We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Thessalonians 1:3
We often get pulled between the two sides of grace and works and need to understand from passages like this the balance between them.
Here we see work produced by faith. This is fully consistent with Paul's other statements about faith and work and demonstrates that works spring from faith (but not the other way around). As James says, "faith without works is dead."
You became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you welcomed the message in the midst of severe suffering with the joy given by the Holy Spirit.
1 Thessalonians 1:3, 6 NIV
They were suffering severely but still found joy from the Holy Spirit as the received the good news.
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