At Work

1 Thessalonians 1:2-3 We always thank God for all of you, mentioning you in our prayers. 3 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.
 
WHAT is one reason Paul, Silas and Timothy pray for the church at Thessalonica?  
    One reason is for their work produced by faith. What would that work be? One guideline for this is in Psalms 64:9 All mankind will fear; they will proclaim the works of God and ponder what he has done. As noted several times, to fear God is to worship him with the  understanding he has all things in his hand. We worship him in love because he first loved us to save us from destruction. We fear God’s justice, knowing his way is the only true way to life everlasting.
    In a church then, the first work of faith is worship. Corporate worship is one evidence to the world that the church exists. That’s one reason pagan countries outlaw the assembly of God’s people. If a church does not meet to worship, people would not know the church exits. The Thessalonica church worshiped together.
    Another work of the church was to support Paul and others with offerings. A church is often called to support missions and other ministries with a faith commitment of an amount that may seem difficult to achieve. All offerings are a work of faith as we believe God will use our gifts to his glory.
    Another faith work is evangelism. The church had to continue growing after Paul and his partners left. The only way for that to happen was to work to proclaim Jesus to nonbelievers.
    One more faith work was their defense of the gospel. All early churches faced much opposition and false teaching. The church had to work to faithfully learn the truth, teach the truth and defend the truth.
    Certainly the church would work at prayer, teaching and preaching, too. A Jesus-centered church requires constant faith work. One who belongs to a church must be willing to work in the church help the church do the works of God.
    Continual faith works are sometimes difficult. They can seem impossible to accomplish. That’s why Paul commends your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope. It’s very difficult to steadily labor for Jesus if we only have a half-hearted relationship with him. And if we have no hope in God’s promised future, how can we endure the hardships of faith work? In another letter, Paul summarized it this way: And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:13) God’s love for you caused him to do the most difficult work of all: to sacrifice Jesus to the cross. What work does your faith, hope and love cause you to do?