{"id":8151,"date":"2021-12-20T00:00:25","date_gmt":"2021-12-19T14:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/?p=8151"},"modified":"2021-12-20T15:23:55","modified_gmt":"2021-12-20T05:23:55","slug":"a-prayer-for-faith-love-and-hope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/2021\/12\/20\/a-prayer-for-faith-love-and-hope\/","title":{"rendered":"A Prayer for Faith, Love, and Hope"},"content":{"rendered":"

1 Thessalonians 1:2-3\u00a02<\/sup>We give thanks to God always for all of you, unceasingly making mention in our prayers, 3<\/sup>remembering your work of faith and labor of love and endurance of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ before our God and Father.<\/em><\/p>\n

As Paul often does in his letters and following the common style of letter writing, he begins the letter with thanksgiving to God for the Thessalonians. There are several noteworthy insights in these verses about how Paul prayed that can help us in our own prayer life. The\u00a0we\u00a0<\/em>here indicates that others, such as Silvanus and Timothy, joined Paul is prayer. This was a group activity. This does not imply that they prayed together at the same time, but that is a possibility and would add the strength of the faith of others.<\/p>\n

First, Paul and his colleagues gave\u00a0thanks<\/em> as part of their prayer. They saw what God was doing in the lives of the Thessalonians. Much of what follows in these verses is the subject of this thanksgiving. Second, the adverb always<\/em>\u00a0(pantote<\/em>) shows that prayer was their habit. It was not an occasional plea but a constant habit. This is emphasized in the second clause with unceasingly<\/em>\u00a0(adialeipt<\/em>\u014ds<\/em>). Their prayers never stopped. Paul will use the same word and repeat the idea in 5:17. He wants the Thessalonians to develop the same prayer habit he has.<\/p>\n

Second, Paul and his colleagues prayed specifically for the Thessalonians by mentioning them in their prayers. The participle\u00a0making<\/em> (poioumenoi<\/em>) has both a instrumental sense, “by making” and a temporal sense “while making.” This is how they prayed for the Thessalonians. Paul’s letters imply that he had some kind of list of people and churches he prayed for on a regular basis.<\/p>\n

Third, what the Thessalonians were doing prompted Paul to pray. He had a reason for his thanksgiving, assumed in the participle remembering\u00a0<\/em>(mn\u0113moneuontes<\/em>), which has a causal sense to it.\u00a0He lists three things in verse 3 that he remembers: faith, love, and hope. This seems to have been one of his favorite triads, since it appears in 1 Corinthians 13:13 and 1 Thessalonians 5:8. Each of these phrases use the genitive case in Greek. The construction of each phrase can be taken in two major ways. An objective reading would mean that the faith, love, and hope are produced by work, labor, and endurance. That is true to a sense because it will take effort to grow in each of these. A subjective reading would mean that work, labor, and endurance are the products of faith, love, and hope. It may be best to consider both options as possible meanings.<\/p>\n

First was their\u00a0work of faith<\/em>.\u00a0Work <\/em>(ergou<\/em>)\u00a0is sometimes translated as “labor.” We get the English “energy” from this word. Faith often takes energy and work. It is not developed by accident but on purpose. Faith by definition is our response obedience to the invitation of God’s grace and love in our lives. Faith can be and should be grown. This often happens during times of stress or trial. The Thessalonians had experienced persecution, and their response shows that Paul’s prayers were being answered.<\/p>\n

Second was their\u00a0labor of love<\/em>.\u00a0Labor\u00a0<\/em>(kopou) has the sense of toiling type of work. Love does not always come easy. We have to work at it and develop it. Relationships often require that we give up something of ourselves, usually our selfish focus. The type of\u00a0love<\/em> (agap<\/em>\u0113s<\/em>) about which Paul writes here is self-giving in the model of God’s love towards us.<\/p>\n

The last was their endurance of hope<\/em>. Hope enables people to endure difficult trials. Making it through these trials also makes us stronger to endure future challenges.\u00a0The object of hope is\u00a0our Lord Jesus Christ<\/em>. Paul calls Jesus our hope in 1 Timothy 1:1. He is our hope because he is the only source of salvation. There is no hope outside of him.<\/p>\n

A fourth characteristic of the prayers of Paul and the brothers is that they prayed\u00a0before our God and Father<\/em>. They prayed to God as Father as Jesus taught. They had an intimate and personal relationship with God and confidence that God would hear their prayers. They could come before the throne of grace with confidence that God wanted their prayers, not because God did not know the needs but because the prayers would affect those who prayed. Prayer would draw the brothers closer together in mission and bond them more with the ministry and spiritual growth of the Thessalonians.<\/p>\n

For older posts, click\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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1 Thessalonians 1:2-3\u00a02We give thanks to God always for all of you, unceasingly making mention in our prayers, 3remembering your work of faith and labor of love and endurance of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ before our God and Father. As Paul often does in his letters and following the common style of letter […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotions","post-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8151"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8151\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8194,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8151\/revisions\/8194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}