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Power to Grow in Suffering (1 Thessalonians 3:6–4:12)

[Listen to an audio version here]

Our goal should always be to become people who trust more, love more, and hope more. We want our hearts and minds to be oriented toward God so that our feet rest firm on the rock of His promises even when storms are blowing all around us. This foundation of connection with God enables us to love others, even when everyone around us is trapped in the vicious cycle of their own anxieties.

It’s easy to think we’re doing well at faith, hope, and love when times are good, when things are prosperous, when anxiety is low. What happens, though, when people oppose us, when life unravels, and when our earthly securities collapse? Then, we find out what we are made of.

That’s how we need to reinterpret suffering. Suffering is a revelation. It tells us where we really stand. It reveals the depths of our thoughts. It shows our lack of training. It points us forward to areas of growth.

However, suffering can seem so daunting. How can we stand against so many temptations? The answer: we don’t have to do it alone. The power of God is available to help us. We need to trust Him!

I want to draw your attention to the blessing that Paul pronounces over the church in Thessalonika in 1 Thessalonians 3:11-13. In particular, he asks God to “make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you” (v. 12) and to “strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy.” In this benediction, God teaches us that the power for growth comes from Him. In this passage of Scripture, I want to consider how God gives us power to grow in faith, to grow in holiness, and to grow in love, even in the face of suffering. There is hope that we can do this because God is our Father and has revealed Himself in Jesus Christ with power to live a new life and die to sin.

Growth in Faith
The question that Paul introduces in this book is the question of whether or not the Thessalonians would remain unmoved in their faith in the face of suffering. He was concerned about them because he could not be with them. He knew they were facing trials. He had prepared them, but he was still concerned about how they would do.

Anyone who has loved and cared for children can understand this. Inevitably, there comes a time in which we must let them go out on their own, and they will have to stand for themselves. How will they do when they meet the shocks of life? We are anxious to know. Will they be OK? That is what Paul was feeling before he wrote this letter.

Paul wrote this letter, though, after having received a wonderful report. “But Timothy has just now come to us from you and has brought good news about your faith and love. He has told us that you always have pleasant memories of us and that you long to see us, just as we also long to see you” (1 Thess. 3:6). They were encouraged “because of their faith.”

Now, even though the Thessalonians had to exercise their faith, that did not mean that God was not the ultimate source of their faith. Recall that earlier on, Paul gave thanks that the Word had come not only in words but in power and in the Spirit (see 1 Thess. 1:5). This meant that it was God’s power that enabled them to believe. Here he gives thanks again. He gives thanks to God not only that they became believers but that they remained believers. “How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy we have in the presence of our God because of you?” (1 Thess. 3:9). Who they were was ultimately rooted in God’s power working in them. As Paul put it elsewhere, “what do you have that you did not receive?”

And so, how can we get the power to continue unmoved in our faith in the face of all the trials and suffering in the world? The Holy Spirit. The power of the Father. The life of the resurrected Christ. That is our hope.

Growth in Holiness
There is a second area of growth mentioned in the benediction. It is growth in holiness. To be holy means to have wholehearted joy in God through Christ and a delight to do His will. It is to be devoted to the highest good.

There are many good things we can do in the world, but holiness leads us to seek the best, communion with God and service to God. There are many evil things we can do as well. Holiness enables us to separate ourselves from these evil activities and devote ourselves to God.

Paul encourages the Thessalonian Christians to lean into holiness. “As for other matters, brothers and sisters, we instructed you how to live in order to please God, as in fact you are living. Now we ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus to do this more and more” (1 Thess. 4:1). They were not to rest with where they were. They needed to grow to become more and more devoted to God and His service finding their joy in Him and in His will. “Do so more and more” is how Paul talks about growth in this letter.

One area that Paul addresses in particular is sexuality. He says:

It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control your own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the pagans, who do not know God; and that in this matter no one should wrong or take advantage of a brother or sister (1 Thess. 4:3–6).

In spite of what our culture may say, sex is a gift from God to be enjoyed in the context of a loving, lifelong commitment between a man and woman. Anything beyond this is contrary to our own nature, an injustice to the other person, and against God’s will for human beings. The Apostle Paul recognized that this would be controversial, even in his day, and so he added, “Therefore, anyone who rejects this instruction does not reject a human being but God, the very God who gives you his Holy Spirit” (1 Thess. 4:8).

Sexuality is a powerful thing and, because of that, we readily turn it into an idol. The patterns of idolatry also become wired into our brain in ways that are very hard to change. That’s why we need God’s power. American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr says,

[Sexuality’s] force reaches up into the highest pinnacle of human spirituality. . . . sex reveals sensuality to be first another and final form of self-love, secondly an effort to escape self-love by the deification of another and finally as an escape from the futilities of both forms of idolatry by a plunge into unconsciousness (The Nature and Destiny of Man, 1:236, 239).

We are dealing with powerful stuff when we deal with sexuality, not because we are so animal-like but because we are so spiritual.

So, as we seek after holiness, remember a couple of things. We need to develop holiness by finding our delight in God. That is the angle at which to attack the problems of sexual sin. Second, the power of God is available to live a life devoted to God. Third, and this is very important, God works through His church. Don’t try to do this alone. If you are struggling with sexual sin, come talk to me or a trusted person. I’ve talked to a lot of people about this issue. It’s scary to bring it up, but I’ve never found a person to regret enlisting help.

In our day, we can enjoy sexuality in private through the internet, and so we’ve got to have accountability here. I use Covenant Eyes to keep myself accountable. It reports on any questionable behavior to my wife and friends so that I’m always using the internet, as it were, before the eyes of others as well as God. This is part of God’s grace: to give me friends who will help me in areas of temptation and help me seek after holiness. We all need them.

Growth in Love
Paul also wanted the Thessalonians to experience growth in love, but this was the area where he had the least concern. This was the area where they were doing the best. “Now about your love for one another we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other” (1 Thess. 4:9). Once again, he says that it was God who was teaching them. He saw the evidence of God’s work in their lives.

This did not mean that they did not need to grow. He writes, “And in fact, you do love all of God’s family throughout Macedonia. Yet we urge you, brothers and sisters, to do so more and more . . .” (1 Thess. 4:10). “More and more.”

However, he was concerned about one area, which comes up in his second letter as well. He wanted to make sure that they were doing productive labor that would glorify God and bless themselves and others. He says, “make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you” (1 Thess. 4:11).

When God created the world, He wanted human beings to be active in the world. He did not want them simply to enjoy it passively. He wanted them to do things that would glorify Him and bless themselves and others. Wherever you are today, faith can give you the margin to have space to serve others. Use that space not simply for yourself but for others. Whether you’re working for a paycheck or not, you should be working for the Lord. That is our duty while we are here: to love and to use our strength, our minds, our hearts, and our hands to bless others with useful labor. God Himself will teach you the way.

Conclusion
And so, what is our hope for growth? “That the Lord would make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you and strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father.”

That’s a powerful hope. We don’t have to remain stuck in the past. There is new life. There is the Holy Spirit. There is the power of God. Christ is risen! We can grow. We can become more and more of what God has destined us to be, really and truly in this life, and then perfectly in the world to come. Amen.

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