Deeper Reflection
CENTRAL IN A THEOCENTRIC LIFE IS GIVING THANKS TO God – thanksgiving that is marked by three essential characteristics: “We ought to” – necessity, “always” – constancy and “as is right” – propriety (v.3).¹Paul gives thanks to God for the Thessalonians, because their “work produced by faith… labour prompted by love…endurance inspired by hope” (v.3, NIV) had grown tremendously over a short period of time – and were still growing: “your faith is growing-abundantly (huperauxanō)” and “your love…for one another is increasing (pleonazō)” (2 Thess 1:3). The two verbs are emphatic.² Huperauxanō “implies an internal, organic growth, as of a tree” and pleonazō implies “a diffusive or expansive character, as of a flood irrigating the land”³. But this by no means was the achievement of the Thessalonians. It is God “who gives the growth” (1 Cor 3:6-7). We cannot bear fruit by ourselves, but only when we abide in the Lord and He in us, “for apart from Me you can do nothing” (Jn 15:4-5). Our growth is ultimately the growth of our relationship with God.Our reflection on our spiritual growth ought to be more than just “Have I been growing?”, but “Am I growing abundantly and flourishing?” We are to be like “the righteous” who “flourish like the palm tree and grow like a cedar in Lebanon” and “still bear fruit in old age…ever full of sap and green” (Psa 92:12, 14). The key is, we are “planted in the house of the Lord” – and then we “flourish in the courts of our God” (Psa 92:13). “Planted” means being rooted there permanently and growing continually.

---

¹ Jeffrey A. D. Weima, 1-2 Thessalonians, Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Baker Academic, 2014), 450 ² John R. W. Stott, The Message of Thessalonians, The Bible Speaks Today (IVP, 1991), 143 ³ J. B. Lightfoot, Notes on Epistles of Paul (Macmillan, 1895), 98