Joel M Bradshaw

4For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, 5because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction.–1 Thessalonians 1

The Apostle John once made it blessedly clear:

I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. (1 John 5:13)

Now before I write further, let me just say that I cannot see a person’s inner convictions. Only God is the judge and only he sees a person’s inner faith. But I have witnessed people make declarations of faith and I left that experience still wondering about them. Maybe they seemed to be more about the outward display in front of other people. Maybe they were tired of their friend trying to convince them to pray a prayer and they seemed to want to be left alone. Those don’t appear to be genuine faith moments. But again, I don’t know and am certainly not in the position to judge.

And then there are other moments where anyone present can see the effects of the clear working of the Gospel. A person is broken and repentant and longing for the only hope they have for salvation in Jesus. Usually these moments are very silent and involve grateful tears. From the outside, these appear more genuine than for show. But again, none of us can truly know what goes on in the inner person of anyone else.

Why do I bring this up? Because Paul did. He let the Thessalonian Christians know that he could see God at work in them. This church was probably the poorest of the ones Paul planted. Compared to others like at flashy Corinth, the Thessalonican church might have not felt like much to write home about.

So Paul intentionally told them about God’s choice of them. He saw the Gospel changing them and producing fruit. The Gospel had worked powerfully in their lives and faith led to trust. The main way I could tell if a person truly responded to the Gospel in faith is the fruit I could therefore see on the branches of the tree that is their life. If indeed the old person was ‘crucified’ with Christ and no longer living. If the old self was being put off and the new self in Christ put on. If they were indeed producing fruit in keeping with repentance. This is all anyone could see on the outside. People could say that they trusted in God or depended on God, but were they really? Did they make choices that reflected that?

Paul could see that they were genuine and he sought to reassure them in their afflictions. You may worry that your faith isn’t genuine. I invite you to look at your ‘branches.’ I challenge you to examine your motivations. The blessing of the Christian faith is the assurance that we have. We can know we are saved. And theologically this is because God chose the Christian before we ever chose him (Ephesians 1:4). This is the best knowledge. So much hope and reassurance here.–JMB