Thankfulness marks the Spirit-filled Christian, and it characterized the apostle Paul. In each of the letters he wrote to the churches, he gave thanks to God for them—except for the Galatian church where he was deeply concerned over their doctrinal drift back to legalism. Being thankless is one of the fateful steps leading away from God (Rom 1:21). Paul mentions the word 40 times (if you count Hebrews as being written by Paul) and continually calls his readers to be thankful to God.

In our passage today, the apostle has good reason to be thankful for the Ephesian Christians. Their faith and love are exemplary, and word has gotten back to him about the reputation they are building. Paul knew about these things to some degree, based on first hand observation, for he had been among them for over two years teaching and doing many miracles. His ministry had resulted in mass repentance and turning to the Lord by both Jews and Greeks (Acts 19:10-19). The conclusion of his personal ministry there was summarized, “So the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily” (Acts 19:20).

So Paul observed the response of faith by the Ephesians to the gospel message. And word had reached him that their faith continued to grow and they responded by living out their faith through love toward each other. With Paul, faith by itself was not enough, it needed to be accompanied by or result in active loving actions toward others. The Ephesians were not like seed planted in rocky soil or thorny soil. There was the fruit of love.

The author of the Book of James would enthusiastically agree with Paul here. Faith without works is dead—in particular, works of love. Of course, works of love do not save, but they are the demonstrated evidence of true faith. With the Ephesians, their love had no blinders on, it lavished on all believers without discrimination—note, there were both Jewish and Gentile believers in the congregation! It is no wonder Paul gave thanks continually. They were, in modern terminology, a success story.

Oh, that the Ephesian church would have stayed that way, but by the end of the first century, the Lord said to them, “But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first” (Rev 2:4).