Our sermon text this morning is in 1 Thessalonians. We're returning to the study we began a couple of weeks ago in 1 Thessalonians, and this morning we'll be looking at 1 Thessalonians 1:6-19. Now our study is in verses six through ten of chapter one, but for contextual reasons, I'm just going to read the entirety of chapter one. So we're going to actually well, we're going to begin in verse two of chapter one, which is this long acclimation of thanksgiving that bursts out from Paul's heart and lips in verse two, all the way down to verse ten. We studied verses two through five last time, so we'll study verses six through ten this time, but I will read the entirety of those verses.

So hear now the Word of the Lord, 1 Thessalonians

2 We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, 3 remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. 4 For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, 5 because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake. 6 And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit, 7 so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. 8 For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not say anything. 9 For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, 10 and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.
1 Thessalonians 1:2-10, ESV

This is the Word of the Lord. Early in American history, in the 18th and then into the early 19th century, if you were a member of a higher social class and you felt like somebody had offended your honor or damaged your reputation, well, one of the social norms that was occasionally invoked to deal with such a smear on your good name was to challenge the offending party to a duel. If, after giving the offending party an opportunity to apologize or recant from their offense, whatever it was, and they declined to do so, and you declined to do so, and the two of you refused to let the matter go and you double down in your respective stances. Well, you could break the deadlock if you wanted to by arranging a time and place to meet with pistols in hand and exchange volleys.

You know, most famously in American history, this occurred in 1804 between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr. There were some unflattering comments that Hamilton made about Burr that were published in the Albany Register. Burr called upon Hamilton to retract those comments, but after refusing to do so when given several opportunities, Burr proposed the duel that would eventually cost Hamilton his life. As both men saw it, their reputation was on the line. Their future political prospects were hanging in the balance. The only way to settle the score when neither would soften in their respective stance as well, was a duel.

Now this whole culture of dueling was driven in large part by pride and overinflated egos, I think. After all, it's never a good thing to care that much about what people think of you and your name. And yet, while the Bible would have us all be humble enough to confess our sins, when we sin. To be okay, when people just don't think as highly of us as we'd like and of course, to never walk the path of dueling to the death. Well, there's still a sense in which the Bible calls us today to care about our reputation and our good name, too.

Proverbs 22:1, it tells us that a good name is to be chosen rather than riches. The ninth commandment, the commandment that that prohibits bearing false witness against a neighbor or a brother and sister requires that we actually strive to preserve the good name of our neighbor as well as our own. So there's a sense in which our reputation as Christians, our reputation as a church matter, it's important.

Now, on the one hand, it's also true that reputation is so often subjective in our world. You know, people are going to think of us the way they want to think about us according to their standards of what's reputable and what's not. Try as we might, we just can't control what everyone thinks about us. In fact, there's a sense in which Christians, as Christians, we should expect to have an unflattering reputation in the eyes of the world simply for guarding biblical fidelity. That's disappointing at times, but we can't control that, and we should even expect that.

On the other hand, the Bible gives us both as individuals and as churches, certain objective standards by which we either enhance or diminish our reputation as God sees it. Leaving aside whatever the world thinks about us as a church, there's a sense in which we should care about fostering a good reputation, according to what the Bible says is good and praiseworthy in the eyes of God. In the text before us the Apostle Paul opens a window, as it were, to show us what a church with a laudable or commendable reputation looks like, so that we, in our own lives, both as Christians and as a church, would strive to uphold and guard our good name accordingly, too.

So our big idea this morning is this Guard a good reputation. Understand that the church in Thessalonica, unlike the church in say Galatia or Corinth, two churches that had serious issues, serious blights on their reputation when Paul pens the respective letters that he does to those churches. Unlike those churches, the church in Thessalonica, we discover, has a laudable reputation, a good reputation, a praiseworthy and commendable reputation. As Paul, in our verses before us, gives thanks for the church. He gives thanks and verses six through ten for their reputation. And in the process, he shows us at least three marks of a church of good repute.

So here's our road map as we walk through this text. First, we're going to see that a church of good repute receives the Gospel in affliction. Second, a church of good repute proclaims the Gospel as their mission. Then third, a church of good repute heeds the Gospel at their foundation.
1. A Church of Good Repute Receives the Gospel in Affliction
2. A Church of Good Repute Proclaims the Gospel as Their Mission
3. A Church of Good Repute Heeds the Gospel at Their Foundation

A Church of Good Repute Receives the Gospel in Affliction

So let's start out with this first point, looking at versus six or seven first, a church of good repute receives the Gospel in affliction. Now, if we were to study the life of the Apostle Paul as it's recorded to us in Acts and we get some other windows into his own personal autobiography elsewhere in the various letters that he pens. We would see that among the various things we could say about him that his life was marked by a joyful reception of the Word of God, even in affliction. Now, bear in mind that before Paul plants the young church of Thessalonica in 50 or 51 A.D., that's an event that's recorded for us in Acts chapter 17. We discover in the Book of Acts that Paul repeatedly suffers for the sake of the Gospel. In Acts Chapter 14, for example, to cite just one example, we hear how Paul proclaims the Gospel in word and deed in a city called Lystra. Shortly afterwards, as it seems, as a habit, in Paul's ministry, a violent mob arises. They stoned Paul and supposing that he's dead, they drag him out of the city and leave him for dead. But after that horrible event, does Paul recant of the Gospel following that attack? Well, no, absolutely not. Instead, we find in that text that he actually returns to the city and he continues his Gospel ministry.

You see, throughout his ministry, Paul develops this reputation in his own life of faithfulness to the Gospel he received by faith, even when that meant affliction. But as Paul reflects upon the reputation of the church in Thessalonica, in our text in verse six, we hear him give thanks because the little church, some six months after it was first planted, is imitating his approach to the Gospel by likewise remaining faithful to the word, even in their affliction. Now, we don't quite know the nature of the affliction that the church suffered. It might have included anything from general derision in the public square to the loss of economic opportunities for being Christians, and perhaps the rejection even among the members from their own families. But whatever it was, they like the Apostle Paul they imitate, remained faithful to the word, even in affliction. More than that, we also hear that they pressed forward in their affliction, not with self-pity, but with joy.

Again, this was the same approach that the Apostle Paul assumed in his own life too. To cite one more example of that in Acts Chapter 16, that would be one chapter just before Paul arrives in Thessalonica. In the Book of Acts, we find that Paul is imprisoned in a town called Philippi with Silvanus, and then in Act 16:25, we discover that as they sit in prison for faithfully proclaiming the Gospel in the city of Philippi, that Paul and Silas, same person, were praying and singing hymns to God.

You see, even in affliction and the grave injustices they suffered, we find that they remain faithful to the word and to prayer, and they even worship the Lord with joy. Yet, though Paul and Sylvanus and even the church in Thessalonica develop this reputation of remaining faithful and even joyful in affliction, at the end of the day, each believer and each church who assumes that commendable posture are ultimately taking their cue from Jesus. Ultimately, they, the church in Thessalonica, Paul, Sylvanus, and anyone else who follows in that line, pattern themselves, as the author of Hebrews puts it on, "Jesus, the founder and perfector of our faith. Who, for the joy that was said before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is now seated at the right hand of the throne of God."

You see, the young church in Thessalonica may have imitated Paul and Sylvanus in their faithfulness and affliction, but according to Paul in verse six of our passage, it was it was ultimately Jesus who they all imitated. Of course, not in his sinlessness and not in his atoning work, both of which would be impossible to imitate, but as children who imperfectly imitate their father, Paul and Sylvanus, and the church in Thessalonica, well, they imitate Christ by remaining faithful to the Word of God, even when affliction was the inevitable consequence.

But this pattern of imitation that Paul, you know, homes in on here in verse six and seven, also doesn't end with the church in Thessalonica imitating Paul and ultimately the Lord. Because as Paul continues his acclamation of Thanksgiving in verse seven, we learn that the church in Thessalonica, well, they developed a reputation in a mere six months of being a church that was worthy of imitation themselves. Again, Paul writes in verse seven, "You became an example to all the believers in Macedonia, and in Achaia." That word example in verse seven is pretty important there in the Greek, sometimes in the Greek, that word is used elsewhere to refer to a mold of sorts or a cast that you would pour liquid metal into to shape into a particular form. This is then as, as Leon Morris puts it, high praise for the little church in Thessalonica. Because Paul commends them first, not only for imitating himself in Christ, but for then becoming a church that all the churches throughout what would amount to modern day Greece should model and mold themselves after also.

You see, as Paul commends the church in Thessalonica for their laudable reputation of faithfulness and in affliction, we learn that one of the ways that we develop this reputation as a church and Christians in our own day, something that that I think we should desire we should desire to be an example ourselves. One of the ways we do that is by paying careful attention to who and what we imitate in our own day.

You know, back when I played a Little League baseball as a kid, one of the challenges that our coaches faced was having a bunch of elementary schoolers like me, all of whom were convinced that we would one day be playing Major League Baseball. Before I developed any self-awareness to recognize how horrible I was at baseball, I got stories for you. I got it in my head that it was inevitable I'd one day be the starting catcher for the Baltimore Orioles. That was going to happen, of course, when I was in elementary school. You know, judging by their performance in recent years, maybe I still have a shot.

Now, there's nothing wrong with that sense of imagination, that kind of imagination as a kid. But as a result, our coaches face the challenge of trying to teach us all the basics when all we wanted to do was imitate the Major League Baseball players we saw on TV and hope to one day become. Yet, if you ever watched Major League Baseball before, you know that there are certain players who have unique stances in the batter's box or odd ways they throw the ball. These baseball quirks that they've adopted, that that somehow worked for those players, after all, they're in Major League Baseball. But they're not normative for the vast number of players and certainly not what you want to start with teaching kids to model yourself after. There's an Orioles player in there held the bat so cool and I would try to hold the bat like him. My coach would always yell at me, "You got to firm up on the grip, firm up on the grip." But I wanted to imitate a player like that. It was precisely those kinds of players whose quirks we all wanted to imitate, rather than focusing on the bread and butter basics that we all needed to learn and imitate before anything else.

Well, in the same way, it's good to imitate those who have gone before us, both as Christians and as churches. We shouldn't try to be original, especially when it comes to something as essential as the life giving message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Yet in following those Christians and churches who have gone before us, the challenge for us is that we imitate the right examples. You see, one of the challenges we face in Christianity today, especially in the West, is what I'll call the pool of celebrity. What I mean by that is that, again, especially in the West, is that we're often drawn to things as Christians like celebrity pastors, those who have a reputation of charisma, and to well-known churches with a lot of money and a lot of aesthetic appeal.

Now, to be fair, there are pastors and churches out there with that kind of celebrity reputation who are also incredibly faithful to the Gospel and worthy of imitation. And yet there are also plenty of those out there that aren't. So the challenge before us is that as we look to churches to imitate, or to other Christian leaders to imitate and model ourselves after, that we place primary value not on the superficial reputations that those churches or Christians may or may not have, but that we imitate those with a reputation of biblical fidelity. Whether or not they have any charm or charisma or money.

The challenge is to follow the example of those who, like Paul and the Church of Thessalonica, do not capitulate or water down the Gospel when the cultural winds start blowing those who tread faithfully according to the Gospel. So let me pose this question to you. As you think about the reputation of those you look up to or even those churches, you'd like Harvest Community Church to model ourselves after. What is it about the reputation of those churches or Christians that stand out to you? Is it, if you're honest with yourself, something superficial, or is it biblical fidelity and clarity in their Gospel convictions?

Understand that we're always imitating others as Christians and as churches. So the question is what kind of reputation are we attracted to? What do we place primary value upon as Christians and as churches? And then what kind of reputation are we in turn leaving behind?

A church of good repute and Christians of good repute are those who remain faithful to the Gospel we receive, even when that brings affliction. But as Paul continues to give thanks for the church and Thessalonica, we next learn that a church and Christians of good repute also make it a practice, make it a habit, of declaring that same Gospel outwards into the world.

A Church of Good Repute Proclaims the Gospel as Their Mission

So this leads to the second point where our focus will lie on verse eight, where we hear that a church of good repute proclaims the Gospel as their mission. Now, although the church in Thessalonica was young and afflicted, we also hear and learn here that they are known for their widespread unobscured clear proclamation of the Gospel. In fact, the city of Thessalonica, apart from anything we might say about the church in Thessalonica, was situated in a strategic position within the Roman Empire. There was a major East-West road in the Roman Empire, known as the Via Egnatiathat, that connected the city of Rome to the outlying parts of the Empire and the east. And this road ran through the city of Thessalonica so that the church had immediate access to one of the primary communication networks of the empire and Paul indicates that the church made use of that channel.

Again, Paul writes in verse eight, "For not only has the Word of God sounded forth from you and Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere so that we need not say anything." To put it simply, Paul gives thanks because the church has a Gospel proclaiming reputation. First, he remarks on how the Word of the Lord sounded forth, which is one word in that in Greek. It's a word that kind of sounds like the English word echo. That word refers to an echo. It can refer to a rolling thunder or the sound of a trumpet that echoes out from its source far and wide. This is the effect, Paul tells us, that the Gospel had on the church in Thessalonica. He tells us that they received the Gospel in much affliction and then they proclaimed, they echoed that very same Gospel message about Jesus and salvation that they received to the cities and towns throughout the region.

Now, this happened first, apart from Paul and his companions. Paul even remarks at the end of verse eight in our passage that, "because you proclaim the Gospel far and wide, we don't need to say anything." You see Paul and his companions quickly found out in their own Gospel ministry throughout the Mediterranean world, that the Gospel influence of the church in Thessalonica was so widespread that there were several places where Paul went and discovered that hold on, a Gospel foundation has already been laid through their efforts.

We also learn from the Book of Acts that several members of the church in Thessalonica who were named men who were named Aristarchus and Secundas, if you're looking for a name for a boy, pregnant mothers, those are some names for you, and Jason. Those men also accompanied Paul in his Gospel ministry beyond Thessalonica in order, with Paul, to echo the Gospel beyond their home city into the larger Greco-Roman world.

In addition to the Gospel message that echoed out from the church in Thessalonica, we also learned, second, that the faith of those in Thessalonica also went out, too. That is to say that while the Gospel was proclaimed far and wide, there were also testimonies that accompanied the Gospel message testimonies of real flesh and blood, people who believed the Gospel that was echoed and were changed by it. To give an analogy for a moment, it's often the case today, you'll see on TV commercials or in other media that when a product or a service is marketed, that testimonials from real flesh and blood people who have tried that service or product and are changed by that service or product, will they become part of the promotional material. And that's kind of the idea here. The Gospel message of what Jesus had accomplished was proclaimed far and wide, and then the testimonies of those in Thessalonica who were changed by the Gospel became known too.

When I first learned how to share the Gospel in college through college ministry, I was a part of. One thing my leaders recommended was to have my own testimony, faith testimony condensed in 5 minutes and kind of kept in my back pocket, as it were, so that if and when opportunity arose to herald the Gospel, to share the Gospel, I could accompany that proclamation of what Jesus did objectively in history with how Jesus worked in my own life. Then my own story seemed to be some kind of support for that in our text.

Yet, while the focus of verse eight lies here in the evangelistic proclamation of the Gospel far and wide throughout the Mediterranean world, something important for a church of good repute to get behind. Notice that the starting point for this widespread proclamation of the Gospel abroad, it has to begin with a clear and consistent proclamation of the Gospel at home, in the church. You see, just as an echo has a source, the echo of the Thessalonian church's faithful proclamation abroad. Well, that was sourced in their faithful proclamation of the Gospel at home.

You see many churches throughout history have longed to have an impact in the world. Yet if the proclamation of the Gospel and the faithful teaching of God's Word doesn't lie at the core of what a church does, what the church should fundamentally be about, then one of two problems will inevitably arise. Either nothing will echo out from the church, or more often than not, something other than the unobscured Gospel will echo out from the church. Now, fortunately, this isn't a problem for the church in Thessalonica, because we find that they receive the word in much affliction. They teach the word at home. Then they proclaim the word abroad. They're known for their consistent and resonant proclamation of the Gospel. They have a commendable reputation for proclaiming the Gospel, too. But is this the reputation that we both as Christians and as a church, desire to have too?

Understand that as a church, what we should be known for before anything else is our faithfulness to proclaim the unobscured Gospel starting here. That can be a challenge because there are those in our world who expect the mission of the church to be very, very different from what the Bible says our primary mission is. On the one hand, some in our world expect the church to pontificate. That is, to give commentary on every single social and political issue that arises in our day. As if the church was little more than a lobbying group to be leveraged and exploited for certain agendas. On the other hand, others in our world expect the mission of the church to be primarily about addressing and meeting every social injustice in the day, whether perceived or real.

Now, don't mistake what I'm saying here. There are plenty of times in which a faithful proclamation of the Gospel will lead us as a church to address what we would call some hot button issues of the day. As the Word of God is faithfully proclaimed, week in and week out, there will be hot button issues we inevitably come across in the Bible insofar as the Scriptures address those issues. Then there are also times when the Church does and should wade into social issues of homelessness or poverty or crisis pregnancy. Insofar as we think mercy ministry is really important and we have a diaconate to come alongside people with tangible and material needs and to help people in those kinds of positions.

Yet, as a church where we start, what drives us forward and keeps us grounded, what controls all that we do has to be the Word of God and the proclamation of the Gospel. We have at our core, an aim that's primarily above everything else spiritual. A mission to make disciples who live according to the word. While that, of course, has implications to a whole host of other areas and worthwhile pursuits that we could venture out to as a church, at our core, we exist to proclaim the unobscured and unvarnished Gospel at home, and then to prayerfully pursue opportunities so that it echoes out abroad, in our community and in the world.

As a church, just like the church in Thessalonica, this is what the church should fundamentally be known for. This is the reputation that we should desire to have.

As individual Christians, well, something similar could be said to pastor and commentator. Richard Philip poses some important questions that I'll pose to you who profess Christ and that's this; what do you desire to be known for as an individual Christian? Is that your social standing, cultural refinement, trendy sophistication, or is it biblical faithfulness? What kind of reputation do you desire to have as an individual Christian?

Now, of course, there's nothing wrong to be known as a successful businessman in the community as a Christian. There's nothing wrong to be known as a church that loves the poor really well. Those are commendable things. But at the end of the day, do people know the Gospel truths that propel us forward and outward? Does the Gospel echo out from our hearts, onto our lips, and extend to our hands as a church of good repute that keeps the Gospel central to their mission? That's a really important thing.

In the final part of our passage, we notice that Paul comments on the church's reputation and focuses in on how the church doesn't just proclaim the Gospel near and far. He comments on how they also themselves live the Gospel. They heed the Gospel at their foundation, too.

A Church of Good Repute Heeds the Gospel at Their Foundation

This leads to our third point. Third, a church of good repute heeds the Gospel as their foundation. So when we turn to verses nine through ten, Paul mentions that rumor has it, that according to what he's heard on the ground from other Christians throughout the Mediterranean world, he's heard that the little church in Thessalonica is practicing what they preach. The Gospel that they received in affliction from Paul some six months earlier, a Gospel that then echoed out from their midst into the wider Greco-Roman world, is the same Gospel that they're now heeding themselves by repenting of their sins and trusting in Christ.

First, we hear in verse nine that the church understood well that the Gospel they received and preached demands that they break with their idols. That's exactly what they did. Understand that in and around the city of Thessalonica, idolatry was everywhere in the first century. In the city itself, there were places of worship that were set aside to promote the worship of the Emperor. Then on a clear day, you could look to the south, beyond the city walls, a mere 50 miles away, and gaze upon Mount Olympus, which was the mythical home of the Greek gods. Idolatry was quite literally all around you in Thessalonica. To turn from those idols as Gentiles, as non-Jews, which is the majority makeup of the church in Thessalonica, as those who are reared in this culture of idolatry. Well, that that was a big deal.

For one thing, if you did that, you would stand out in the city as, at the very least, really, really odd for not bowing down to those idols. But for another thing, you might incur the wrath of fellow citizens of Thessalonica who truly believed that their idols, that the idols they worshipped, that that your sacrilege would bring disaster upon the city at their hands if you didn't worship these idols. So to break with idolatry was potentially costly. Yet the church in Thessalonica, well, they were convinced that what the Psalmist says in Psalm 115 is true, namely that these idols, "They have mouths but do not speak. They have eyes, but do not see. They have ears, but do not hear. Noses, but do not smell. They have hands, but do not feel. Feet, but do not walk." They recognized that the reality is these idols were lifeless and so they turned from their lifeless idols accordingly.

They didn't just break with their idolatry. That's all well and good that they did, but the Gospel calls us to more than that. Specifically, it calls us to replace our devotion to lifeless idols with a devotion to the living and true God through faith in Jesus Christ. As John Stott puts it, quote, "Authentic conversion involves a double liberation, both from the dominion of the idols who slaves we were, and into the service of God whose children we become." This is second part of the Gospel reputation of the church in Thessalonica. They turn from idols, and then they turn to serve the living and true God through faith in Jesus Christ.

Now, as an aside, the response of the church in Thessalonica to the Gospel message they received through Paul is the same response that the very same Gospel we receive today demands. So if you sit in here and recognize that you're still clinging to lifeless idols and you assume that things like wealth and career, ambition and relationships, well, those things form a sturdy path that will support your life, will understand that you are in reality, walking on a foundation destined to crumble. It's not to say those things are all bad, many idols we serve aren't inherently bad. But it is to say that those things cannot support what you think they can support. Understand that we all serve something. The question is who or what do you serve?

In Revelation 14, one of the ways that the redeemed people of God are described are as those who follow the Lamb, that is Christ, wherever he goes. So in heeding the call of the Gospel, by throwing aside our idols and taking up the call to serve the living and true God through faith in Jesus Christ, the implication is that we willingly follow Christ, even when He calls us into affliction, and even when he calls us to lay aside some of our most ingrained beliefs and habits if they do not comport with God's word. So what about you? Are there idols that you need to break with right now, and are you willing to follow Christ wherever he goes?

Now the essence of what we call in Christian parlance conversion is captured in this twofold description of turning from our idols and then turning to the living and true God. But notice that's not where Paul ends in our passage, because his commendation of the church in Thessalonica for heeding the Gospel continues in verse ten when he tells us that a Gospel reputation also calls us to a posture of present hope as we await the second advent of Jesus Christ. You see, as Christians, we recognize that our hope is not in this world. As much as we do and should care about the material needs of other people, especially those in our body, the core of our Gospel hope is not that we try to bring heaven to earth, but that we recognize the fundamental problem of human sin, depravity, and the corruption of the world that can only be remedied by God.

And so, as a consequence, while we're always called to seek the good of our neighbors and pursue the good of the world, we're fundamentally called to hope and wait for the only one who can make all things right. What we find here in verses nine through ten is what Gregg Beal calls, quote, "The three fold description of the genuine Christian life." That includes turning from earthly idols, to serve God, and then third, to wait for Christ deliverance of his people from final judgment at a second coming. There's a lot a church can do and should do in this world, but it's this threefold description of the Christian life, which forms the core of how we respond to the Gospel that has to rise above everything else that we do and form the core of our reputation as a Gospel heeding church in this world.

You see, one of the tragedies that we see throughout church history is how ministries and churches that were once known historically for their unwavering faithfulness to the Gospel, to proclaim the Gospel, to call people, to heed the Gospel through repentance and faith in Christ, have since strayed far from those reputations. I'm sure some of us have historical denominations or ministries or even individual churches in mind where the Gospel that was once a clear priority. The message that was boldly and clearly proclaimed has now been relegated to a position where it's at best obscured and at worst, abandoned. So as we think about our reputation as a church or our reputation as individual Christians, ask yourself where there are temptations to relegate the Gospel and the call to heed the demands of the Gospel to the sidelines.

As individual Christians, are there times you want people to know you more for your intelligence or charm or good looks, rather than your fidelity to Jesus? As a church, where do we face the temptations? Like so many churches of old, to put the Gospel and the radical demands of the Gospel on the back burner in our ministries? However, we answer those questions, know that like the church in Thessalonica, a church of good repute is a church that's known for declaring and then heeding the demands of the Gospel at their foundation.

Application

Yet, as we prepare to close, I want to leave us with this final thought. Brothers and sisters, care, care more about God's approval than the world's. You see the kind of reputation that Paul commands, the kind of reputation that he would have us as a church and as individual Christians pursue is, quite honestly, not something that the world would identify as all that reputable. And it's often our temptation in this world to set aside what God would commend in favor of what the world would commend.

Yet a church that's truly reputable is the church that longs to hear above everything else, when our race is finished, "Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your master." So as we think about what it means to be Christians of good repute or a church of good repute, keep the Gospel and the Word of God at your heart and long to hear Jesus say, "Well done, good and faithful servant."

Pray with me. Gracious Heavenly Father, we give you thanks for your word. We give you thanks, first of all, for the church in Thessalonica, how they were in the first century, a church with such a reputable and good reputation and their faithfulness to the Gospel. We thank you for churches and leaders in your church, throughout church history who have remained steadfast to the Gospel, even walking in the road of affliction in the process. We pray that you would help us as a church and as individual Christians, care far more about what's commendable in your word, rather than what the world would have seen. Father, I pray that you would help us keep our eyes fixed upon your word, and that we, like the church in Thessalonica, would develop a Gospel reputation that remains steadfast to you and your many great promises. We pray this all in Christ name. Amen.