Our Source of Confidence

 

“And we have confidence in the Lord about you, that you are doing and will do the things that we command. May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ.”

(2 Thessalonians 3:4-5 ESV)

 

We’re often skeptical of people. We doubt them. And we do so for good reason. We do so, knowing that no one is perfect.

 

This is true of us, even as Christians. We know and believe that we are a sinful people. We know and believe that we are born in sin. And, for this reason, we are cynical. We are distrustful of others.

 

And, based on our experience, we may feel that we have good reason for this cynicism. We may feel that we have good reason for our lack of trust in others. After all, even those who love us most have failed us time and again.

 

However, our confidence in others is not dependent upon them. It’s not dependent upon their reliability. Nor is it dependent upon our past experience.

 

We see this in the above passage. Paul had been asking for the prayers of the believers at Thessalonica. He desired that they would pray for him and his ministry. And he went on to express a confidence in them.

 

He’s confident that they were doing the things he’d commanded. And he was confident that they would do the things he’d commanded. However, the basis of that confidence was not them. The basis of that confidence was the Lord.

 

“And we have confidence in the Lord about you,” he writes. It’s clear, then, that his confidence was not in them. His confidence was in the Lord.

 

And this makes complete sense. Even though people are imperfect, God is perfect. Even though they are fallible, God is infallible. And even though they are weak, God is strong. Although we have little, if any, reason to be confident in others, we have every reason to be confident in the Lord.

 

He knew that they were keeping his commands not because of any goodness or strength on their part, but because of the Lord and his work in their lives and hearts. And he knew that they would keep his commands in the days ahead, not because of any intrinsic holiness or piety, but because of the Lord and the strength he would provide.

 

Based on this, he blesses them, asking that the Lord would direct their hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ. He asks that the Lord will direct them into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance.  He asks that the Lord would direct their hearts into God’s love and Christ’s endurance.

 

This is also the reason that we can be confident in others. We can be confident in them because of the Lord. We can be confident in them because of his ongoing work in their life.