1 Thessalonians 1:2-10, The Proofs of Election

In 2 Peter 1:10, Peter tells his readers to “be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election.” Being chosen by God always demonstrates itself in changed lives. Paul has seen this evidence in the lives of his new converts.

² We thank God always for all of you, making mention of you in our prayers, unceasingly ³ remembering your work springing from faith, your labor prompted by love, and your perseverance sustained by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, before our God and Father, ⁴ thankful, because we know, brothers and sisters, beloved by God, your election. ⁵ Because our gospel did not come to you in word only, but in power, and by the Holy Spirit, and in full assurance, even as you know what manner of people we were among you for your sake. ⁶ And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, receiving the word in the midst of severe affliction, yet with joy by the Holy Spirit, ⁷ so that you became a pattern for all who believe in both Macedonia and Achaia. ⁸ For from you the word of the Lord sounded forth, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place your faith before God went forth, so that we have no need to speak anything. ⁹ These people speak about what kind of reception we had with you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God ¹⁰ and to wait for His Son to come from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, Jesus, our deliverer from the wrath to come.

Paul almost always begins his letters with what has come to be called “a prayer report” (Galatians is an exception, for good reason). His prayer reports always speak to and advance his overall idea for his letter. Paul explains what he thanks God for unceasingly, and why he thanks God unceasingly in his prayers for them.

Paul thanks God for the Thessalonians’ faith, hope and love, the three key Christian virtues that mark off all believers from the rest of mankind. They produce good works because they have believed and been saved, not in order to be saved. They toil and labor on behalf of others because of the love for and from God that has filled their hearts for others, and they persevere despite the difficulties of knowing Christ because they have a sustaining hope in the return of Jesus and God’s kingdom rule to earth. Paul is thankful for these evidences of spiritual life that hold up in an evaluation before God the Father.

The reason Paul is so thankful for the Thessalonians is certainty of their election by God to salvation. His certainty springs from two factors: 1) the experience of power, the enablement of the Holy Spirit, and the full assurance Paul’s team had when they preached to the Thessalonians, and 2) the evidence in the lives of the Thessalonians of salvation as they imitated Jesus despite persecution, experienced joy by the Holy Spirit, and became a pattern for making the faith known in their own and nearby region. Many gave testimony to their receptiveness to and reception of the gospel, converting from idol worship to worship of the true and living God.

These were their work springing from faith, their labor prompted by love, and their perseverance as they, in hope, awaited the coming of the Lord Jesus, who would deliver them from the wrath of the final judgment.

Would Paul have thanksgiving like this for us?