Remember . . . Remain 1 Thessalonians 1.1-12

REMEMBER. . . REMAIN 2 Thessalonians 1.1-12

Good Day~

Almost as soon as Paul closes his first letter to the Thessalonians, he begins another—even as he continued to minister with Silas and Timothy in the city of Corinth. In his opening words, he endeavors to bolster the faith of the Thessalonian believers—through reminding them of how God had answered their earlier prayers (1 Thess. 3.10, 12), for increased love and tenacity in their faith—now, both were evident—that is to say, happening, in the community!

“Paul, Silas and Timothy, to the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: 2. Grace and peace to you from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 3. 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. 4. Therefore, among God’s churches we boast about your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and trials you are enduring.
5. All this is evidence that God’s judgment is right, and as a result you will be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are suffering. 6. God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you 7. and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from Heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. 8. He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power 10. on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed. This includes you, because you believed our testimony to you.
11. With this in mind, we constantly pray for you, that our God may count you worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may fulfill every good purpose of yours and every act prompted by your faith. 12. We pray this so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

‘Remember . . .’ Paul says to the people, ‘what God has done for you, how he has answered your prayers, and how he has answered our prayers on your behalf.’ Remember, my friends, how God has been faithful to you in the past. ‘Reminds me of the monument Joshua had the Israelites build, to mark the place where God had delivered them as they crossed through on a dry Jordan riverbed…Joshua 4. The stone monument was a tangible, physical reminder of God’s care for them—for them, and as a statement to future generations.

‘Remain . . . in the faith, as God will continue to listen, and move among you. He will vindicate the wrong that has been done to you—trust him, and rest in that.’ The young church was facing extreme persecution, but down through history, in the times of her greatest persecution, she grows. ‘Trust God,’ Paul says, ‘to avenge your pain. As for those who are causing your suffering, God knows . . . he sees. . . he will repay.’

The strongest judgment will be the one meted out on Judgment Day by those who have rejected Jesus Christ, (that was a salient argument because much of the suffering of the Thessalonians was due to their trust in Jesus, and their ‘sold-out’ beliefs in “The Way.”)

Paul assures them that God will vindicate them. In the Song of Moses, in Deuteronomy 32, it reads, “The Lord will judge his people and have compassion on his servants.” Similarly, the prophet Isaiah wrote,
“Say to those with fearful hearts,
“Be strong, and do not fear;
your God will come,
he will come with vengeance;
with divine retribution
he will come to save you.”
Isaiah 35.4

When I was at Urbana in 1978—a worldwide missions conference for college students—I heard several of my heroes speak, including Billy Graham and John Stott.* Stott made this relevant application to this passage:
“Faith is a relationship of trust in God,

and like all relationships is a living, dynamic, growing thing.”


My prayer for you, Friends, is that your relationship with God might grow and thrive, as your love for him abounds still more and more. I pray that your faith will increase, so that you know that you know that you know he is good. And that you believe that what he says he will do, he will do . . . that what he has begun in you, he will be faithful to complete it. Amen.

Remember . . . how God has answered your prayers, how he has loved you.
Remain . . . faithful to that which he has called you, so that your life will bring glory to him.

Christine PODCAST: www.pastorwoman.com



*John Stott is a highly influential Anglican minister and leader in the British evangelical movement. He has authored 50 books, maybe the most important of which is, Basic Christianity, which explains the message of Christianity—its importance and truth. Every student of Scripture should have a copy of this book on her shelf.