1 Thessalonians Midweek Class: Chapter 1with Malcolm Cox

Thames Valley Churches of Christ

“We always thank God for all of you and continually mention you in our prayers. We remember
before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labour prompted by love, and your
endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. For we know, brothers and sisters loved
by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not simply with words but
also with power, with the Holy Spirit and deep conviction.” 1Th. 1:2-5
Introduction, v2-5
• Theme verse for 2023
• “We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labour prompted
by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.” v3
• Faith...love...hope: 1 Cor. 13:13; Col. 1:5; 1 Th. 1:3; 5:8
1. Faith
• 'work': While Paul insists that salvation is all of God, he also insists that faith is busy.
• Elsewhere he says:
• “The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.” (Galatians 5:6 NIV11)
• There faith leads to love.
• Here faith leads to work.
• “But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and
I will show you my faith by my deeds.” (James 2:18 NIV11)
• Living by faith, living out our hope and living a life of love are work. Not work to earn anything
from God, but work nonetheless. Are we afraid of work? Would we be known as a
congregation labouring for God?
Question: What helps your faith to be busy? How do you avoid the danger of a works
mentality - thinking the works make you more acceptable in God’s eyes?
2. Love
• 'labour' prompted by love Paul means more than small deeds of kindness done without hope
of reward. The word kopos denotes laborious toil, unceasing hardship borne for love’s
sake. Tyndale
• Toiling to build the church well
• 'love' - agape. A love that loves whether the object of that love has merit or not. A love that
seeks to give rather than receive. Indeed, gives without thought of return.
• The love Christ showed us: John 3:16; Rom. 5:8; 1 John 4:10.
• “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him
shall not perish but have eternal life.
• But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for
us.
• This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning
sacrifice for our sins.”
• (John 3:16; Romans 5:8; 1 John 4:10 NIV11)
Question: How do you connect with the love that God has for you in such a way that it
motivates you to toil for him?
3. Hope
• Endurance - Hypomonē, means not a negative, passive acquiescence, but an active, manly
endurance: ‘not the resignation of the passive sufferer, so much as the fortitude of the
stout-hearted soldier’
• Hope, in a Christian context, always has an air of certainty about it. It is a confident
expectation, not the unfounded optimism we often mean by the word. Tyndale
• 'hope': not a grinding endurance, but an inspired one because our eyes are fixed on Jesus.
• We have access to the endurance of Jesus - “May the Lord direct your hearts into God’s love
and Christ’s perseverance.” (2 Thessalonians 3:5 NIV11)

Question: What difference does it make that our hope is ‘in Christ’? How does that help
you to endure?
Conclusion
• Maybe a year has gone by since their conversion. Already people for hundreds of miles
around are talking about them. God is clearly at work - through their work.
• See also the three linked here: (Rom. 5:2–5; 1 Cor. 13:13; Gal. 5:5–6; Col. 1:4–5; Heb. 6:10–
12; 10:22–24; 1 Pet. 1:21–22).
• “let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings,
having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies
washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who
promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love
and good deeds,” (Hebrews 10:22–24 NIV11)
Please add your comments on this week’s topic. We learn best when we learn in community.
Do you have a question about teaching the Bible? Is it theological, technical, practical? Send
me your questions or suggestions. Here’s the email: [e-mail].
If you’d like a copy of my free eBook on spiritual disciplines, “How God grows His people”, sign
up at my website: http://www.malcolmcox.org.
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“Worship the LORD with gladness; come before him with joyful songs.” (Psalms 100:2 NIV11)
God bless, Malcolm