2 Thessalonians 1:11 NLT
So we keep on praying for you, asking our God to enable you to live a life worthy of his call. May he give you the power to accomplish all the good things your faith prompts you to do.
What does it mean to live a life worthy of His calling? Paul is writing this letter to a church in Thessalonica. From the way the letter starts out, it sounds like this church is going through a rough time and it is being persecuted. This letter sounds like Paul is trying to encourage them to not give up. Trying to encourage them to not back down from the persecution. Under persecution and possible death, it might be tough to continue doing the work of God and spreading the Gospel. If you are threatened with death or constantly under attack for what you believe, how hard is it to listen to the Spirit, and when prompted, go talk to someone about God? What if it will jeapordize your job? What if it will jeopardize your friendship with that person? What if it will jeopardize your way of living?
So, back to the question. What does a life worthy of His calling mean? The Bible talks about not being saved by works so what are we supposed to do here? This verse isn’t saying you are worthless if you are not doing God’s work. You ARE worth something to God. He sent Jesus to die for our sins because we are worth something to Him.
When I read this, I don’t read it as trying to earn a reward. I’m not trying to earn my way to Heaven. I read it in the context of love. I love my wife so much. She is an amazing woman and she loves me. When you truly love someone, you don’t do things for them because you want to earn more favor with them. You do those things because you love them. If I didn’t show my wife that I love her, would I be worthy of being called her husband? Would I be living up to what it means to be her husband?
In John 21, Jesus asks Simon Peter if he loves him. When Peter replied that he did, Jesus asks him to feed his sheep. Jesus asks him to live out his love.
All this reminds me of an old DC Talk song called Love is a Verb. What are we doing because of our love for God? When we love God, we should be living a life that shows the world that we love Him. Not because we want to earn our way to Heaven. But living a life that doesn’t hide our love for Him. For me, this is how I relate to “being worthy.”