You know how we lived among you for your sake. You became imitators of us and of the Lord; in spite of severe suffering, you welcomed the message with the joy given by the Holy Spirit. And so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. The Lord’s message rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia – your faith in God has become known everywhere. Therefore we do not need to say anything about it, for they themselves report what kind of reception you gave us. They tell how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead – Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath. (1 Thessalonians 1:5c-10)
Paul is confident that his hearers have been chosen for salvation because he was conscious of God’s power when he preached to them, and it produced deep conviction in the Thessalonians, that is, an assurance and persuasion that the gospel was true. However, anybody can pretend to agree with the gospel, but only genuine believers will exhibit consistent indications of faith and regeneration. As Jesus says, “A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them” (Matthew 7:18-20; see also v. 21-27).
Regeneration is a radical reconstruction of the intellect and personality of the individual, and therefore the true convert would exhibit in his outward speech and conduct the changes that correspond to such a drastic inward transformation. From the transformation that has taken place in the Thessalonians, Paul infers that they are truly born again, and that their faith in Christ is real.
For example, Paul says, “In spite of severe suffering, you welcomed the message with the joy given by the Holy Spirit.” Now, Jesus explains in the parable of the sower that not everyone who appears to receive the word of God with joy is truly saved: “The one who received the seed that fell on rocky places is the man who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. But since he has no root, he lasts only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away” (Matthew 13:20-21). But the joy of the Thessalonians was “given by the Holy Spirit.”
The Spirit regenerates only the chosen ones. Jesus says, “The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit” (John 3:8). The doctrine of free will cannot make sense of this verse, but the biblical doctrine of salvation affirms that, as “the wind blows wherever it pleases,” so the Spirit of God regenerates only those who have been selected for salvation by God. Scripture says, “All who were appointed for eternal life believed” (Acts 13:48). A person believes in Christ because he has been chosen. God did not choose us because he had foreseen our faith, but we have faith because God has chosen us without regard to any condition that would be found in us. Since it was the Holy Spirit who gave Paul’s converts such joy in receiving the gospel, it means that God has performed a work in their minds because of his own sovereign decision, and since God does not in this manner change the heart of those whom he has not chosen, Paul infers that the Thessalonians are among the elect.
Jesus says that a false convert falls away “when trouble or persecution comes because of the word.” In contrast, the Thessalonians had joy from the Holy Spirit “in spite of severe suffering,” thus showing the genuineness of their conversion. Many professing Christians live in countries where persecution is relatively light, even though believers indeed often receive unjust treatment. Under this relatively comfortable atmosphere, false converts that have been gathered by unbiblical preaching are not sifted out of the church. Contributing nothing but costing much, they continue to be a vexing but often unacknowledged problem in the church. Nevertheless, the solution is not to hope for severe persecution, but a return to preaching the biblical gospel and enforcing church discipline, such as reprimand and excommunication.
Some writers are alarmed at the rate at which professing Christians are converting to other religions – Islam, Mormonism, Buddhism, Catholicism, and other non-Christian groups and cults. But the unceasing influx of false converts is even more disturbing. By God’s providence, non-Christian religions and philosophies in fact serve to remove some of the false converts from the church, lest we become overwhelmed by them. Many reprobates, destined for destruction, join themselves to Christian churches because they have heard and affirmed a false gospel, and non-Christian religions and philosophies sometimes attract these reprobates away from the church.
On the other hand, true Christians belong to Christ forever, so that “no one can snatch them out of [his] hand” (John 10:28). It is better for a kingdom to have many easily marked enemies than to have many foreign spies within its own domain, wrecking havoc, causing dissension and confusion, and draining its resources from within. Add to this the fact that many false converts have even become ministers, wielding authority over the doctrines, agendas, and finances, clearly it is better for them to leave the church than to remain in it.
Since there are many false converts in our churches, there is a great need to evangelize our own congregations – let the gospel either convert them or drive them away. In John 6, Jesus gives his followers a “hard teaching” (John 6:60) after which “many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him” (v. 66). But even this did not remove Judas, who being “doomed to destruction,” was not lost until later, “so that Scripture would be fulfilled” (John 17:12). He betrayed Christ as predicted (v. 70-71), and afterward committed suicide. On the other hand, Peter denied Christ three times, but recovered to become a great apostle. What was the difference? Jesus had prayed for Peter so that his “faith may not fail” (Luke 22:32). He also prayed for the rest of his elect, but not for the reprobates: “I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours” (John 17:9; also Romans 8:34 and Hebrews 7:25). The truth is that “no one can come to [Christ] unless the Father has enabled him” (John 6:65). Peter was enabled; Judas was not.
Faith embraces the gospel in spite of the dangers and consequences. The Thessalonians demonstrated the genuineness of their conversion by their joy in the face of severe suffering. Paul would certainly denounce those who compromise the faith that they claim to affirm because of financial losses, political threats, or pressures from relatives and friends. On the other hand, “No one who has left home or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God will fail to receive many times as much in this age and, in the age to come, eternal life” (Luke 18:29-30).
Perseverance in suffering and persecution is one indication of genuine faith, the presence of which implies that God has chosen the person for salvation, and sovereignly changed his heart. God does not preserve us as a reaction to our enduring faith; rather, our faith endures because God preserves it and causes it to endure. Hebrews 12:2 calls Jesus both “the author and perfecter of our faith.” Faith does not come from our own wills, but it is a gift from God. And faith does not endure by our own power, but “he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:6). Salvation depends on God’s sovereign will and mercy from the beginning to the end. Therefore, it is by his immutable decree in election and not by human free will (which we do not really have) that all “those he justified, he also glorified” (Romans 8:30). Those who fail to persevere until their glorification, have never received justification.
Genuine faith does not only endure, but it is active and growing (v. 7-9). Peter writes, “Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation” (1 Peter 2:2). A person who shows no interest in studying theology is perhaps temporarily ill in spirit, but a persistent indifference indicates that he has never received faith and life from God. By feeding on spiritual milk, the believer grows up in his faith, although one who “lives on milk” is still a spiritual infant, and “is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness” (Hebrews 5:13). There is much to learn, and much room to grow through learning. Anti-intellectualism, which disparages even spiritual milk, has prevented generations of Christians from growing up in the faith.
Spiritual growth has to do with an intellectual understanding of God’s word and not mystical experiences. And spiritual maturity has to do with how one speaks and reasons: “When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me” (1 Corinthians 13:11). The writer of Hebrews reprimands his readers, saying, “In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food!” (Hebrews 5:12). But how many Christians understand the letter to the Hebrews itself? Many consider its material rather advanced, but the letter was directed to those who were “slow to learn” (v. 11), and those who still “need milk, not solid food” (v. 12). Anti-intellectuals reject the biblical standard of measuring spiritual growth and maturity, and instead make the Christian faith a matter of feeling and experience. But Scripture’s teaching is that Christians are to increase in knowledge and character, through an intellectual understanding of the things of God, so that they can think and speak as spiritual adults.
Bearing fruit is another metaphorical way of indicating spiritual life and growth. Jesus teaches, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). The Bible contradicts the notion that the mere profession of faith guarantees salvation. A person who makes a profession of faith but fails to bear fruit afterward has no warrant for claiming that he has ever been a believer. Verse 8 says that one shows that he is a true disciple by producing spiritual fruit: “This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.”
The Thessalonians have passed this test. Their faith have been enduring and increasing such that they have become models for other believers to emulate. As Paul instructs Timothy, “Set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity” (1 Timothy 4:12). Other Christians readily recognize the powerful effect the Holy Spirit produced in the Thessalonian converts, so that wherever Paul travels, he has no need to tell others about them. Believers everywhere already know how the Thessalonians have “turned to God from idols” (1 Thessalonians 1:9).
True conversion results from a drastic and permanent transformation at the deepest level of one’s intellect and personality. God changes the individual’s most basic commitments, so that he denounces the abominable objects he once served, and turns to offer true worship to God. This change in a person’s first principle of thought and conduct generates a rippling effect that transforms the entire spectrum of his worldview and lifestyle. Thus conversion produces not only a negative change, in which one turns from idols, but Paul states that they have also turned “to serve the living and true God” (v. 9). Moreover, a biblical system of thought replaces the former unbiblical philosophy. This new worldview is one in which we “wait for [God’s] Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead – Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath” (v. 10).
Salvation does not come by turning to a generic “God,” as if there is such a thing, but a true convert explicitly affirms the biblical system of thought. Verse 10 is of course not exhaustive, but at least it includes the resurrection and return of Jesus Christ, the coming wrath of God against the unsaved, and it carries a partial reference to the Trinity, since Paul distinguishes between the Father and the Son. The Christian worldview offers a teleology that ties together the whole of human history. Turning from idols to serve the true and living God, the believer now looks forward to the culmination of the ages in the return of Jesus Christ.
Therefore, our biblical passage assumes the apostle’s soteriology from election to glorification. God has chosen those who would be saved through Christ by an immutable decree in eternity. In due time, he regenerates them and produces faith in their minds by means of preaching. Genuine faith then perseveres and grows into maturity. This enlightenment of the mind and transformation of the personality result in a glorious hope, through which the believer yearns for and expects the return of Jesus Christ and the consummation of his salvation.