“For you remember, brethren, our labor and toil” (1 Thess. 2:9, NKJV)
We take delight and comfort in the words of our Lord Jesus that He will lose none of those the Father has given Him. I would often turn to this assurance when families would express doubt about whether their loved ones who died were in heaven. I would answer them: “Our confidence is this: Jesus said that He will lose none of those the Father had given Him.” In so doing, I would turn their eyes away from professions of faith or evidence of spiritual life (both which have a place) to the saving purpose of God the Father and the accomplished work of Jesus Christ.
This was an especially helpful pastoral approach when there was no indication that the person they loved had any evidence of a saving knowledge of Jesus. I would not presume to know the heart. Instead, I passed the buck to our triune God.
That same approach can be applied to our labors for the gospel of the kingdom. Just as it is with personal sanctification, so it is with personal evangelism. We work out salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who is at work both to will and to do for His good pleasure. We are instruments wielded by the Spirit. As for us, we want to yield ourselves as His instruments, seeking to be useful to the Master, prepared for every good work.
Paul holds out his tireless labors to the Thessalonians. “For you remember, brethren, our labor and toil; for laboring night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, we preached to you the gospel of God” (1 Thess. 2:9).
On the one hand, Paul is highlighting the manual labor by which he provided for his own needs so as not to be a burden to the Thessalonians. He speaks of his “labor and toil.” He uses two different terms here. Labor seems to speak to his efforts, while toil addresses the intensity and dedication of his work.
In other words, his work was not periodic or part-time. It characterized the duration of his ministry among them. He uses yet another term when he speaks of “laboring” day and night, a term that refers to the working performed or the works produced.
On the other hand, Paul is describing the whole of his time among the Thessalonians. He was a laborer, one who cared for his own needs and one who ministered to the needs of other with the gospel. In the verse prior, Paul said he was concerned to impart the gospel of life (1:8). Now in verse 9, he speaks of preaching to them the gospel of God.
Isn’t that the way it is to work for us as witnesses for the gospel, and not just pastors, but all of us? We fund our own missionary endeavors simply by providing for our own needs and the needs of our households, so that “in our going” we might bear kingdom witness to our Lord Jesus and the message of life in Him.
When Paul spoke of his laboring “day and night” that did not mean to the exclusion of his calling to preach the gospel of God, like we would have office hours and discretionary time. There are no times we are off-duty in our going. Rather, through our lives and our lips we testify to the kingdom of God into which we have been enfolded by the Holy Spirit.
How do we “preach” the gospel of God? Does that refer to a pastor or someone who has been ordained? Does it have to do with preparation of a sermon, perhaps delivered in a public forum? No, preaching is simply to proclaim, to announce. We are all preachers as we speak up for Christ, sowing a seed of truth here or uprooting a weed of error there, getting the good news of great joy about Jesus out in the public domain.
We sow with an eye to God providing the increase.
How can you go about preaching the gospel?
If you have found this meditation helpful, take a moment and give thanks to God. Then share what you learned with a friend. This is how the grace of God spreads (2 Cor. 4.15).
Except as indicated, all Scriptures are taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
