2 Thessalonians 1:3-5, 2 Timothy 2:8-13

Paul has raised the matter of manifest evidence, that the way we live our lives demonstrates God’s righteousness in the way He leads us.  To some this seems to indicate that our works are essential to our salvation, and that of course cannot be the case.  How do we understand this?  Our first point was that we cannot ignore what has been written.  It does use this language: evidence, counted worthy.

·        Second, what Paul is calling attention to is patience and faith. 

o   As we noted, these two qualities added together define hope.  Hope is faith exercised day by day, through trials and persecutions.  In other words, hope is patient faith.  We have come to Christ by faith and have been declared righteous by God (justified).  But then the issue becomes faithfulness if you will.  We are to live each day in the same way we came to Christ (Col. 2:6: As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him).  Sometimes our trials go on for a long time; and sometimes they don’t end until death.  But the point for believers is that our hope is set on the promised revelation of Jesus Christ.  That is why Paul refers so much to that event in the two letters to the Thessalonians: they are suffering and have been suffering from their beginning as a church; they need hope.

o   Now think for a moment: neither patience nor faith are works of the flesh, works that men can produce.  They are both in the list of the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23; if your Bible reads faithfulness in v23 it is the same word as faith in v4 of our passage).  If we are doing things that demonstrate patience and faith then it means God is working in us.  Again, we live today by the same faith, the empty hand reaching out to God to receive His gift of grace, that we had at the moment the journey began.

·        Third, do not be thrown off by the idea of being counted worthy.  Again, it cannot mean that we are worthy because we, in our strength, have measured up to God’s standard.  If you continue on in this chapter you will see, in v11, that Paul prays for the Thessalonians that God would count them worthy of our calling.  Why does Paul pray like this?  Because he knows that is the only way they will be counted worthy.  God must be at work in their lives.  If I am receiving God’s work in my life each day there will be some evidences.  For example, I will pray; that is proof that I see my dependence upon God.  So is the time I spent listening to God in His Word.  My fellowship with believers shows I recognize that God works through His family to build each other up.  And if God is at work then there will be seen, as there was in Thessalonica, the increase and growth in faith, hope and love, the very things God looks for in our lives.

God is righteous to lead us on a path of suffering.  Through that suffering God is producing hope, patient faith: