“We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers, remembering without ceasing your work of faith, labour of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the sight of our God and Father.”
1 Thessalonians 1:2-3
Faith, love and hope shape our lives.
Apostle Paul went to Thessalonica to preach the gospel. Very quickly, he was able to establish a church there. But faced with the hostility of the Jews, he had to flee the city and could not return. In his epistle, he thanks God who allowed the believers in Thessalonica to remain faithful. His description of the faithful here corresponds to what God expects of each of us.
Our work of faith
We believe in Jesus Christ. We believe that God has revealed His nature to us through Christ – He is love, grace and mercy. We believe that Christ wants to give us eternal life and perfect fellowship with God in His kingdom. We believe in the resurrection of the dead – faith in our resurrection is inseparable from faith in Christ (1 Cor 15:12-18). And we believe that the gospel is the path to follow to be saved.
Believing in God is trusting Him. We value God’s word more than what we can see and understand.
The essential elements of our faith are summarized in the New Apostolic Creed. We believe in God’s Trinity, the Church, the apostolate and ministries, the sacraments and Christ’s imminent return.
Our work of faith involves building our lives based on our faith. It is our faith that determines our decisions and behavior. We are future-oriented – we dedicate our present to building our future. We value what God tells us more than the reality we perceive. Consistent with ourselves, we regularly attend the divine service to listen to the preaching of the gospel through the apostolate and to receive Holy Communion.
Our labour of love
This is not the human sentiment, but the very essence of God. God is love – the triune God is the fellowship of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Because He loves humankind, God wants to lead them into this fellowship. God placed His life, and therefore His love, in us when we were reborn out of water and the Spirit.
Our love for God drives us to seek fellowship with Him. Our labour of love consists in ridding ourselves of everything that hinders this fellowship. Laboring requires constant and regular effort. As the Spirit expands our knowledge of Christ, we discover new things that we must let go of to become like Him.
God’s life placed in us inspires a love for our neighbor. Determined to contribute to the plan of redemption, we serve the salvation of others. We want to help people find and follow the path that leads to God. Motivated by Christ’s love, we serve without expecting anything in return, regardless of the success we achieve.
The Greek word for labour used by Paul also refers to the notion of effort and fatigue. Loving like Christ requires a sustained effort, costly in energy. We can only make this effort by regularly drawing strength from the preaching, Holy Communion and the fellowship of the faithful. Those who love with sincere love can count on God’s blessing. They experience God’s presence at their side (Jn 14:21-23). Filled with deep inner peace, they go through trials with serenity and confidence.
Our patience of hope
Our hope results from our faith in Christ and love for Him. We await His return because we believe in His promise and long to be with Him. With our eyes fixed on our goal of becoming like Christ, we do not allow ourselves to be distracted or discouraged by the difficulties we encounter.
We are aware of our weaknesses and put all our hope in the Lord’s grace (1 Pet 1:13).
We remain firmly committed to following Christ and serving Him. Even if the reality we perceive is different from what we believe. Soon we will be able to see things as God sees them and we will discover the glory of His work. This certainty is our joy already today!
We believe in Christ and His work of salvation. Our faith shapes our lives. We love Christ and work to become like Him. We love our neighbors and contribute to their salvation. We hope for Christ’s return and prepare ourselves for it.