Paul is writing to the church in Thessalonika, and he beings full of praise for their mature faith. They have seen some tough times, but they have also seen the power of God through the joy of the Holy Spirit.
They have come far on their Christian journey since they first believed.
Sometimes we think of salvation as the goal of faith – we believe in Jesus so that we can be saved and go to heaven.
If that were the case, then our baptism would be the finishing line. We’ve made it. We’re saved. We’ve been accepted as members of God’s family.
But this brief slice of life from Paul shows that baptism and coming to faith is not a finish line, but a start line of a whole new life of faith and hope and love.
What we’re seeing is like a glimpse into the future. Fast forward several years from the moment of baptism, to a life of mature faith. A faith that has influenced the entire nation that they live in. This mature faith is what Paul praises in the Thessalonians.
How did they get there from here?
Chosen and loved by God – revealed to them by the Holy Spirit
Imitators – of Christ and of Paul
Last week I said it would be a brave person who set themselves as an example of virtue for other to follow – but there’s a pattern here.
The Thessalonians became imitators of Paul, who was an imitator of the Lord, and they in turn became a model for the believers throughout the land.
Imitator – mimetes – mimeograph – carbon copies
Apostolic tradition – a conga line of faith. A faith passed down in an unbroken line through baptism all the way back to Jesus and his first disciples.
This morning I baptized Kaylani. I was baptized by Allan Wasley. He was baptized by someone else, and so on and so forth, all the way back to Christ himself in the river Jordan and those wonderful words from heaven “This is my child, with whom I am well pleased.
Through this great unbroken chain of faith those same words are a blessing for us too. Today, especially, for Kaylani. Kaylani, you are God’s daughter, with whom he is well pleased.
All of you life is ahead of you. Some of it will be joy in the Lord, and some of it will be suffering. I pray that you come to know that you are well loved, that you are chosen by God.
I pray that you work, and labour and endure in faith, hope and love. I pray that you come to learn from Jesus, to live in imitation of him.
I give thanks for you this day and every day.
And as Kaylani embarks on this remarkable journey that we call life, I pray that the rest of us may be reminded that we too are chosen and loved by God. We too are called to live for him, shaping our lives to be carbon copies of the heroes of faith that have gone before. We too are called to live lives that are so bursting at the seams with faith, hope and love that it doesn’t even need to be said.
“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?” — Romans 8:35,37. Powered by BibleGateway.com.
