1 Thessalonians 1:3 We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

This verse ties together three intangibles – faith, love, and hope – with obvious external evidence: work, labor, patient endurance. The Bible is clear from beginning to end that it is the intangibles that have eternal value, but if genuine, those intangibles will always produce external evidence, and this verse is one of the clearest statements of that. Jesus very pointedly asked why people called Him Lord if they weren’t doing what He said. (Luke 6:46) Internal conviction will always produce external action. John the Baptist told people to produce fruit in keeping with repentance, (Luke 3:8) and Jesus said that we are to evaluate people on the basis of the fruit born in their lives. (Matthew 7:16-20) That’s not at all to say we’re to run around being judgmental about others, or even ourselves; everyone stumbles at times. But it is to say, as this verse does, that faith is going to work, love is going to labor, and hope is going to hang in there.

As a pastor, if my life isn’t producing fruit consistent with what I say, then I have no moral authority and I will have to answer to God for it. Many people would be quick to agree with that statement, but might draw back if it is turned around and directed at them! A continuing frustration for me is how people dismiss what I tell them by saying, or at least thinking, “But you’re a pastor.” They think that by not being a “professional Christian” they are somehow excused from accountability. The Bible is clear that we must all answer to God for all that we have done or failed to do. (2 Corinthians 5:10, Romans 14:12, Hebrews 4:13) I would be doing no one a favor by failing to express that myself. However, I’m not to get the cart before the horse. Works are good, but unless they are done in faith, they can be sin. (Romans 14:23) Labor is necessary and helpful, but it must be motivated by love. (1 Corinthians 13) Patient endurance is admirable, but if it isn’t based on hope, it is no more than resignation. I am to seek to foster the intangibles, while pointing out that when real, they produce tangible evidence.

Father, thank You for this clear Word. Help me indeed be a channel of faith, love, and hope to all I encounter, so that together we may bear the fruit that You desire, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!