A few weeks ago on CCiW Purple Camp, I led devotions one morning, speaking from 1 Thessalonians 1. A few days ago I was asked if I had a written form, and since I did prepare a full script, here it is.

I must mention, however, that 100% of the inspiration and insight from these devotions came from an excellent paper by Wayne Grudem, Pleasing God by Our Obedience. This paper has been hugely helpful and influential for me over about the past 10 years, and I highly recommend it.

We’re going to look briefly at 1 Thessalonians chapter 1, especially v2-3, and some verses from chapter 4.

2 We always thank God for all of you and continually mention you in our prayers. 3 We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labour prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Now I cannot claim that I am as faithful in my praying for all of you as the apostle Paul was in his prayers for the Thessalonians. However, when I think of you – some of whom I know better than others – when I think of the people here I do feel the same way as Paul did. I think of people who love God and have been faithfully following him and serving him, and it brings me great joy.

The apostle Paul had confidence that these people were real believers because of the way that they accepted the message, and then changed in their behaviour - v4-10. The Holy Spirit had so obviously been active among them, and continued to be active – especially in producing faith, love and hope, which were very visible in the lives of the Thessalonians.

When I look around at the people here, I see the same things:

I see work produced by faith - God has promised to build his kingdom through the proclamation of his word, and you believe that, and that’s a huge part of why you bother with all this. I see labour prompted by love – I see people who make sacrifices in order to come on camp, giving up time and holiday and money, and I know that many of you do much more throughout the year. You do it because you love Jesus and his people and love the world who need to hear the message. And I see endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus – many of you have been doing this for many years.

When we see the same graces that Paul saw in the Thessalonians, we should come to the same conclusion. As evangelicals, sometimes we are very quick to talk about all the ways we fail, but much less quick to recognise that God is at work in us, and that he is succeeding.

1 Thessalonians 4:1, a little later, says this:

As for other matters, brothers and sisters, we instructed you how to live in order to please God, as in fact you are living. Now we ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus to do this more and more.

Paul is saying you are already living in a way that pleases God.

There are multiple ways in which God is pleased with his people. When you wake up in the morning, before you’ve done anything good or bad, you can say “God is pleased with me today, because I’m in Christ, and all his righteousness is counted to me.” That’s justification, it’s absolutely wonderful and foundational.

But that’s not what I’m talking about here. God is also pleased with us because of our behaviour. And sometimes we struggle with this a bit more. Sometimes we even say “nothing we do pleases God, all our works are like filthy rags”. That may be true for the unbeliever, but not for the believer. Our good works are described in the Bible as good works, not bad works. That doesn’t mean they are perfect. There may be some sin in them, there may be mixed motives, or failure of various kinds. But they are still good works, and they bring God pleasure.

The Holy Spirit is active in us just as he was in the Thessalonians to produce things that are genuinely good, that bring pleasure to our Father in heaven. And he’s a heavenly Father who is so much better than any human father. That means for one that he’s never a nit-picker. He’s not a fault finder. He’s not hard to please.

One of the really importance consequences of this will be joy and motivation.

Imagine, for a second, the gender-stereotypical married couple, where the wife stays at home and puts a lot of effort into looking after the house and cooking meals, and the husband goes out to work. Imagine that the husband, after finishing the meal the wife has prepared, every single time, says “I want you to know that, despite the meal you have made me, I will always love you”. How’s she going to feel? Isn’t she going to be very depressed? If she thinks that with all her efforts no meal she makes ever brings him any pleasure, that he doesn’t enjoy it at all – isn’t she going to be miserable? Where will she get motivation from?

In the same way, we will live miserable Christian lives if we think our service of God is never good enough to please Him. No! We need to understand that our labour prompted by love does bring God pleasure, by God’s power we are succeeding in our aim! (Even if not perfectly). It is the normal Christian life to lie down at the end of a day and think “I’m living the way my heavenly Father wants, and he is pleased with my service today”. And then, you’ll be motivated to do the “more and more” bit.

The message is this - God is pleased with all your love and faith at work this week, it has brought a smile to his face. So enjoy that smile, and let the joy of knowing that smile motivate you to keep going, and do more and more.