Tuesday 4th February
Read 1 Thessalonians 1:2-5
“We always thank God for all of you and continually mention you in our prayers. 3 We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labour prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. 4 For we know, brothers and sisters loved by God, that he has chosen you, 5 because our gospel came to you not simply with words but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and deep conviction. You know how we lived among you for your sake.” (NIVUK)
Paul’s first words to these Thessalonian believers concern prayer. And not simply petitionary prayer, but thanksgiving. Paul’s letter barely gets past prayer for the first three chapters, only in the fourth does he seem to get to his purpose in writing!
Douglas Farrow in his excellent commentary reflects on this laser-focus on prayer. “The letter being for the purpose of public reading in the church, it is fitting that the first word after the greeting should be, ‘We give thanks.’ Giving thanks is what a church does, and what it is for. More generally, it is for prayer. It is a temple or house of prayer, made of men rather than of stones, or rather of people who are ‘precious stones’”.
Do those words strike you as odd?
Farrow argues that the purpose of the church is to give thanks and to pray? Yet the longer one thinks on them, the truer they become. Paul’s letters do focus on prayer. There is little doubt he sees it as central to church life. They are offered in the presence of ‘our God and Father’ (v3). Prayer, though practiced in private, should preferentially be presented in public. Together. With others. A church that doesn’t get together regularly to give thanks before God together seems to be an impoverished church.
