1 Thessalonians 1: Be Thankful

^“2 We always thank God for all of you and continually mention you in our prayers. ³ We 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.” -1 Thessalonians 1:2-3

The apostle Paul often shared “tough love” with his readers. He was not one to back down, yet he was also not one to verbally beat up on his spiritual family. As he began his letter to his Thessalonian friends, he started with words of encouragement.

What was his focus? Thankfulness. “We always thank God for all of you.” The three-part team of Paul, Silas, and Timothy repeatedly thanked God for their friends, praying for them by name. I don’t know about you, but when someone tells me they are praying for me, especially multiple times, a surge of encouragement fills my soul. Thankful prayer is fuel for the Christian life.

But why were they thankful for their friends? As in the famous love chapter 1 Corinthians 13 that is read at many weddings, we find here the triad of faith, hope, and love. Here, they are combined with work, labor, and endurance. Their friends had been people of faith and people of action.

I spotted two insights as I wrote out these verses. First, we are called to be thankful and prayerful for our spiritual family. This is not optional, but essential to our faith. Second, I see more than ever the need to be a person of both faith and action. We pray, we serve. We don’t separate the two. Jesus didn’t, Paul didn’t, the Thessalonian Church didn’t, and neither should we. Let us be thankful, live like it, and serve God and our fellow brothers and sisters in faith, hope, and love.

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Dillon Burroughs is the author and coauthor of numerous books and is handwriting a copy of all 31,173 verses of the Bible at HolyWritProject.com. Find out more about Dillon at Facebook.com/readdB or readdB.com.