… ¹²and may the Lord cause you to increase and abound in love for one another, and for all people, just as we also do for you …

Continuing his prayer for the believers in Thessalonica, Paul’s words begin to sound more like a blessing. As we saw previously, his request of God to allow him to re-visit them was expressed in the form of a blessing; overlap of the two forms of godly address is probably the case. Which is it? Sometimes we can dice our study of Scripture beyond reasonable limits and miss the point. The desired outcome of the blessing and the request is the same, so we need not belabor the difference.

The desired blessing is not that they would enjoy something as their own personal experience, such as good health or a euphoric, mystical experience of God’s presence. Rather, the blessing is the experience of doing the work of love. Paul had already commended them for their “labor of love” (1 Thess. 1:3). Now he wants them to build on their loving efforts. Yet this is a request of God to “cause you to increase and abound.” Love is not something that can coast, not something we can ever rest on as a definitive accomplishment. Love is the animating force in following Christ. It began first in God so loving the world that He gave His only Son (John 3:16), Christ’s response to the Father and His love for us, and then Paul’s love for the Thessalonians (“just as we also do for you”). The Thessalonians now are to be animated by a continuing effort of love. Finally, we as believers today continue this animation of love, which becomes contagious to others.

Notice the interplay between the work of God in their lives to “cause” this to happen, and the inherent effort on their part. How often we get confused about this, the mystery of sanctification. Do we “let go and let God,” or do we work harder at living for Christ? If we are responsible to live Christianly, then why ask God to increase ours or someone else’s love? Why doesn’t Paul simply tell the Thessalonian believers to work hard to increase and abound in love; why ask God to cause them to do it? The answer is that sanctification is a cooperative effort between God and man. He is at work in us to will and do His good pleasure (Phil. 2:13), and our response is to keep in step with each step of His (Gal 5:25). His is a work to cause us to increase our love for our fellow Christians and we join Him in what He wants to see in our lives, namely to work at loving others. So we live to fulfill His will in our lives, and as we do, He sees to it that it happens. That is why God will reward faithful Christians with crowns, who will then present those crowns back to Him (cp. Rev. 4:10).

Lord, I commit to keeping in step with Your work in my life, for Your glory.