Let Your Real Faith Have Real Results

When you’re doing a lot of things right, keep growing in faith, love, and holiness—keep getting better. That’s what the book of 1 Thessalonians is about.

The church at Thessalonica was already doing a lot of things right. They received God’s word in much affliction and became followers of the Lord. They had brotherly love for one another and extended their love past their own church to all believers in their part of the world. They walked to please God and put their faith and love to work to help others. Their real faith had real results.

As good as they were, God wanted them to keep getting better. He didn’t want the Thessalonians to stop growing. He wanted them to increase and abound in the love that sees the value of every person and expresses that value in acts of kindness and helpfulness. God wanted them to thrive and excel in the faith that believes Him, trusts that His ways are best, and acts in agreement with His will and character. God wanted them to attain the quality of sanctification that cleanses us of hindrances to faith and love, and frees and enables us to live as honorable vessels, serving God’s good and eternal purposes here on earth.

Read the first chapter of 1 Thessalonians and then the application below. How can we keep growing and getting better today?

1 Thessalonians Chapter 1: Let your real faith have real results.

v.1-4  Do the work of faith and love, with patient hope.

v.5-7  A powerful delivery of the gospel can affect its hearers to become followers of Christ and examples to many.

v.8  Sound forth the gospel in what you say and how you live, that it may be re-sounded (echoed) by those who hear it or see it.

v.9-10  Let hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ turn you from other things to serving the living and true God.

*This adapted excerpt comes from Beebe Kauffman, A Whole Lot of Wonderful—Application of the New Testament for Today (Buford, Georgia: Lighthouse Bible Studies, 2018), 486 and 490.