You should stay so busy for Jesus that occasionally you need someone to come alongside you and say, “Brother, Sister – Do not grow weary in doing good.” (Pastor Gene Pensiero)
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Are you afraid to pray for patience?
You might be since the Bible says, “tribulation works patience” (Romans 5:3). You’d essentially be praying for tribulation.
Suffering certainly produces patience when it is endured. There’s even an old expression, “the patience of Job,” based on his having to endure suffering of such magnitude for so long.
The patience of Job is only one kind of patience. There is another. It’s in verse five – “the patience of Christ.” (Pastor Gene Pensiero)
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Love can be difficult to discuss. As soon as you start analyzing it, taking it apart, defining it, it starts to lose its essence. Instead of being warm and powerful, it seems cold and weak under the microscope. I want to be careful to not diffuse or in any way diminish the love of God in these verses. (Pastor Gene Pensiero)
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The focus in these verses is the danger of rejecting Jesus Christ as your Savior in this day of grace. Once the church is raptured, the world will be plunged into the awful horrors of the seven-year Great Tribulation. Christians will be persecuted – hunted down and martyred. (Pastor Gene Pensiero)
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The believers in the city of Thessalonica had been lied to. They had been told that the seven-year Great Tribulation had already begun and that were enduring its judgments. This letter – and especially this chapter – was written to dispel that lie. (Pastor Gene Pensiero)
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If you are a Christian, you are already being made-over and you will experience a climactic unveiling (Pastor Gene Pensiero)
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Want to grow really, really fast as a Christian? In verse three Paul says of the very young believers in Thessalonica, “we are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is fitting, because your faith grows exceedingly…” Growing “exceedingly” means beyond what could be expected. What was causing this phenomenal growth? Look at the last word of verse five. “Suffer.” (Pastor Gene Pensiero)
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