“But now that Timothy has come to us from you, and brought us good news of your faith and love, and that you always have good remembrance of us, greatly desiring to see us, as we also to see you…”
But now
Paul now contrasts his apprehension about the state of Thessalonian spirituality with Timothy’s good report.
that Timothy has come to us from you,
Timothy has now returned from Thessalonica to southern Greece (Acts 18:5). He is in Corinth with Paul and reports on the state of the church’s faith there. Paul knew of their saving faith, but he did not know the level of their sustaining faith. Our sustaining faith is the faith whereby we walk before the Lord. That feature of faith differs from one believer to another. Some believers do not build their faith. They genuinely know the Lord, but they do not know Him very well. Sustaining faith is progressive.
Principle:
Sustaining faith is the secret of weathering the storms of life.
Application:
Sustaining faith is progressive in its development. We can nurture faith so that it becomes robust. We can move from pre-school to kindergarten in our faith. Then we move from kindergarten to grade school and from grade school to high school. Eventually, we graduate from the graduate school of faith. Anywhere along the line, Satan can stymie our faith. We might hit a plateau and stay there for years. We call this a case of arrested spiritual expansion. This is a spiritual malfunction.
If we do not advance in our faith, we enter a stagnant stage in our Christian life. The Devil will do anything in his diabolical power to get Christians into this state. He will try to alienate believers from the Bible — the source of their faith.
