By Pastor Scott Wagner
Community Christian Church, Scott City
Special to the Tribune

My guess is that most of the people who get this far into the paper and read the Religion columns are church people; folks who go to church on Sunday and maybe on Wednesday night as well; folks who love the Lord and serve his church faithfully, people who I am glad to call brothers and sisters in Christ.

But if there is a chance that the person reading this column is new this thing called Christianity, looking for faith information or just happens to stumble across this column in the paper, here is a special welcome! And hopefully, we can all share in learning a few things about church from 1 and 2 Thessalonians in the Bible.

“We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

“For we know, brothers and sisters loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not simply with words but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and deep conviction.” 1 Thessalonians 1:3-5a (NIV)

Paul is writing to a church that he didn’t get to spend much time with, but as we can see, he cared about them deeply. He prayed for them and thanked God for them. What Paul notices about them is their faith, love and hope. This trifecta of words shows up in much of Paul’s writings. Maybe the most famously in 1 Corinthians 13, “now these three remain, faith, hope, and love …”

These words carry with them a certain amount of weight because it is not just how the people of God are to behave, but also how they are to be identified.

Let’s look at this a little more closely. The things that we do are closely knit to our faith. Faith may be hard for us to quantify but we know it when we see it. Perhaps we could say, faith is my dependance on another greater than I. Therefore, the motive behind the things our faith compels us to do us not notoriety, fame, fortune or coercion. Rather, it comes from a place of love. This makes sense to the people of God.

Christians are compelled by love because we were first loved by the creator. Anything else would certainly lead to pride and arrogance. Hope, which is much more than just wishful thinking, is what gives us the strength to do what we do. And our hope is not in a system or program, it’s in a person, our Lord Jesus Christ. What Jesus has done and promised for his children is what gives us strength to carry on.

Now that would be enough for most people, but Paul adds a couple of additional thoughts. That we the church can know for sure that we are loved by God, empowered by the gospel (of Jesus), and will receive the conviction of the Holy Spirit. Another trifecta that whenever believers read these words, they too can know their calling and their labor has divine origins and power.

I would like to echo this encouragement to all who have read this. May you be known because of your faith, love, and hope. And may you know that the love of God, the power of Jesus’ message (the gospel) and the conviction of the Holy Spirit are always with you.