'Your work of faith, and labour of love, and
patience of hope.'--1 THESS. i. 3.
This Epistle, as I suppose we all know, is Paul's first letter. He had
been hunted out of Thessalonica by the mob, made the best of his way to
Athens, stayed there for a very short time, then betook himself to
Corinth, and at some point of his somewhat protracted residence there,
this letter was written. So that we have in it his first attempt, so far
as we know, to preach the Gospel by the pen. It is interesting to notice
how, whatever changes and developments there may have been in him
thereafter, all the substantial elements of his latest faith beam out in
this earliest letter, and how even in regard to trifles we see the germs
of much that came afterwards. This same triad, you remember, 'faith,
hope, charity,' recurs in the First Epistle to the Corinthians, though
with a very significant difference in the order, which I shall have to
dwell upon presently.
The letter is interesting on another account. Remembering that it was
only a very short time since these Thessalonians had turned from idols
to serve the living God, there is something very beautiful in the
overflowing generosity of commendation, which never goes beyond
veracity, with which he salutes them. Their Christian character, like
seeds sown in some favoured tropical land, had sprung up swiftly; yet
not with the dangerous kind of swiftness which presages decay of the
growth. It was only a few days since they had been grovelling before
idols, but now he can speak of 'your work of faith, and labour of love,
and patience of hope' . . . and declare that the Gospel 'sounded out' from
them--the word which he employs is that which is technically used for
the blast of a trumpet--'so that we need not to speak anything.' Rapid
growth is possible for us all, and is not always superficial.
I desire now to consider that pair of triads--the three
foundation-stones, and the three views of the fair building that is
reared upon them.