NOTES for Th1 1:2-3
Some of the expressions Paul uses may seem rather strange. Active faith is more or less understandable: Paul himself repeatedly said that faith without works is merely empty words, and he was not alone in saying so. But the 'hard labor of love'—not 'labor done with love,' but precisely 'labor of love'—as well as 'steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ' (what the Russian Synodal translation renders as 'patience of hope') may well raise questions and cause perplexity. Indeed, in our world love is usually associated with feelings and emotions: when we say we love something, we most often mean that we like it. Unfortunately, we often 'love' our neighbors in the same way—for as long as we find them likable. The authors of the biblical books generally understand love as an attitude in which we wish our neighbor well, regardless of whether or not we find that person likable. Still, an attitude is one thing, and hard labor is something else. Acts of love are understandable, but how can the attitude itself become work?
Perhaps in the circumstances of the untransfigured world this does indeed sound somewhat strange. Even here, however, relationships must be sustained, or they gradually fall apart. But in the Kingdom, sustaining relationships becomes especially important: here it is a distinct and very serious task. For it is relationships that form the structure of the Kingdom. Their depth and strength determine not only the fullness that will be revealed to the person building these relationships, but also the measure of the fullness of the Kingdom's revelation to the world, the depth of the Kingdom's spiritual influence on the untransfigured world.
Then the 'steadfastness of hope' also becomes more understandable. In ordinary circumstances, hope essentially means trusting someone who has made certain promises and being confident that the one who made them will not deceive us, whether that is God or another person. But in the Kingdom, trust alone is not enough: here confidence entails not simply an inward knowing, but an intention—the very intention that also underlies every relationship. And an intention is always an effort, even when, as in the case of steadfastness, it is directed toward preserving what external forces are trying to destroy. Paul, it seems, describes all relationships among Christians no longer as relationships among inhabitants of the untransfigured world, but as relationships among inhabitants of the Kingdom. For to him it was perfectly clear that Christianity is precisely life in the Kingdom that the Savior brought into the world.