I don’t mean in numbers though we are always happy when God does that. But I do mean in this way:-
“We ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love all of you have for one another is increasing.” (2 Thessalonians 1 v 3)
Paul has a compulsion to give thanks to God for the church and for what Christ has done. Your church won’t be perfect and yet it belongs to God and I am sure there are so many wonderful things about it that you can start each day thanking God for.
Well, we know Paul had been praying for he had said so in his first letter to them. In 1 Thess 3 v 10 and 12: “Night and day we pray most earnestly that we may see you again and supply what is lacking in your faith…. May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you.” He was praying for their faith and love to increase and God was answering his prayer, v3.
Their faith was growing more and more. Growing abundantly (NASB). Growing exceedingly (AMP) and I love the Message as it says their faith was growing phenomenally! Their love was increasing. Continually increasing (AMP). Grows ever greater (NASB) and developing wonderfully (Message).
Why is this even more amazing? It is because of what Paul says next.
“Therefore, among God’s churches we boast about your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and trials you are enduring.” (2 Thessalonians 1 v 4)
Tomorrow is the day marked in the calendar when the Church intercedes for our persecuted family scattered around the world.
(You will want to check out some resources that my own denominations Missions office have created – file:///C:/Users/Paul/AppData/Local/Microsoft/Windows/INetCache/Content.Outlook/CLUOIJR3/IDOP%20Poster.pdf and also the excellent ministry of Release International: https://releaseinternational.org/idop-2024/ )
Paul says they are boasting about them because not only is their faith growing more and more and their love is increasing but it is doing so in the worst of situations. They are enduring persecutions and trials. They are suffering yet they persevere and they have faith.
It is a remarkable fact that the church that seems to be growing the most in their faith towards God and love for people are those that are in the worst of circumstances. Two thousand years later after this letter the problem has intensified across the globe. Yet the impact is the same. Paul, Silas and Timothy were moved by what they had heard and so boasted of the church’s perseverance. We do too. We boast of our brothers and sisters who hold on even during the hardest of times. Whose faith in God is growing more and more and whose love is increasing. This is indeed church growth and perhaps the most important.
Missions Paul 