Growth - A Gracious Blessing

 

“Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you, and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.”

1 Thessalonians 3:11-13 ESV

 

As Christians, we know and believe that our forgiveness and salvation were provided for us by Jesus. We know and believe that he made these blessings possible by his death on the cross and his resurrection from the grave. And we know and believe that these blessings are received as a free gift through faith in Jesus.

 

As we reach out to unbelievers, this is the message that we proclaim. This, we know, is the message of the gospel. It’s the good news of what God has done for us.

 

However, after we receive the gospel, after we receive God’s forgiveness and salvation, our understanding and our message suddenly change. Instead of trusting in Jesus for the blessings that he provides, we look to our own efforts to produce growth in our faith. And instead of proclaiming the gospel, we instead proclaim a message of law, a message of what must be done in order to achieve growth.

 

Just as there’s nothing we can do to receive the forgiveness and the salvation of God, there is nothing we can do to attain growth in our faith. This too is a blessing received only by grace. And it’s a blessing that is received through faith.

 

We see this as we look at the above passage. Paul had been expressing his concern for the believers at Thessalonica, and his desire to see them. And he looks to God to provide that opportunity for him.

 

He then goes on to express hope that the Lord would cause their love for one another to abound. He expresses hope that the Lord would cause their love for all people to abound. And he expresses hope that the Lord would establish their hearts blameless in holiness before God.

 

In this statement that we tend to read over as nothing more than a personal sidenote, Paul makes it clear that Christ alone is the source of this blessing. It’s the Lord who causes our love to abound. And it’s the Lord who establishes our hearts blameless in holiness before God.

 

We, then, must not look to ourselves for our growth in faith nor in our love for others. We must understand that, just as we are saved by Christ alone, so too do we grow in faith. It is his work as we look to him. It’s his work as we trust in him.

 

The changes that we see in our life, then, are the fruit of this work. It is something that’s produced not by our efforts. It’s something that’s produced by the Lord’s work in our life.