A MISSION OF ENCOURAGEMENT

We sent Timothy, who is our brother and co-worker in God’s service in spreading the gospel of Christ, to strengthen and encourage you in your faith, so that no one would be unsettled by these trials. For you know quite well that we are destined for them. —1 Thessalonians 3:2, 3

Paul did not need to convince the Thessalonian believers that they were destined for trials. The church there had been planted amid trials.

Anyone who joined a church that was presently the target of a riotous mob would not have been under any illusions that faith was merely a positive lifestyle choice or a pathway to greater position or respectability in Thessalonian society.

So, since Paul had been able to spend only a short time in their city, compared with the extended time he had ministered in Corinth and Ephesus, Paul sent Timothy to Thessalonica to spend more time teaching the new believers. This was a mission to strengthen and encourage them in their faith. Knowing the troubles they had faced, were facing, and would continue to face, he did not want them to fall away “when trouble or persecution comes because of the word” (Matthew 13:21), as was the case with the seed that fell on rocky soil in Jesus’ parable. Those hearers received the message with joy, but “when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root” (Matthew 13:6).

Facing trials and persecution, Paul knew that encouragement must be not merely a short-term motivational speech but a process of growing deeper roots into faith. Deep encouragement takes time. This was important enough for Paul to assign one of his best co-workers to the task of strengthening these believers, and he was encouraged by their response. “Timothy has just now come to us from you and has brought good news about your faith and love. . . . Therefore, brothers and sisters, in all our distress and persecution we were encouraged about you because of your faith” (1 Thessalonians 3:6, 7).