TODAY IN THE WORD
In the past several months, South Africa has been rocked by a series of riots, directed mainly at the large number of foreigners from Zimbabwe, Malawi, Mozambique, and Zambia, who seek jobs in South Africa. Thousands have been displaced and now live in tent cities, where food shortages are rampant. Table View Assembly of God church has made it its mission to collect and distribute food among these refugees. According to Christianity Today editor Mark Galli, this church is “becoming known as the church that feeds the hungry.”

What a wonderful reputation to have! Similarly, the church in Thessalonica had a reputation as “the church that's known for its brotherly love.” Today's reading from 2 Corinthians 8 outlines how the Macedonian churches, the Thessalonian church being one of them, gave generously out of their extreme poverty to the relief fund that Paul was collecting for the impoverished Jerusalem church. In his letter to the Thessalonians, Paul only focuses on their love throughout Macedonia. The passage from Corinthians shows that they also loved those whom they had never met.

Yesterday we saw that Paul had to remind the Thessalonian church about sexual purity, perhaps because some problems in this regard were brought to his attention or because sexual permissiveness was so prevalent around them. In today's passage, Paul makes it clear that no reminder about brotherly love was necessary—loving each other was something that the Thessalonians had fully grasped! In fact, as we've seen before, this church was a model throughout the region (1 Thess. 1:7).

It's likely that one way that Paul knew about the love of these believers was that they had been instrumental in establishing churches throughout this region. Recall that Thessalonica was a commercial center, and with many thousands of people going through the city, news about the love that the Thessalonians showed could have traveled quite far.

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TODAY ALONG THE WAY
Christians can distinguish themselves from the surrounding culture by sexual purity and love for others. Apparently, the Thessalonians needed some reminders about the first area, but they were doing well in the second. Even so, Paul urged them to love “more and more.” Both purity and love grow the more they're exercised. Consider whether your thoughts and attitudes are more pure and whether your love for others is greater than a year ago. If not, ask the Spirit to show you how to grow in these areas.

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