1 Thessalonians 3: Gospel Love in Turbulent Times

Introduction

When the good news of Jesus Christ lands somewhere like a meteorite and takes root, the crater it leaves always has the same shape: the shape of love. That is the image Tom Parsons, one of the pastors at All Souls Langham Place in London, chose to open this message in the series on 1 Thessalonians.

The gospel reached Thessalonica, a Greek city, perhaps only sixteen years after the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. Many received it with a faith given by the Spirit, and a great crater shaped like love opened up in the heart of the city. The preacher reminds us that this same news reached London and has been proclaimed there for generations, in this autumn season when new faces arrive, students and young professionals.

The passage read (1 Thessalonians 2:17 to 3:13) has four paragraphs. Tom Parsons compares them to the colored filters once placed in front of a theater spotlight: one light, four colors. Here, the light is Paul's love for this young church, and each paragraph makes it shine in a different way.

Outline of the message

1. The context: a church born in a storm

The book of Acts gives the story behind Paul's letters. The preacher invites us to open the map of the missionary journeys at the back of the Bible and follow the route.
According to Acts 17, Paul preaches in Thessalonica for at least three weeks, probably more, first in the synagogue and then among non-Jews. Very quickly a riot breaks out and the crowd turns against the new believers.
The reason: Paul announces that Jesus of Nazareth, crucified and risen, is the Messiah, the long-promised King of Israel, to whom the government of the universe has been entrusted. One day he will judge the living and the dead, and in the meantime he offers forgiveness and a new life to anyone who calls on him. A wonderful message, which the crowd completely misunderstood.
A man from the city, Jason, is arrested and then released on bail. The new converts judge it wiser to send Paul away. He leaves for Berea, preaches there, then has to flee again and reaches Athens, alone, without his team.
The preacher sums it up: "Acts gives us the facts, but 1 Thessalonians tells us the emotions." Like an athlete who recounts afterward what he went through during a legendary match, Paul lets us see what he felt.

2. A love that suffers from being separated (2:17-20)

Paul's language is as emotionally charged as it gets. He feels like an orphan. He has left behind brand-new believers, barely taught, in danger, and whom he loves: it is as if his heart had been torn out.
He wanted to come back "once and again," and nothing less than Satan stopped him. What exactly that covers, we do not know, but we do know that he tried with all his strength.
We can measure his attachment in verse 19: they are his hope, his joy and his crown of glory before the Lord Jesus at his coming.
Tom Parsons remembers a training session he attended at All Souls when he was a student, just before leading his first student Bible study group. The leader had read this verse and asked what those eight, ten or twelve students were going to mean to him. He had remained skeptical. Six months later, the Spirit of God had taught him the opposite: he truly loved them, and their progress in the Christian life was a source of joy and hope for him.
What is extraordinary about Christian love, he explains, is that it carries within it the sense that it is meant to last forever. If you do not know that yet, he prays that you will discover it, by God's grace, in due time.

3. A love that takes responsibility, at its own expense (3:1-5)

Alone in Athens, Paul preaches (Acts 17 reports his speech), but in the evening one thought keeps coming back: are the Thessalonians still standing? Did they survive weeks, perhaps months, of persecution? Has Satan erased what God seemed to have written so powerfully in that city?
The preacher speaks to the leaders present: youth and children's leaders, group leaders, leaders of the Christianity Explored course. Someone comes to faith, prays a prayer of commitment, makes progress during a youth weekend. But will it hold in the light of the next day, or when friends and family oppose it? The next conversation is nerve-racking.
"Love makes us vulnerable to disappointment." Hence the very particular waiting that those who serve know, even while knowing that it is God who is at work and who holds everything in his hands.
Paul says it twice, in verses 1 and 5: he could no longer bear the waiting. He cannot go back to Thessalonica himself, since he is too well known and the riot would start again. He needs Timothy at his side, and yet he sends him.
With humor, the preacher imagines Timothy racking up miles on the sea route between Athens, Thessalonica and Berea, so often does he go back and forth. But the goal is serious: to strengthen and encourage the believers in their faith, so that no one is shaken by these troubles.
To love, then, is to take responsibility for strengthening other people's faith. It costs Paul, who stays alone and waiting. And it costs Timothy too.

4. A love flooded with relief (3:6-10)

Meanwhile, Paul leaves Athens for Corinth (Acts 18). It is there that Timothy and Silas join him (Acts 18:5), with news from Thessalonica.
In verse 6, the Greek literally says that Timothy "evangelized" them: he brought them good news. They still trust in Jesus, they are holding on, persecution has not destroyed them, they love one another and they love Paul. The meteorite of the gospel has indeed landed there, and it has left a crater of love.
The mission in Corinth was hard, and this relief works on Paul like an extraordinary remedy, an injection of new life. He writes it in verse 8: now we live. In other words, they had been as good as dead during the wait.
The preacher says that last month he rode a roller coaster at Thorpe Park, Hyperia, which was well worth two hours in the queue. It seems flat next to Paul's emotional roller coaster: in a few minutes, he goes from anguish to wondering how to thank God enough for all this joy.
John Stott, who served in this same church, often said that the first danger of Christian ministry is discouragement. Tom Parsons adds that discouragement often leads to cynicism, then to disillusionment: a slippery slope that every leader must guard against.
The remedy: good news and encouragement from others. Hence his appeal: if you are standing firm in the faith, contact this week the person who helped you grow and tell them that you are standing firm. If you have just arrived in a new city and a new church, let your home church know: they will be deeply encouraged.

5. A love that prays ahead of time (3:11-13)

Elsewhere, Paul speaks of the daily pressure of his concern for all the churches (2 Corinthians 11:28). How did he hold up? He never hung up on God in prayer.
The preacher uses the image of a call placed by mistake from a pocket: the line stays open and the other person hears everything. Embarrassing on the phone, but it is exactly what the Christian is looking for: to stay in constant communion with the Father, through Jesus Christ, by the action of the Holy Spirit. The more we grow, the closer prayer lies to the surface, to the point of suddenly bursting out, as it does here with Paul.
First request (verse 11): that God the Father and the Lord Jesus would open the way for him to Thessalonica. Our prayers often stop there: "Lord, remove this obstacle." That is a good prayer.
But Paul goes further and prays proactively (verse 12): that the Lord would make their love for one another and for all increase and overflow, just as his love for them. We then understand what he had been doing from the beginning: by opening his heart, he was giving them a model of the love they were to have for one another.
This love has an astonishing effect: it makes us firm in the faith. Faith itself and a clear attachment to the truth keep us steady, but love for one another keeps us steady because it binds us together.
Verse 13 begins, in the original, with a purpose clause: may your love overflow so that your hearts are made firm and blameless on the day when the Lord Jesus comes back with all his saints. How do we stay united, not just now but forever? By investing in one another through love.

6. How can a heart grow in love?

Tom Parsons admits that, reading a text like this, he finds his own heart quite shriveled next to the big beating heart of the apostle, not to mention that of Jesus Christ. How can a heart grow?
The answer is found at the very beginning of the letter, a detail that is easy to miss: 1 Thessalonians 1:4 calls the believers "brothers loved by God." Our love comes from him. As the apostle John says, we love because he first loved us (1 John 4:19).
To grow in love, then, we must go to its very heart: the Lord Jesus Christ and his death on the cross. Fix your eyes there, and pray there.
Chapter 4, studied the following week, will show practical ways of showing this love. In the meantime, the preacher offers a prayer to make your own: "Lord, light the fire of love in me. Fan the love that is in me until it becomes a flame." The Lord loves to answer this prayer.
He concludes by asking the Holy Spirit to come and give life where there is death, fill what is empty, and put love where something else has taken its place, so that it may overflow in the church now and forever.

Key takeaways

Where the gospel takes root, it always leaves the same imprint: love.
Christian love makes us vulnerable: it suffers from separation and fears that other people's faith will give way under pressure.
To love is to take responsibility for strengthening other people's faith, even when it costs.
Discouragement lies in wait for everyone who serves; good news and encouragement from others are a powerful remedy.
To pray for someone is to ask that obstacles fall, but also that their love would grow. Love for one another keeps us firm until the Lord's return.
Our love comes from God: to love more, we must return to the cross.

Personal application

Who helped you grow in the faith? Can you write to them this week to tell them that you are standing firm?
Is there someone whose faith is still fragile and for whom you can take responsibility, even if it costs you time or comfort?
Has discouragement begun to slide toward cynicism in your service or in your church life? Who could encourage you?
Do your prayers for others stop at the obstacles to be removed, or do you also ask that their love would grow?
Take a moment before the cross and pray: "Lord, light the fire of love in me."

Verses cited

Frequently asked questions

Why did Paul leave Thessalonica so quickly?

According to Acts 17, Paul's preaching about Jesus, the promised King who will judge the living and the dead, set off a riot. Jason was arrested and then released on bail, and the new converts judged it safer to send Paul away. He left for Berea, then for Athens, leaving behind a very young church that was already being persecuted.

What does 1 Thessalonians 3 teach us about Christian love?

Tom Parsons sees the same love under four lights: a love that suffers from being separated, a love that takes responsibility at its own expense by sending Timothy, a love flooded with relief when the good news arrives, and a love that prays ahead of time that the love of others would grow.

How can I make love grow in my heart?

The preacher points to 1 Thessalonians 1:4: believers are "loved by God." Our love comes from him, because we love since he first loved us (1 John 4:19). To grow in love, we must go to its source: Jesus Christ and his death on the cross, fix our eyes there and pray there.