These three — faith, hope and love — are just what we need in passing through the world. We must go through it, and God means that we should find it a place of trial and difficulty, that it may test our hearts and teach us what He is to us under all.
Our redemption in Christ has delivered us from the world, sin and death, and it has brought us in Christ into the heavenly places. But as there was a wilderness for Israel to go through, so it is with us. God might have brought the Israelites into the land by a short way, but He led them around by the longer, “lest,” as He said, “peradventure the people repent when they see war, and they return to Egypt” (Ex. 13:1717And it came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God led them not through the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near; for God said, Lest peradventure the people repent when they see war, and they return to Egypt: (Exodus 13:17)). He thinks of what is best for them in every circumstance. After forty years they find their clothes have not waxed old, neither have their feet swelled. They had not thought of this till the journey was over, but their God had thought of their clothing every day. He had never omitted to rain manna upon them. True, He suffered them to hunger and thirst, to humble them and prove them, but only that He might supply their bread and their water for them. Through their unbelief they were turned back to wander thirty-eight years longer in the desert, but God turned back with them and took not away from them His pillar of cloud by day, nor His pillar of fire by night.
The Trials of Life
It is true that God deals with us in all the trials and difficulties of life. He means us to have trouble and to feel the opposition of everything around to the life He has given us. What we want then is to have the heart living with God, and then we shall have His mind about all our circumstances. Do you suppose that if Israel had been thinking of God’s interest and care for them, they would have murmured as they did? Surely not.
It does not matter what our troubles are. One may have the care of God’s people pressing on him; another, the cares of the world; another, trouble in his family. There are countless varieties of exercises, no doubt appointed by Him for His people, but the answer to every trouble is having the heart living with God above the circumstances.
The Work of Faith
Now if we turn to the state of the Thessalonians, we shall see them bright and happy in the midst of most terrible persecutions. There is no epistle so happy as this. They are in what we call their first love. The springs of divine affections were bright in them. In the third verse Paul remembers their work of faith, their labor of love, and their patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ — that which constituted the full expression of grace active in the Christians.
How is it with ourselves? It is a great privilege to be allowed to have any service for Christ, but how far is it a work of faith? We may work for the Lord and earnestly desire His blessing, but is every word the expression of what our faith in Him is enjoying? Or do we say what we know to be blessed truth, while the secret spring that should link the work with our communion to Christ is gone? We may have faith in the work, and yet, in those inner springs of our spirit, our work may not be a work of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Labor of Love — Patience of Hope
Again, we may labor abundantly and love the labor, but is the labor so completely the result of our own personal love to Christ, that it is really a “labor of love”? But there was more than work and labor; there was also the condition of their hearts. They looked for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, not as a doctrine, but as the Object of their affections. We look for Him because we love Him, and we wait to see Him, and so we exercise the “patience of hope.” He is Himself waiting, and we wait with Him. We are companions in the patience of Jesus Christ. We know the reason of His delay. It is God’s long-suffering in saving sinners; therefore we are not left in ignorance. But we cannot give up His return; to do so would make us the most miserable of all men. We find the “patience of hope” in our blessed Lord when in this world. He served and labored in faith and love to His Father, but He also waited for the coming glory. His life was the patience of hope.
In the Sight of God Their Father
But if we had no more than the work of faith, labor of love, and patience of hope, the character of Christian walk would be very imperfect. In Christ there was perfect obedience. All His work of faith, labor of love, and patience of hope was in obedience to God His Father. As He says to John, “That the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave Me commandment, even so I do” (John 14:3131But that the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go hence. (John 14:31)). The Thessalonians did all “in the sight of God and our Father.” This obedience is most blessed, and yet it is a check upon us which we need, carrying about with us the evil we do. Their faith, hope, and love, sweet as they were in themselves, needed to be in the sight of God their Father and done in obedience to Him.
Paul could rejoice in these Thessalonians, as evidently chosen of God. They were so happy in what they believed, for they were waiting for the Son of God from heaven. No doubt their lips testified of this, but their lives spoke so that Paul had no need of saying what they were. Is it so with us? Are we thus waiting for God’s Son from heaven, having turned to God from idols? Whatever our circumstances and trials, are we living above them in communion with God? Or are we happy in the world, whether Christ comes or not?
J. N. Darby (adapted)