So, if faith and hope in Christ are the best evidence of the Christian life, what kind of proof should a pastor give of God’s call to preach the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ? Most obviously, the gospel itself. Paul reminds the Thessalonians that, even though conflict so often swirled around him, he continued to preach the gospel of God to them (2:2). And the message Paul preached to them was nothing else but the Word of God, a message that therefore worked powerfully in their lives (2:13), encouraging them to live in a holy way that is worthy of the God Who had saved and blessed them so richly (2:12).

But if Paul spoke the truth of the gospel in order to please God (2:4), he was just as determined to bless the people of God. No, he wasn’t trying to get glory from them (2:6), putting on a show so that his adoring listeners would shower him with praise and adulation. Instead, he told them God’s Word because he cared about them the way a mother loves her children (2:7). And as a result, he was willing to share his life with them in genuineness and openness (2:8), and was even willing to continue to work at his own trade so that he wouldn’t be an economic burden to them (2:9).

No, Paul had no desire for the diamond rings and private jets sported by the modern preachers of the prosperity gospel. Instead, he was willing not just to share in the poverty of his listeners, but also in the persecution they were experiencing because they followed Jesus (2:2, 14). And so, together with his devotion to the Word of God and to the people of God, Paul’s willingness to endure suffering for the gospel of God gave the clearest proof that he was not only a true messenger of God, but a true follower of Christ.

Is that the sort of leader we want for our church? Is that the sort of example we want for our lives? If not, can we really say we want to follow Jesus?

I Thessalonians 2:1-16 (ESV)

For you yourselves know, brothers, that our coming to you was not in vain.
2 But though we had already suffered and been shamefully treated at Philippi, as you know, we had boldness in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in the midst of much conflict.
3 For our appeal does not spring from error or impurity or any attempt to deceive,
4 but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts.
5 For we never came with words of flattery, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed– God is witness.
6 Nor did we seek glory from people, whether from you or from others, though we could have made demands as apostles of Christ.
7 But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children.
8 So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us.
9 For you remember, brothers, our labor and toil: we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God.
10 You are witnesses, and God also, how holy and righteous and blameless was our conduct toward you believers.
11 For you know how, like a father with his children,
12 we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.
13 And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.
14 For you, brothers, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea. For you suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they did from the Jews,
15 who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out, and displease God and oppose all mankind
16 by hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles that they might be saved– so as always to fill up the measure of their sins. But wrath has come upon them at last!