Three Valuable Virtues

“We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers, remembering without ceasing your work of faith, labour of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Thessalonians 1:2, 3.

There are three things that Paul remembers and thanks the Lord for, three things that he found in one of the many churches he worked for; the church that gives him more joy and to which he does not rebuke anything. On the contrary, he praises it because of its faith, love expressed in acts of generosity, and patience: the church of Thessalonica.

The good reputation of the Thessalonians because of their faith had spread out not only in Macedonia, but also in Achaia (the Peloponese) and in all of Greece. This faith was not a theory, but it was seen in concrete acts: they had turned to God from idols to serve the living God and to wait for his Son from heaven (1:9). What a wonderful change had taken place in the heart of those Thessalonians! Instead of believing in the gods on Mount Olympus and keeping their worldly ambitions and practices, the Gentiles of Thessalonica opened their hearts to the living God and received the free gift of salvation by grace. On the other hand, the Jews gave up their dead ceremonies, accepted Christ as the Messiah and their personal Saviour and became servants of the Creator of heaven and earth and “imitators of the church of God” (2:14), followers of Jesus Christ, the perfect Model for all Christians! As it happened with the church in Judea, they also suffered at the hands of their countrymen.

Paul had a great longing to visit his brethren in Thessalonica, but Satan hindered him. Therefore he sent Timothy to see how they were doing and Timothy brought very good news. “But now when Timotheus came from you unto us, and brought us good tidings of your faith and charity, and that ye have good remembrance of us always, desiring greatly to see us, as we also [to see] you” (3:6). The tender bond of love had joined the hearts of the believers in Thessalonica to those of their brethren who had brought them the gospel, the good news of salvation, and they longed to see the great missionary of the Gentiles again.

Love could be seen and experienced in the church of Thessalonica among all brethren because all of them, without exception, had the same goal: to serve the living God; and the same hope: they waited for His Son from heaven. Like the church of Philadelphia, centuries later, the Thessalonians were rich in brotherly love.

What is the condition of our own local church” Can love and faith be breathed in our midst” Could the pioneer brother or sister who brought us the message of salvation be consoled and rejoice with the good news that there is unity and genuine love among us” The conditions for this unity are the same today as at the time of Paul: to turn from our idols to the service of the living God and to wait for the coming of His Son from heaven; in other words: a deep conversion, a new birth.

Love is a gift we receive from God only when we walk by faith, and Paul remembers the Thessalonians because of their love. In chapter 4:9, 10, we read: “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.”

Paul did not need to write to the Thessalonians, as he did to the Corinthians, about the things love does not do, because this church had been directly taught by God and love was a daily practice among the believers that lived in the second largest city in Greece; also toward the brethren in the whole region of Macedonia, namely those in Philippi and Berea and wherever else there might be isolated members.

In his second letter to the Thessalonians, Paul mentions once again these virtues: their faith and love. “We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is meet, because that your faith groweth exceedingly, and the charity of every one of you all toward each other aboundeth” (1:3). Their labour of charity had spread out beyond the borders of their own region and reached Corinth where Paul explained that the churches of Macedonia, in spite of their deep poverty, abounded in liberality toward the saints and implored them to accept their free gifts (2 Corinthians 8:1-4). Love, translated as charity in some versions, has its utmost expression in the act of giving: “For God so loved the world, that he gave”” (John 3:16).

Why was the generosity of the Thessalonians so exemplary” Why could they perform such free acts of love and faith” “And [this they did], not as we hoped, but first gave their own selves to the Lord, and unto us by the will of God” (2 Corinthians 8:5). This is the secret of every act of genuine love. To be able to give to others all we are and have, without putting our needs first or measuring our real possibilities, is only possible if we have first given our heart to our Lord. Then, whichever “work of faith” or “labour of love” we perform is not ours, but the Lord”s, who works through us, since we have surrendered Him our will. “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10).

To this living faith and working love of the Thessalonians is added one more Christian virtue: “patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thess. 1:3). Patience is one of the virtues we all need at the end of times, “perseverance in hope” (as it says in Spanish) that we shall one day see and be forever with the One we love so much because He loved us first and gave Himself for us.

A working faith and love keeps this hope alive and makes us patient because no matter how long we have to wait, our waiting is not passive and our goal remains the same and is always before our eyes. Patience is tested in trials, which make us dependent on God as we become more and more aware that we can do nothing on our own, but with the Lord everything is possible (Philippians 4:13). The awareness of our own impotence and limitations makes us patient and willing to take Jesus” yoke upon us and learn humbleness from Him. As a German hymn says: “Der Demut Blume steht im Garten der Geduld”: the flower of humbleness grows in the garden of patience.

The brethren in the church of Thessalonica were humble, had patience and hoped in the Lord. Trials had helped to shape their character. In Acts of the Apostles, Luke reports that when the gospel was preached in Thessalonica during three consecutive Sabbaths, many Jews were persuaded and a great multitude of devout Greeks (Acts 17:1-5) also accepted it, but the Jews who rejected it harassed them. The pattern has repeated itself throughout the centuries.

Not only did these Jews from Thessalonica cause disturbances in their city, but when they heard that in Berea there were many converted as well, they “came thither also, and stirred up the people” (Acts 17:13). Many of us have not yet gone through such kinds of tests of our faith and love for the cause of God, but they are at the door.

God permits these trials so that we can grow in patience, in endurance, in faith and in trust in our Lord. “Knowing [this], that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have [her] perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing” (James 1:3, 4). We shall be tried until the end, in little everyday things and in bigger ones so that our patience may reach a point of perfection and it may once be said of us: “Here is the patience of the saints: here [are] they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.”

May the Lord help each church member to wear the immaculate robe of Christ”s righteousness so that his church may be a model in living faith, labouring love and patience in the hope of our Lord like the church of Thessalonica. Amen.

Teresa Corti