To Encourage You

1 Thessalonians 1:2-5 “We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction.”

How do you know if a person is a Christian?  More than that, how do you know if you are a Christian?  For one thing, it’s not because you or I say that we are.  People can say anything, but that doesn’t make it true.  For example, many people say that they believe in God, so that makes them Christians.  However, the Bible tells us that the demons believe in God also, but that surely doesn’t mean that they are Christians (James 2:19)! 

In the verses above Paul speaks of true evidence of saving faith – things that are observable to others and things that are confirming marks to the believers themselves.  They are all external evidences that are rooted in internal acts of the Holy Spirit. So, what are they?

One of them is a faith that works.  True faith, i.e., true belief and trust in what God has said, will always produce works.  The Bible speaks about this with these words: “What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food,and one of you says to them, ’Go in peace, be warmed and filled,’ without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also, faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead” (James 2:14-17).  So, a life of true faith will be marked by actions of sacrificial giving of such things as time, finances, or other forms of help to those in need.  Like the story of the good Samaritan, when a need becomes obvious to us, and we have the wherewithal to do something about that need, we won’t steer clear by walking on the other side of the road, like the Levite and the Pharisee did in that story, but we will reach out to the needy person with acts of love. 

And that’s another evidence, i.e., that the works that are done are motivated by love rather than something else.  The verses above call it a “labor of love.”  People can do “good” things for all sorts of reasons, including selfish reasons, like trying to show others how wonderful they are.  Jesus condemned such actions in His Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapters 5-7.  There He pointed out how people can make grand announcements so everyone knows how much money they give to the poor.  That kind of giving is really all about bringing glory to ourselves rather than to God. Jesus taught that giving motivated by a true love for God and our neighbor would be done in a way that doesn’t bring attention to ourselves, for God sees what is done in secret, and that’s all that will really matter to a true believer. 

And then there is the matter of steadfastness, i.e., endurance in the faith, which is another evidence that a person is a true Christian.  It is such endurance that is evidence that a person has a sure hope in the promises of God. Like the seed sown on the good ground in the parable of the sower in Matthew 13, they will persevere, bearing fruit unto God, as opposed to the seed sown on rocky ground or among the thorns, which pointed to people who started well, but when hardship or temptation came their way, they departed from the faith because their faith was never the real thing. 

These three things, i.e., “work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ” will all be evident in a true believer’s life.  It will bea great contrast to that person’s life before they believed.  As Paul stated to the Thessalonian believers, all these evidences had become apparent in their lives as a result of the powerful effect the Word of God had had on them. There had been full conviction of sin which had resulted in a turning from where their lives had been headed, i.e., away from Christ, to a life directed towards Christ.  It was an obvious change. 

So are these things true of you?  If they are, it is strong evidence that you are a true believer. However, if they are not, then it may be that you are not a true believer, no matter what you might think or say about yourself.  God’s Word urges us to be sure of such things with such exhortations as this: “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? —unless indeed you fail to meet the test” (2 Corinthians 13:5)!  And God’s Word provides us the tests through such wonderful passages as 1 Thessalonians 1:2-5.