The true test of genuine faith. How do you know if your faith in Christ is genuine and vibrant? What does authentic and true Christian faith look like?
Here in Thessalonians we are given two tests to answer that question. The first is the test of repentance. Namely that you have forsaken worship of anything but the God of the scriptures. And the second test is that you live a life that is totally dependent upon the Lord Jesus Christ.
Lets examine the first test, the test of repentance. What is biblical repentance?
Okay so biblical repentance has to do with a change of mind/attitude about your life, the course of your life, about your state before God, and even possibly about who God is. Lets look at how the text explains repentance. V 9 says “they themselves report about us what kind of a reception we had with you…and how you turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God…”
It says specifically that they turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God. To me that is the perfect picture of biblical repentance. It is a turning away from one thing, and to another. Specifically, turning from sin to God. Biblical repentance is not just turning from sin. If you just turn from sin, you are liable to turn right into another. Simply turning from sin is what the world would call reformation. There are a lot of ways that people go about trying to reform themselves. There are prisons (prison can never change who a person is on the inside, it can make them think twice about doing it or even look for better ways of doing it so as to not get caught, but it can never ultimately change them), self-help programs and all sorts of other things available for people who want to reform themselves. Reformation, however is not enough.
Biblical Repentance is about a Transformation of Life
Biblical repentance is about a total transformation of life. And a transformation of life comes when you turn from sin to God. I’m not talking about transforming in the sense of cars and trucks becoming living robot beings either. Transformation in this sense is a complete makeover. See, transformers, merely take on a different appearance. They never cease to be what they are, they just look different. Unfortunately there are some people in church like that. They are sinners in disguise so to speak. They have not truly repented from their sin and turned to God. They continue to harbor idols in their hearts and they have no love for God or for Christ.
What we are talking about, however is what the bible refers to as the new birth. Jesus told Nicodemus that he must be “born again” if he was to see the kingdom of heaven. Paul said in 2 Cor 5:17 “if any man be in Christ he is a new creation, old things have passed away and behold all has become new.” In 1 Peter 1:3, he says that we have been “born again to a living hope.” Our previous hope was a dead hope, and for that matter we were dead, in our trespasses and sins. It was a futile hope. A hope that had no chance whatsoever of bringing us life or joy. In Christ, however, there is a living hope. Also, and more to the point that I am making, in Colossians, Paul says that we have been “rescued from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of His beloved Son.” We’ve been taken out of one kingdom or domain and transferred into another. God reached down and snatched us out of the kingdom of darkness and placed us into the kingdom of His Son. Thats where we were, by the way, the kingdom of darkness, lest we think that we had any goodness inside of ourselves before coming to faith in Christ. John also speaks about this transfer, but in a different way. Look at I John 1.
He says that we have fellowship with the Father and with His Son. And that He is light and in Him is no darkness and so it follows that if you walk in the darkness, you cannot possibly have fellowship with Him. There is one sphere – which is where God is – that is a sphere of light. And those who are in Christ are in that sphere of light. There is also a sphere of darkness, so if you walk in darkness, you cannot possibly be in Christ. Because there is no darkness in God. For He is light.
So again, biblical repentance involves a complete makeover. A change from something old to something new. Being taken from one sphere and placed into another. Turning from one way of life and to another.
So what does that have to do with the text, and what does that have to do with us? Regarding the text, the believers during that time were living in a very crooked and perverse society. Pagan idolatry and perverse living went hand in hand. Later in the letter Paul addresses some of these specific issues, by way of encouragement for the believers. I’ll just name two for the sake of our discussion. In ch 4, he addresses both immorality and laziness.
With regards to immorality he says “this is the will of God, your sanctification, that is that you abstain from sexual immorality…not in lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God.” Furthermore, he says “for God has not called you for the purpose of impurity but in sanctification.” Again, their society was drenched in immorality. It was normal. It was a part of life. In many of the pagan religions, part of their worship involved some form of sexual immorality.
For us, we are often tempted to think that our situation is unique. That our struggles against sin and temptation are unique to us as a person or else to our generation. We look at the immorality of the media (television, music), we look at immorality in our schools, among our friends and possibly at home and may be tempted to think that the Bible cannot possibly speak to any of our issues because they are so great. But that is not so. WE may also be tempted to think that God couldn’t possibly understand what we struggle with. Or maybe you think that He does understand and so its okay. Regardless we can see from the exhortations that Paul gives in these verses that God expects for us to live holy lives. And He should expect that from us because again, He has given us new life. We have been born again. He has raised us from the dead. According to Romans 6, we no longer have to serve sin or to be enslaved to it. Those who have truly repented of their sin shall no longer be controlled by sin. We have no excuse. The God who called us to Himself is Holy and so we should be also. In I Peter 1, he says that the seed by which we are born again is a holy seed and therefore we should walk in holiness.
The Bible is not outdated and God is not fooled or caught off guard by the ways of the wicked society in which we live. He has called us while we are in this society and He has called us to live as if we are no longer a part of this society. A truly repentant heart has and must turn its back on sin. And it must turn its eyes towards God. And not just any God, but the Holy One of Israel. That is how God was often referred to in the Old Testament. Even Peter’s exhortation in I Pet 1, which I just referred to was a quote from the Old Testament when God said to the nation of Israel “be Holy for I am Holy” in all your behavior.
With regards to laziness he mentions that they should excel in their love for the brethren. And by that he was encouraging them to work hard so that they could provide for their own families. A theme that he will also address later in ch 5 and again in the second letter to the Thessalonians. Apparently there were some who were prone to slack off in providing for themselves and their families. Laziness is often mentioned as a characteristic of the fool in the book of Proverbs. Interestingly, Paul made a point for himself and his companions to work to support themselves so that they would not be a burden to the believers there. He mentions this in 2:9-10 “for you recall, brethren, our labor and hardship, how working night and day so as not to be a burden to any of you, we proclaimed to you the gospel of God.” Now he had a right, as an Apostle to expect to be supported for his service to the church but in the proclamation of the gospel, he saw fit to provide for himself so that there could be nothing to take away from the message of the gospel. There were in his day those who would travel from house to house, city to city, peddling their philosophy for their own prophet. But Paul had no desire to be equated with such people and wanted the gospel to be proclaimed in its purity without distraction. And so he worked while he preached.
So too for us who are truly of the Lord and who have truly turned from our former way of life, laziness should never be a characteristic of our lives. Whether it be service to the body of Christ or service to your family, if you are truly of the Lord, you should make it your ambition to work hard in service to others. If you are old enough, get a job. And don’t just do the job, excel in your job. Work hard. Bring honor to God as they see someone working hard and not slacking off like your co-workers. You are not just doing this for your own benefit, I’m not encouraging you to excel in work merely to advance, I am encouraging you to excel in your work for the glory of God above. Even if you don’t have a job, though, if you have chores at home, excel in doing your chores well. Don’t let your parents have to tell you to do them often. Don’t even let them tell you to do them once. Just do it. Make it your ambition to excel in pleasing your parents with your hard work. Why? For your own good? No. For extra allowance? No. Because you serving your parents, just like the brother or sister who has a job is working not for your parents or your employers but you are working for the Lord. You are serving Him. He has given you new life. You are not the old man who only did what was best for you. Or who will only volunteer to do extra when it feels good to you. You are a new creation in Christ.
Biblical Repentance is about a transformation of Life that God does
So biblical repentance is about a transformation of life. And it is a transformation from the old to the new. A completely new birth that God Himself does in our lives. Consider what Paul says at the beginning of the letter of I Thess 1. “We give thanks to God always for you all making mention of you in our prayers, constantly bearing in mind your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the presense of our God and Father, knowing brethren beloved by God, His choice of you; for our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction…”
What Paul is saying here is that he is so incredibly thankful to God for the Thessalonians, especially because He has chosen them. And how does he know that God chose them? Well, he explains that in the following verses. He uses a connecting word “for,” which helps us to know that he is going to talk to us about what proceeded it. And what proceeded it was “God’s choice of you.” What he says next is that the “gospel did not go forth in word only but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction.” In other words, it is clear that God truly did choose them because when he preached the gospel, it was effective. It worked. It did what it was supposed to do in their hearts. It was clear that God had chosen them because they believed. In all that we do in preaching the gospel, and in all that someone else may do in hearing the gospel, if God has not chosen to grant new life to a person, then it will not happen. Ephesians 2:8-9 says “it is by grace that you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God, not of works so that no one could boast.”
Repentance is never a work of the will of man. God moves and so we are saved. Again in Colossians it said that we were “transferred from the domain of darkness into the kingdom of the beloved Son.” To be transferred is passive, it is something that happened to us. Eph says that “we were dead, but God made us alive together with Christ.” Faith in God and true repentance can never come as a result of man’s own inclination and will. Man’s first inclination is contrary to God and is in fact to serve that which is not God for his own good. For to serve God would be to admit that we are not in control. Man’s first inclination is to make idols for himself to serve after his own image. Consider Romans 1. If the idol is made in our image then we can keep it under control. But that is not so with God. And it is not so for the truly repentant. The truly repentant recognizes the worthlessness of idols and immediately casts them away and runs whole heartedly to the true and living God.
Consider the wording that Paul uses in v 9, namely that they turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God. Did you hear the contrast? The God whom they are now serving is a living and true God, not like the dead and false idols that they were serving. Biblical repentance then is also seen in the rejection of idols.
Biblical Repentance is seen in the rejection of idols
Its interesting that in the Old Testament, quite often the Prophets of the Lord would taunt idol worshipers and make fun of them because of the lifelessness of their idols. (prophets of baal, Isaiah/Jeremiah)
Isaiah 44:6-24 6 “Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel And his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts: ‘I am the first and I am the last, And there is no God besides Me. 7 ‘And who is like Me? Let him proclaim and declare it; Yes, let him recount it to Me in order, From the time that I established the ancient nation. And let them declare to them the things that are coming And the events that are going to take place. 8 ‘Do not tremble and do not be afraid; Have I not long since announced it to you and declared it? And you are My witnesses. Is there any God besides Me, Or is there any other Rock? I know of none.’” 9 Those who fashion a graven image are all of them futile, and their precious things are of no profit; even their own witnesses fail to see or know, so that they will be put to shame. 10 Who has fashioned a god or cast an idol to no profit? 11 Behold, all his companions will be put to shame, for the craftsmen themselves are mere men. Let them all assemble themselves, let them stand up, let them tremble, let them together be put to shame. 12 The man shapes iron into a cutting tool, and does his work over the coals, fashioning it with hammers, and working it with his strong arm. He also gets hungry and his strength fails; he drinks no water and becomes weary. 13 Another shapes wood, he extends a measuring line; he outlines it with red chalk. He works it with planes, and outlines it with a compass, and makes it like the form of a man, like the beauty of man, so that it may sit in a house. 14 Surely he cuts cedars for himself, and takes a cypress or an oak, and raises it for himself among the trees of the forest. He plants a fir, and the rain makes it grow. 15 Then it becomes something for a man to burn, so he takes one of them and warms himself; he also makes a fire to bake bread. He also makes a god and worships it; he makes it a graven image, and falls down before it. 16 Half of it he burns in the fire; over this half he eats meat as he roasts a roast, and is satisfied. He also warms himself and says, “Aha! I am warm, I have seen the fire.” 17 But the rest of it he makes into a god, his graven image. He falls down before it and worships; he also prays to it and says, “Deliver me, for thou art my god.” 18 They do not know, nor do they understand, for He has smeared over their eyes so that they cannot see and their hearts so that they cannot comprehend. 19 And no one recalls, nor is there knowledge or understanding to say, “I have burned half of it in the fire, and also have baked bread over its coals. I roast meat and eat it. Then I make the rest of it into an abomination, I fall down before a block of wood!” 20 He feeds on ashes; a deceived heart has turned him aside. And he cannot deliver himself, nor say, “Is there not a lie in my right hand?” 21 “Remember these things, O Jacob, And Israel, for you are My servant; I have formed you, you are My servant, O Israel, you will not be forgotten by Me. 22 “I have wiped out your transgressions like a thick cloud, And your sins like a heavy mist. Return to Me, for I have redeemed you.” 23 Shout for joy, O heavens, for the LORD has done it! Shout joyfully, you lower parts of the earth; Break forth into a shout of joy, you mountains, O forest, and every tree in it; For the LORD has redeemed Jacob And in Israel He shows forth His glory. 24 Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, and the one who formed you from the womb, “I, the LORD, am the maker of all things, Stretching out the heavens by Myself, And spreading out the earth all alone,
Isaiah 40:18-31 18 To whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare with Him? 19 As for the idol, a craftsman casts it, A goldsmith plates it with gold, And a silversmith fashions chains of silver. 20 He who is too impoverished for such an offering Selects a tree that does not rot; He seeks out for himself a skillful craftsman To prepare an idol that will not totter. 21 Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been declared to you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? 22 It is He who sits above the vault of the earth, And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain And spreads them out like a tent to dwell in. 23 He it is who reduces rulers to nothing, Who makes the judges of the earth meaningless. 24 Scarcely have they been planted, Scarcely have they been sown, Scarcely has their stock taken root in the earth, But He merely blows on them, and they wither, And the storm carries them away like stubble. 25 “To whom then will you liken Me That I should be his equal?” says the Holy One. 26 Lift up your eyes on high And see who has created these stars, The One who leads forth their host by number, He calls them all by name; Because of the greatness of His might and the strength of His power Not one of them is missing. 27 Why do you say, O Jacob, and assert, O Israel, “My way is hidden from the LORD, And the justice due me escapes the notice of my God “? 28 Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth Does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable. 29 He gives strength to the weary, And to him who lacks might He increases power. 30 Though youths grow weary and tired, And vigorous young men stumble badly, 31 Yet those who wait for the LORD Will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary.
You might be saying “oh well, we obviously don’t have to worry about that because no one serves idols anymore. Well, first there are plenty of places in the world where people still serve idols. Thats a fact. But more than that, lets consider what an idol actually is.
What is idolatry?
A.W. Tozer in his book entitled “The Knowledge of the Holy” gave a great definition of idolatry. He said “the idolatrous heart assumes that God is other than He is – in itself a monstrous sin – and substitutes for the true God one made after its own likeness.”
In other words idolatry is more than simply bowing down to an object that is made with your hands and that would be bad enough. It is worshiping anything other than the true and living God. That anything can be an object or it can be a thought. And the most dangerous idolatry, according to Tozer – of which I agree – is when we conceive of God as something other than who He truly is. Anytime we think of God in anyway other than who He truly is, we are committing idolatry.
Example 1
The idolatrous heart might decide to steal when no one else is looking. How is that idolatrous you might wonder? Well at the foundation of the thought that it is okay to steal while no one else is looking is either a non-existent god, a god who cannot see, a god may be able to see but is powerless to stop him or judge him, or perhaps even a god who is unwilling (for some reason) to judge him…perhaps because everybody does it. This person has fashioned an idol of a god in their heart and so pursues life as if this god is the only one who is looking.
Example 2
Lets take another example, perhaps the two that we mentioned earlier of immorality and laziness. The idolatrous heart might say that its okay to have sex outside of marriage, or even just to fool around outside of marriage. How could that be idolatry? Perhaps because the idol of a god that they have formed in their mind and heart tells them that everyone has these desires and so its okay that he has to fulfill them every once in a while.
The one who is lazy might have a god who wants only what is best for him. This god doesn’t want him to do any more than he has to to get by. This god wants him to be as comfortable as possible regardless of how it may inconvenience others. You get the picture?
All of us have a concept of God in our hearts. The question is whether it is the true and living God that we are conceiving of or not. Anything concept of God other than that which He has revealled of Himself in scripture is idolatry. Because it is not worshipping God in Spirit and in the truth that he has revealed of Himself.
So then, our first test of authentic Christianity is the test of repentance. Repentance is manifested in a transformed life. A transformation which is a work of God. Not one of man’s own will. Furthermore it is a turning from idolatry to serving the true and living God. The God who has revealled Himself in the scriptures and in His Son. At the end of Jesus’ earthly ministry, with His disciples in the upper room, Phillip said, Lord show us the Father. And Jesus responded to him, Phillip, have I been with you so long and yet you have not come to know me? He who has seen me has seen the Father.
So the question becomes, is repentance a reality in your life? Has your life been transformed by God, or are you working on your own strength trying to please God? Have you forsaken the idols of your heart? Or do you still harbor false concepts of a god that you have conceived in your own mind?
The test of Dependence upon the Lord
The second test has to do with a dependence upon the Lord. Take a look back at I Thess 1:9-10. Now there are two things in those verses that indicate a need for dependence upon the Lord. The first is found in the depiction of repentance that Paul paints at the end of v 9. He says again that the believer’s at Thessalonica, “turned to God from sin to serve a living and true God.”
The issue in repentance has to do with turning from serving one thing to serving another. It is a change of mind that leads you from worshiping idols (whether it be an object or a thought) to worshiping the true and living God.
Dependence upon God shown in service to Him
Now when you worship something, you ascribe value to it. You are essentially saying that this thing is worthy of your mind, time, energy and resources. People often make great sacrifices for what they worship. I am reminded of the prophets of baal in I Kings 18, running about, crying out with loud voices and cutting themselves in order to worship their god. That is an extreme example, but of course we have plenty of other more modern examples to choose from.
Such as the culprits behind 9/11. One of the tenets of the Islam faith holds that if you die, in Jihad which is their term for a holy war, in which you are battling those who do not hold to the Islamic faith; then you are assured to go straight to heaven. It is one of the only ways that there is immediate assurance other than faithfully practicing the religious rites of Islam.
Now, I’ll probably offend some people by this but consider Michael Phelps. An amazing athelete to be sure. A great role model for those who are seeking to learn what persistance, hard work and dedication will do. But consider that for a moment. He is competing for a gold medal. He eats, sleeps, and swims. And nothing else. Whatever else he could be doing, in service to his creator, he has forsaken all for that shiny gold medal. And once he has achieved it, then what? Fame, fortune. How long will that last him?
Consider how long your life truly is in relation to eternity. Think about that for a minute. So which should you spend more time preparing for?
Now, getting back to the text, to Paul it was apparent that the thessalonians had turned from service to false idols to service to God. And it was evident in the great sacrifices that they made on behalf of God. They sacrificed their time, their resources and even their lives in order that God would be honored by their faithfulness.
Listen to what he says about them:
1:2 “we give thanks to God always for you…constantly bearing in mind your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ…”
1:6 “you also became imitators of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much tribulation and with joy of the Holy Spirit so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia, for the word of the Lord has sounded forth from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia but also in every place your faith toward God has gone forth, so that we have no need to say anything.”
2:14 he praises them in saying “and you became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Jedea, for you also endured the same sufferings at the hands of your own countrymen, even as they did from the Jews…”
They served God with their lives and they were not ashamed to face persecution so that the Word of the Lord would show forth in their lives. How could they do that? Paul sums it up this way in 2 Tim 1:12, “For this reason, I also suffer these things (refering to his imprisonments) but I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day.”
One who has truly repented and has truly turned to the Lord, does so wholeheartedly trusting that God is faithful to keep him until the end. That is dependence. It is the confident assurance that God will keep you, regardless of what difficulties may come your way for His glory.
And so I ask you. Do you trust yourself with God? Have you been making great sacrifices for Him? And if so, then what? What do you sacrifice for the Lord? Do you make sacrifices, perhaps to the point that you are ridiculed or persecuted for your faith, so that the Word of God might go forth? Do you do that?
Let me ask it another way. Do you need God? If you cannot say emphatically yes, then perhaps you need to consider whether or not your heart is truly submitted to Him. And whether or not you truly know (as Paul said “I know whom I have believed”) perhaps you don’t truly know the true and living God as you thought you did. Because anyone who truly knows who He is will have no problem depending upon Him for their lives.
Dependence upon God for our Hope
Now dependence upon God is not just by means of service to Him but also a matter of our hope. Consider vs 9-10 again. “you turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, that is Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come.”
There is so much in this last verse that I think we could spend another hour unpacking it. So in considering how I could explain it all, I decided to look at it from two different perspectives. And I’ll tell you what those two perspectives, well they are really analogies, are in a second.
First the key word in this verse is the first verb that we see in the English, which is to “wait” for the Son. Now to the Thessalonican church, this particular description of the person of Jesus was extremely important. And we can tell that by what Paul says to them later in this book and also in 2 Thess. A major theme of both books is the return of Christ and the rapture of the church. He mentions something of the return of the Lord in about every chapter of I Thess.
Well, there is v 10 of ch 1.
There is also 2:19 where Paul reminisces on his desire to see the believers after they left because of the persecution. He mentions that they (the Thess believers) are his “hope, or joy, or crown of exultation…at the presence of the Lord Jesus at His coming.” His reference here was most likely to say that they would be reason for him to rejoice at the return of the Lord, knowing that he was used by God to bring them to faith in Christ.
Also at the end of ch 3, he mentions again his desire to return to the believers so that they might be established and remain faithful to the Lord, until His coming “Now may God our Father Himself and Jesus our Lord direct our way to you and may the Lord cause you to increase and aboud in love for one another and for all men, just as we also do for you so that He may establish your hearts unblameable before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints.”
At the end of ch 4 vs 13-18, he exhorts the believers to consider the coming of the Lord as a reason to rejoice and to comfort one another when a brother or sister dies in Christ.
And in 5:1-11, and also in 2 Thess he reaffirms some of these themes, Paul mentions the coming of the Day of the Lord. Now there is a great deal of discussion as to whether believers will remain throughout the period of tribulation in which the Lord will judge the world, or whether they will be raptured out of it. Ch 4 seems to indicate that believers will be taken up when the Lord returns for those who have died in Christ. Also in 1:10, he mentions that Jesus is both the one who is risen from the dead and also the one who rescues us from the wrath to come. That makes it pretty clear to me. We shall be taken up out of the world before God’s judgment comes upon the world. Paul even reiterates this in ch 5:9 where he says that “God has not destined us for wrath but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ…”
Now again all of this is important to the Thessalonican church because, whether through persecution or natural causes, just like today, people died. And some of the believers were discouraged. And so in writing these things to them, he was encouraging them to remember that just as the Lord is the One who is risen from the dead, so we too who die in Christ will also rise from the dead. And that this is the great hope that we have. Furthermore, and we learn this also in reading what he says in 2 Thess, there were some teaching that the believers may have missed the rapture and that they were themselves going to experience the great tribulation. And again, Paul’s exhortation is that He rescues us from the wrath to come. And so we have no reason to fear the judgment of God that is coming.
So what does that mean for us. Well, those who depend upon God have a love for Him and also long for Him. If you truly know who God is and what He has done for us in Christ then you should look forward to the return of the Lord Himself. Because when the Lord returns, we will be blessed.
So the question for us is, do we truly look forward to the return of the Lord? Because those who truly know the Lord, and who have a true and vibrant faith and trust in Him will look forward to Him and the blessing that He brings for believers.
Have you ever had a loved one leave on a long journey? Do you remember the anticipation and excitement of their return?
Or how about a vacation or fun trip that your family was set to take. Do you remember thinking of how incredibly exciting your time would be, and how it would be so much better than what you were currently doing?
Those of us who are truly in the Lord will feel the same way about His return. We will long for it. We will look forward to it. It will be an anchor for our soul in the most troubling of situations and circumstances.
