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A Truly Living Church: Faith, Love, and Hope (1 Thessalonians 1:2–3) · Reformed Thinking

• 0:00
  You know, usually when we talk about a medical diagnosis, there
• 0:03
  is this expectation of absolute clinical persist.
• 0:06
  Oh yeah, 100%. You go into a hospital, you
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  slide into an MRI machine and these massive magnetic fields
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  align the protons in your body, and then a computer generates
• 0:16
  this razor sharp cross-sectional image of your internal anatomy.
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  Right, it's all very scientific. Yeah.
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  So if you have like a torn rotator cuff, the imaging shows
• 0:25
  a jagged interruption in the tissue, The orthopedic surgeon
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  points at the screen, gives you a clear diagnosis, and you know
• 0:31
  precisely what is wrong. It is binary, broken or intact.
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  And that kind of precision is just, it's incredibly
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  comforting. Human beings are wired to
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  categorize things with absolute certainty, right?
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  Especially when it comes to our health.
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  Yeah, we want the data. We want empirical data.
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  We want a spreadsheet. We want some quantifiable metric
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  that tells us we are OK. But then you step into the world
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  of spiritual health, you step into the realm of church
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  vitality, and suddenly, well, that MRI machine is broken.
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  We are looking at a diagnostic landscape that is incredibly
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  murky. It really is.
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  How do you measure the invisible reality of a human soul?
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  So welcome to Reformed thinking, where we take a step back from
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  the noise and look at the bedrock truths of Scripture.
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  Our mission today is an intense investigation into the true
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  marks of a living church, looking at the opening greeting
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  of the Apostle Paul in First Thessalonians chapter 1,
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  specifically verses 2 and 3. This is a critical subject for
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  us to handle in this deep dive, all right?
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  We live in an era that is heavily characterized by, you
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  know, seeker sensitive pragmatism.
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  Oh, big time. And a lot of modern frameworks,
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  the visible church relies on these sort of hollow professions
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  of faith. Congregations are measured by
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  secular corporate. Like attendance numbers?
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  Right health is equated with the size of the weekend attendance
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  or the square footage of the parking lot, the production
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  value of the worship band, or just the general cultural
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  relevance of the programming. Yeah, it's treated like a
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  business. So identifying authentic
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  Christianity, actually separating a living congregation
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  from the spiritually dead 1 requires us to completely
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  discard those modern metrics. We have to look at the criteria
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  laid out in the text. The sources we have gathered for
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  this deep dive provide a rigorous theological and
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  expository analysis of Paul's greeting to the Thessalonian
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  believers. We are looking at this through
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  the lens of Reformed theology, relying on the confessions of
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  the Reformation to understand the three specific marks of
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  grace laid out by the Apostle. And those 3 marks are working
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  faith, a laboring love, and a steadfast hope.
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  You might be wondering how to measure the spiritual health of
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  your own local congregation or even you know your own heart.
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  By the end of this deep dive, you will have a clear biblical
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  metric. OK, let's unpack this by looking
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  at the historical context. Yeah, we have to start there.
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  Because if we just read those words, faith, love, and hope,
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  they sound like nice generic greeting card sentiments.
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  To grasp the gravity of Paul's words, we first have to
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  establish the intense, hostile environment where these
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  believers actually lived. This was not a comfortable
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  suburban faith. Not at all.
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  To really feel the sheer weight of these verses, we have to drop
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  ourselves into the city of Thessalonica around 8050 to 51.
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  This was not some sleepy provincial town.
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  It was a thriving, bustling commercial hub located directly
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  on the Via Ignatia. Which was a massive deal back
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  then. Oh, absolutely.
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  The Via Ignatia was a massive Roman highway, a total
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  engineering marvel. Constructed with these huge
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  paving stones, he connected the eastern and western halves of
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  the empire. So it was the main artery.
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  The primary artery military movement, international trade,
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  the exchange of ideas that all flowed through there, and
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  because of its strategic location, Thessalonica held the
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  highly prestigious status of a Roman free city.
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  Let's breakdown the mechanics of a free city, because that sounds
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  like just a generic historical label, But it had massive
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  everyday implications for the people living there.
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  What did that status actually grant them?
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  Well-being a free city and Thessalonica was granted A
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  staggering amount of civic autonomy.
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  They did not have a Roman Garrison permanently stationed
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  inside their walls, breathing down their necks.
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  Which is. Huge.
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  It is they were led to mint their own coins, they were
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  exempt from certain heavy imperial taxes, and they were
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  governed by their own local magistrates.
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  The politarchs, right? Yes, the politarchs.
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  But that immense privilege came with a massive, unwritten catch.
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  There is always a catch with Rome.
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  Always, to keep that autonomy, the citizens had to maintain a
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  fierce fanatical loyalty to the Roman emperor.
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  The entire social and economic order was built on a foundation
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  of imperial allegiance. So they couldn't step out of
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  line at all. Not even an inch.
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  If Rome even suspected that Thessalonica was harboring
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  treason or rebellion, the legions would March in, revoke
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  their free city status, implement rushing taxes, and
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  completely dismantle their local government.
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  The stakes for maintaining the status quo were absolute.
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  Yeah. And the pressure was not just
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  political, I mean it was heavily oppressively Pagan.
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  The sources note that the city was a major Center for the Cult
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  of Kabiris. Yes, Kabiris.
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  This is fascinating because Kabiris was a patron deity of
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  the working class, specifically the iron workers and manual
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  laborers in the ancient world. Your religious affiliation was
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  tied directly to your trade Guild.
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  You couldn't separate the 2. Right.
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  If you wanted to buy iron, sell goods, or just make a living,
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  you had to participate in the cultic rituals.
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  You had to go to the banquets, which often involved sacrificing
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  meat to idols. And that wasn't the only cult in
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  town. No.
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  On top of that, the city was saturated with Dionysian
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  mysteries which were highly secretive wine soaked cults
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  focused on ecstasy and immorality.
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  So you have this potent cocktail of intense, dense Roman
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  patriotism and very dark Pagan worship practices.
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  The entire economy and social life are fused to idolatry.
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  Into that absolute powder peg walks the Apostle Paul.
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  And the narrative from Acts 17 lays out the mechanics.
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  What happened next. Paul, accompanied by Silas and
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  Timothy, arrives in the city and follows his usual methodology
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  right. He goes into the Jewish
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  synagogue. Right, his standard approach.
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  He reasons with them for the Old Testament Scriptures for three
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  Sabbaths. He systematically preaches that
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  Jesus of Nazareth is the promised Messiah, demonstrating
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  that the Christ had to suffer, die and rise again from the
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  dead. And he gets some traction,
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  doesn't he? He does some of the Jewish
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  audience believes, along with a large number of God fearing
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  Greeks and several prominent women of high social standing.
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  But the unbelieving religious establishment reacts with
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  intense, violent jealousy. They start a massive riot, but
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  it is not just a random St. brawl.
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  The mechanics of this riot are highly calculated.
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  They gather a mob of idle men from the marketplace,
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  essentially hiring thugs. Mercenaries, basically.
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  Yeah, and they attack the House of a man named Jason where Paul
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  and his team were staying. When they cannot find Paul, they
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  drag Jason and some other new believers before the politarchs,
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  those city officials we mentioned, and the specific
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  charge they bring is brilliant in its malice.
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  They scream, these men who have turned the world upside down
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  have come here also, and Jason has received them.
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  And they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying
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  there is another king, Jesus. That phrase another king is the
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  kill shot in a Roman free city. It's treason.
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  It is majestus treason against the Emperor.
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  The mob knows exactly what buttons to push.
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  By accusing Paul and the new Christians of promoting A rival
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  king, they are actively threatening the politarch.
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  Oh, because if the politarchs ignore it.
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  Yes, if they ignore this, word gets back to Rome that
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  Thessalonica is harboring treason and the city loses its
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  tax exemptions and autonomy. The magistrates are forced to
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  act. They take a massive financial
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  bond from Jason. Essentially bankrupting him as
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  collateral. Pretty much, yeah.
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  They guarantee that Paul will leave the city and the peace
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  will be kept. Because of this violent uproar,
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  the believers have to smuggle Paul and Silas out of the city
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  under the cover of darkness. Humanly speaking, this is a
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  disaster. A total failure by modern church
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  planting standards. I mean, think about it.
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  If you plant a church and the lead pastor is chased out of
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  town by a violent mob after just three weeks, and the core
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  members are financially ruined and accused of treason, secular
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  logic dictates that the church collapses immediately.
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  Without a doubt. It is like trying to light a
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  match inside a vacuum chamber. The environment is actively
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  designed to extinguish it. There is no oxygen for this
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  young congregation. How on earth did they survive?
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  The fact that they survived at all is objective empirical
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  evidence of God's sovereign electing grace.
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  That is the core theological implication we must draw from
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  this historical reality. These Thessalonian converts did
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  not choose Christ for some social advantage.
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  Aligning with a crucified Jewish rabbi and claiming him as
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  another king in a free city cost them their reputations, their
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  livelihoods and the trade guilds and potentially their lives.
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  Nobody makes that calculation purely for fun.
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  No rational human being calculates those risks and
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  chooses a new religion just for the aesthetic.
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  Their survival proves that salvation is a divine rescue
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  mission, an act of supernatural resurrection.
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  This historical context completely shatters modern
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  prosperity gospels that try to equate godliness with earthly
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  ease, financial success, and material wealth.
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  Since human willpower and natural resilience cannot
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  account for their survival, we have to look at the primary
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  cause, because the survival of this young church was a divine
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  miracle rather than a human achievement.
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  Paul's immediate response in his letter is not to congratulate
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  the believers for their grit. Right, he doesn't pat them on
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  the back. He does not say, wow, you guys
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  are incredibly tough, great job holding the line.
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  Instead, he directs all praise to the architect of their
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  salvation. This brings us directly to verse
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  2, which establishes the posture of prayer, Paul writes.
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  We give thanks to God always for all of you constantly mentioning
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  you in our prayers. Notice the singular object of
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  the Thanksgiving. Paul traces the spiritual food
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  he sees in them straight back to the divine source.
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  If a congregation stands firm in the face of violent civic
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  opposition, God alone gets the glory.
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  Amen. This is a fundamental Pennant of
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  biblical theology. If you believe that human beings
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  are spiritually dead in their trespasses and sins, meaning
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  they're completely incapable of producing genuine spiritual life
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  on their own, then any sign of life you see must be the result
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  of God breathing into them. We have to view this through the
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  lens of the Westminster Confession of Faith,
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  specifically looking at chapter 3 on God's eternal decree and
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  chapter 5 on Providence. That is so relevant here.
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  The Confession teaches that God from all eternity did, by the
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  most wise and holy counsel of His own will, freely and
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  unchangeably ordained whatsoever comes to pass.
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  Yes, he did not look down the quarters of time, see that the
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  Thessalonians were going to be really tough, and then decide to
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  choose them. He actively ordained their
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  salvation. And chapter 5 builds on that.
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  Exactly. Chapter 5 on Providence explains
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  that God, the Great Creator of all things, doth uphold, direct,
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  dispose, and govern all creatures, actions and things,
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  from the greatest even to the least.
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  Paul's Thanksgiving is a direct confession of this divine
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  sovereignty. He knows that the grace that
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  justifies the Sinner in the courtroom of God is the exact
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  same grace that sustains the believer through a violent riot
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  in the marketplace. If we connect this to the bigger
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  picture, we see the mechanics of how Paul views them, the
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  specific phrasing he uses. He says remembering before our
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  God and Father. This encapsulates the
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  theological concept of living and evaluating Corumdeo.
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  Which is Latin for before the face of God, right?
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  Paul is analyzing this young battered congregation using
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  Heaven's metrics. If you looked at the
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  Thessalonian church using 1st century Roman metrics, or even
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  21st century corporate church metrics, you would label them an
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  abject failure. Oh, they'd look terrible on
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  paper. Terribly, they have no dedicated
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  building. Their founder fled in the night.
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  Their members are socially ostracized, politically suspect
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  and economically disadvantaged. A total miss.
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  But Paul's not looking at their bank accounts or their social
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  standing. He is evaluated them Coram deo
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  and before the face of God. This church is thriving.
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  This raises a massive piercing question for you, the listener.
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  When you look at your own local church or when you evaluate your
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  own spiritual life, what kind of metrics are you using?
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  That's the real test. Are you running a corporate
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  analysis based on demographics, budget, surpluses, and cultural
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  approval? Or are you looking at it
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  Corumdeo, recognizing that any good fruit, any genuine
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  holiness, is a direct supernatural gift from God?
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  Shifting from Earth's metrics to Heaven's metrics changes
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  everything. It really does.
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  It changes how you pray, it changes how you view a
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  struggling congregation, and it completely alters how you view
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  the flawed people sitting in the pews next to you.
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  Right. And this God centered gratitude
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  is the baseline for the specific diagnostics Paul lists in verse
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  three. He names three visible proofs of
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  the invisible grace working within them.
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  He says, remembering before our gut and Father your work of
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  faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our
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  Lord Jesus Christ. Let's analyze the first metric
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  in this triad, the work of faith.
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  Having established that God is the primary source of all grace,
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  we have to look at the first visible proof of that grace.
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  The Greek phrase here is ergoutes bistios.
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  Let's look at the mechanics of those words.
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  The Greek word argon denotes an actual accomplishment, A
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  tangible task, a deed, or a product.
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  By linking this word to faith, Paul is stating categorically
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  the biblical faith is inherently productive.
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  It's not just an idea. Exactly.
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  It is not a static, inert reality.
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  Faith does not just sit in the mind as a set of agreed upon
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  theological facts. You can pass a written theology
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  exam with a perfect score and still be completely
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  unregenerate. True saving faith produces
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  action. It alters behavior.
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  It generates a product. We need to set up some rigorous
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  theological guardrails right here, because the relationship
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  between faith and works is a historical battleground where
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  massive theological errors crop up.
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  Oh, absolutely. We have to look at how the
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  sources handle this text against competing frameworks.
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  First, the text naturally challenges the Armenian view.
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  The Armenian framework suggests that grace restores human free
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  will, allowing faith to originate in the autonomous
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  choice of man. But if faith originated
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  autonomously in the Thessalonians, Paul's prayer
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  makes no sense. He would be thanking the
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  Thessalonians for making such a wise, autonomous choice.
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  Instead, he directs all his gratitude to God, proving that
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  this act of faith is entirely a gift of God sourced outside of
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  the human will. Furthermore, the phrasing
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  directly challenges the Roman Catholic framework.
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  In Roman Catholic theology, justification is seen as a
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  process where grace is infused into the believer through the
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  sacraments, enabling them to cooperate with God by doing good
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  works, and those works merit final justification.
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  Right, the cooperation model. But Paul's phrasing ergutes
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  Pisteus clearly shows the proper sequence.
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  The work is the product of the faith.
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  The faith is the root. The work is the fruit.
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  That's a great way to put. It the works are not a partner
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  in earning salvation, they are the inevitable evidence that
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  salvation has already been granted.
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  And on the complete opposite end of the spectrum, we have to
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  counter antinomianism. This is a very prevalent issue
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  in certain modern free grace movements which try to
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  completely divorce Jesus as Savior from Jesus as Lord.
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  Yes, the carnal Christian theory.
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  Yeah, the theory is that you can have a moment of intellectual
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  assent, pray a prayer, receive justification, and then live the
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  rest of your life producing absolutely no obedience, yet
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  still be considered a Christian. But Paul obliterates that idea.
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  He really does. He makes it clear that a dead
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  faith produces no obedience. A faith without Ergon is a
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  fiction. I always conceptualize this by
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  thinking about human respiration.
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  We like this analogy. You do not breathe to earn the
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  right to be alive. Breathing does not merit life.
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  You breathe because you are already alive.
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  Your diaphragm contracts, your lungs filled with oxygen, and
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  your blood is oxygenated as an inevitable result of being a
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  living Organism. Faith is the breath of a
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  regenerate soul. If a soul has been made alive by
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  the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit, it will breathe.
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  It will produce the Ergon. It will work.
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  That biological analogy maps perfectly onto the theological
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  mechanics described in the Westminster Confession, Chapter
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  11, which covers justification. The Confession states clearly
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  that faith receiving and resting on Christ and his righteousness
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  is the alone instrument of justification.
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  We are justified by faith alone. Faith alone.
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  But it immediately clarifies A crucial point.
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  This faith is never left alone in the person justified.
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  It is always accompanied by all other saving graces.
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  It is no dead faith, but works by love.
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  The presence of the works proves the vitality of the faith.
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  Which brings us to the causal link between faith and the
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  second mark Paul mentions. If true faith always produces
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  action, what happens when that action is directed toward other
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  believers in a hyper hostile, dangerous environment?
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  It. Gets difficult.
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  It requires a love that goes far beyond warm feelings.
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  It requires a love that is willing to bleed, sweat and
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  suffer. Paul calls this the labor of
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  love. The Greek phrase used here is
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  copoutes agapis. Yeah, we need to analyze the
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  specific weight of the word copos.
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  This is not a light term. It does not mean doing a casual
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  favor for a friend when your schedule is clear and you have
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  extra energy. Copos means exhausting,
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  wearisome, sweat inducing toil. It denotes working to the point
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  of absolute physical, emotional, and mental depletion.
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  In the ancient world, secular writers often use this exact
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  word to describe the back breaking, agonizing forced labor
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  of slaves. It implies a burden that drains
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  everything out of you. Contrast that with how our
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  modern culture defines love. Today, the secular definition of
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  love is almost entirely reduced to a warm sentiment, a pleasant
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  aesthetic vibe, or just self fulfillment.
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  We are told that love means finding someone who makes you
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  feel good about yourself, right? It's very consumer driven.
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  But biblical agape is immensely costly.
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  Let's think about the mechanics of this in 1st century
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  Thessalonica. What did a labor of Love
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  Actually look like for these believers?
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  It was dangerous. It meant hiding fugitives from
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  the politarks. It meant sharing your grain when
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  your own family was starving because the trade guilds had cut
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  you off. It meant visiting fellow
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  believers who were thrown into filthy, disease ridden Roman
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  dungeons. And in Rome, the state did not.
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  Exactly. If a prisoner's friends did not
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  bring them food, they starved. But if you brought food to a
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  Christian prisoner accused of treason, you associated yourself
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  with an enemy of the state, putting a massive target on your
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  own back. That is kopos.
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  That is sweat inducing, terrifying labor.
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  To really grasp why this is a mark of a living church, we have
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  to look at the baseline condition of human nature.
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  Theologians often describe fallen human nature as curvatus
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  in sea, curved inward upon itself.
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  Right. We're born fundamentally seeking
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  self preservation, comfort, safety and personal advantage.
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  Our default setting is selfishness, so when a believer
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  willingly exhausts themselves for someone else, taking on the
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  agonizing weight of copos, it is undeniable empirical proof that
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  the internal tyranny of self has been broken by the Holy Spirit.
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  It goes against our programming. Completely.
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  A natural unregenerate person does not willingly embrace back
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  breaking exhaustion, financial ruin, and political danger for
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  the spiritual good of others. That behavior requires a
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  supernatural catalyst. I have to push back here, or at
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  least ask the question that I know listeners are thinking
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  right now. OK, sure.
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  When I hear words like exhaustion, depletion, and
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  wearisome toil, my mind immediately goes to the modern
• 19:54
  epidemic of burnout. We see massive numbers of people
• 19:58
  leaving the ministry or walking away from church service because
• 20:01
  they are completely, totally burned out.
• 20:04
  If the biblical standard is pushing yourself to the point of
• 20:06
  physical and mental exhaustion for others.
• 20:09
  How does anyone survive that? How do believers sustain this
• 20:13
  over a lifetime without completely collapsing into
• 20:15
  bitterness and despair? That is a highly practical and
• 20:18
  valid concern. The resolution to the problem of
• 20:20
  burnout lies and understand the pattern and the source of this
• 20:23
  love purse. The pattern, This labor is
• 20:26
  patterned entirely after Christ's own self giving love.
• 20:29
  He did not come to be served, but to serve and to give His
• 20:32
  life as a ransom. But more critically, we have to
• 20:35
  look at the source. Christ provides the actual
• 20:38
  ongoing grace to sustain this labor.
• 20:40
  The believer is not commanded to produce this exhausting love
• 20:44
  from their own finite, easily depleted reserves.
• 20:47
  That's a huge distinct. They're acting as a conduit for
• 20:50
  the infinite love of Christ. When we try to labor in our own
• 20:53
  strength, relying on our own emotional willpower, we will
• 20:56
  inevitably burn out. However, even when operating in
• 21:00
  God's grace, the sheer difficulty and pain of this
• 21:03
  worldly existence naturally demands an anchor.
• 21:06
  You cannot endure Copos without a guarantee that the pain has a
• 21:10
  purpose and an end date. The causal link is clear here.
• 21:14
  The only way a human being can sustain the exhausting, back
• 21:17
  breaking labor of love without collapsing into utter despair is
• 21:21
  by anchoring their soul to an absolute, unshakable certainty
• 21:24
  about the future. Yes, you need to know that the
• 21:26
  suffering is not meaningless. That brings us to the third part
• 21:29
  of Paul's diagnostic triad, the steadfastness of hope.
• 21:33
  The Greek phrase here is hypomonas test epidos.
• 21:36
  Both of those words carry massive theological and
• 21:38
  historical weight. Let's start with hypomone.
• 21:41
  This word is often translated as steadfastness or endurance, but
• 21:44
  those English words are a bit too passive.
• 21:46
  They sound like just surviving. I like just gritting your teeth
• 21:49
  and getting through it. Hypomone means triumphant
• 21:52
  fortitude. It is the active, courageous
• 21:55
  ability to remain under a crushing weight without breaking
• 21:58
  ranks or fleeing. Think of the Roman military
• 22:01
  formation known as the testudo or the tortoise.
• 22:04
  Oh, that's a brilliant visual. The Legionnaires would interlock
• 22:07
  their massive Shields over their heads and on all sides, creating
• 22:10
  an armored shell. They would advance slowly under
• 22:14
  a hail of enemy arrows, rocks, and boiling oil.
• 22:17
  The pressure from above was terrifying.
• 22:20
  The instinct to drop the shield and run away was overwhelming,
• 22:23
  but hypomone is the discipline to hold the shield up, to stay
• 22:27
  in formation and to keep moving forward despite the crushing
• 22:30
  pressure. That is an incredible image.
• 22:32
  The Thessalonians were under a constant barrage of civic,
• 22:35
  economic and physical attacks, but they held the shield wall.
• 22:38
  And what fueled that fortitude? It was Elpis hope.
• 22:42
  But again, we have a translation issue here because modern
• 22:45
  English has ruined the word hope.
• 22:48
  Today, hope is just a wishful thought.
• 22:50
  We say. I hope the stock market goes up
• 22:52
  or I hope the weather is nice for the BBQ.
• 22:54
  It is essentially crossing our fingers and wishing for a
• 22:57
  favorable outcome over which we have no control.
• 23:00
  Right, it's very flimsy. But biblical elpis is the exact
• 23:03
  opposite of wishful thinking. It is a settled, ironclad
• 23:06
  expectation of future glory. It is absolute of certainty
• 23:11
  regarding what God has promised, even if you cannot see it yet,
• 23:14
  and we must specify the. Exact object of this
• 23:16
  expectation. This eschatological anchor is
• 23:19
  explicitly tied to the return of Jesus Christ.
• 23:22
  The sources we are analyzing note that this passage operates
• 23:24
  within a specific eschatological framework.
• 23:27
  Many commentators view Paul's letters to the Thessalonians
• 23:30
  through a pre tribulational dispensational framework where
• 23:34
  the Church anticipates an imminent rescue from the wrath
• 23:36
  to come. Whether one holds to that
• 23:38
  specific dispensational timeline or a broader reformed a
• 23:42
  millennial view of the second coming, the mechanical function
• 23:45
  of the hope remains the same. The Thessalonians knew with
• 23:48
  absolute certainty that this corrupted Pagan Roman world was
• 23:52
  not their final home. They knew the King was returning
• 23:55
  to gather his people and an act perfect justice.
• 23:59
  That specific future oriented certainty fueled their present
• 24:02
  day pain tolerance. Let's think about the mechanics.
• 24:05
  Of how future certainty changes present reality.
• 24:08
  Think about a deep sea diver in a pressurized suit walking on
• 24:12
  the ocean floor. OK, I'm tracking with you.
• 24:14
  The physical weight of the ocean.
• 24:15
  Wants to crush them. The pressure is immense.
• 24:18
  The only reason the diver does not implode is that the internal
• 24:21
  pressure provided by the airline perfectly matches the external
• 24:24
  pressure of the ocean. Wow, that's good.
• 24:26
  The external pressure on the. Thessalonians was civic
• 24:29
  ostracization, mob violence, and the loss of their livelihoods.
• 24:33
  The internal pressure keeping them from imploding was the
• 24:35
  ironclad certainty that the king was returning.
• 24:38
  The finish line was so real to them that it recalibrated their
• 24:41
  entire value system. It completely alters.
• 24:44
  The scale of human suffering. When you weigh temporary earthly
• 24:48
  suffering against eternal resurrected glory, the
• 24:51
  mathematics change. The choice to endure the loss of
• 24:54
  a trade Guild membership becomes obvious, even if it results in
• 24:57
  physical hunger, because the future reward is guaranteed.
• 25:01
  I want you the. Listener to really process that
• 25:04
  mechanic. When unexpected trials hit your
• 25:07
  life, a sudden medical diagnosis, a financial collapse,
• 25:11
  A betrayal by a friend, how does your internal system react?
• 25:15
  Does your hope shatter like glass because it was secretly
• 25:17
  anchored to earthly comfort in a frictionless life?
• 25:20
  Or does your hope hold the line locking Shields in that testudo
• 25:23
  formation because it is anchored entirely to the returning Christ
• 25:26
  we've analyzed? The mechanics of a working
• 25:28
  faith, the exhausting labor of love, and the triumphant
• 25:31
  fortitude of hope. But we must make a vital
• 25:33
  theological distinction here. These virtues are completely
• 25:36
  useless without a perfect object.
• 25:38
  We must trace all three of these lines back to the singular point
• 25:41
  where they converge. Paul explicitly names that point
• 25:44
  at the end of the verse in our Lord Jesus Christ.
• 25:47
  Here's where it gets, really. Interesting.
• 25:49
  Christ is The Fountainhead. We have to understand that Paul
• 25:52
  is not describing generic moral virtues that any highly
• 25:56
  disciplined snowic person can achieve.
• 25:58
  Definitely not. You can find people in the
• 26:00
  secular, unregenerate world who work hard, who show immense
• 26:04
  affection and charity to their neighbors, and who maintain an
• 26:07
  optimistic outlook in the face of tragedy.
• 26:10
  But Paul is describing realities that are distinctively,
• 26:12
  exclusively Christian. They only function because they
• 26:16
  are plugged into Christ. We can synthesize.
• 26:19
  Exactly how Christ fulfills this triad by looking at historical
• 26:22
  Reformed theology, specifically the doctrine of the triple
• 26:25
  office of Christ or the Munis triplex.
• 26:28
  Christ functions as our prophet, priest, and king.
• 26:31
  Let's map those out. Let's map.
• 26:32
  These offices on the. Paul's triad.
• 26:34
  First, as the object of our faith, Christ fulfilled the
• 26:37
  covenant of works. He achieved this through two
• 26:40
  mechanisms, His active obedience and His passive obedience.
• 26:43
  Break those down for us. His act of obedience.
• 26:45
  Means that for 33 years he lived under the crushing weight of a
• 26:49
  divine law and never violated it once he fulfilled every
• 26:52
  righteous requirement. His passive obedience means he
• 26:55
  willingly submitted to the penalty of the cross, absorbing
• 26:58
  the wrath of God in our place. Our faith works only because it
• 27:02
  is resting entirely on the perfect, completed work of the
• 27:05
  Sun. We are not generating our own
• 27:07
  righteousness, we are receiving His imputed righteousness.
• 27:10
  Second, regarding the. Labor of love Christ operates as
• 27:13
  our great high priest. His self giving, agonizing
• 27:17
  sacrifice on the cross is the ultimate historical pattern of
• 27:20
  love. But He did not just save us from
• 27:22
  a safe, sterile distance in heaven, right?
• 27:24
  He came down. He.
• 27:25
  Took on human flesh. Entering into our misery, our
• 27:28
  dirt, and our humiliation. And right now, seated at the
• 27:31
  right hand of the Father, his ongoing priestly intercession
• 27:34
  supports our weary labor. When we are physically and
• 27:37
  emotionally exhausted from trying to love difficult people,
• 27:40
  we look to the priest who sympathizes with our weaknesses
• 27:42
  because he experienced human exhaustion.
• 27:45
  Finally, Christ. Is the absolute ground of our
• 27:47
  hope because He is the reigning King.
• 27:50
  He is not a defeated martyr. He is the sovereign Lord who was
• 27:53
  conquered death and will return to judge the world in perfect
• 27:56
  righteousness and gather his elect.
• 27:59
  Our triumphant fortitude holds the line because we know
• 28:02
  historically and theologically that the King is already on his
• 28:06
  throne and his return is an absolute, unshakable certainty.
• 28:10
  This is where the mechanics. Of the gospel get incredibly
• 28:12
  beautiful. Christ does not just stand at
• 28:15
  the finish line demanding these virtues from us, He supplies the
• 28:18
  very grace required to execute them.
• 28:21
  If we look at the law, the terrifying command to possess a
• 28:23
  perfect working faith and exhausting, laboring love and an
• 28:27
  unyielding, steadfast hope, it acts as a schoolmaster, just
• 28:30
  like Paul says in Galatians. 3 Exactly the.
• 28:32
  High standard of the law exposes our spiritual lethargy.
• 28:35
  It diagnosis our inward curb selfishness.
• 28:38
  It shows us how cold, lazy and faithless our hearts naturally
• 28:41
  are. And the sheer terror of that
• 28:43
  exposure drives us to flee from ourselves and fly toward
• 28:45
  Christ's perfect righteousness, recognizing that we are utterly
• 28:48
  dependent on Him to produce these fruits in US.
• 28:51
  The gospel provides. With the law commands, knowing
• 28:54
  the theological bedrock of this triad, that God the Father is
• 28:57
  the sovereign source, Christ the Son is the perfect center and
• 29:01
  supplier, and faith, love and hope are the visible fruits
• 29:05
  produced by the Holy Spirit. We must now turn the analytical
• 29:09
  mirror on ourselves. It's application time.
• 29:12
  We must look at our own. Lives and our local
• 29:13
  congregations to assess our spiritual reality based on these
• 29:17
  metrics. This requires a total.
• 29:19
  Rejection of worldly metrics. We mentioned this in the
• 29:22
  introduction, but we need to hammer at home.
• 29:24
  We cannot evaluate the health of a church by looking at the
• 29:27
  operating budget. We cannot measure it by the
• 29:29
  architectural beauty of the building, the charismatic appeal
• 29:32
  of the pastor, or the social demographics of the attendees.
• 29:35
  They mean nothing in this. Context A local church can be.
• 29:38
  Incredibly busy running a dozen different community programs a
• 29:41
  week, hosting massive conferences and dominating
• 29:44
  social media algorithms, and yet be completely barren before the
• 29:47
  face of God. If there is no supernatural
• 29:50
  faith resting in Christ, no costly, exhausting love for the
• 29:53
  brethren, and no hope anchored in the return of the King, it is
• 29:57
  a dead institution. This brings us to a highly.
• 30:00
  Sensitive pastoral issue. The crisis of false assurance.
• 30:04
  How do you actually know you were justified?
• 30:06
  How do you know your local church is truly alive?
• 30:09
  We look for the visible fruit right now.
• 30:11
  Examining our food is not an exercise in morbid legalistic
• 30:14
  introspection. It is biblical self testing, the
• 30:17
  kind the apostle John commands in his first epistle.
• 30:20
  When we see a working faith, a laboring love, and a steadfast
• 30:23
  hope operating in our lives, it does not mean we are earning our
• 30:26
  salvation. Rather, observing these fruits
• 30:29
  strengthens our subjective confidence in God's objective
• 30:32
  saving work. It proves that the Holy Spirit
• 30:35
  has actually taken up residence in US and is actively conforming
• 30:38
  us to the image of Christ. But I want to.
• 30:40
  Offer a vital, immensely comforting point for the weary
• 30:43
  listener out there. You might be listening to this
• 30:45
  intense theological breakdown, hearing standards like
• 30:48
  exhausting labor, crushing weight, endurance, and
• 30:51
  triumphant fortitude, and feel an overwhelming sense of
• 30:54
  despair. It can be a heavy standard.
• 30:56
  You might look at your own. Life and feel like your fruit is
• 30:59
  incredibly small, heavily flawed, or thoroughly
• 31:02
  unimpressive. You might feel like you were
• 31:04
  barely holding on by a thread, but remember the biblical
• 31:07
  principle of the bruise Reed and the smoking flax.
• 31:10
  The text praises the presence of fruit, not the absolute flawless
• 31:14
  perfection of it. That is so true A.
• 31:16
  Small struggling. Wind battered plant is still a
• 31:20
  living plant. A faint irregular heartbeat is
• 31:23
  still a heartbeat. If you see these marks in your
• 31:26
  life, even in microscopic measure, it is empirical
• 31:29
  evidence of God's supernatural grace.
• 31:32
  You do not need perfect faith. You need genuine faith and a
• 31:35
  perfect Savior. What's fascinating here?
• 31:37
  Is the role of suffering in all of this.
• 31:39
  Suffering does not disprove the presence of faith.
• 31:42
  In fact, suffering is the very theater, the proving ground, in
• 31:45
  which true faith is revealed and authenticated.
• 31:48
  Yeah, testing them out it is. Remarkably easy.
• 31:50
  To claim you have faith when life is comfortable, your bank
• 31:52
  account is full, and your social standing is secure.
• 31:56
  But when the civic pressure is applied, when the economic
• 31:59
  weight comes down on you, when the MRI results are terrifying,
• 32:03
  that is when the steadfastness of hope is either proven real or
• 32:07
  exposed as a counterfeit. Hardship strips away the
• 32:10
  superficial layers and brings the reality of God's sustaining
• 32:13
  grace into the sharpest possible focus.
• 32:16
  Let's synthesize everything. We have covered today.
• 32:19
  We have examined the historical pressure cooker of Thessalonica,
• 32:22
  a Roman free city suffocating under imperial allegiance and
• 32:25
  Pagan Guild monopolies. We have looked at Paul's God
• 32:28
  centered Thanksgiving, recognizing that all spiritual
• 32:31
  life, from the first breath to the final step, is a sovereign
• 32:35
  gift ordained by God. We have analyzed the active,
• 32:38
  productive work of faith, the exhausting, self sacrificial,
• 32:42
  sweat inducing labor of love, and the crushing weight
• 32:45
  endurance of a hope anchored entirely in the return of
• 32:48
  Christ. And we have traced how the Lord
• 32:51
  Jesus Christ stands at the absolute center of it all,
• 32:53
  functioning as the perfect object of our faith, the
• 32:56
  historical pattern and ongoing supplier of our love, and the
• 32:59
  unshakable ground of our hope, the Thessalonian.
• 33:01
  Believers provide a definitive, lasting model for every single
• 33:05
  generation of the church. Their faith was forged in the
• 33:09
  extreme heat of civic affliction, and their lives
• 33:12
  became a visible, undeniable witness to the invisible reality
• 33:16
  of God's sovereign electing grace.
• 33:19
  They proved that heaven's metrics look vastly different
• 33:21
  from earth's metrics. I want to leave you with a
• 33:23
  final. Thought to Mull over as you go
• 33:24
  about your week. We live in an incredibly
• 33:26
  digital, highly detached, highly insulated world.
• 33:29
  We have engineered a society where we can claim a Christian
• 33:32
  identity in our social media BIOS, debate theology and
• 33:35
  comment sections, and curate A flawless public image of piety
• 33:40
  that costs us absolutely nothing in the real world.
• 33:42
  It's all very cheap. We.
• 33:43
  Can simulate faith. Without ever lifting a finger.
• 33:47
  But if the biblical labor of love fundamentally requires
• 33:49
  physical exhaustion, and the work of faith requires tangible,
• 33:52
  costly action in the physical world, how can we manifest these
• 33:55
  visible marks of invisible grace in a culture literally designed
• 33:58
  to keep us comfortable, anonymous, and isolated?
• 34:01
  When the diagnostic MRI of your life is examined before the face
• 34:05
  of God, will it show the clean, undeniable lines of an active
• 34:08
  faith, a sweaty, costly love, and an ironclad hope?
• 34:13
  Thank you for joining Reformed Thinking.
• 34:14
  We encourage you to intensely examine your own fruit today,
• 34:17
  and, as you do, to rest entirely in the perfect, finished work of
• 34:20
  Christ.