2 Thessalonians 1:1, 2 - In God!

2 Thessalonians 1:1, 2 

It happened! The very thing Paul warned the Thessalonians (and every church he started and those who would read his letters) about. It is every pastor’s nightmare. The seeds of false doctrine had been sown and had begun to take root in the church. Isn’t it amazing how easily bad seed does this. Weeds grow faster than good plants in the physical realm, and they do the same in the spiritual. You can prepare the soil for your crops and have it clean of weeds when you begin. Plant your seeds and watch them grow, but if you don’t stay on top of the weeds, pretty soon they will overtake the entire field. The only solution is to be constantly on the lookout for the weeds and get them out as soon as you see them. So Paul does the spiritual equivalent of spraying herbicide: he applies truth liberally and begins the process of destroying the false teachings.

Look at where he starts. He reminds them of who they are. They are the church of the Thessalonicans IN GOD! Because they are IN GOD, their faith grows, their love abounds, and they have withstood the persecution poured out by the enemy. He tells them that their faith grows because they are IN GOD! Love abounds because they are IN GOD! Persecution is endured because they are IN GOD! Do you see the pattern? In this life and in eternity, good things happen when we are in Him.

That doesn’t mean that living the Christian life is easy. They did, after all, endure persecution. And as we will see in the following verses, these Thessalonican Christians did stumble, but they had not fallen. Let me let you in on a little secret, and it is great news. As a child of God, you may stumble, but you will never fall from grace. Once you have truly trusted in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of your life, and by that I mean committed yourself completely as a bondservant (listen to my message dated February 8, 2015 for a complete description of the concept), you can never fall out of God’s hand. Once saved, always saved! That is what I believe because that is what the Bible teaches.

Sadly, the truth is the truth. False teachers could not have spread bad seed without the permission of the congregation, and that is always the first line of defense against false doctrine. Be aware! Be alert! Our adversary the devil is always lurking about looking for ways to send us in the wrong direction. So know the truth. I had a dear friend, a former bank president, who has gone to be with the Lord now. He told me that when he trained his tellers to recognize counterfeit bills, they never touched a counterfeit bill. He made them handle the real things, and he said by knowing the true bills, you could spot a phony in a heartbeat. That is how we must be. Know the truth, and you will spot false teaching immediately.

Fortunately, these Christians continued to grow in spite of their stumbling. Their faith increased. Their love continued to abound. They still endured the persecution with the patience of saints. Put these together and you have the evidence of salvation – salvation that changes our lives and causes us to be counted worthy of the kingdom not because we are perfect but because our faith is in the One who holds onto us! No, more than holds onto us. Wraps us up in Himself so that we are IN GOD!