“We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is fitting, because your faith grows exceedingly, and the love of every one of you all abounds toward each other…“
as it is fitting,
The word “fitting” carries the ideas of weight, value, worth, befitting, becoming, right on the ground of fitness. Thanking God for fellow believers weighs something. It has some worth; therefore, it is “fitting” or right that one gives thanks. This is proper in correspondence to what God expects. This is the objective side of thanksgiving to God because it responds to God’s concrete answer to prayer. This is thanksgiving based on facts, not potential. The gospel team never took for granted God’s work in the lives of the people to whom they ministered. They did not attribute change in the lives of the Thessalonians to themselves.
Principle:
Giving God thanks for fellow Christians amounts to something.
Application:
Are you “bound” to thank God for what God is doing through you? Are you compelled to launch from your soul appreciation to God for what He is doing?
“For this reason we also thank God without ceasing, because when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe” (1 Thessalonians 2:13).
Some Christians respond to the exposition of the Word. They live out the principles of God’s Word. They apply it to their lives. They share their faith with believers and unbelievers alike. We cannot help but give God thanks for these churches. Some people respond to God, and others do not.
