Sunday Link – November 2, 2025 – 2 Thessalonians 1:1-4

TEXT FOR TODAY

SERMON

The Metrics of Grace 

2 Thessalonians 1:1–4,11–12  ESV

Beginning today, we will have three Sundays in a row in the book of 2Thessalonians.  So, we should start today with a brief overview of the book.

First, this letter is written by Paul, who has two traveling partners, Silas and Timothy.  It’s the second letter to the church in Thessalonica made up of several new converts who are mostly Gentile.  Thessalonica was no second-rate city during Paul’s day.  In fact, it was considered the chief city of Macedonia, partly due to being a seaport on the Aegean Sea as well as being located on the Egnatian Way, a route that connected Rome with Byzantium.

In short, it was a bustling city of trade and commerce.  The citizens of Thessalonia worshipped a multitude of “gods,” like Aphrodite and Zeus, and residents were expected to worship the current emperor as divine.  In their culture, personal ethics were not valued.  Abusive, cruel treatment of others was commonplace, even accepted.

Paul is writing to these new Gentile believers to offer further encouragement during a time of suffering and persecution.  He is also warning them against some who were going around in Paul’s name claiming that the Lord’s return had already taken place.  Paul is particularly upset at these imposters and emphasizes the sure judgement coming to them.  Paul is also following up on a persistent problem of some who are being idle and not working.  He is exhorting them, like in his first letter, to work with their own hands and contribute.  In response to these issues and concerns, Paul uses this letter to offer the reassurance of salvation of the Thessalonian believers and God’s judgment on those who are causing them trouble.  Paul also makes clear that the Lord’s return still lies in the future, and they should not be idling away their time in the present.

For today, we will only look at two sections in the greeting of Paul’s letter.  These sections point our attention to some of the issues Paul wants to address and give us an insight into what Paul truly values in a church.  We will take note of how Paul measures “church growth” which may challenge some ideas that are common in many popular “church growth” movements today.

We will be reminded that it is God’s grace that gives us the growth, a growth that finds its source and goal  in the Lord Jesus Christ.  As we read Paul’s greeting, may we be greeted by the Lord’s grace, who calls us to himself and grows our faith and love to his glory in us and ours in him.

Let’s begin:

Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:  2Thessalonians 1:1 ESV

This greeting is fairly standard for letter writing at the time.  Paul identifies himself along with Silvanus and Timothy as the authors of the letter.  Then he writes, “To the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:”  If you look at other greetings from Paul in his letters to other churches, he often addresses a church by their location.  But his address here has a subtle change.  Instead of addressing them as the “church  in Thessalonica” he calls them the “church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:”   He has departed from locating the church in the city which they reside and instead locates them in God.

Why do you think Paul chose this slight deviation in address?

Remember, Thessalonica was a very prominent and prosperous city.  These are new Gentile converts.  There could be a real temptation for these believers to want to find their identity in the successful and prosperous city in which they reside.  Paul seems to want to remind them right up front that their true identity, where they really belong, is  in God, not some temporary city in Macedonia.  This temptation may be all the stronger since they are undergoing some form of persecution.  We are not told exactly what the persecution is, but it could be placing some pressure on these new believers to conform to their surrounding culture in some way that is not fitting to their faith in Christ.

This is also a good reminder for us today.  When we are experiencing pressure to “fit in” with our surrounding culture, there is a real temptation to make compromises and justify certain behaviors or ideas that do not glorify God. When God’s call to us makes us stand out like an oddity, it is the witness of the church that is lost  when we conform and comply.  What we need is the reminder Paul gives.  We belong  to God the Father and  Jesus our Lord.  From that perspective, we are not outsiders.  We are in the very life and love all creation was made for.  That is a reality worth taking a stand for and making a witness to.

Paul’s next line of greeting tells us why:

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  2Thessalonians 1:2 ESV

This line is important.  In fact, we could say it’s a summary of all that God is up to.  God gives us grace which leads to peace.  When going through persecution and also being thrown into confusion on account of false rumors, being reminded of the source of peace can certainly have a grounding effect.  And to be certain, the peace Paul is talking about is not just some fuzzy feeling on a sunny day.  It’s a real and abiding peace with God, with self, and with others.  This is a peace that God intends to bring to his whole creation.  The Thessalonian believers can also discern from this address that the persecutions and the confusion from false teachers they are experiencing are not from God.  God is a God of grace and his gift to us is his peace.  These new believers may need the reminder that they have not fallen out of favor with God, nor is he the one who is trying to confuse them regarding Jesus’ return.  Those voices come from other sources.

Paul goes further by expressing gratitude for these new believers:

We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing.  2Thessalonians 1:3 ESV

In Paul’s expression of gratitude, we are given a few indicators of what is really important for our churches.  First, notice that Paul adds the odd wording that we “ought” always to give thanks to God.  Paul points out that being thankful for fellow believers is something we should do.  It’s a fitting response to God’s grace, a grace that has provided us with fellow travelers and partners in the gospel.  The reason we “ought” to, or should, be thankful is because thankfulness means we are in a posture of receiving what the Lord is giving.  You don’t say “thank you” for something you are refusing to receive.  Paul’s gratitude for the Thessalonian believers means he sees these believers as a gift from God to be received.  And certainly, the last thing this church needs is further rejection.

It is God’s grace at work that these Thessalonians have turned to God and put their trust in the Lord.  This is a good reminder not just for pastors and church leaders, but for us all.  Are we thankful for the fellow believers God has given to us to walk with?  Or do we let other agendas or ideals prevent us from receiving our “brothers,” as Paul calls them, because they perhaps don’t measure up in some way that we think they should.  This doesn’t mean we don’t work for their betterment through correction as Paul will do later in the letter.  But it’s correction that aids the further growth of our fellowship with one another, not a correction towards some impersonal goal or personal ideal.  Fellow brothers and sisters in Christ are a precious gift; one we should never take for granted.  Gratitude for those God has given us is a sure safeguard to do just that.

Also notice Paul says it is “right” to give thanks for his brothers “because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing.”  Not that numerical growth is bad or something we shouldn’t be thankful for.  But what seems to be key for Paul is the growth of faith and love.  That’s the measurement of grace.  Only the grace of our Lord Jesus by the Spirit will grow a person’s faith and increase their love for others.  That’s a gift to receive, not a goal to achieve.  This is what Paul is thankful for.  And, as often is the case, a church growing in faith and love may experience numerical growth as well.  But that would simply be a nice by-product of the real fruit God is producing in us.

Paul has more to say about this.

Therefore we ourselves boast about you in the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions that you are enduring.  2Thessalonians 1:4 ESV

Paul is thankful to God for these brothers and sisters.  But he goes further; he says we “boast” about them to other churches.  This is an appropriate boasting; it’s not like bragging out of vanity or conceit.  It is fitting to boast of that which the Lord has done.  This type of boasting doesn’t seem to sell many books these days.  Typically, the churches that are put up for boasting are those that have grown to staggering numbers or have caught the public eye for some grandiose community service.  But that doesn’t seem to even be on Paul’s radar.  There is no mention of the size of the church.  As far as making a splash in the community — well, they are being persecuted.  But it is actually in their “persecutions” and in the “afflictions” they are “enduring” that displays their “steadfastness and faith.”  And for Paul, that is worth sharing with other churches.  And this kind of boasting can encourage other churches as well.  This kind of boasting is a reminder that God is working, even in the worst situations.  

How often do we need that reminder?  When we hear of fellow believers who are growing in their trust of the Lord and increasing in their love for one another while undergoing persecutions and disruptive rumors, it is an encouragement for others who are going through similar challenges.  It reminds us that God is present and doesn’t measure our worth according to the standards of the culture around us.   He is more interested in our growing in our relationship with him, a relationship of trust where we can receive and live out his peace and love.

From here in the next six verses, Paul assures his “brothers” that God will vindicate them and set things right.  It bears mentioning to know that our suffering and persecutions have a shelf life and our faithfulness through it is not in vain.  In this way Paul helps the Thessalonian believers keep their heads up and eyes forward.  It’s a forward-looking orientation that will also inform Paul’s prayers for them.  That’s the remaining two verses we are given to cover from Paul’s greeting.

To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.  2Thessalonians 1:11–12 ESV

When we arrive at Paul’s final words of greeting in verse 11, we see Paul shift from thanksgiving and boasting to praying.  What is the “end” God has in mind for us?  Namely that “our Lord Jesus may be glorified  in you, and you  in him ….”  God will continue doing what he is already doing in the Thessalonian believers.  They are growing in faith and love, and his prayer is that God will continue to grow them into true citizens of God’s kingdom in which they are called, a kingdom full of those who live in faith and love.

Maybe you can relate to this journey.  Sometimes it may feel we are going in circles but as we go through suffering and even persecutions, God grows our faith and love even more.  From this faith and love, we are able to receive more from the Lord.  As we receive more from the Lord, we then grow more in faith and love, and the cycle grows and grows until we reach the mutual glorification held out to us by “the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.”

And perhaps that is a final action point for us today.

• Pray for one another that we will grow to receive God’s grace to us in Jesus Christ.
• Pray for a growth marked by trusting in the Lord and receiving the love he has for us.
• Pray for a love we can then extend to others.  In this faith and love, we can receive and live in the grace and peace God has for us.

This is a growth we can be thankful for, a growth to boast in, and a growth to pray for.  In circular fashion, we can end by returning to Paul’s opening greeting: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen!

Small Group Discussion Questions