July 17

What an amazingly beautiful reality Paul states in His first letter to the Thessalonians. In Chapter 3:7, he says, “Brothers, we were comforted over you in all our afflictions and in all our distress by your faith.” The magnitude of the selfless love conveyed in that statement is astounding.

Paul had undergone every kind of trial imaginable. He had been beaten, he had been shipwrecked, he had traversed from believer group to believer group on foot across much of the Roman Empire in order to reinforce the faith of fledgling believers as well as to plant new churches where none had ever been.

And when he was in the throes of suffering because of his effort, he did not rail at God and ask Him where the reward of his service was! He did not lash out at those for whom he had risked all. He did not indulge self-pity because the fruit of all he had done and had sacrificed of personal esteem and position had rendered him little but pain.

No, Paul instead dwelt upon the comfort he received within himself because of the faith in those for whom he had spent himself. We, were we more like Paul, would also rejoice in the opportunity to seal the faith of others. We would pursue the faithless as relentlessly as he did so that we, like him, could have great joy in the knowledge of their eternal well-being.