2Thess 1:1-4 Thank God for Growth

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Thank God for Growth

2Thess 1:1-4 Paul, Silas and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace and peace to you from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We ought always to thank God for you, brothers, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love every one of you has for each other is increasing. Therefore, among God’s churches we boast about your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and trials you are enduring.

Col 1:3-5 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints— the faith and love that spring from the hope that is stored up for you in heaven and that you have already heard about in the word of truth, the gospel

2Peter 1:8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Christian character qualities were meant to grow, not to be stagnant. When God plants a seed he intends for it to grow. Consider in what ways you have grown in your faith and in your love for fellow Christians these past years.

1Peter 1:6,7 In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith— of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire— may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.

How did Paul know their faith was growing? Faith is revealed by one's response to persecutions and trials. And likewise love is revealed by one's actions. Faith and love are not things simply to be felt. They are to be seen. In parts of the world there's persecution against Christians as at that time, but Christians should not cower and hide their faith as secret Christians but should publicly identify with Christ and with the Christian community and accept the persecutions which come with that position, else it may very well be that their faith is not genuine.

One thing that helps Christians to overcome cowardice is by considering the testimony of those who take a public stand in the face of persecution. Paul writes, "Because of my chains, most of the brothers in the Lord have been encouraged to speak the word of God more courageously and fearlessly." Php 1:14

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