Most likely you have heard some version of the saying, “You are what you…(fill in the blank).” The idea behind many of these sayings is that it’s foolish to assume that there is no connection between our behavior and our being; that we can’t eat, think, read or do something over and over, and not expect it to affect who we are in some way. But somehow when it comes to the gospel—the good news that God can once again dwell with us because Jesus paid for our sin on the cross and rose again on the third day bringing resurrection life with Him—we often think of it as something we merely believe without it somehow affecting our being and behavior, who we are in our nature. We are starting a new series this morning going through the books of 1 and 2 Thessalonians in the New Testament. And what strikes Paul and his companions when they are writing these letters to the church in Thessalonica is that they not only believed the gospel, but upon believing it they so allowed the Holy Spirit to work in them that they started to become the gospel as well—embodying the love of Jesus in their very life as a church. They began to live out the gospel message in power and conviction so much that it wasn’t just their belief in a dying and rising Savior that identified them as followers of Jesus to the Roman world around them, but the power of God flowing through their very lives in how they worked, labored, lived, loved and suffered. Throughout these two letters, we will see that believing the gospel is just the beginning of God’s plan to shape us into becoming the message of the gospel itself. And that happens not through positive thinking, but through a person; through the Spirit of the living God willing and working in all those who believe.
