2 Thessalonians 1:1-4

A statement doesn’t have to be grammatically correct to be true. Over 50 years ago, a preacher without a formal education said, “The Christian life just gets gooder and gooder.” I was very young at the time, but I still remember it, and it is still true today.

We make a mistake when we believe that the good things in life are static. If we are happy, if we have faith, if we are faithful, if we love someone, or if we have found contentment, does not mean that we have arrived at the peak. There is still room to improve more to strive for.

Paul said that the Thessalonian Christians had faith. That was obvious; without faith, righteousness is impossible. However faith that saves is not the endpoint, it is the beginning. Paul was thankful for them because he said their faith was growing more and more. The interesting thing about faith is the more you exercise it, the easier it is to believe. If I trust God to save me spiritually, then it becomes easier trust Him to save me from particular physical and material difficulties in life. I’m not talking here about presumption. Presumption says, I can tell God what I want done, and he will do it. True faith is hearing God say what he is going to do, and believing him and acting as if it true. The church at Thessalonica was learning more and more each day that they could trust God to do what he said he would do.

The Christians in the church loved each other, but love is never static. It is growing or it is dying. Sometimes it grows faster or dies quicker depending upon our choices. Each day we choose to do and say things that will cause love to grow or love to die. They were doing right; Paul said their love was increasing.

When we make the right choices, our love and faith grows, and being a Christian gets gooder and gooder.