rom. 1:25), and the Word of God will live forever (Ps. 119:89; 1 Peter 1:23, 25).

It may be a personal prejudice, but I dislike seeing a Bible on the floor or at the bottom of a stack of books. If I am carrying several books with my Bible, I try to remember to put the Bible on the top. If we appreciate the Bible as the inspired Word of God, then we will reveal this appreciation in our treatment of the Bible.

Would you rather have your Bible than food? Job said, “I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food” (Job 23:12). God’s Word is bread (Matt. 4:4), milk and meat (Heb. 5:11–14), and even honey (Ps. 119:103). Mary chose the Word, but her sister Martha got involved in making a meal (Luke 10:38–42). Mary got the blessing while Martha lost the victory.

Would you rather have God’s Word than money? The believer who wrote Psalm 119 made it clear that God’s Word meant more to him than “all riches” (Ps. 119:14), “thousands of gold and silver” (Ps. 119:72), “fine gold” (Ps. 119:127), and even “great spoil” (Ps. 119:162).

I recall a young couple I sought to help in one of my churches. They had a lovely little son, but they were very careless about attending church and Sunday school. The little boy was not getting the Christian training he needed. A visit to the home told me why: the father wanted more money and so he worked on Sundays to make double time. He did not have to work on the Lord’s Day, but he wanted the money rather than God’s Word. He earned more money, but he was never able to keep it. The little son became ill and the extra money went to doctors.

Would you rather have God’s Word than sleep? “My eyes anticipate the right watches, that I may meditate on Thy Word” (Ps. 119:148 nasb). The Jews had three night watches: sunset to ten, ten to two, and two until dawn. The psalmist gave up sleep three times each right that he might spend time with the Word. But some Christians cannot get out of bed on Sunday morning to study the Word.

If we are going to be victorious in suffering, we must appreciate the Word. But there is a second attitude we must show toward the Bible.

They appropriated the Word. Paul used two different words for “received”: the first means simply “to accept from another,” while the second means “to welcome.” One means “the hearing of the ear,” while the other means “the hearing of the heart.” The believers at Thessalonica did not only hear the Word; they took it into their inner man and made it a part of their lives.

The Lord Jesus repeatedly warned people about the wrong kind of hearing, and His warnings are still needed. “Who hath ears to hear, let him hear” (Matt. 13:9). In other words, “Take heed that you hear.” Use every opportunity you have to hear the Word of God.

But He gave another warning in Mark 4:24: “Take heed what ye hear.” How often believers hear the Word of God in Sunday school and church and then get in their cars, turn on the radio, and listen to programs that help erase the impressions made by the Word. When we visited church congregations in Great Britain, my wife and I were impressed with their practice of sitting down after the benediction. They meditated on the Word and allowed the Spirit to minister to them. This is far better than rushing out of church and joking with friends.

Our Lord’s third warning is in Luke 8:18: “Take heed therefore how ye hear.” Many people are careless hearers and cannot apply themselves to listen to the teaching of God’s Word. These people have “itching ears” and want religious entertainment (2 Tim. 4:3). Some of them are “dull of hearing” (Heb. 5:11), too lazy to apply themselves and pay attention. One of these days our churches will be hungry because of a famine “for hearing the words of the Lord” (Amos 8:11). Too many churches have substituted entertainment for the preaching of God’s Word, and many people no longer welcome the Word of God.

How do we appropriate the Word? By understanding it and receiving it into our hearts, and by meditating on it so that it becomes part of the inner man. Meditation is to the spiritual life what digestion is to the physical life. If you did not digest your food, you would die. It takes time to meditate, but it is the only way to appropriate the Word and grow.

They applied the Word. They obeyed the Word by faith, and the Word went to work in their lives. It is not enough to appreciate the Bible, or even to appropriate the Bible. We must apply the Word in our lives and be hearers and doers of the Word (James 1:19–25).

The Word of God has in it the power to accomplish the will of God. “For nothing is impossible with God” (Luke 1: niv). It has well been said, “God’s commandments are God’s enablements.” Jesus commanded the crippled man to stretch out his hand—the very thing the man could not do. Yet that word of command gave him the power to obey. He trusted the word, obeyed, and was made whole (Mark 3:1–5). When we believe God’s Word and obey, He releases power—divine energy—that works in our lives to fulfill His purposes.

The Word of God within us is a great source of power in times of testing and suffering. If we appreciate the Word (the heart), appropriate the Word (the mind), and apply the Word (the will), then the whole person will be controlled by God’s Word and He will give us the victory.

It was not easy to be a Christian in Thessalonica, where believers faced persecution and suffering. Their situation explains Paul’s choice of words: affliction (1 Thess. 1:6; 3:3), which means “pressure from circumstances”; suffered (1 Thess. 2:14), the same word used for our Lord’s sufferings; persecuted (1 Thess. 2:15), meaning “driven out and rejected”; contrary (1 Thess. 2:15), used of winds that blow against and hinder progress; and hindered (1 Thess. 2:18), which pictures a road so broken up that travel is blocked.

Yet in the midst of suffering, the Thessalonian Christians experienced joy. They received Paul’s ministry of the Word “in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Spirit” (1 Thess. 1:6). Paul certainly was burdened for his brethren who were going through suffering, and yet he also had joy (1 Thess. 2:19–20). It was a fulfillment of our Lord’s promise, “In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).

Churches do experience “growing pains” as they seek to win the lost and glorify the Lord. We may not experience the same kind of political and religious persecution that the early Christians suffered (though in some parts of the world today the persecution is just as intense as it was then). Yet if we are living “godly in Christ Jesus,” we will suffer for His sake (2 Tim. 3:12). In this paragraph, Paul explained the divine resources we have in times of suffering and persecution.

In my pastoral work, I often found that suffering people can become very self-centered and think that they are the only ones going through the furnace. Everyone goes through the normal human suffering such as sickness, pain, and bereavement. But I am referring to the suffering we endure because we are Christians.

Perhaps your family has disowned you because of your faith, or perhaps you have been bypassed for a promotion at work because you are a Christian. These experiences hurt, but they are not ours alone. Other Christians are going through the same trials, and many, in other parts of the world, face much greater difficulty.

Not only were the Thessalonian saints imitators of the Lord and of Paul (1 Thess. 1:6), but they also became imitators of the Jewish believers in their experience of persecution. The saints in Judea suffered at the hands of the Jews, and the saints in Thessalonica suffered at the hands of the Gentiles. But keep in mind that even this Gentile persecution was encouraged by the Jewish unbelievers (Acts 17:5, 13). Jesus promised that this would happen (John 15:18–27).

Was Paul giving evidence of “religious bigotry” when he accused the Jews of killing Jesus Christ and persecuting the Christians? No, he was simply stating a fact of history. Nowhere does the Bible accuse all Jews of what a few Jews did in Jerusalem and Judea when Christ was crucified and the church founded. The Romans also participated in the trial and death of Christ, and, for that matter, it was our sins that sent Him to the cross (Isa. 53:6). There is no place in the Christian faith for anti-Semitism. Paul himself loved his fellow Jews and sought to help them (Acts 24:17; Rom. 9:1–5).

God called Israel to be a blessing to all the world (Gen. 12:1–3; 22:18). Through Israel He gave the promises and the covenants, and the Word of God, and through Israel, Jesus Christ the Savior came into the world. “Salvation is of the Jews” (John 4:22). The first Christians were Jews, as was Paul, the greatest Christian missionary.

Why, then, did the leaders of Israel officially reject Jesus Christ and persecute His followers? They were only repeating the sins of their fathers. Their ancestors had persecuted the prophets long before Jesus came to earth (Matt. 5:10–12). They could not see that their law was only a temporary preparation for God’s new covenant of grace. By rejecting God’s truth, they protected their man-made traditions (Mark 7:1–8). Our Lord’s parable in Luke 20:9–19 explained their sinful attitudes.

The sad thing was that Israel was filling up their sins (1 Thess. 2:16) and storing up wrath for the day of judgment. This image is used in Genesis 15:16, and Jesus used it in His sermon against the Pharisees (Matt. 23:32). God patiently waits as sinners rebel against Him, and He watches as their measure of sin and judgment fills up. When the time is up, God’s patience will end and judgment will fall.

In one sense, judgment had already fallen on Israel; for they were a scattered people, and their nation in Palestine was under Roman rule (see Deut. 28:15ff). But an even greater judgment was to fall in the future; for in AD 70 the Roman armies besieged Jerusalem, destroyed the city and the temple, and ended the period of God’s patience with His people during the ministry of the apostles (see Matt. 22:1–11). It is tragic but true that the righteous suffered because of the sins of the wicked.

Paul encouraged the suffering Christians by assuring them that their experiences were not new or isolated. Others had suffered before them and were even then suffering with them. The churches in Judea had not been exterminated by suffering; if anything, they had been purified and increased. But the persecutors were filling up the measure of wrath to be heaped on their heads. Saints have been saved to the uttermost (Heb. 7:25), but sinners will experience wrath to the uttermost (1 Thess. 2:16).

Here is one of the great values of the local church: we stand together in times of difficulty and encourage one another. It was when Elijah isolated himself from the other faithful Israelites that he became discouraged and wanted to quit. One reason Paul sent Timothy back to Thessalonica was to encourage the believers (1 Thess. 3:1–4). A lonely saint is very vulnerable to the attacks of Satan. We need each other in the battles of life.

Paul was not ashamed to state his affection for the Thessalonian Christians. He felt as though he had been “orphaned” from them (1 Thess. 2:17) since he was their spiritual mother and father (1 Thess. 2:7, 11). Paul wanted to remain there longer to help ground them in the faith, but the enemy drove him out. However, his absence was only physical; he was still with them in heart (see Phil. 1:7).

Paul made every effort possible to return to them, though Satan was “breaking up the road and putting up obstacles” (literal meaning of “hindered” in 1 Thess. 2:18). Paul had the same kind of deep desire to be with them as Jesus had to be with His disciples before His death (Luke 22:15).

But Paul did not look back and give in to regret and remorse. Instead, he looked ahead and rejoiced. For the Christian, the best is yet to come. Paul looked ahead by faith and saw his friends in the presence of Jesus Christ in glory.

In times of trouble and testing, it is important that we take the long view of things. Paul lived in the future tense, as well as in the present. His actions were governed by what God would do in the future. He knew that Jesus Christ would return and reward him for his faithful ministry; and on that day, the saints from Thessalonica would bring glory to God and joy to Paul’s heart. As the familiar song says, “It will be worth it all when we see Jesus.”

The fact that we shall one day stand at the Judgment Seat of Christ ought to motivate us to be faithful in spite of difficulties. We must remember that faithfulness is the important thing (1 Cor. 4:2). At the judgment seat of Christ, our works will be judged and rewards will be given (Rom. 14:10–12; 1 Cor. 4:1–5; 2 Cor. 5:9–10). In his letters, Paul often pictured these rewards as crowns. The word used signified the “victor’s crown” at the races, not the royal crown of the king. It is the word stephanos from which we get the names “Stephen” and “Stephanie.”

Paul did not say that he would receive a crown, though this is suggested. He said that the saints themselves would be his crown when he met them at the judgment seat. To be sure, some of the believers in the church were not living as they should, and some were a burden to Paul. But when he looked ahead and saw them in glory, they brought joy to his heart.

This joy of greeting believers in heaven also brings with it a solemn warning: we will lose joy if we go to heaven emptyhanded. The Christian who has not sincerely tried to win others to Christ will not experience this glory and joy when Jesus Christ returns. It is not enough to “wait for his Son” (1 Thess. 1:10). We must also witness for God and work for His Son, so that when we get to heaven, we will have trophies to present for His glory. There is a special joy and reward for the soul-winner (Dan. 12:3).

There is also a crown for the believer who subdues his body and keeps it controlled for the glory of God (1 Cor. 9:24–27). Self-control is produced by the Spirit (Gal. 5:23). Since our bodies are God’s temples, we must be careful not to defile them. The ultimate in giving the body to God is dying for His sake; and for this there is a crown (Rev. 2:10). Those who lovingly look for Christ’s appearing will receive the “crown of righteousness” (2 Tim. 4:8). The faithful pastor can anticipate the “crown of glory” (1 Peter 5:4).

We must never look on future rewards as a means of showing up the other saints. Like the elders described in Revelation 4: (a picture of the glorified church), we will worship the Lord and lay our crowns at His feet (Rev. 4:10). After all, our work was done in his power and for His glory, so He deserves all the praise.

The fact that God promises rewards to us is another evidence of His grace. God could demand our service simply on the basis of all He has done for us. Our motive for serving Him is love. In His grace, He gives us rewards so that we may have something to give Him in return.

When the Christians at Thessalonica read this letter, it must have encouraged them tremendously. They were going through intense persecution and suffering, and perhaps some of them were tempted to give up.

“Don’t give up!” Paul encouraged them. “Lay hold of the spiritual resources you have in Jesus Christ. You have the Word of God within you, the people of God around you, and the glory of God before you. There is no need to give up.”