The Faith of the Thessalonian Believers
1 Thessalonians 1:1-5 NLT
1 This letter is from Paul, Silas, and Timothy.
We are writing to the church in Thessalonica, to you who belong to God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
May God give you grace and peace.
2 We always thank God for all of you and pray for you constantly. 3 As we pray to our God and Father about you, we think of your faithful work, your loving deeds, and the enduring hope you have because of our Lord Jesus Christ.
4 We know, dear brothers and sisters, that God loves you and has chosen you to be his own people. 5 For when we brought you the Good News, it was not only with words but also with power, for the Holy Spirit gave you full assurance that what we said was true. And you know of our concern for you from the way we lived when we were with you.
Examine the Scriptures:
1 Thessalonians 1:1-5 NLT
The Faith of the Thessalonian Believers
1 This letter is from Paul, Silas, and Timothy.
We are writing to the church in Thessalonica,
to you who belong to God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
This is a profound statement about the identity of this group of Thessalonians. It means their existence and community are rooted in their relationship with God and Jesus. Unlike other greetings of the time, this phrasing is distinctively Christian and suggests a close, intimate connection to the divine.
Paul makes it clear that this was not a Jewish assembly.
To “belong to God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” shows union with both Father and Son. This was not true of the Jews (for the most part).
Acts 17:2-3 NLT
2 As was Paul’s custom, he went to the synagogue service, and for three Sabbaths in a row he used the Scriptures to reason with the people. 3 He explained the prophecies and proved that the Messiah must suffer and rise from the dead. He said, “This Jesus I’m telling you about is the Messiah.”
Judaism does not recognize Jesus Christ as the Messiah or as the Son of God in the way Christianity does.
This was a strong encouragement to believers who were surrounded by pagan cults and emperor worship.
- The Thessalonian believers were reminded that their true identity wasn’t rooted in the city’s political power or in pagan worship, but in the living God and His Son.
Paul’s words drew a contrast between belonging to Rome and belonging to Christ.
- A believer’s true identity is rooted in the living God and His Son Jesus Christ.
May God give you grace and peace.
More words of encouragement to new, persecuted believers.
“Grace and peace”
In a city bustling with trade and politics, “peace” usually meant Roman order maintained by military might. Paul offers a deeper, spiritual peace that comes only from God’s grace.
- Grace is God’s free and undeserved gift of love, forgiveness, and power, made fully known in Jesus Christ.
- Peace is the wholeness, harmony, and well-being that comes from a reconciled relationship with God—made possible through Christ.
The combination of these two words underscores that true peace comes from the grace of God.
***These are words of encouragement for all believers.
Romans 1:7 NLT
7 I am writing to all of you in Rome who are loved by God and are called to be his own holy people.
May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace.
The Faith of the Thessalonian Believers
2 We always thank God for all of you and pray for you constantly.
- Paul regularly prayed for the churches he started (and even some he didn’t personally found). His letters show that prayer was a central part of his relationship with the congregations.
Taking time to pray for others benefits the person or persons being prayed for as well as the person doing the praying.
- As we pray, God not only hears and acts on behalf of the other person, but He also works in us — giving us compassion, insight, patience, or even prompting us to be part of the answer to that prayer (a word of encouragement, a helping hand, forgiveness, etc.).
3 As we pray to our God and Father about you, we think of your faithful work, your loving deeds, and the enduring hope you have because of our Lord Jesus Christ.
More powerful words of encouragement.
Paul, Silas, and Timothy rejoiced together for what God had done in the lives of the Thessalonian converts. The Thessalonians were a constant source of joy to them. The Thessalonians served as a model for all Christians.
Similar words to the church at Colossae.
Colossians 1:4-5 NLT
4 For we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and your love for all of God’s people, 5 which come from your confident hope of what God has reserved for you in heaven. You have had this expectation ever since you first heard the truth of the Good News.
Things that made Paul, Silas, and Timothy thankful:
The triad of faith, hope, and love.
Faithful work (work produced by faith).
Genuine faith shows itself in action.
Loving deeds (labor prompted by love for Christ).
Love involves effort, even sacrifice.
Enduring hope (hope in Christ).
Hope gives endurance during trials.
These things that last forever.
1 Corinthians 13:13 NLT
13 Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.
These three virtues (faith, hope, and love) stood out in the lives of the Thessalonian believers.
Galatians 5:6 NLT
6 … What is important is faith expressing itself in love.
A description of a believer.
1 Thessalonians 5:8 NLT
8 But let us who live in the light be clearheaded, protected by the armor of faith and love, and wearing as our helmet the confidence of our salvation.
The Thessalonians had exercised faith when they believed the Gospel. (past)
The Thessalonians were loving Christ (and others) in the present.
The Thessalonians were hoping for Christ’s return in the future.
The Thessalonians were living lives focused on Christ.
- The Thessalonians’ faith, love, and hope demonstrated the authenticity of their conversion. (The same should be true about us.)
*** Do others think of our faithful work, our loving deeds, and the enduring hope we have because of our Lord Jesus Christ.
4 We know, dear brothers and sisters,
- Paul treated the Thessalonians as equals, as brothers and sisters.
Gentiles were his equals before God.
Remember our 1st devotional: The Church is one body with many parts (like the human body) that are designed to work together as a single unit.
that God loves you and has chosen you to be his own people.
Verses about being chosen by God.
Ephesians 1:4-5 NLT
4 Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes.
5 God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.
Colossians 3:12 NIV
12 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.
- Christians are God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved.
More verses about being chosen by God.
Romans 9:15-16 NLT
15 For God said to Moses,
“I will show mercy to anyone I choose,
and I will show compassion to anyone I choose.”
16 So it is God who decides to show mercy. We can neither choose it nor work for it.
Colossians 1:11-14 NLT
11 We also pray that you will be strengthened with all his glorious power so you will have all the endurance and patience you need. May you be filled with joy, 12 always thanking the Father. He has enabled you to share in the inheritance that belongs to his people, who live in the light. 13 For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son, 14 who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins.
2 Thessalonians 2:13 NLT
13 As for us, we can’t help but thank God for you, dear brothers and sisters loved by the Lord. We are always thankful that God chose you to be among the first to experience salvation—a salvation that came through the Spirit who makes you holy and through your belief in the truth.
5 For when we brought you the Good News, it was not only with words but also with power, for the Holy Spirit gave you full assurance that what we said was true.
- The Holy Spirit convinced the hearers that the message of the Gospel was true.
1 Corinthians 2:4-5 NLT
4 And my message and my preaching were very plain. Rather than using clever and persuasive speeches, I relied only on the power of the Holy Spirit. 5 I did this so you would trust not in human wisdom but in the power of God.
John 16:8 NLT
8 And when he (the Spirit) comes, he will convict the world of its sin, and of God’s righteousness, and of the coming judgment.
The Spirit makes the gospel alive—changing hearts, breaking addictions, bringing new life.
Romans 1:16 NLT
16 For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes—the Jew first and also the Gentile.
We do have a part in this.
Our work
John 6:29 NLT
29 Jesus told them, “This is the only work God wants from you: Believe in the one he has sent.”
Romans 10:9 NLT
9 If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
John 3:16 NLT
16 “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
Joshua 24:14-15 NLT
14 “So fear the Lord and serve him wholeheartedly. Put away forever the idols your ancestors worshiped when they lived beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt. Serve the Lord alone. 15 But if you refuse to serve the Lord, then choose today whom you will serve. Would you prefer the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates? Or will it be the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now live? But as for me and my family, we will serve the Lord.”
Deuteronomy 30:19-20 NLT
19 “Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live! 20 You can make this choice by loving the Lord your God, obeying him, and committing yourself firmly to him. This[a] is the key to your life. And if you love and obey the Lord, you will live long in the land the Lord swore to give your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”
And you know of our concern for you from the way we lived when we were with you.
Paul, Silas, and Timothy were living lives that were consistent with what they were preaching.
Paul reminds them that he and his companions lived with, so their lives matched their preaching.
- People are often convinced by what they see in us more than by what we say.
