“…comfort your hearts and establish you in every good word and work“

Paul’s desire in this verse is to comfort and establish the Thessalonians.

comfort your hearts

Prophecy always settles the heart. The Thessalonians were worried that they were already in the Tribulation but Paul prays that the writing of 2 Thessalonians will comfort their hearts. The word of God always encourages our hearts. When Christians are down and defeated, they ought to get into the Word.

“Therefore comfort one another with these words” (1 Thessalonians 4:18).

and establish you

The word “establish” means to fix, make fast, to set. Paul wants to make the Thessalonians stable in the Word so that their hearts will be firm in the faith (1 Thessalonians 3:13). Saints need strength and support. Some wavered in the faith and were unstable, so they needed to fasten their soul to the Word. Those not solid in the Word go off on tangents. The children of God are of little use to Him when they wander off into the blue.

“As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving” (Corinthians 2:6-7).

in every good word and work

The area where Paul wants to comfort and establish the Thessalonians is in the sphere of “every good word and work.” A lot of us are good at talking but not good at walking. Paul wants our walk to match our talk. May no one say of us, “He talks a good game, but his life does not match his mouth.”

Principle:

Our walk must match our talk; we need encouragement and stability in both.

Application:

Christians need comfort and stability in their talk and walk. God can do this for us, but it will take mature believers willing to make it happen. There is a lot of loose talk among the Christian community. Loose talk is usually the source of great harm.

We need to pray that God will “comfort and strengthen” Christians in our church so that their talk and walk would match what Christianity is all about. Our lip and life, talk and walk, “word and work” must match each other. There needs to be consistency between them; otherwise, people will think that we are out of sync with what we believe. “What you are speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say.”

We preach a sermon each day with our lives. As others observe us, they know us well. They watch how we react to problems. They want to know if we live consistently with what we believe.

“Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
Be acceptable in Your sight,
O LORD, my strength and my Redeemer” (Psalm 19:14).

I could write a check for $50,000, but if I do not have money in the bank to back it up, I have a problem. It would be better to write a check for $1,000 if I had the money in the bank. Most of us are more talk than walk. We need more walk than talk.